Ep #97: Why You Should Use Podcasting as a Growth Strategy Even if You Don’t Have a Podcast

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello, hello. Welcome back to another exciting episode of The EntreMD Podcast. This is going to be an amazing one because we are going to be talking about podcasting. And don’t worry, whether you have a podcast or not, whether you think you should have one or not, this episode is for you.

Now, I want to start off by reading a review that was left by Dr. Grace DPM. First of all, thank you so much for leaving me a review. And this doctor says, “Reassuring, reflective, and realistic…” and leaves those beautiful five stars that you guys know I love to see.

And then she goes on to say, “I love this podcast. Dr. Una’s insights are presented succinctly and offer just the right positive perspective of medicine and its relationship to business, to remind physicians that they have the ability and control to transform, adapt, and succeed in today’s world of medicine.”

And I’m going, like, “What? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say.” And then she goes on to say, “Whether you’re a medical student, a resident, a new doc entering the arena, a seasoned professional in an established practice, or that physician who is contemplating a change, you’ll always pick up a practical pearl from these podcasts.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Dr. Grace. Thank you for leaving me that amazing, glowing, insightful five-star review. And listen, guys, you heard her. She said every medical student, every resident, every doctor. So, I want you to do something for me.

If you haven’t left us a review yet, I want you to go to iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts on and leave us a review. It really, really, really helps and I appreciate the feedback. And I want you to share this. Share it with the residents in your life. Share it with the docs in your life. Share it with someone who’s starting a private practice. Share it with someone who’s just frustrated with the way medicine is. Share it, okay.

Alright, today we are going to be talking about why you should be podcasting, or rather why you should be using podcasting as a growth strategy even if you don’t own a podcast. And I’m going to let you know the statistics for podcasting are just overwhelming.

So, there are over one million podcasts. Now, I’ve seen data that goes all the way up to 1.75 million. But let’s just say over one million. And 75% of the people in the US know about podcasting. And 39% of men and 36% of women listen to podcasts monthly.

So, I guess it would be fair to say that there’s a lot of listening to podcasts that is going on and you should want in on it. Now, remember when I said you don’t have to have a podcast. You don’t have to want to have a podcast for this to apply to you. So, just come with me, okay.

Now, I can give you some really polished presentation with a lot of statistics and all that stuff. But I figured, you know what, in order to give you the best value, I’m just going to take you behind the scenes. I’m a podcaster. And it’s very funny, I did tell the story of how I started the podcast and all of that. But really, it was market research.

I reached out on Facebook in a Facebook group. And I was like, “Okay, how do you guys like to learn? Podcast, vlog, or blog?” And at that time, I was doing a lot of videos. A lot of videos.

And to my shock, over 97% of the people said podcasts. And I’m like, “Wait a minute, what?” And here I am making all these videos for you guys and you guys want to listen to a podcast.

So, I probably did that survey in October and in November I had started my podcast. And we have been podcasting for 15 months; just shy of 15 months at this point. And at the time of this recording, we have 68,000 downloads in 90 countries. We have over 123 ratings, not including the ones that you’re leaving today, and countless stories.

I cannot tell you have many people are like, “Oh my gosh, I listened to that, I started a business…” the whole nine yards. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing, amazing, amazing tool. So, I want to give you 7 reasons why you should be using podcasting. We’re not going to do one, three, or five. We’re going to do seven today.

Now, the very first reason why you should be using podcasting is because it gives you visibility. It gives you and your business, again, whether you’re an intrapreneur, you’re trying to work your personal brand, or you’re a private practice owner, or you have what would be considered a traditional business, it gives you visibility. It puts you in front of people.

The biggest problem that most business have is obscurity. Nobody knows you exist. And one of the ways you can solve that problem is by podcasting.

I could have been in my room, I could have been reaching out to the doctors that I know, like a few of them, or I could be publishing content every week and over 15 months have 68,000 downloads. And I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gone for conferences and people are like, “Oh my gosh, you’re Dr. Una. I listen to your podcast.”

