Today, we’re celebrating a major client milestone - 200 podcast episodes—with Michelle J. Raymond, LinkedIn expert and host of Social Media for B2B Growth.

Welcome to another episode of B2B Podcasting Insights! I'm Neal Veglio and in this special episode, I'm stepping into the interviewer’s chair on Michelle J. Raymond’s own podcast to help her share her incredible podcasting journey.

You’ll hear honest reflections on the first hundred experimental episodes, the turning points that led to lasting success, and the surprising ways podcasting has transformed Michelle J. Raymond’s business and confidence.

From redefining podcast strategy after a dramatic cease-and-desist from LinkedIn to discovering the true power of intimate audience relationships — and why podcasting creates higher-quality leads than any other channel — this episode is packed with raw insights and practical lessons that every B2B podcaster and marketer will resonate with.

If you’re curious about what it really takes to grow a B2B podcast over hundreds of episodes and the impact it can have, you won't want to miss this one.

Timestamped summary

00:00 "Sharing Diverse Podcast Experiences"

04:52 "Effort, Alignment, and Success"

06:19 "Podcasting for B2B Growth"

12:13 "Empowered Communication and Choices"

16:22 "Podcasting: Building Real Connections"

20:26 "Messages That Motivate Me"

22:21 "Podcast Success with Neal"

In this episode, I wanted to do something a little bit different because I want

to be able to show you that it's not just

about you and it's not just about me. Here, we can all learn from

each other, and my ultimate goal is for you to learn full

stop, whether that's from me or from someone else that has

that experience that they're willing to share with you. Now, I could

talk until the cows come home about how I've done hundreds and

hundreds of episodes over the last 25 years of

various podcasts. If I were to count them all together, they would

probably come in the thousands rather than the hundreds.

But I think this is the important point here. When we share experience,

we need a vast, varied array of different

experiences that we as podcasters can

draw from. So what better way to share experience

of podcasting with you the than by highlighting

this particular podcaster's experience when she had

me interview her on her own show to

celebrate 200 episodes. 200

episodes later, I'm the one in the hot seat today. Michelle

J. Raymond is a LinkedIn expert specializing in company

pages, and she hosts the very popular podcast

social media for B2B growth. To celebrate her

200th episode, she asked me to do a no holds barred

interview with her about her podcasting experience, and I

felt it'd be well worthwhile sharing that with you now. So here it is.

I am up to my 200th podcast

episode and I never in a billion years

ever imagined that I would be recording something that had that type

of title in it. And it is just mind blowing.

As somebody that doesn't listen to podcasts is this

committed to showing up every single week. And I wanted

to think about how I could make this episode interesting for you

rather than just talk about, yay, I did 200 episodes. Aren't

I cool? That's not helpful to anybody that's listening.

So I had this idea. I wanted to go

to the one and only podmaster, Neil

Velio, who is a dear friend of mine, my podcast coach,

mentor, and probably counselor in the background most of the

time because I wanted to be a guest

on my own show. Neil, thank you for agreeing to this

craziness. It's an absolute honor and I can't wait

to get started. Congratulations. First of all, that is, I can tell you now, as

someone that works with lots of podcasters and has done for many years, that's an

incredible achievement. The amount of podcasts that get to that landmark,

probably fewer than I could count on one hand. Certainly when I Got a pint

in the other. But my question for you is,

when did you first realize? Because I know you had a bit of a checkered

past with your podcast. When I first met you, you weren't really that in love

with it, let's be honest about it. But, you know, that's the truth, is the

podcast wasn't really getting you the results that you wanted. You were thinking, oh,

why am I doing this? I'm not really into it. When was the moment that

you actually realized, you know what, this could change my life?

Yeah. And it is a confession. The first, I would

say, hundred episodes. I have thought about going

back and deleting those. I know I'm not allowed to, and I

know that they're part of the journey, and I know that some people would have

been around. We're talking years ago now. But when I first

started, it was because my friend Michelle Griffin, she said, michelle, you need a

podcast. And I was like, why do I need a podcast? She's like, it's good

for your personal brand. I was like, oh, okay, whatever. So I figure out the

tech so that I can record it. And I'm not going to say I figured

out the tick well, but enough to get it recorded and uploaded.

