We’re all tired of hearing about COVID. Believe me, I am too. However, the impact it left on businesses – of all sizes, and how it shifted the landscape cannot be denied. With every crisis, there is opportunity, and one of the things that boomed in the last year was podcasting.

Prior to 2020, podcasting was already on the rise. According to Convince and Convert, at the start of last year, the numbers were up 10 percent year over year. That momentum has only grown during and post-pandemic, as podcast familiarity has grown amongst the American population to 78 percent, up from 75 percent a year ago.

However, despite its growth, podcasting is still a medium in its infancy. If podcasting was a person, you could say it’s a teenager. The growth spurt isn’t over yet, but it’s also far from mature.

There are currently an estimated 1.75 million podcasts worldwide, totaling more than 43 million episodes. While that seems like a big number, only 850,000 are active. Many of those shows may still be listed on Apple (by far the largest podcast directory) but have podfaded away. It’s a topic that I have addressed on my podcast as well.

However, if you think the market is saturated, it’s not. There is a great audience for podcasting ripe for the taking. Edison Research recently released its latest Infinite Dial survey, one of the most trusted in the industry. Take a look at the numbers below:

 162 million have listened to a podcast (57% of the U.S. total population)

 116 million listen monthly (41%)

 80 million listen weekly (28%)

 More women are listening than ever before

 Age 55+ is one of the fastest-growing groups

 The average person listens to 8 podcast episodes a week from 5 shows

Why should businesses care about podcasting? Because it’s an effective way to disseminate the message you want to convey to not only existing customers but attract new ones. In 2019, 68 percent of the 25 largest Fortune 500 companies hosted their own podcasts on their own corporate websites. Also, 40 percent of small business owners listen to podcasts, while 72 percent of business owners with between 100-500 employees do, too.

Podcast listeners are your customers and their circle(s). Your goal with a podcast shouldn’t be to become rich doing it – very few do. Instead, it should be a strategic way to enhance your brand, add credibility, and learn from your guests who are subject matter experts. A podcast is an audio blog post you can use to show clients what you do. You can also use your podcast interviews to get in front of people you want to connect with and become your clients.

Podcasting is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The barriers to entry and benchmarks of success aren’t as high as you might think. Consider this: the average podcast sees between 100 to 140 downloads in the first 30 days. It doesn’t take much to beat half of the podcasters out there, build an audience, and become a go-to expert in your field.

Podcast ad revenue is also growing. This is yet another inexpensive way to get brand recognition and despite competing with media dollars, it remains fairly inexpensive. According to AdvertiseCast, a 10-second ad CPM (or Cost Per Mille – or cost per 1,000 listeners) is $15. For a 30-second ad CPM, it’s $18 and a 60-second ad will cost you $25. Podcast advertising is expected to surpass the $1 billion mark by the end of the year.

Now is the time for you to start a podcast. Just don’t do it alone. Everyone – from Fortune 500 companies, to small business owners, has found value in creating their own podcast because they’re effective, inexpensive, and has fast-scaling reach.

I have given you plenty of reasons why you, as a business owner, should care about having a podcast. Numbers don’t lie. Get in the game or risk getting left behind.

If you already have a podcast, we can help you grow. The power of affiliation is tangible. C-Suite Radio is the world’s #1 business podcast network, we are growing, and you don’t want to miss out on the momentum.

Click here to learn more and start turning the volume up on business.

is everything in business, but can you control it? 

That idea came up during my recent conversation with Mark Schaefer, Chief Operating Officer at B Squared Media on All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett. 

Mark not only spent years with Alcoa, but he also teaches at the university level, is a keynote speaker, and wrote nine best-selling books. His latest work, Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for your Ideas, Business, and Life Against All Odds, which answers a pressing question in marketing today, ‘how can we be heard?’ 

Mark said for this book, he went beyond the usual “here’s what I’ve learned.” There’s more to growing a brand and building a business than blind faith, grit, and determination. Cumulative Advantage tackles the science of momentum. 

“I went back into this sociological research that started in the 50s about momentum and that really excited (me) about it because it sort of cracks the code, but it’s never been applied in a practical way to real people and real businesses,” Mark said.  

