Ever wondered how podcasts can be more than just entertainment? Tune in to our latest episode where we dive into the art of using podcasts for serious business growth, featuring insights from Adam Pierce of Shopify and our hosts, Matt Edmundson and Sadaf Beynon.

Tune into this episode where we discuss how podcasts can significantly contribute to business growth and networking. Listen to insights from Adam Pierce of Shopify about his experiences with major brands and the high-value guest strategy that can revolutionise your business approach. Ideal for both emerging entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners, this episode is filled with actionable tips, inspiring success stories, and innovative strategies for leveraging podcasting as a powerful networking and business expansion tool.

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For complete show notes, transcript, link to our guest and to join Podjunction Cohort, check out our website: www.podjunction.com.

Welcome to Podjunction, where business meets podcasting.

Whether you're on a morning jog, driving to work, whipping up a meal,

or just taking a moment for yourself, our week Weekly bite sized episodes

promise fresh insights from successful podcasters who have cracked the code of

using podcasts to grow their business.

So whether you're a podcasting newbie or seasoned podcaster,

grab your notebooks and get ready.

Hello, welcome to Podjunction.

I'm Matt Edmundson and beside me is the quintessential Sadaf Beynon.

How are we doing?

We're good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Okay, good.

We seem to be starting the show the same way.

Are you sure?

You good?

You sure?

Okay.

I just want to make sure.

And for this recording you actually took your coat off.

You were sat in your coat for the longest time.

I was really hot in the last one.

I didn't want to take it off.

Cause I didn't want to invite comments from you.

So we've just finished recording cause we batch

record as most podcasters do.

We batch record.

So we've just finished recording the podcast where we had Dennis on.

From the Leadership is Changing podcast.

And if you watch that on Sadaf was sat in a coat for the whole show.

And I was like, I was so tempted in the middle of it.

I was like, why are you wearing a coat?

But then at the end you took it off.

So I thought there goes all my jokes for this one.

I'm wearing my gilet but it's not a coat.

It's just, and I'm wearing a t shirt underneath.

Anyway, it's not about what we're wearing.

a heat wave.

Just in case we get a heat wave.

Getting ready.

So yeah, welcome to the show where we talk about coats, gilets, and how to use

podcasting to grow your own business.

That's what we do.

Yeah, welcome to the show.

It's great that you're here for those of you don't know us we work at Aurion Media.

Sadaf, I work together.

I do a lot of podcasts.

You are a podcast producer.

In this show, you're the other side of the microphone, although

you do produce this show as well.

Yes, I do.

Just saying.

Like you, we use podcasting to grow our business.

And so we've just embarked on a journey of trying to figure

it out and crack the code.

And we've learned a few things along the way.

Yeah, that's what this show is all about really, figuring it all out.

We have great guests come on the show.

We talk to them, we ask them all kinds of wonderful questions, and then

we see what we can learn from them.

So last week was Dennis, say last week, it was like five minutes ago

for us, it was last week for you.

Such is the wonderfulness of podcasting, I'm letting all

the secrets out now, aren't I?

People will be listening to you, what do you mean you don't record

this at the same time every week?

I'm slightly disappointed now.

Who've we got this week?

We have

Adam Pearce from Shopify Across The Pond Podcast.

He's the host of that.

And he's going to be talking about how to use podcasts strategically to grow your

business and to foster relationships.

Strategically.

I like that.

You know what I am going to do?

I'm just going to slightly move this camera because I feel like you're awesome.

There we go.

Sorry about that.

Ladies and gentlemen as again, just pointing out, we leave all these

kind of little bits in as we get it.

All right.

But Adam Pearce Shopify Across The Pond Podcast , fellow Brits from Birmingham no

doubt who's running an agency down there.

And is using podcast to grow his agency business.

So without further ado, here's what Adam's got to say, and then Salaf

and I will be back after this.

Yeah.

So when we started, my, my issue, as a newer agency was that there are a

lot of bigger players in the market.

And it was difficult for us to get bigger brands into our kind of, our

lead funnel and get to talk to them.

And one of the reasons why I started Shopify Across the Pond, because

I wanted the opportunity to go and speak to these bigger brands.

And the way I could do that is by inviting, the CEOs, the co founders,

the eCommerce marketing managers from these brands onto a podcast.

Because that gave me then that opportunity to have that first conversation.

And if I'm honest with you, that is still a lot of the

drive for us using the podcast.

As an initial conversation starter for, sales down the line,

right?

So you're it's interesting, isn't it?

Because when it comes to podcasts there's a number of reasons why people start them.

