Podcasts are a great way to educate yourself. Whether you’re on the train, in the car, at your desk, or anywhere in between, this medium is an incredible vehicle for supplementing your industry knowledge. Every week, I’ll be sharing with you some of the best marketing podcasts around, spanning the whole marketing landscape.
Whether you’re new to podcasts or you’re a seasoned listener, I know you’ll find value in each weekly round-up. Let’s get listening, shall we?
The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast: How a Virtual Assistant Can Save Your Sanity and Grow Your Business
Jess Ostroff is not only the managing editor of Convince & Convert. She is also the founder and Director of Calm at Don’t Panic Management, a virtual assistance agency. A few weeks ago, Jess released her first book—Panic Proof: How the Right Virtual Assistant Can Grow Your Business and Save Your Sanity—and is sharing how employing virtual assistants can take your business to new heights.
She joined host John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing to explore how she got her start in freelancing, how she keeps her team focused on the skills that make them indispensable, and why her business model is so cost-effective for so many organizations.
Takeaways: Unless you’re a workaholic and like working late hours, getting someone who enjoys doing the tasks that bog you down makes sense on so many levels. Being a business owner or a manager is hard enough as it is without adding the additional stress of handling the necessary, albeit challenging, tasks we must complete.
Jess points out that hiring a full-time team member for a task that will only require 20 hours of dedication, as opposed to the typical 40, is unfair to both the company and the employee. “[T]here [are] so many choices and so many ways to get the right person for the right job,” she says, and she’s absolutely right.
The freelance economy can certainly be a tough jungle to maneuver, but when you find the right people, it makes perfect sense.
AskPat 1001: How Do I Streamline My Business so I’m Not Overwhelmed?
As host Pat Flynn goes into his next 1000 episodes, he’s changing things up a bit. Instead of taking questions over voicemail and answering “off-air,” he’s holding live coaching sessions and recording for his listeners.
It’s a cool concept that I haven’t heard in the marketing space very often. Considering Pat’s abilities to think on the fly, it’s a perfect fit, and he’ll certainly never run out of guests looking to find the right answers for their business.
In this episode, Pat welcomes Gianna from Family Fun Twin Cities, a blog looking to be the one-stop resource for things to do with kids in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Takeaways: Gianna’s question at the 4:43 mark of the podcast is the heart of the episode: How do we go above and beyond for our customers without burning ourselves out?
Gianna is truly trying to build long-term relationships with both her audience and her clients. It’s certainly the right thing to do, but it can be quite difficult to balance. Pat listens to Gianna carefully and, after each of her answers, either further clarifies or offers excellent, actionable advice that she and her business partners can execute.
For example, one of the cool things they agree on is creating separate email campaigns for clients that are separate from the emails destined for FFTC subscribers. While it might seem simple, it’s often the simplest solution that turns a worrisome issue and into an impactful piece of your business. I’m a fan of the way Pat is now running his show, and I hope he’s able to help a lot of people.
How do we go above and beyond for our customers without burning ourselves out?
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It’s been a little while since we’ve included our fine friends from north of the border, Scott and Alison Stratten. In this edition of the show, they go over Chewy’s knack for customer service (and as someone who used to work for a direct competitor, this is absolutely true), Alison’s Endy mattress story, a new Yelp policy that could be harmful for everyone, and yes, yet another hotel charging for bad reviews. Now, where have we seen this before?
Takeaways: Since I already called out the Chewy example, let’s stick with them. Two customers tragically lost both of their dogs in one weekend and then received two, 40-pound bags of dog food from Chewy as part of their auto-ship order. It’s gut-wrenching.
When I worked at Pet360, we’d often encounter a pet parent who ordered food or a toy for their pup only to find out that their pet had passed away. These situations were difficult to handle, but we’d also start with our condolences, encourage them to donate the food or toys to a local shelter, and refund their purchase.
What Chewy did, and does, goes above and beyond. They did all of the things Pet360 did but also asked for a picture of the dogs and included them in a memorial book to honor their pups. And they didn’t stop there—Chewy also sent flowers to express their condolences.
The experience that Chewy has created for their customers is unsurpassed in the pet world. Even though PetSmart has since acquired them, their culture that puts the customer first continues to produce incredible stories like this one. As much as I disliked Chewy during my time at Pet360, I respected the hell out of them. Every brand can learn from these top dogs.
That’s all for this edition! I’ll be back with a new batch next week. In the meantime, share any podcasts you think I should know about with me @jwsteiert on Twitter or in the comments below!
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