He continued, “I guarantee anybody that reads this book; you will not see the world the same. You will start seeing these patterns of momentum.”  

While momentum is excellent in business, it can be hard to quantify. However, you have to be able to sustain it and adjust accordingly in order to take full advantage of it. 

“Momentum is sort of like American football. We have two teams face to face against strength. The coaches they’re actually looking at this: looking at the game from above the field, trying to find an opportunity. Trying to find a seam,” Mark related. “Is someone overmatched, is someone tired, how can we burst through this seam and go as far as we can. Get that momentum going, but then they’re also looking (at) what’s next. What’s next what’s next for our momentum. It is a continuous process.” 

The football analogy is a good one because when Mark talks about a seam, he’s not just talking about an opening in a play. Zooming out, he says it’s a fracture in the status quo. COVID-19, ironically enough, became one of those seams of opportunity. While many businesses failed, Mark says the number of start-ups has boomed over the last year. In 2020, over 4 million new companies started worldwide – that’s 26.9 percent, the highest increase startups have seen in the last decade.

While that is taking advantage of the situation in front of you, there is value to your momentum being organic. 

“The cool thing is that most initial advantage, most momentum, you don’t need a million dollars. You don’t have to have a Harvard education. Most initial advantage happens through random events,” Mark said. “An idea, someone you meet—inspiration from a book, or perhaps from your show that leads to an idea. Then you need to pursue it, test it against the seam.”  

“Once you’re building momentum, you need awareness. In the book, I talk about this thing called a sonic boom. What I present here is some new research about how ideas really go viral, and it’s not exactly like you think. The basic idea is instead of thinking about a year-long plan or a two-year plan, you need to think of a very concentrated period of time and aim for ubiquity. So that people are hearing about you so many times, in so many places, it starts to build that momentum.” 

Now that your brand or product is building awareness, it’s time to take another step towards success. Mark calls it the “helping hand.” In his mind, it’s all about redefining mentorship but this new way of mentoring is not about building a long-term relationship. 

“Today, mentorship is an occasional relationship with someone who can open up new doors, make introductions, create new opportunities for you to get to that next level,” Mark said. “That’s one of the fastest ways to build momentum.” 

That’s not all. Once the momentum starts, you need to surround yourself with good people and avoid the “doom loop.” 

“When you have a new business or new idea, things are always going to go wrong,” Mark stated. “You can’t panic and forget what started your momentum in the first place. It’s consistency, constancy of purpose, and discipline.” 

Anyone who’s spent time in business realizes a lot of this comes down to timing. Mark adds you can use all this and figure out what you can and can’t control to influence that timing. 

“You need to look at your ideas through certain filters of worthiness,” Mark said. “Is this really worthy of a customer right now? Is it worthy of a market? What can you do in terms of research? Is it worthy of your time? Is it worthy of sacrifice? Is it a worthy battle because you’re going to have to battle to get it going. Give yourself the best chance.” 

Mark says you can trace these ideas to almost every successful business or person, including himself. Back in the 1990s, he was working for a Fortune 100 company but felt stuck. About the same time, a young company called AOL was offering dial-up internet for $9/month. Mark signed up and was able to talk his boss into expensing his account.  

“A couple of years later, Alcoa wakes up and says ‘we need to have an e-commerce department. Who shall we get to run it? Oh, this Schaefer guy. He’s spent more time on the internet than anybody else. He was the first person in our company on the internet,'” Mark remembered. “Now It was (through) that random conversation I lead this global business department, started my own business, wrote the books, speak, consult, here I am.” 

 It was a pleasure to sit down with a best-in-class marketer like Mark. If you want to hear more about where marketing is going, why marketers are losing the human connection, and Mark’s state fair winning honey, listen to the complete episode here.  

The future of business is always a hot topic, especially the way the last year has upended entire industries. You can talk about specific trends accelerating during the pandemic all you want, but one trend that continually changes is consumer behavior. Today’s buyers aren’t content with a catchy jingle or colorful packaging. They want more! It’s about the promises delivered by the brand to extend beyond a quality product. Consumers want assurances that the product they’re buying has a reputation that goes well beyond the store shelf.

With that in mind, I was looking forward to interviewing Richard Steel, CEO of Parsec Ventures and the author of Elevated Economics: How Conscious Consumers Will Fuel the Future of Business on my “All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett” show.