I want to grow a tribe.

I want to grow an audience.

But for some you actually are specifically focusing on the guest and you're

using the podcast as a platform to.

Open doors to great guests, which could be potential customers, potential

suppliers and so on and so forth.

And so it sounds like you started the podcast with a view to getting in

guests who could be potential clients.

Have I understood that

right?

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think the, I think this is, the interesting thing, with podcasts isn't

it is that people always typically assume that you're doing the podcast.

For that listenership, all that is important and it's been important

to me for things like, gaining sponsorship for the podcast.

Actually, the initial objective was, a little bit more direct from a kind of,

this actually for us, I see this as part of our sales funnel, which I think is what

other podcasters will do with it as well.

Yeah, totally, it's a For me, it's, I often say this to people, I've

not come across anything like podcasting as a way to open doors to people.

There are very few things that, that I've been able to use as a tool to

get easy access to phenomenal people who could become great clients.

I don't know if that's what you found as well.

No, for sure.

I'll give you an example.

I am a big fan of an author called Mike Michalowicz, who wrote Profit First.

And he's written a number of other business books.

Now, look, reality, he has a very big following online, particularly,

within sort of the business community.

And, for me, I wanted to get him on to really, for me, the driver was for

that is a to have that conversation with him, but I knew then that his

followers would also be listening.

And, if you think about, every day, all of us probably use

LinkedIn in some shape or form.

We're always getting, kind of pitches for this and buy this thing.

There is nothing, I guess more gratifying or, nice to receive them.

Hey, I really like what you do.

I love to hear my podcast.

There's no, it's very rare that you will get someone saying, Oh, that sounds

like a terrible idea to put me on a platform to allow hundreds of people,

thousands of people to listen to me.

It's, it's really non confrontational and it gets you that initial, foot

on the ladder when it comes to the conversation with that person you want to.

Yeah, that's interesting.

So if you take someone like Mike, then, who's a, who's quite a well known author.

How straightforward, for want of a better expression, was it to

get him to come onto your show?

Yeah, to answer you, it was fairly easy.

I, with him, he basically put me in touch with his personal assistant.

She arranged a time in his calendar that worked for him.

And I was just asked to basically submit the questions beforehand that

I wanted to ask and those were then just vetted by him, trying to, there

was no request for any changes in that.

If you're intrigued and want to dive deeper into this

conversation, check out Podjunction Cohort where you can listen to the

complete interview and much more.

Simply visit theplotjunction.

com for more information about how to join.

Welcome back from that clip with Adam Pearce from

Blend Commerce, who also does the Shopify Across the Bond podcast.

What a fascinating conversation that was.

Cause why I found it particularly fascinating was because Adam and I

are quite similar in a lot of ways.

We're both involved in eCommerce and he was using a very similar strategy to me.

To outreach to clients and get people.

So this is why I thought it was but it was fascinating.

So what's in your notes, Beynon?

So I, I thought that it was actually quite

cool that he uses The podcast.

And he's used the term as it's quite non-confrontational.

Yeah.

And it's also very non-traditional as far .That's very true.

Yeah.

You way of networking.

And so how he uses that to to, what did I write here?

Yeah.

to, and it's actually an, it's an integral part of his sales funnel.

Yeah.

Which he also said.

So how he pulls two things together like that.

Yeah.

I think it's it's really good.

Yeah, it is an integral part of his sales funnel.

So if you've not come across this strategy before it's probably worth explaining.

We call it the high value client, high value guest strategy depending

on what industry you're in.

And what do I mean by that?

This is where you identify.

People who are high value clients, we think typically anybody that's got a

lifetime value of more than around 4, 000, we would call a high value client, right?

And so if you have clients that are, that have a lifetime value more than

4k, then this strategy that Adam uses, that I use, that various people use is

quite an interesting strategy because what you do is you identify that client.

And then you go and invite them to come on to the podcast and share their story.

And so we use the phrase meaningful connections a lot.

It creates these meaningful connections.

It's a really interesting way to network, especially if your podcast is interesting.

Yeah.

Because it makes the experience for your high value guest.

So good.

That they're like, this is a brilliant thing and they want

to stay connected with you.

They love what you're doing.

They feel flattered you asked them on the show.

And yeah, we call this a high value client strategy.

And it's one of those things where I think if you.

If you aren't doing it yet, you should really have a look at it

if you have got high value clients the high value guest strategy is

slightly different in the sense that it doesn't just focus on clients.

So I often use the example of a supplier we needed for one

of our eCommerce businesses.

I went and got them on the podcast, met them an hour later,

I had that supply contract.

