Lindsay Tjepkema, Founder & CEO of Casted
Harnessing the Power of Podcasting
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Lindsay Tjepkema is the CEO and co-founder of Casted, the first and only B2B content marketing platform built around podcasts. With more than 15 years of experience in B2B marketing, she’s a dynamic leader who’s had tremendous success building and growing marketing teams on a local and global level.
After launching a podcast for a global martech SaaS enterprise, Lindsay saw the tremendous opportunity for brands in podcasting, as well as a huge void in the tech landscape with the lack of software to support marketing teams in leveraging these shows as part of their content marketing efforts.
This led her to start Casted to help B2B marketers unlock the full potential of their content by harnessing the power of podcasting. The company has since gained rapid traction among brands that wish to create greater connection with their audiences through authentic conversation.
Show Links
https://twitter.com/CastedLindsay
Show Sponsor
Promo Details: gusto.com/scott (3 months free payroll / platform services)
Gusto’s people platform helps businesses like yours onboard, pay, insure, and support your hardworking team. Payroll, benefits, and more.
Promo Details: mintmobile.com/successstory ($15 unlimited text/call/data)
Mint Mobile re-imagined the wireless shopping experience and made it easy and online-only. No stores. No salespeople. Just huge direct to you savings on nationwide phone plans.
Talking Points
00:00 — Lindsay Tjepkema, Founder & CEO of Casted
07:42 — How can a business use podcasting? How can they measure it?
14:27 — Should every founder have a podcast?
21:47 — How do you grow a podcast/show?
24:32 — Audiences and algorithms.
35:21 — Own your weaknesses.
Success Story Podcast
Stories worth telling.
Welcome to the Success Story Podcast, hosted by entrepreneur, business executive, author, educator & speaker, Scott D. Clary.
On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups and entrepreneurship.
Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas and insights.
He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their story to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs and everyone in between.
Website: https://www.scottdclary.com
Podcast: https://www.successstorypodcast.com
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LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/scottdclary
Read The Transcript (Machine Generated)
Scott: [00:00:00] Thanks again for sitting down with me today on the success story podcast. I have Lindsay chip Kemma, who is the founder and CEO of costed, one of the most disruptive enterprise B2B podcasting platforms. That’s why I’m so excited to sit with her chat with her. Unpack what casts. Does for enterprise for B2B podcast, but it’s, this conversation is definitely not just about B2B podcasts.
We go into the concept of podcasting, how to create podcasts, who should create a podcast, how you should start, how you should grow your podcast, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about podcasting. We cover in this chat. We also have two incredible, uh, sponsors for today’s episode. We have Gusto, which is an incredible payroll solution for entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners.
And then we have mint mobile, which is again, in terms of. Telco companies, cell phone companies, they are really, really leading the way and building their business model in a very, very, uh, a very beneficial way for the consumer, very disruptive way for the industry. Um, and they both Gusto and min mobile have incredible offers.
Uh, so you’re definitely going to want to stick around if one you’re a business owner, that’s trying to scale a business and you want less headache. Or to you want a much better, much cheaper and probably a higher quality cell phone plan. So stick around until around halfway in the show, you’re going to get two incredible offers exclusive for listeners of the success story podcast.
All right, let’s get into this podcasting masterclass masterclass. Excuse me with Lindsay Jeff Kemma.
Thanks again for joining me today. I am sitting down with Lindsay , who is the. CEO and co-founder of cast it. Um, now I’m going to let Lindsay speak about what cast it is and what problem it’s solving. But Lindsay has, uh, an incredibly impressive background. Um, she has over 15 years of marketing experience of marketing leadership experience.
Um, I was looking on her LinkedIn and it was like director of marketing, director of marketing, director of marketing owned your own agency for a bit. And then now this is like, I’m assuming. Your first SAS, your first company, that’s a product driven company versus Jessica service driven company. Um, so let’s, let’s jump right into it.