These are people that I know but I don’t know, you know what I mean? We have a conversation every week, but I’ve never met them in person, or any other way. I can’t tell you how many times. So, visibility, podcasting is perfect for visibility.

The second thing is credibility. And you know, at the end of the day, it positions you as an expert. So, here I am. At the time of this recording we have over 90 episodes. So, I come every week. I’m talking about business. I’m giving practical tips. I’m showing trends. I’m giving examples, maybe with people from the business school and stuff like that.

And what that does is it gives me credibility. It gives me credibility when people are like, entrepreneurship doctors in those conversations, my name would come up. Why? I talk about it all the time. I podcast about it all the time.

So, it establishes you as an expert. It gives you credibility. Now, when it comes to being an expert, there are two things. One is that you want to be an expert. And by expert, I don’t mean knowing everything. I mean knowing a lot about something. I don’t know everything about business, but I know a lot about it, especially for physicians.

So, you need to, one, be an expert. And then two, you need to be perceived as an expert. Many of us are experts. But we’re not perceived that way because we’re not out there, we’re not speaking, we’re not letting our voice be heard. We’re not explaining concepts through our own filters. We’re not doing any of that.

So, you might be an expert, but nobody knows. And one of the ways to position yourself as a credible X, Y, Z, whatever that is for your business, is through podcasting. And again, you might be going like, “But Dr. Una, I don’t want to start a podcast.” Just follow me. I’m coming to you. So that’s number two.

Number three, it’s a great audience-builder, an amazing audience-builder. So, this is the way business works. In business, there’s an ideal client that you should be talking to. For me, it would be a physician who either wants to start, grow, or scale a business. And what easier way to get in front of my people? Podcasting’s such an easy way to do that.

Now, podcasting’s not easy. That’s not what I’m trying to say. But the mechanism allows you to get in front of people, allows you to get in front of your people. And business is not about manipulating people and trying to convince people that they should work with you and stuff like that. It’s about finding someone who is looking for what you offer and telling them, “I offer that.”

Think about it. In your life right now, there is a need that you have that you will pay somebody, maybe not even a need, a pain point in your life that you’ll pay somebody to make go away. But you just don’t know who that person is. You haven’t found that person. If you found them, you would pay them.

So, a business is that matchmaking between someone who needs what you do and you who provides what you do. So, when you’re a podcaster, it gives you that opportunity to put yourself in front of your people. And if you’re listening to this, you’re my people. And let me just say this. I am so honored that I get to be your people.

So, it puts you in front of your people. And not only that. You’ve also given your people, you’ve given them something they can share. You’ve given them something – I can’t tell you how many times people are like, “Oh, I started listening to your podcast, X, Y, Z, Dr. X, Y, Z texted me the link and was like you have to listen to this.” And those are more of my people. Do you see what I’m saying?

So, when you podcast regularly, you are making it easier for people to share your stuff. You’re empowering them to share your stuff. You’re empowering them to grow your audience. Which again, I’ll just stop here and say, if you love this podcast share it, right? Okay, so that’s number three.

Number four is networking. Oh my goodness, it’s such a great networking tool. Now, on the podcast, I have had the privilege of interviewing Sasha Shillcutt, who is the founder of Brave Enough. I have interviewed Dr. Mary Claire Haver, who is the founder – the creator actually – of the Galveston Diet, when we talked about how this doctor built a seven-figure side-gig. I’ve interviewed Dr. Ali Novitzky. And she is the founder of Society. She is all into health for doctors. It’s so amazing what she does. I’ve interviewed the founder of Ray Darten, which is an African print-based fashion line. I mean, it’s so amazing.