And whereas before it was very difficult to get that.

So that.

That's a high value guest strategy if I explain that well enough.

Yeah, good.

Yeah, so Adam is doing the high value Client strategy where he is bringing on

to his show not all the time But some of the time he's bringing on to the

show Guests who could be potentially great clients for him as a way to

meet them and connect with them Yeah, and it's a very clever strategy.

Something I quite like about that it works even for the smaller

fish like you don't have to be a big fish .Yeah To get that exposure, you

can be a little fish and still get, you still reap the benefits of that.

That's what Adam said, wasn't it?

At the start, he was a new agency and he wanted to be able to get his foot in

the door with some of the bigger guys.

And podcasting was a great way for him to do that.

I thought that was quite interesting.

Yeah really interesting.

It's probably worth saying, cheap, shameless plug, that we

have a training that we're just currently at the time of recording.

It's currently free.

I don't know how much longer it's going to be free for.

So if you want to find out more about how to do this, do check it out.

It'll be, there'll be a link on thepodjunction.

com.

We'll make sure there's a link on there, but you can access that free training.

Where we walk you through the high value client strategy in a lot more detail,

and there's a workbook that comes along with it that you can work, it gives you

email templates and stuff, doesn't it?

It's quite comprehensive.

And so you can check that out.

And if that resonates with you, we've got a course.

Not yet live, but will be live soon, which will go even deeper

into the high value client strategy.

So do check that out.

Anyway, shameless plug over.

What else was on your list?

Read my writing.

I definitely can't read your writing.

While you're figuring that out, have you got something?

No, you go.

I was going to say he talked about the author, Mike.

Yes.

Who wrote, is obviously, I've not actually read the book Profit First.

I keep thinking I should probably read that book but see Adam's

strategy here shifts slightly.

So he's gone from the high value client strategies, the high value guest strategy.

Now it doesn't mean that he's going to end up working with Mike, but there

was, I don't know if you picked it up, there was something that Mike did.

In that was really interesting and very powerful as a way to grow your podcast.

And Adam was very clever here in the sense that he recognized the guy, Mike,

the author had a big social following.

So getting him on the podcast, that author then promotes that

podcast to his social following.

Yeah.

And so this is one of those other key things that you can

do with podcasting where you go.

I'm going to get people on my show that have high influence and

encourage them to come on my show, give them some great assets because

they do have to be high quality and invite them to share them, right?

Which is something you do.

Yes,

that is something we do.

Yeah.

No, I that's a really good point.

It's a really powerful thing you can do.

You can.

Yeah, this is where it gets interesting, isn't it?

Who would you, we often, one of the questions we ask

one of our guests, isn't it?

On the push podcast.

If you had a podcast, who would come on the show and why?

What fascinates me is the answers, right?

And so what Adam has done in effect has answered that question is I

just want to interview this guy.

It'd be really interesting.

And again, a podcast gives you the ability to do that.

It gives you, it'd be much harder to call him up and go, I'd love

an hour of your time, mate.

I've got some questions.

I've read your book.

I've got some questions.

Would you mind?

Versus calling him up and going, Mike, I've read your book, would

love to get you on the show.

Would you be interested in coming on the podcast?

It's a very different ask because he's going to get something

out of coming on your podcast.

Same conversation at the end of the day.

And you're using your podcast to open that door, which is just a beautiful thing.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

Yeah, for sure.

Beautiful.

Yes, he he.

It was very clever because Mike had an audience.

So again, if you're doing the interview on your interviews, on your show,

whether it's a full blown interview, like we do on eCommerce podcast or push

or whether it's like this, where you play excerpts from an interview and

you have a, or whether it's just every now and again, you do an interview,

you mix it up, whatever it is you do.

Think through your guests, how can you obviously use them to bring value to your

show in a way that makes sense for them?

, right?

So whether it's accessing their audience, their tribe, whether it's connecting

with them in some meaningful way.

Super valuable.

And the last thing that Adam said, did you pick it up?

When I said to him how difficult was it to get him on the show?

And he said it was just fairly easy.

Yeah.

Which is, I have to be honest, has been my experience.

It strokes

the guest's ego, doesn't it?

I want you on my show.

Would you be happy to come and talk to all these people that listen in?

Yeah, I think it's quite

easy.

Yeah.

No, it is.

It's true.

You do, you stroke their ego.

And, but authors, especially are peculiarly because they have to publish,

they have to publicize their books.

Part of the terms and conditions of the sale of the book, they have

to do the marketing aspect of it.

And podcast is just, they can go back to their publishing company

and say, I was on this podcast, and it looks like they're promoting.