What are you solving with cast it obviously a little bit, uh, you know, something that’s important for me to figure out as well, and I’m going to. Do a podcast, but I’m also going to try and get some advice and some insight out of you how to build a podcast and you know, how I can sort of improve my show as well.
Um, so yeah. Uh, thank you for joining me. I really, really appreciate you coming
Lindsay: [00:02:45] on. Yeah, we got just slip on to be here. Um, yeah. So thanks for that intro. It’s very kind of you, um, You’re right. I’ve been 15 years and I’m in enterprise B2B marketing. So I’ve been on the agency side. I’ve been on the corporate side where yes, I’ve.
I have marketed and been part of marketing teams or marketing leader of companies that sold products. Um, and I’ve also been, uh, agencies that sell services, um, marketing everything in between. Um, and prior to starting cast it and jumping into CEO and founder seat, uh, I was leading, um, Content and brand for a global enterprise SAS.
Um, and as I was brought in to do that, I said, okay, we’re this company that needs to grow like any other and establish a brand that people really know and love and trust. Um, the best way to do that is to make it more human. And so. What, um, what I did there and built a team there to do was to do just that, to, to make this, this brands global brand more human and.
Said. Okay. What better place to start then with what you and I are doing right now? Just have having conversations with people who know a lot about that space. People that our audience is going to be really excited to hear from. So had great conversations, turn that into content, started to realize, Hey, we’re having all these great conversations.
Why don’t we turn those into podcasts or videos? Which we did. And then we turned that into other contents and we like would use those conversations to turn into blog content, social media content in their hands of our sales team. Um, and w was working really well, except we were like, wow, this is really manual and really cumbersome.
I can’t believe that there isn’t a platform to help us do this and to, to use conversations really as the center of our integrated sales and marketing strategy. Um, So fast forward that’s, that’s what I set out to do. I left that that role left my role as a, as a marketing leader, uh, kind of everything I had been doing over the last 15 years and set up to serve people like me, um, by starting cast it and instead of to be the change I wanted to see.
And so that was those two years ago. And here we are, we’re what I like to call it. You know, cast really is a first amplified marketing platform, taking conversations with thought leaders and helping marketing teams. Amplify those conversations, ring them out across other marketing channels.
Scott: [00:05:03] So there’s a few, that’s a good story.
I understand the progression now. Um, I also want to just take it back and understand where your head was at when you decided to even attempt to bring a podcast into the B2B space, because now it seems a little bit more commonplace, but you still see people that say, well, how do we measure it? Is it, uh, you know, is it worth the time the hours invested?
Um, Where, where were you thinking? Or, or why did you think to do this? Why did you think that that authenticity was important in B2B marketing and podcasting was the way to. Capture that
Lindsay: [00:05:39] well, authenticity, she has always been, you know, the way forward. It’s the companies that are more authentic, um, with their brands are the ones that win the loyal audiences.
Right. It’s always been that way. Um, Tim Kopp, uh, legendary CEO’s and CEO of, of Terminus said, I think he, I think he was the first one. I could say it anyway, you know, B2B B to C it’s all, it’s all HGH, it’s all human to human. Right. And so before. Podcasts. And before video content was being used, the way that it is now still, I mean, even in written content and the way that we were doing our websites, the way that brands are embracing social media, those that were more authentic and less robotic when right.
Those are the ones that we like to consume the content from. And so. Specifically, how did I, how did podcasts come into play for me and into my strategies? I was a consumer of podcast content. I, um, I became the proud owner of a commute, um, back in, I think 2014, 20, 15, um, a longer commute than I had had in a while where I was driving.
And I just kinda woke up to the idea of podcasts, like instead of just the, some three Lemelson, some podcasts and, um, For me, I really enjoyed, you know, kind of the business as one’s about marketing and leadership and got a lot out of those. And I found that I would have this 45 minute commute and parked my car.