I don’t know that I ever would have met her or any of the others. I got to interview Chip Hart, who is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant practice management consultant. And if you’re in private practice, you need to go listen to episode 88 of this podcast, where I interviewed him. It’s an amazing, amazing interview that will kind of set you up with the strategies you need to make your practice thrive, not just survive, but thrive.

And podcasting has opened doors where I’ve had all kinds of conversations with these people. I’ve interviewed students from the EntreMD Business School and they have amazing stories. I’ve interviewed my private coaching clients. It’s a really great tool for networking.

And you know, for the introverts, if you’re still early in your journey as an extroverted introvert, you know, sometimes there’s no video. It’s just audio. But it puts you in a position where you get to talk to really cool people and build your social circle.

And at the end of the day, your net worth is your network, or the other way around, whichever way you want to do it. But the bottom line is they’re the same. You grow one, you grow the other. So, it’s an amazing way to grow your network. Okay, so that’s number four.

Number five, it builds that like and trust factor. So, I could say, “Hey, my name is Dr. Una, I help physicians embrace entrepreneurship so they can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on their terms. I founded the EntreMD Business School. And it’s just for you if you’re looking to start and scale a business, you’re looking for the coaching, the accountability, the community.” And it’s like, “Okay, cool.”

But what if I’ve been in your ear multiple times a week for a year and you’ve been listening to stuff, like the review I read, “I’m 10 episodes in and I’ve had a mindset reset.” It builds that trust factor. Like, “If the free stuff that’s he just puts out here every week is helping me change like this, what’s going to happen if I were in the business school?”

Do you see what I mean, because now I’m not just making statement. It’s not just a cool social media thing. You’ve had an experience with me. I’ve had people who’ve started businesses and they’re like, “Oh, your podcast inspired me to start.” I’ve had people who started podcasts, like, “It’s what you taught me that made me start.” I have people embrace doing Facebook lives, videos, speaking gigs, the whole nine yards. And they’re like, “It’s just from the podcast.”

And I love to serve in that capacity. But what it does is it builds trust. You put yourself in a position where you can give people wins and they’re like, “You know what? I want to go deeper.” It’s not going to be everybody, but it’s going to be the people that need to. So, that’s number five.

Number six is that if you embrace this, you are producing assets. It’s an asset because now you have content that can be repurposed a gazillion different ways.

For instance, I can take this podcast episode and have a blog made out of it. I can have social media posts made out of it. I can take all of the podcast episodes that I’ve done on private practice and I can have it converted into an eBook. I can record this and record the video at the same time and I can put this on YouTube. Do you see what I’m saying?

So, it’s an asset that you can repurpose many, many, many different ways and use it and then people are like, “She’s everywhere. She’s on YouTube. She’s on social media. She’s on the blog. She has these freebies. And it’s all one thing but just repurposed.

So, it’s an asset. And it lives on. So, three years from now, someone could be listening to this episode and I’m still talking to the person, I’m still helping the person, I’m still doing all of those things. It’s an asset. Alright, so that’s number six.

Number seven, now, this is one of my favorites. Number seven, it is a great personal development tool; great personal development tool. And this is why I say that. For me to pull this off, I have to embrace speaking a lot.

At this point, we’re doing two episodes a week, which means I have to practice the framework of disciplined talk twice a week every week. I have to practice it. So, I have to practice speaking.

You guys have heard my story. I was a very shy, socially awkward introverted introvert. But now I have to reach out to great guests. And I’m doing it from a standpoint of their story is so amazing that I really want my audience to listen to what they have to say. Their story of how they overcame that challenge to start that business and thrive is so fantastic, I need my people to hear this as well.

So, I’m reaching out and I’m networking. So, guess what? That’s a muscle that I’m growing every day. And every week, every month, I get better at networking.

I have to practice consistency. We have never missed a week. This podcast launched in November of 2019. We have never missed a week. In January 2020, we started doing two episodes a week. We have never missed a week. So, every time I’m consistent with it, what am I doing? I’m growing that consistency muscle, which doesn’t just impact the podcast, but every other aspect because the way you do something, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.

