Consulting Success®: Lessons Learned from Nearly 400 Episodes, with Michael Zipursky
What does it take to run a successful business podcast? What does that growth trajectory look like? Not all podcasts are created equal, but there are a few case studies that shed some light on what a mature podcast program looks like in professional services.
Recently, I interviewed Michael Zipursky, 5-time author, CEO of Consulting Success® and host of the Consulting Success Podcast. He's helped over 1,000 consultants from around the world in over 50 industries add six and seven figures to their annual revenues. His podcast is on-track to publish 400 episodes in 2024, so I asked him about why he started a podcast in the first place, how the podcast impacts his business, what his production workflows look like, and where he plans to take the show from here. Listen here, or subscribe to the show on Apple or Spotify:
Consulting Success: The Business
The team at Consulting Success works with entrepreneurial consultants to help them scale and grow their consulting businesses. Most of that growth comes from doing great work and through referrals and their network.
So when these consultants want to grow beyond that, they typically notice they're not generating as many leads. They're having fewer conversations. They know their current network and referrals aren't going to be enough to get them to where they want to go.
“We work with [consultants] to put a custom and personalized strategic growth plan in place,” said Michael. “Then, we coach them and work with them through that plan to help them with everything from their messaging, how they go to market, their pricing strategy to win more proposals and then getting a marketing system in place.”
This approach helps consultants build their pipeline with high quality opportunities, and then positions them as an authority in their industry. Overall, Michael’s approach helps consultants grow in a more scalable, strategic and profitable way.
An Early Adopter of Podcasting
Prior to making his podcast public in 2017, Michael had been interviewing consultants for a book he was writing. He enjoyed interacting, interviewing, and learning from these successful consultants. He then decided to turn these interviews into a podcast format for other consultants to consume.
“I don't remember the exact number, but maybe we were making our way to 60, 70 episodes in or something along those lines,” said Michael. “And it was a lot of work. Our team at that time…wasn't at the size that it is today.”
At the time, Michael didn’t have the resources or systems in place to effectively measure the success of the podcast, so he decided to pause the podcast. “We couldn't tie the podcast to revenue generation in a clear way at that time,” said Michael. “I'm sure that it was working, but we had a lot going on inside of the business and it wasn't our top priority.”
Breathing New Life Into the Podcast
After continuing to build his business without the podcast, Michael started to miss it. “Fast forward a few years later, and I really wanted to start doing the podcast again,” said Michael. “I missed having those conversations with other consultants and we just started to view it differently.”
This time, however, Michael only really wanted to be involved in the interview—actually having the conversation. “Everything else from initial research to managing guests, to the editing, the transcripts, the promotion,” said Michael. “I want to make sure that we would have good systems in place or people that could run those so that I could just be focused on the one part that I actually enjoyed doing.”
Once that team structure was in place, he hit the go-button again. “[We] started to really invest more into building all the podcasts. And, you know, here we are today, I think close to somewhere around 400 episodes and it's been a lot of fun.”
“Our mission is to help consultants to really accelerate their success and to avoid costly and timely mistakes. And so the podcast is just another way for us to…share content and to help people deep down inside. That's, that's really what drives us is to help others, to make an impact.”
The Impact of the Podcast on the Business
After having the right systems in place, Michael is able to connect the podcast to business success. “Podcasting is still not as easy to track, or to attribute a specific lead or sale. Not in the same way that let's say paid advertising might be where you can see that somebody clicked, enter into the CRM, and so forth.”
“However, what we've found is when our team talks to, for example, new prospective clients that are inquiring into one of our programs, They'll always ask, ‘how do you hear about us?’” The podcast was mentioned frequently in these responses.
Long sales cycles are common in professional services industries. With a podcast, you build trust with listeners over a long period of time. “Sometimes people will be listening to the podcast for a couple of years before they even reach out to us,” said Michael. “We can say without a doubt, full confidence that for us, the podcast does play a significant role in our business.”
Content Strategy: Select Guests a Few Steps Ahead
Many podcasts select their ideal clients to be guests. This is a great way to have an initial conversation and to build a relationship. But the Consulting Success podcast intentionally does not interview their ideal clients. And for good reason, too.
“Most of our clients are somewhere between solid six figures and three, four, five million, right? That's kind of the range. So we'll feature people [on the podcast] who might be running much bigger businesses; 10 million, 50 million, 100 million per year.”
“Even though that's not the ideal client, we do that because if there's some knowledge or experience that person has, that would be beneficial to our audience. Then we want to bring them on. And that's really what leads our decision making process around who to have on the podcast. It's simply from the perspective of, ‘would our community find this person to be valuable?’”
This focus increases the value to Michael’s audience because his guests are a few steps ahead of where his listeners are today.
Workflows for the Consulting Success Podcast
Many people interested in podcasting ask me about podcast editing workflows. This is why I ask most of my guests about the topic. The Consulting Success podcast has a team of both internal and external resources to support the show.
Guest Prep
“We have two people on our team that are involved in the initial kind of research, we also have a team member that does research for our guests. And so they draft that up. I review that before we start doing the podcast or recording with the guests and make some edits and changes and all that, but they do a great job of that. We'll have another team member who will manage any of the communications; help with booking or just that administrative component of scheduling and getting the person onto the show.”
Distribution & Promotion
From there, the team works with a podcast agency that takes care of the editing, transcripts, content, and uploading.
“And then internally on our team, one of the same people that helps with the initial research also will manage what we do with the actual podcast in terms of promotion. So creating, for example, some clips from the videos. Those go on to different social platforms. Or getting the video of the podcast up onto our YouTube channel, which we do as well. And so we look for ways to promote it.
“We also have a newsletter that goes out. To about 45- 46,000 consultants every week. And we feature the podcast or the most recent podcast episode inside of our newsletter. So we try and do a lot with it. We'll also sometimes even share it in other kinds of promotions or activities whenever we think it's going to be valuable for people.”
Consulting Success is a great example of how a podcast can create a marketing flywheel for a professional services firm.
The Future of Consulting Success
Consistency, experimentation, and feedback. These are the three areas that Michael mentioned when I asked him where he plans to take his show from here. On-track to hit 400 episodes this year, he offered insight into what it takes to run a successful business podcast. Even today, his team continues to look for ways they can take the podcast to the next level.
Publish Consistently
Many people listen to podcasts when they’re out for a run, at the gym, driving, or doing chores. As long as you have good audio quality, the value from the podcast is going to be significant for people. “I think the main thing that we've focused on is just consistency, just continuing to show up, continuing to put stuff out there,” said Michael.
Continue to Evolve
Evolution is another key part of Consulting Success’ growth. “We've made adjustments over time, whether it's through the platforms that we use, or the technology in terms of microphones and cameras, thinking about ways to apply more design best practices and things of that nature.
“We do experiments from time to time with different formats. What we're known for is me interviewing a successful consultant, right? But we've also done some solo episodes. Where I'll talk about something or I'll share something. We're also doing things where we've started to put out more YouTube videos and grabbing some of the audio from those videos and sharing that on the podcast if we think that it would be beneficial for people.”
Use Feedback to Improve
Business podcasts need to add value to listeners. Soliciting and acting on feedback is a great way to tune and tailor your podcast to your ideal audience. “We also try to collect feedback from listeners and clients at times and then make adjustments based on what people are finding.”
Take the Next Step on Your Podcasting Journey
Like Michael Zipursky, you can launch and grow a successful business podcast for your firm. There is a blue ocean of opportunity for professional services firms to use this format to accelerate their networks, humanize their brand, and create endless content. Here are a few resources to help you take the next step:
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