Running a business, especially in the beginning, can be really expensive when it comes to trial and error. But, I would also argue that if you don’t have access to finances,  you need to get creative, and you need to bootstrap. That is exactly what Trevor Oldham did. Trevor is a serial entrepreneur and a walking example that you can run a business, regardless of your age. His most recent venture Podcasting You works with successful individuals to get them booked on podcasts. 

How to get on a Podcast

Whether your business is business coaching, health practice, online wellness coaching, whatever it is, I’m sure that you would love to get yourself out there more. I always preach that you first have to know who you are, then you need to know your numbers and your packages and then your email list, your content creation, and the last part of the Impact With Integrity Method is PR. Podcasting for me is a huge step. I find that when people listen to you, they get to know you much quicker and the know-like-trust factor is just shorter. 

Podcasting mistakes to avoid

According to Trevor, typical mistakes that people make when they are trying to put themselves out there through podcasts are:

1. Trying to get onto the biggest podcast in your space, especially in your certain niche. You probably know the top names in your space and usually, those top names, a good majority of them, will be running a podcast and people think “I can go on their show.” That's going to be really hard if you've never been on a podcast. Trevor’s team ranks podcast shows on a scale of small, medium, and large. A small show might be a show that started a few months ago. And that's where they would want to place those clients, who haven't really been on any shows yet, to allow them to get some practice. Once you’ve been on some shows, you can go back to your podcast pitch, and then you can include them to show relevant interviews that you've done.
2. Not targeting the right audience. Again, people want to be podcast guests on the largest shows, regardless of their target audience. But, even if a podcast gets 100 downloads, if you were in a room with 100 people, you're speaking to them and they were your target audience, it's going to be way more impactful than a show that has 5000 listeners, but only maybe five people resonate with your message.
3. Not using Listen Notes. Trevor’s third piece of advice is using Listen Notes, a podcast search engine that allows you to search relevant podcasts by using different keywords. You can also purchase a file of all the relevant shows and build your own database of small, medium, and large shows to pitch to. Trevor’s advice is to start small and work your way up. Big shows probably get pitched 50-100 times a day, whereas a smaller show that's just starting out, probably doesn't have as many people pitching to them, so your success rate of being able to get on the show is probably going to be better.