I want to show you how the power of podcasting can help you build a relationship with your audience, and position you as an expert.
When I worked for a copier company (and had a very brief stint in sales) I learned that selling is about relationships.
People buy from their "Friends.
" Another way to look at this is the law of reciprocity.
The Law of Reciprocity is (more or less) that people will do nice things for people who have done nice things for them.
So how do you build that relationship with people? How do you reach a global audience? You start a podcast.
Many podcasters are reaping the benefits of podcasting.
Here are just a few examples.
Michael Butler of the Rock and Roll Geek Show is a great story.
Michael was the original music podcast.
Michael had the opportunity to go play bass guitar for one of his favorite musicians (who was famous in Australia).
The problem? The gig was in England and Michael is in San Francisco.
Michael has been podcasting since 2004, and when he announced the opportunity his fans pulled together and started a fund for Michael's plane tickets.
End result? Michael flew to England, played the gig, stayed with listeners of the show and had a great time.
George Hrab has a podcast about skepticism called the Geologic Podcast.
George is a musician, and one very creative fellow.
George has been podcasting since 2007.
In just a few years, George is now seen as an expert in the skeptic community.
He has been asked to speak and play his music both in the US and abroad at some of the biggest national skeptic conventions.
For George's latest album he decided to release the entire album as one file, and give it away for free to his listeners.
If they liked it, they could go purchase the album at CDbaby.
com or iTunes.
The result? George has been topping the charts at CDBaby since its release.
His fans are buying the album they just received for free.
This move has also boosted the sales of George's six previous albums (which are not free).
Dave Gardner is a hockey fan and has always wanted to be a hockey announcer.
He purchased a small portable recorder and started going to the games and doing play by play into the recorder, and releasing the audio as the "Rat Cast".
This helped promote his local team, and the following year the AIHL hockey league asked Dan to do a podcast about the entire league.
Dan has been asked to cover different games in different locations, and expanded his skills to include doing live web coverage of the games.
When the league announced that the finals would be on ESPN, they needed a color commentator Dan was their "go to guy" to climb into the ESPN booth and call the game live.
Chris Christensen hosts the Amateur Traveler Podcast where he started off doing a podcast showcasing places he traveled.
His show grew in popularity and places started calling Chris to come visit (for free) and report.
Chris takes fabulous photos at the locations and makes them available for sale on his site.
When he does have to pay for travel he can now write it off as a business expense for his podcast.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to start a podcast.
Once the initial cost of a microphone and other hardware is done (which is typically $80-$300), the ongoing cost is about $20 a month.
What other medium allows you to reach a global audience for seven cents a day?