I’d walk into the office and then I would take some notes down and I would start to apply those things that I just learned. I would be like, Hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna use this with my team today, or here’s this cool idea that I’m gonna talk to my head of demand gen about, um, see if we can work that into the strategy.
And so being somebody who had really. Really benefited from, from podcasts. Um, for awhile, I was like, you know, if this is something that we should do, our audience would really benefit from this. And like I said, we had been having conversations already. We were just recording them on our phones or, you know, just taking notes with internal and external thought leaders.
It was like this just, this is a no brainer. Why don’t we capture these conversations in a slightly more sophisticated way and share them directly with our audience and then also see how else we can use them.
Scott: [00:07:44] And, and a follow-up to that. Um, because I actually think this is, as I researched cast it, I think this is actually the problem you’re solving for, but.
What would you say to marketing leaders who are saying, well, how do we measure it? How do we, how do we, how do we, you know, show the impact on revenue on, on, you know, on our fun on our lead. So what’s your, what’s your point to that in there?
Lindsay: [00:08:05] Um, so in, in doing that, uh, once we got rolling with our podcast and we were doing some video work too, and I was lucky enough that our CEO, um, So I rolled up to the CML, but even our CEO would kind of talk to me like, this is so great.
I love that you’re doing this. He was a big fan and he would listen to every week. Um, so I had his buy-in as a fan, but then as the CEO, he was like, what’s it doing for the business? Like I CA I, you know, anticipating that I was going to say, well, it drove this way. And he brought in this customer and I was like, I don’t know.
Brand awareness and Hey, we achieved 10,000 downloads and he’s like, yeah, but what does that mean? It was like, Oh no. And so that was really frustrating to me. So as we set out to build Casad, that’s an, that’s been really important from day one and that we’ve been working on all along saying, okay. Um, Really all of the tools, tools, and point solutions and the little one-off things here and there that exists around podcasting today are made for podcast first, somebody who is creating a show to build an audience that they can.
Quantify and monetize by selling ads. That’s great. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not why a B2B and enterprise marketing team would do a show. You know, Salesforce, I’m assuming that they’re a customer of ours, but I’m assuming that they’re not doing a podcast to make more money. That’s that’s not a need that they have, they need to, they want to engage their audience and be seen as the thought leaders in the space and to generate raving fans and build out nice funnels.
Right. So. You can’t measure that with number of downloads, it just the two don’t they don’t line up. So. Really what you need to be looking at is engagement. Just like you do with the rest of your content, how are people consuming your podcast and audio content and all related content that comes out of that?
How are they consuming it? How are they engaging with it? Is your audience growing over time? Are people coming back? What are people doing after they listened? What parts of the conversations that you’re sharing? Are they listening to, are they going on and engaging with some of your additional content?
Are they, um, Requesting a demo down the line. Probably not as a direct result of listening to that one, that one episode, but like, are they starting to build a relationship? And so as we were building castles, we said, how, how can we start to track that? How can we show the marketer? What breadcrumbs are being dropped by people in their audiences, they start to raise their hand.
How can we, how can we bridge the gap between sales and marketing and something that, that, you know, a lot about how can we not create content? How can we help marketers? Go beyond creating content for content sake or be viewed as being is creating content for content’s sake to saying no. The content that we’re creating is not only building our audience in January engagement, but it’s also impacting revenue influencing pipeline.
Hey salespeople. When you use this content, when you use this clip, it will help your conversation in this way. And so, um, that’s the information that we try to pass back in the platform. And then by integrating with CRM, we also like upend. The information’s already there, that salespeople are adding to those customer contacts and, uh, the timelines and the information you have about your context by saying, Hey, these people are also.
Engaging with the content in this way might be a good opportunity to reach out or might be a good opportunity to see how that’s impacting those relationships over
Scott: [00:11:18] time. And that’s, that’s what cast is doing. And I don’t, you know, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that anything like this focused on B2B podcasts exists.
Yeah.