And so it's just, it's, and podcasts are easy to do for like

authors and people like that because they do them all the time.

So they don't mind coming on 45 minutes and chatting.

And if you're memorable in any way, then fantastic, so yeah, don't be

put off by getting high value guests.

We recently had a guest on the show.

On eCommerce podcast called Neil Hoyne, who's the chief strategist at Google.

He's an author, wrote the book Converter, which is a great book.

And Neil when you do a Google search has appeared on a few podcasts, they've

had tens of like it was on the future podcast and it was on the YouTube channel.

I don't know how many tens of thousands of views it had.

I'm like, I am small fry compared to these guys.

But I heard Neil speak at an event, just reached out to him on LinkedIn

and said, Neil, I heard you speak, loved what you had to say, would

love for you to come on the show.

And it's like man would love to do the same thing.

Here's my PA and you sorted out with them a date to get on the show.

And for an hour I had his undivided attention which was marvelous.

And I got to ask him all kinds, I'd learned so much just from

that one hour with with Neil.

And in fact, Neil's gone on he's Matt, I know some great guests who great people

who'd be great guests for your show.

Do you want me to recommend them?

I'm like, of course they do.

And so he's now introducing us to a few of the of these amazing guests as well.

Yeah, you can use your podcast as a vehicle to go

and can I just add them in case anyone's looking in the

archives for this interview hasn't been

published yet.

Oh that's true, actually.

Which episode is going to get published first, this one or the one on EP?

This one.

So if you want to check out my conversation with Neil Hoynes on

the eCommerce Podcast, you can't.

Just wait a few weeks or just keep checking in every week.

Just

keep checking in now with the eCommerce Podcast, unless you're a

member of the eCommerce cohort, in which case you can get access to it early.

But that's a different story.

But yes, do check out that one with honestly, genuinely

fascinating conversation.

I really enjoyed it.

We talked about all kinds of things, mainly about customers and how

to use data to figure stuff out.

And one of the great quotes from Neil that I remember.

Him using both on the podcast.

In his talk, he said, imagine you've, you may have heard this story.

He said, imagine you go into a bar and there's a guy that goes into a

bar and you see him come into the bar and he just literally goes around

to all the girls one by one saying, excuse me, would you marry me,

He says, it's, it is a bit crazy.

He is going from zero to a thousand miles an hour in an instant.

It's gone from, I dunno you to let's get married.

And of course everyone's gonna say no.

But his whole thesis is.

We pretty much do this as marketeers.

We don't, we meet people we don't know and say, excuse me,

would you like to buy our stuff?

And there's this whole chasm of stuff in between, which

kind of go, I don't know you.

I don't know if I like you.

I don't know if I trust you which is what Dennis talked about last week.

And and yeah, Neil digs into that a little bit.

Don't be that guy.

And podcasting is a great way.

To not be that guy.

I just wanted to point that out.

To bridge that chasm.

To bridge that chasm.

But do check out the episode with Neil Hoynes which will be coming out

in a few weeks time from this one.

I don't actually, do you know the date?

I don't have the date.

No, it's on the system.

I'm

going to say November.

November 23.

Okay.

And if it's not, you'll be in trouble.

You can send me an email.

Google's Chief Strategist is on the phone.

Excuse me.

Brilliant.

Anything else from that conversation with Adam?

No, that's all my notes.

We've got more conversations with Adam coming up.

We do.

Next one.

What's the next one about?

The next

one is Adam Pearce again.

And he is talking about the importance of having a genuine dialogue with your guest

and pulling out great stories in the,

while having a great conversation.

Okay.

So one more time, just so we actually understand what Adam

is talking about next time.

He's talking about the importance of having.

He's talking about the importance of having a great conversation and while

doing that, pulling out some great

stories.

Fantastic.

So we've got that next week.

Make sure you subscribe to the show to get access to that.

We would love to see that.

And of course, if you want to see the full interview with Adam, do check out.

Podjunction cohort.

Anything else from you?

No, I'm good.

You sure?

Yes.

I'm just not that sure at all.

But that said have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.

We'll see you next time.

Bye for now.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode at Podjunction,

where business meets podcasting.

If you enjoyed the insights from today and wish to hear the full

conversation with today's special guest, don't forget to visit www.

thepodjunction.

com, where you'll find more information about how you can join today.

Whether you listen while on the go or in a quiet moment, thank you for

letting us be a part of your day.

Remember, every episode is a chance to gain insights and to transform

your business with podcasting.

So keep tuning in, keep learning, and until next time, happy podcasting.