Yeah. Until I learned better. If I could go back to my younger self

podcasting days, just go and speak to Neil, get him to do it properly for

you the first time, you can save yourself 100 episodes. But

what happened was I did it

because I wanted to have conversations with people. I. I almost wanted

them to become my friends. And there was no rhyme or reason to

it. There was no strategy. There was no

person that was a listener in mind. It was all about me

and what I needed and wanted, and that was fine. And having

guests was always good to help keep me accountable, like, because

I can't be trusted, you know, back then to show up every

week and do that consistently. I literally just

did whatever. And the downloads were, you know, when you see numbers like

30 or 20 and you're thinking, talking to 20 people,

like, what the heck is this microphone even on? Like, is

anyone out there listening? Like, that's what it was thinking. God, this is

a lot of work. By the time you record and edit and, you know,

organize all the guests, it's what, six, eight hours for the

level and standard that I was doing when someone like you is doing. And

sure, you're an expert, so you could probably speed some of those processes up, but.

But it's not a half an hour show. Half an hour is the amount of

time I invested into it. So there was a moment

when I started to see that the messages that

I started to get when I tightened things up were from people that

I really wanted to work with, and they were my

favorite clients. When they became clients, we were aligned in values.

They knew exactly who I was, how I would show up

my approach to LinkedIn. So, you know, in the early days,

before I got this sorted, like people in engagement pods, and I'd

want to punch them through the screen, I was like, no, we're not going down

engagement pod routes. Like, we can't do that. But now,

like, the people I work with from the podcast are just amazing.

And as you know, I think it was like January

2023, I got a cease and

desist letter from. From LinkedIn asking me

to basically change the name of the podcast. That was putting

it nicely. If I didn't do it, I would lose my whole LinkedIn account.

I had to change the name, which meant changing the

website, removing LinkedIn's logo from every YouTube

banner that I'd ever created. There was a long list of things and

then a huge amount of work that I needed to do. And by taking.

It was called LinkedIn for B2B growth, which is a great title for this

podcast. It's. And that I had to take it out, and my numbers kept

sliding in a way that I couldn't stop it. And

you and I worked together, I think it was July 2023,

the first time, because I knew at that point I either

needed to have expert help that would turn this

around, or flick the switch, say

goodbye, and say no more podcasting. For me,

that moment, I think, was the moment that I went, actually,

no, this is important to me. I realized the loyalty

that podcast listeners come with. I realized that it's a really

close and intimate relationship with podcast listeners,

even though I don't know who they are like. And so

it's weird, and I know you and I have had this conversation. You're nodding

your head for those people that will be listening to this on the audio. Neil's

like, nodding his head fiercely in agreement. And it's

just weird, but I love it. For someone that doesn't listen to

podcasts, I finally think I get it.

Neil, there you go. There's your sound grab. I think I

finally get the power of

podcasting and it grown my business. Like,

absolutely. Most of my new clients

typically come from a lead from my podcast now, like 6, 7

out of 10 easily. Which for someone that spends so much time on LinkedIn,

you know, like, it makes you question things some days.

So let me understand that you're basically saying that the moment you

realized this podcast was changing your life was

after the drama with LinkedIn, after you

felt that show was being taken away from you and that everything you built

with it was under threat. That was the. It took that

for you to realize, you know what? This podcast is amazing, and it is absolutely

changing my life. Yeah. Because I had to realize at that moment

that I wasn't doing it for me and me

only. Like, I love showing up and being in service of

my audience and my listeners. And this had become

such an amazing way for me to do that. And if you remember

when we first spoke, like, I used to always have guests, and I

was far too scared and doubted myself

severely that I could never record an episode by

myself. And remember, like, I'm sure that there's DMs between you and I.