Lindsay: [00:11:29] Yeah, we snapped before we got started. Um, that’s, that’s why we created it is that I, I looked, I tried to find it and then said, okay, I guess we’re going to have to go build it. So
Scott: [00:11:39] that’s, that’s, that’s an entrepreneurial lesson in and of itself. Um, right. Like you’re solving that need, that you found in your own, in your own industry, in your own life.
Okay. So for businesses who say, okay, it makes sense to have a podcast. If I have the bandwidth to do it, um, What businesses would you say should start down this path? Is there a certain revenue threshold that you should be probably, you know, we’re 10 million ARR or annual recurring revenue? Like, are we 15 million or is it something you just start right away as a founder CEO?
Yeah. And
Lindsay: [00:12:09] I’m going to zoom out from that a little bit, um, to answer your question. So the short answer is I think everybody should be doing it, um, because if you are doing. Quote-unquote doing content, right? Which most companies are, there’s this very, very small, small number of companies that might not really be focused on content for one reason or other, especially speaking of B2B.
Right. Um, but if you are, if you are at all concerned about or prioritizing thought leadership and content marketing at all, having a podcast and your show having audio and video content is. A really, really great place to start. And yes, there are, there are some companies that that can and do or could, or should do really, really high end high production, high cost, um, large bandwidth, um, Content, and then there’s others that are finding scrappier ways to do it.
And what matters most is that you’re putting your audience first, right? And that you’re, you’re saying, how can we really serve them? And again, that starts with a conversation with somebody that they’re going to want to hear from, um, that has insights and expertise and perspectives that are going to be interesting to the audience.
So when you know your audience go find people that are going to be great, um, resources to them, and great speakers to them and talk to them, have good conversation and then share it. And so what I would also say is that if you’re thinking about, Hey, should we do a podcast as its own standalone thing, you’re kind of thinking about it the wrong way.
And a lot of people are, and I think that’s the way that a lot of people are seeing it today. The ones that are really succeeding, though, what I really advocate for is looking at it, not as just doing a podcast over here on the side, but having conversations, putting those at the very center of your entire marketing strategy.
And saying, okay, I’m gonna go have some conversations. I’m gonna create some audio and or video content around that. And then from there, I’m going to pull all the other stuff that I’m arguing I’m and pull blog posts out of that. I’m gonna take some of those unique insights from people that I’ve talked to and turn those insights into a really engaging blog posts and some really cool kind of, um, Interesting posts for social media.
I’m going to get into the hands of my sales team so that they can use the quips and clips and insights and, and, um, and finally anecdotes and metrics that are shared on my, on my show so that they can have better conversations and move things along in their process faster. So. When you look at it, not as one more thing to do, but like pulling something into the center and making everything much more efficient, it really works for even any team that’s already doing content to kind of retool their approach.
Scott: [00:14:50] And I’ll ask you something else. Cause you probably come up with this or you probably had to deal with this, um, with working with different founders as well as large organizations. Does it make more sense for the podcast to be positioned as something from an executive or a founder or from the brand?
Hmm,
Lindsay: [00:15:07] gosh, I think. Really. It depends, you know, and I think that that’s,
Scott: [00:15:12] I know it’s not, it’s not an easy answer, but I just, you know, I see, like I see both, I see both sides and I’m just not sure which one works better for a B2B context.
Lindsay: [00:15:20] Yeah. I mean, I think, I think something that comes, that’s very clear that it’s from the brand, right.
Um, now you can leverage the personal brand of the host or the individuals that the face and the voice of the show, but when it’s really clear that this is. Like your blog, right? I mean, does it make more sense to have a blog that’s, you know, Scott’s blog or that, that really represents the brand. I mean, if you want it to come back to the brand, you want people to identify with the company and the product services that you provide.
