The title of this article may sound like a recipe for exploitation but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. People enjoy helping others. Your centers of influence take pleasure in helping you and they also get satisfaction helping others in their network.
Podcasting makes that win-win, “helping”, easier.
Imagine calling one of your top clients and explaining that you have a podcast channel and the purpose is to help other like-minded people achieve { insert whatever is important to you here }.Then, you tell them you thought about them and you would like to invite them to join your podcast for their own episode.
Big big wins. Firstly they are somewhat impressed that you have a podcast. Next, they are flattered you’d ask them to join you on it. Next, they help you produce valuable content that will be appreciated by others. It’s a cycle where everyone comes out winning. You look good, they look good, your message gets shared, clients appreciate the added value.
Today’s technology makes it easy for them to participate from the comfort of their home/office at a time that is convenient. There are too many advantages to ignore this opportunity.
Another side benefit is that, in working with you they will see first hand how professional you are. They will get to experience your podcast guest appearance process and your ability to pull things together. They will remember the experience and they will naturally relate that experience to the other work you do with them – or your clients. It becomes symbolic of what it is like working with you and, they will tell their friends. It’s inevitable.
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Finally, you should make it easy for them to share your podcast with other like minded people in their personal network. Include instructions on how to share it online: include images, links and any text they can use to make that sharing as easy as possible for them. They will “want” to share it, so it’s really just a matter of providing a “ step-by-step ” to make that intuitive for them.
Leveraging your centers if influence is a formula where your get referrals AND everyone wins in the process. You win, your COI wins and, the listeners get free value, so they win too.