“Elevated Economics is not an opinion piece. It’s not what I believe. It’s based on the numbers and trends,” Richard said.

In the book, Richard expands bout ESGs, and he does a great job explaining what that stands for.

“(ESGs) are a growing category of investment choices that blend environmental, social, and governance factors,” Richard said.

“For Environmental, obviously air emissions, air quality. If you’re a business leader thinking about those things. Your energy use, waste management, stuff like that.” He continued, “On the social side, what are your labor standards, production quality and safety issues, your local community impact.”

“On the governance side, how your business behaves, ethical business practices, voting rights, board independence, board diversity, accounting, and transparency.”

“That’s the overview of ESGs, you might hear that term used interchangeably with socially responsible investing or sustainable investing,” he concluded.

No matter what you call it, those are values I stressed in my latest best-selling book, The Hero Factor. Let’s be clear. This isn’t a company masquerading as environmentally friendly only to make millions with no real conscience. We tend to think that there’s a trade-off between high returns and sustainability. Richard says investors need to change their mindset. 

“It turns out there are lots and lots of studies that show that financial returns can actually be better, and there’s actually no trade-off whatsoever when you’re investing sustainably,” Richard said. “Morgan Stanley did a research poll of about 11,000 mutual funds, and they found there’s no financial trade-off in the returns of sustainable funds compared to traditional funds.” 

Not only is this shift in running a company good for investors, but it’s good for businesses as well.  

“The companies that practice sustainability are much more likely to be purpose-driven companies. If you’re a purpose-driven company, you can attract better talent. You can reduce churn and turnover as well, which, in turn, reduces costs,” Richard related. 

One of the companies Richard mentioned that is doing this right now is Method Products. If you’re unfamiliar, Method makes sustainable cleaning products found at Target and other retailers. Not only are Method’s products climate-conscious, animal friendly, and sourced ethically, Richard says its CEO Drew Fraser “walks the walk.” 

When it came time for Method to build a state-of-the-art factory in 2015, they could have gone anywhere. Instead of shipping the jobs overseas or building in the suburbs, the company made the conscious decision to build on a former brownfield site (an EPA designation meaning it could be contaminated) on Chicago’s South Side. 

“(Method) decided to actually revitalize a neighborhood,” Richard said. “Build their plant (in Chicago), hire local folks. Some people who had never had bank accounts before. On the first day, they helped them set up bank accounts and really became a partner in the community and have done tremendously well. (Method) is giving a mission and a purpose and some style quite frankly to a category that hasn’t had it in the past. Cleaning products (are a) pretty bland and boring category, but they’re doing amazing things.” 

Richard says he interviewed Drew for Elevated Economics, going deep into how Method’s sustainable practices created not only a successful business but tremendous brand loyalty as well.  

According to Richard, companies like Method are part of a larger generational shift in investing and consumer habits. For example, while working on Elevated Economics, the Business Roundtable made headlines worldwide for its 2019 statement redefining the purpose of a corporation. Now, leaders of some of America’s largest corporations say their main goal isn’t just to create a dividend for shareholders but “lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders.” 

“(The Business Roundtable CEOs) are all the people saying, ‘profits aren’t everything.’ Let’s dig into that. If profits aren’t everything, what is the new purpose of a corporation according to them? They break it down into five ways,” Richard said. “Delivering values to customers is first, investing in their employees is second. Dealing fairly and ethically with their suppliers, third. Supporting the communities in which we work, that’s number four. Lastly, generating long-term value for shareholders. Not short-term value, long-term value.” 

“When we talk about this paradigm shift, it starts with consumers. They’ve expanded their definition of what is in their own self-interest, their communities, the environment, those other considerations,” Richard said.  

This idea all goes back to one of my favorite sayings, “adapt, change or die.” Elevated economics is proof that businesses need to adapt to these new consumer demands, change the way they do business, or they’ll be a footnote in business history. 

This post is just a sampling of our conversation. We also addressed why there’s more to being environmentally conscious than saying you’re ‘going green,’ how a rafting trip inspired Elevated Economics, and how companies can use all this change to their advantage. If you’d like to hear our complete conversation, click here.