Um, that just makes sense to make sure that it’s closely related. And it’s not always necessarily about an executive, like sometimes, and we’ve seen, we’ve seen this absolutely. That. It’s a marketing manager or it’s a engineer or a sales person. One of our companies, um, uh, Lev their podcast started with two salespeople, two account executives that, Hey, we think this would be really helpful to help with our sales processes.
Cause when we work with you, can we, can we work together on this? And um, it’s okay. It worked
out
Scott: [00:16:18] really well. Yeah. Yeah, no, I’ve seen, I’ve seen both and that’s, I didn’t know that example, but I’ve seen some brands do it, but then I see, I look at, for example, the opposite side where you, you have all these brands and then you have like a Neil Patel type podcast where it’s, he, he drives leads for his own business, but it’s like mostly, mostly him, but I guess you’re right.
It does. It does depend on, on, you know, a lot of circumstances. Um, okay. You’re starting a B2B podcast. Um, What would be your checklist of, you mentioned this a few times, like you want to interview people that are having relevant discussions that could be tailored towards your target audience, but just like some.
Things to think about when you’re launching a podcast from somebody who has done probably quite a few with them. And then I follow up I’ll I don’t like doing two questions at once, but I’ll, I’ll let you know where I want to go. So I want people to listen to this. I want them to understand how to start a podcast if they haven’t started it yet.
But then I also want people who have a podcast where it’s not successful in a B2B space or even otherwise. Um, how they can grow a podcast after they’ve made sure that they have like those, uh, those benchmarks or those, you know, those core components.
Hey, I just want to pause for a second and thank the sponsor of today’s show mint mobile. Now, if you’ve ever signed up for a cell phone with, I’m pretty sure a hundred percent of the people listening to this have, you know, there’s always gotchas in the contract. You know, there’s always extra fees or there’s just a lot of fees and you’re paying through the nose.
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All right. Let’s get back to the interview.
Lindsay: [00:19:54] Yeah, for sure. I think it’s really easy. And this is, this isn’t any strategy. This isn’t any marketing campaign. This isn’t any content it’s, it’s easy to overlook some of the fundamentals, right. So I think whether you’re starting out or you’re taking, you’re kind of zooming out from a show you already had, or looking at another show.
Remember to check every once in a while. Who are you doing it for? Who is your audience? Is it all marketers in the whole entire world? That seems like a pretty large audience, but okay. Maybe, or is it, is it some subset? Is it, you know, content marketers at high growth, B2B SAS companies, like that’s very different than all marketers in the entire planet.
So we really make sure it’s really front of mind, like who you’re doing it for, because that. And then while you’re doing it right. So are you generating leads? Are you generating Boone awareness, brand awareness? Are you trying to raise the profile of one of your executives in your company for one reason or another?
Are you trying to raise funds, um, knowing who it’s for and why you’re doing it, that, that paves the path for everything else that gets into who are you going to have on the show? It’s not hard typically to find people who want to be on your show, right? Anyone? I mean, anyone could start a podcast today and get.
15 guests tomorrow. Now, would they be the right guests for your audience? Probably not to be all over the place. Do you have an author? You’d have a small business owner. You’d have, you know, an investor in your home. You’d have all kinds of people. It gets a little bit harder, more challenging when you know really who it’s for.
And while you’re doing it to really narrow in, okay. Then therefore who are going to on the show, what are we to talk about? Um, then you get into show format. So is the show format for, um, Designed to appeal, to co-ed score, you know, um, Executives, just stereotypically speaking. And this is where you want to do some, some check-ins and see how things are going.
But executives probably have less time to listen to a really long show. So you might want to keep it shorter and sweeter. Whereas somebody who’s a developer perhaps, and being very stereotypical, but like maybe the type of show that you’re doing is for someone who’s going to be listening while they’re working and therefore wants to go deeper and listen longer.
Right? So there is no one size fits all format. There is no. No one size fits all approach. You really, really need to get in and understand who you’re doing a show for why you’re doing it and therefore tailor the rest of it around it.