So, I’m learning to be a more consistent person. And then, one of the biggest ones is you’re going to have to figure out the imposter syndrome. Because it’s like, you’re out there talking, that entrepreneur is doing better than you, that speaker is doing better than you, this person has a better podcast than you, you’re a fraud. You’re not really a podcaster. You’re a doctor. Go see a patient. What are you doing?

And you’re going to have to deal with that. You’re going to have to do the mind work. You’re going to have to do it afraid and all of that. And every time you do that, you’re building a stronger muscle. You’re building a stronger resistance.

You get to the point where you’re like, I mean, “Fear is not going to go anywhere, but I’m done letting it stop me. I’m just going to do what I need to do.” Do you see what I’m saying? So, it’s such a great personal development tool. So great. So, so, so great.

Alright, so those are my seven reasons; increases your visibility, increases your credibility, it’s a great audience builder, it will help you network with some amazing people, it will help you build trust, and it’s a great asset that you can repurpose a gazillion different ways, and it’s a great personal development tool. Okay, so those are my seven reasons.

Now, you might go, “Okay, okay, okay, but I don’t want to do a podcast.” There are three kinds of people listening to me. Now, one, you know you should start a podcast. You know that. And if that’s you, just start. If that’s you, just start it.

Number two, you don’t want to start a podcast. And I don’t push anybody to start a podcast. The mortality rate of podcasts is about 50%. There’s so many podcasts that have been started and people just don’t stay with it. So, I’m not saying go start one.

So, if you feel like, “I’m not ready. I don’t want to start one. I don’t want to own a podcast,” there’s no worries. I read about the CEO, I think it was, of MeetEdgar. And she did 52 podcast interviews in a year. How many weeks are there in a year? 52 weeks. So, guess what? Technically she did a podcast episode a week, more consistent than many people who actually have podcasts.

So, if you don’t want to own a podcast, no worries. Guess what a lot of podcasts are looking for? Guests. Go be a guest. Commit to do one a month, two a month, four a month. But make it part of your growth strategy, where I get on podcasts. I get on podcasts.

Number three, you may already have a podcast but you have sporadic episodes. So, sometimes you have an episode. Sometimes you don’t. And if that is you, my challenge to you is to commit to be consistent with podcasting. Be consistent with it.

One of my secrets for being consistent is I batch-produce. So, I will record three or four episodes at once. And guess what? If I do four episodes twice a month, that’s 8 episodes and I’m good. So, I only need two podcasting days.

And then people are like, “Oh my gosh, she’s so consistent.” I probably recorded that two months ago and scheduled it and it’s been done. Okay, so if you know you should start, start. If you know you don’t want to start, go be a guest. Pick your frequency. And if you already started but you’re not consistent, commit to be consistent.

But 12 months from now, you can be that person who your visibility has gone through the roof, you’re established as the expert, you have a much bigger audience, you’ve networked with some amazing people, you’ve built trust with your audience, you’ve created a lot of assets for your business, and you have grown because you said yes to podcasting.

So, say yes – not to the dress – to podcasting, whether you have a podcast or not. And if you’re like, “I don’t know that I can be consistent. I don’t know what to talk about. I don’t know how to stay focused,” the EntreMD Business School is there for you. Because what we do in the school is that we help you with anything you do for a platform, whether it’s Facebook lives, podcasts, social media, all of that, to use it as a tool to grow your business.

So, it will be a win-win situation where it’s a win for your audience and a win for your business as well. So, if you find that you’re podcasting but it’s not really making a difference and all of that stuff, come join us. So, it’s entremd.com/business. Check us out. Come join us. We’ll be happy to have you.

Alright, so thank you so much for listening. Remember to share this episode. Keep your commitments. Tell me about it. I’d love to hear it. You can email me, druna@entremd.com. And let’s get this done. Okay, so I’ll see you on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.