In fact, I know that there are. Where I was going, oh, my

God, when I try and record one by myself. This thing's taken me like

an hour to do. It's all too hard. It gets stuck in my own head.

And the only way I got out of it again was, I'm not doing it

for me. I'm doing it for the people that listen. Cause

I genuinely am in service of that audience. And then when I

finally got out of my own head again, had a strategy where I would

show up and create something that would be useful for other

people, that they could go away and immediately put into

practice easily, and it was easy to understand

for everyone, no matter what level that they were at. I started

enjoying it even more, and I wanted to show up. And I have

guests infrequently now because I'm like, no, this is my moment

and my microphone. And I've. I worked so hard to build

this. And I built it completely organically

over that time, as you know. And it's just been

from getting better and better at this craft. Like, how can I be

a better speaker? I think the best compliment I've got is

people keep questioning if I'm one of those AI

generated videos, and I'm like, no, I just talk like this and

thanks. Is my skin routine working? You think I'm like, that perfect?

But, you know, like, that's what practice and

commitment and dedication to this. Because there are days

when I think, God, is this thing working? Why should I?

Is it all worth it? And, you know, then I have a podcast

listener reach out and say, you told me in the ads that you wanted people

to reach out and connect, here I am and I'm like, yes, I genuinely

do. And I get super excited about it then. Brilliant.

It really does. Who would have thought? I'm pretty sure that came out of our

strategy session, like when we were setting up those little

sound bites and just getting better at little bits of

podcasting because it's not just, as you would say,

show up, turn on the mic, record and then go away. Like, like,

honestly, that just feels like someone's sliming.

It's like no one needs any more talking apps. And again,

it's still, for me, I want to say, hard

to do something which I'm so passionate about and the people on

the other side and not know who you are. So if you are listening to

this and you hear the messages where I say, please reach out and connect with

me, like it's genuine, please reach out and let me know you listen.

What do you think the biggest shift

your audience will have experienced with you

since episode 100 to now is

my. Confidence in, in speaking my

views and not just relying on expert

guests who I look up to. And I used to think

that only my listeners would show up just because I had these

well known guests. And I have had some pretty amazing guests

on the show who I love. These people, they've taught me, inspired me, are

super cool. But you know, as you said to me,

Michelle, they show up week after week for me, not for the guests. And

that was like, you know, smacked me straight between the eyes. Like, what the.

Like what? Like. And I still, some days, and now I've

got the confidence to say what I want to say in my

own way and call out the things that I want to call out

and give people both sides to the story. And I think that's what

my listeners appreciate, is that I will give you both

sides. I'm not here to tell you exactly how to do LinkedIn,

but, but I will tell you, look, this is the upside, this is the

downside. You choose, right? Like, I will give you pros

and cons, but it's ultimately coming back to you to

figure out what works best for you. So as we go forward, I, you

know, I think there's some of the beliefs that I have around, you

know, AI is probably the thing that's impacting

LinkedIn and, you know, the world in general so much right

now, but I feel like we're moving

away and using that as the decoy that's

distracting us from doing the real work that matters.

I. E Having conversations with people. And it feels like if

I use a tool, I won't have to talk to my customer. I won't have

to use empathy to understand what it's like for them.

And so going against the grain, I would be more popular,

I think, if I just went, Yay, AI, here's your 20 prompts. And I will

do some of that. But in my heart of hearts, what's right

for me is to say, no, you need to go back and

build relationships. And that is the

core of success on LinkedIn. Finding those

right people, connecting with those right people, nurturing them,

being patient over time is going to get people

further than the latest AI tool that can mimic your voice

and pretend that the content was written by you, when we all can

feel that it's not. Just wholeheartedly believe that and

use the tools to save you time elsewhere. Like, go for, I'm not

an anti AI person, but I just, I think I have to be a

stand that it just can't be a part of relationships. And

that's going to go against what a lot of people out there are going to

tell you. And I'm going to have to be okay with that. Just like I

was when I was telling people that company pages should be part of a business

strategy on LinkedIn. And people like, no, that's rubbish. Like, you're

wrong. Blah, blah, blah. I'm okay with that. And I hope that

my listeners appreciate that. They may or may not agree with me. That's totally

fine. Like, I hope that, you know, a group of them don't

agree with me. That's what I love about LinkedIn is

that we can have different voices out there. And

the biggest fear that I have is we end up clones of each other.