Scott: [00:22:16] No, that makes sense. Um, good advice. Now, if you’re trying to grow a show, um, like you said, you want raving fans, but I’m assuming a lot of businesses when they launch a show, they’re just pushing it out against their existing customer, you know, their customer base.
Um, how do you purposefully grow a show? So that it can add more customers and not just give the existing customers more content. Sure.
Lindsay: [00:22:43] So again, it all goes into why you’re doing it, right. So that’s assuming that you want to, you’re trying to do. Grow your audience. So that’s where it’s really important to start with the conversation and wring it out.
The whole amplified marketing approach that I’m talking about. So if you, if you, and I just had this conversation and you’re turned it into a show and just put it on a shelf and that’s it, some people would see it. Some people would, would listen to it and tune in, but if you pull clips from that and you use that on social media, then you have you’re in a truly are rich.
It’s not just like I listen to our show, but like you’re, you’re pulling out clips that are really engaging and. You’re you’re using audio, gonna see you’re appealing to like the video visual senses of people. As they’re scrolling through social media, then you’re going to attract more from your social network and those people’s social networks and those people’s social networks to come in and listen to your content.
And then when they’re there, um, give them more to dig into, right? So give them ways to listen and consume it without having to sit through the whole thing, give them clips to listen, to give them ways to share also, um, you know, leverage your blog. And as you’re publishing your blog, if you have clips embedded in the blog, um, then people are going to come from that.
And as you’re sharing your blogs, and you’re also an importantly sharing your podcast. So. You can see how this all connects and it all works together where when you share one thing with one network or one audience, it kind of opens up an entire sphere of more, um, Also as you bring people onto your show, if you’re bringing people that really are going to be valuable, they can be internal and external.
We talk about experts like go talk to an expert that doesn’t have to be somebody who wrote a bestselling book. You know, it could be your, an engineer in on your team. It can be an intern depending on what your, who your audience is and why you’re doing the show. Um, Somebody, who could be interesting to your audience could be, could be anyone.
And when you bring them in and you make it really, really easy for them to share the show and to share clips of the show and just make it super easy, um, then you’re going to obviously tap into their network as well. So
Scott: [00:24:43] yeah, repurposing making it, like, you’re just, you know, everything you said, um, I don’t want to reiterate, but yeah, you nailed it.
Like you just have to make sure, you know, your audience and it’s sort of been like a theme throughout the whole thing. Like, and I guess it’s funny because as a marketer, it seems like, duh, like how could you put something out into the world and not consider that, but I guess if this is a new medium, And you’re just trying to hop on board and you don’t quite understand the power of what this can actually do for your brand.
You’re just putting things out into the world and you’re just hoping it sticks. And you’re not thinking of the things that you do for the 99% of the other marketing activities in your organization. It’s just like that constant reminder that there’s ways to tailor this the same way that you would with everything else you’re doing with, you know, your social posts with your blog posts, like the keywords you’re targeting.
Like if it’s not targeted, why are you doing it? And I think that’s something that people actually fall into quite often. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Go
Lindsay: [00:25:34] ahead. One thing that I talked a lot about is serving your audiences over algorithms. Not, I mean, that doesn’t mean instead of algorithms, it just means like, remember again, who is it for?
Why are you doing, how can you serve your audience? But then how can you leverage what you’re doing to make sure that it’s optimized? So people, the right people can find it. So. For example, one of the things that we do in cast, it is everything that’s uploaded into the platform, whether it’s a podcast or video content, you know, webinar, or, you know, something from a virtual event that can all be uploaded in the cast, it it’s all transcribed.
And then we make a show page for it. And on that show page, that transcription, which is done by humans, it’s accurate, it goes live. And that helps with SEO, right. That helps it be find-able um, by search engines. And so it’s, it’s. Prioritizing humans and your audience first, but then also saying, okay, now, now that we’ve done, we’ve created this content that truly is aiming to serve a human over a robot.
