Hey Reader,

Social media advice these days reminds me a bit of the parable of the Emperor with no Clothes. See, it’s easy for anyone to display how smart and successful they are. They say things like, “Here’s your content strategy for 2024: Post three times on X daily, post one thread on X daily. Create three LinkedIn posts per day and one LinkedIn carousel per week.”

People read that and think, “That’s easy to understand,” without realizing that just posting content is not a strategy at all.

I often think about how people perceive me and my show because I consider myself a successful podcaster. But I also feel conflicted – I don’t feel I’ve done a good job of leveraging this show to grow my audience. So, I’ve decided to have my friend, Zach Swinehart, come on to talk about how I can improve my conversions for this show.

However, it almost feels a bit like the emperor has no clothes. Am I putting myself out there? Am I letting myself be too vulnerable? I guess you’re about to find out.

Top Takeaways

• When it comes to determining your lead magnet, you should test a few to see which resonates.
• When you’re testing calls to action or lead magnets in a podcast, you should try a few different spots with a few different links.
• Know who you’re talking to and try to understand your audience by looking at their pain points and objections.

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Behind the Scenes: A different type of episode

One of the most positive changes I’ve made this year, as far as the podcast goes, is making it more story-based, doing more editing, and changing the show to be less of a straight interview.

As I mentioned during the episode, Zach and I spoke for over 2 hours, and recorded all but 20 minutes of it – which means we had a lot of raw material, but not a clear story arc.

I felt a little conflicted. I got a TON of value from our conversation, and wanted to put it out for you to hear. But I also wanted to keep the narrative format so you had a clear path to follow.

Ultimately I decided I’d narrate a story, using our interview as the source material.

I went through the entire recording again, looking for 3-5 story beats for the episode.

Then I stitched them together with my own scripted parts – highlighting, reiterating, and reflecting on the important points.

Because this was my first time trying an episode like this, I didn’t send it to my editor. I did everything myself. It ended up taking about 2.5 hours, but I’m pleased with the way it came out.

I’m not sure I’ll do this for every episode, but I think it can be a powerful way to tell the right story.

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Until next time,