Like, that would be the thing that would make me most

sad about LinkedIn is if it just became clones of

clones of clones.

If LinkedIn disappeared.

Tomorrow, in this weird world where Microsoft just go,

do you know what we're selling? And we're going to sell it to some company

that aren't interested in social media anymore. What are you doing?

Yeah, I'm going to say podcasting. Like, and I'm not saying that just because it's

you, but it is something that I've realized. So

I'm active on. I have two, like, three main platforms right now. So

I have LinkedIn as my primary. I have two podcasts that I do social

media for. B2B growth podcast is my main one. The LinkedIn branding show

is also a podcast that's coming up to 200 episodes as well, which

is kind of crazy when I think about it. Now what I've

discovered is that my highest quality clients that I can work with

are come from my podcast, hands down, every single

time. And you can use that for your sound bites that, you know, my

client Michelle J. Raymond says, uh, yeah, you can absolutely use

that. Because I've done the maths, I've seen it. And

the clients that reach out from YouTube from those videos,

they're different. They're often looking for free advice and, you

know, price points end up a bit out of skew, you know, like, because they

come in with a different. They're looking for a solution or an answer

to a question. They find that via YouTube, whereas the

relationship building happens on podcasting. So I'd be on the

blower straight to you going, we need to find me lots more podcast

listener. Think I'd love to help businesses create

podcasts as well, so that they have

this opportunity to build relationships with people

and not just hide behind content. Because

I feel like content on LinkedIn for

businesses is handed down to the

person with the least experience that they don't want to pay for someone

senior, and they don't set that person up for success,

whoever it is, and they just throw them in the deep end and push them

under the bus and say, yeah, you'll be right. Like, you know, just, you can

write a post, you can do it. Like, it's fine. And so

with podcasting, you will find out very quickly that

doesn't work. Yeah. And if you don't think about

who you're doing it for and why you're doing it, and what will they get

out of it, and stop talking about yourself,

then podcasting doesn't work. I've got a hundred episodes. I can

prove to you I didn't get any business out of those episodes. Like, that was

just me doing it because I thought I needed to do it to build my

personal brands. And now that I realize that's

not why I'm doing it, yes, it does help me build my personal brand, but

that's not why I do it anymore. And, yeah, the impact

on my business has just been pretty amazing. And

again, I still can't believe that I'm having this

conversation about podcasting as someone that

just didn't get it and you just didn't. As I've said to

you, I just read the transcripts of podcast episodes. I could never understand why

someone would want to listen to them. And, you know, I have a few

podcasts that I listen to. I now listen to yours. Listen to

Jay Shreddelson's I've Got Three. I've Got

three now I've got three, you know, like, and it's crazy to

think that I've got three podcasts that I listen to now,

which, you know, again, for someone who can't learn via

listening, that's a big deal. But I have to be on the bike, at the

gym, I can't be anywhere else. I have to be stuck in the one spot.

You have taught a lot of people, let's be honest about it with your show.

You know, you're not just your podcast, which obviously has

given immense value over, you'd say a hundred episodes,

but I mean you were starting the journey. I'm sure there was some valuable stuff

in the first 100 as well. So that's a lot of people that you've taught

to grow on LinkedIn in that time. But what's something.

And I guess there's going to be a harder one to identify from your podcast

audience because you predominantly don't know who many of those are. But

those that have fed back to you and those that have fed back to you

through the LinkedIn platform as well, what's something

that they've taught you about yourself? Self belief.

And that might sound like a cringe

kind of comments, but the honesty of that

is that I'm one of those people that is a

high performer in most of the things that I do that never thinks I'm doing

good enough is the story of my life. You have been on the

end of my self doubt kind of conversations where I'm like, is

this enough? How are my numbers? Where am I at? Especially when I was questioning

whether I should keep going with the podcast, should I go by myself? Shouldn't

I? And those messages that I receive from people, especially when

they say things like it's easy to understand,

I'm not going on like a lot of the other rubbish that's out there.

