Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.

Good Morning Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 612…it is always a pleasure and honor to have you here with me – I greatly appreciate your time and attention – and the fact that you have chosen to invest a part of your day making Onward Nation what you listen to and study means a great deal to me.

So thank you very, very much.

Today’s episode is going to be a solocast – with a bit of a twist. If you have been listening to the show for a while now – you know that from time to time, I record an episode without a guest – and I call those solocasts – and I do this – because a solocast gives you and me an opportunity to go deeper on a topic and to really explore the depth of a particular lesson.

But for today’s solocast – there is a bit of a twist.

And the twist is that my team and I are going to use this solocast as an opportunity to share an episode where I was recently the guest on the Integrate and Ignite podcast…hosted by my friend, Lori Jones…CEO of Avocet Communications.

Okay…so why did I decide to air another podcast’s episode inside today’s solocast?

I made that decision because of the value I think this interview with share with you.

For example…

Lori and I talk more about how – if you were to launch a podcast, YouTube channel, rockin’ awesome blog, or another form of cornerstone content – it could become your Trojan Horse of Sales and ignite your business development strategy within your company.

You and I went deep into this topic during Episode 600 of Onward Nation – but the perspective I share with Lori and what she shares with me will provide additional context that will be helpful to your biz dev.

Lori and I also talk about the importance of thought leadership and how it can be used to share your expertise with your dream prospects – and – add value to your existing customers, which is an important lesson for most business owners, especially those who are being forced to pivot their business over the next 12-36 months.

I also helped Lori’s audience see – and I want you to see, too, Onward Nation, how a piece of cornerstone content – again…that may be a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a blog article, etc. can then be used to create 30, 40, even 50 pieces of smaller content.

And this adds leverage into your business and helps you create scale.

Plus, this portion of the conversation with Lori begins to fulfill the promise I made to you during Episode 600 when I said that I would go deep into the content creation process during a future solocast, which I will still do and am preparing that episode right now, in fact.

But the conversation with Lori is an additional layer of introduction that provides some helpful context as we continue moving down the content creation path.

And lastly…Lori and I also address another scaling issue – and that is how to get your internal team onboard with the strategy of creating cornerstone content to drive business development – and – that this strategy is going to run alongside the Trojan Horse of Sales.

And I know it may be surprising, Onward Nation – but – you will be able to complete a lot of this work if you were to recruit and hire several talented and highly motivated unpaid interns to your team.

Lori and I talk about the recipe we have used here at Predictive ROI to do just that – we have recruited and hired 25 unpaid interns over the last several years – and they have been extraordinary. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need a large team of expensive talent to be effective in this strategy.

Okay, Onward Nation…here is Lori Jones from the Integrate and Ignite podcast, and yours truly as her guest.

======================

Okay…welcome back, Onward Nation.

I hope you found the conversation with Lori Jones to be helpful in illustrating the power that cornerstone content can have within your business development strategy.

In fact…Erik Jensen from my Predictive ROI team and I were just on-site for a 2-day strategy session with a company in the financial services industry – and during the discussion – one of the business leaders said, “Wow…now I get it…now I see how our podcast could become the center of our entire content strategy.”

And yes, he was correct…your podcast…when executed properly…doesn’t just help you build a nation of true fans…or an audience…but each and every episode is cornerstone content that can fuel your entire business development strategy.

I will break this down into precise detail during my next solocast and illustrate the full power of the strategy – but for today, my hope is that the additional context was helpful.

Thank you again for taking the time to be here today…I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.

Until tomorrow…onward with gusto!

Guests