They know that they can apply it, they can relate to it. Those

kind of things really give me the encouragement to

keep going and shut the noise up in my head,

which is pretty non stop. And it's not imposter

syndrome. Like, it's not that I know that I know

my stuff, but I often doubt whether the

people out there will love it as much as I want them to love it.

I am that person that's like, do you love me? Do you love me? Do

you love me? Like, it's non stop question in my head. So when I get

those messages, it's that moment where

the self doubt stops just, you know,

briefly for me to actually enjoy this and remember

that I actually genuinely love doing it now,

you know, and I hope that they feel that and I hope that people

understand that I show up every time and you think I've got it

all together and it's easy for me and Michelle can speak really good and all

that kind of other stuff, but the fact is I have

to show up week after week and get past

my own stuff, that I have my own version of it in my own head

just like everybody else. But I choose

to do this for other people and get

myself out of the way. But yeah, when I get those

messages, you know, the, you know, podcast

reviews, they're like hen's teeth. So when they actually happen, when they're someone's

written one, I'm, you know, high fiving myself behind the scenes and it

just gives me that little pep in my step to keep going. And

who knows how many episodes that this podcast will end up like,

it's just crazy to think about. But, yeah, I have a lot of talking to

do. But thank you to anyone that does leave those messages

and send them to me. They genuinely mean the world

to me. And yeah, I appreciate anyone that's ever done that.

Yeah, look,

and I have to say thank you again so much for everything that

you've done to get me to this point, because you know

full well that those doubts that I have when I send you texts and

go, where am I? Am I? Where's my ranking? What's going on like? Or I

can't make my download move or nothing's happening, or should I do this? Or can

we change my intro? Or you have a while, to be fair,

you haven't done that for at least six months. So we're all good. Yeah,

yeah, like, I've been busy. Like, you've been lucky, though. It's just one of those

things. But I, you know, I want to say to people, people like you,

Neil, how I've become so

successful at what I do and, you know, you take the

podcasting piece of what I do, and it has leveled up

significantly since you and I became friends and have worked together.

So, you know, we're going to make sure that people have all the details to

get in contact with you. And if you have a podcast, for God's

sake, go and do one of Neil's podcast audits so that you don't

put in all the work like I was and get no results. Because I can

tell you it was immediate. And we've got the screenshots

of his fixes all of a sudden meant that my podcast is

being heard by the right people and more people, and

it was just a godsend. So I appreciate your friendship.

I appreciate that you are always there when, you know, it all hits the

fan, especially around the podcast. And I'm like, oh my God, LinkedIn's gonna steal my

podcast help. And you just jumped in. Just want to say I'm

completely grateful for everything that you've done. And yeah, to

anyone out there that has a podcast or wants a podcast,

Neil's the only person that I ever recommend. So thank you kindly. Appreciate

it. Thank you so. And thank you so much for asking me to do this

has been a real honor and an absol last as well. And lovely to hear

some really nice, honest, genuine, vulnerable answers as well.

So well done for wearing your heart, your sleeve. As we said, Feelings for

2026. Stories for 2026. Like, it's not

just something that I tell my clients to do. I have to show up and

do it myself. So thank you for bringing those out. I couldn't have

done them talking to myself. So this episode has delivered

everything I hoped. And thank you to all of the listeners, all of

those people that subscribe and download. So there we are. As the

lady says, if you too want to see exponential

growth on your podcast, if you already have one in existence,

the best way to do that is to work with me on an audit. These

are comprehensive, written and videoed reports where I go

through every aspect of your podcast, from the audio to the

structure to the value offering to the way it's presented.

You know it's time. When you're ready, make sure you book your

spot@podnos.co.uk

audits. That's P O D K

N O W s.co.uk

audits. And I look forward to working with you on your podcast

very soon.