How can we make sure that the robots can actually also fund it to serve it up to the humans? And so going back into that mindset and finding the platforms like Casad that help teams make that possible, um, are going to open up your audience because they’re going to make that great content that you’re creating a much more.
Scott: [00:26:46] Yeah. And I think that also, um, as you’re speaking through some of the features and I actually wouldn’t mind, um, I don’t like making these podcasts like too product focused, but I do believe that. Uh, some of the stuff that Casad does is also best practices for what you should do with your podcasts. Like when you just mentioned there.
So can you, can you quickly run through some of the items that cast it does and maybe just help people understand, does this make sense for a personal podcast versus a B2B podcast? Or is there an, you know, is there a way to implement it for either or
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Lindsay: [00:29:03] Yeah. So I think, um, like, so off the bat we are, we’re designed for it and the whole company is going to build for you to serve, um, enterprise marketing teams. Right. So we’re like mid market enterprise. Um, typically B2B. Companies that have content strategy that leverages audio, or at least wants to leverage any audio and video content as a main part of their content strategy.
So that’s what was me for, however, and to answer your question kind of going through some of these features, the reason that we exist and what we’re prioritizing as we build up the product are things that, um, even if we’re not the right fit for you or something that you might want to consider trying to pull together.
So things that are important as you, um, As you harness audio and video content as a key part of your strategy. So you need something that’s going to, uh, post and syndicate. So not only take your content. And give it a place to live. So we give you, um, pages like listening pages, your whole show and for all of your episodes.
Um, but then also syndicated. So we send off to Apple, Spotify, Google, we’re working on an integration with YouTube since we added video. Um, so there you go. You start with, you know, once you have your show, where’s it going to live and how are we going to get that to other people so they can experience it.
Um, obviously very important whether you’re with Casad or anybody else. Um, and then from there, um, what’s your, what is your audience’s experience going to be like as they consume this content? Um, how is that page where they’re listening, going to give them an experience for your brand? And so one thing that again, whether cast is right for you or not.
One thing that I think is really important that people often overlook and just kind of jump to a conclusion is they’re like, Oh, well, we’re going to, we’re really going to push people to the Apple page, or we’re really going to push people to Spotify. That’s great. And that they really do help amplify your voice, but it’s a missed opportunity to bring people to your own page, um, to bring people back to your own real estate.
And you think again, think about blocks, right? We all have blogs and those they’re really effective. You wouldn’t publish all of your content. Um, a medium medium’s great. Helps you find other people helps you grow your audience, but you’re missing an opportunity to bring people back to your site so that they can, like what we talked about earlier in our conversation, they can engage with you and they can engage, not just in that piece of content, but in your other content and your brand as a whole, and maybe requested demo.
Or if you’re a B2C company, add something to their cart, um, sign up for your newsletter. And that happens if they’re on your site, doesn’t happen. If they’re on apples on Apple, they might subscribe. But that’s a thing that happens in Apple. When they could be building that relationship with you. So, um, so that’s something that we do in Cassa that we try to really, uh, educate our customers around and also make it really easy for them to do.
And that, you know, again, even if the cast it’s not right for you really think about that and how you are building your audience, how you’re bringing people back to your home, um, and give in really owning their experience when they’re there. And then. Um, then we have all kinds of fun things. Uh, like I mentioned, the transcripts, um, clipping, sharing all your grams, video games, things like that.
So again, whether the cast is right for you or not, the frame of mind for the minor is like, don’t just create a show, right? What else can you do with it? How can you pull it apart and whatever your process looks like, whether you’re by yourself, we have a huge team production, whatever it is, how are you pulling that apart and using that content in other ways, how are you amplifying it across other channels?
And then lastly, measurement, you know, how in Casad we kind of talked through that. Um, we’re really trying to serve enterprise marketing teams with metrics that are around engagement, and that really feel, look at how it’s fueling revenue and impacting the bottom line. So for you. Um, regardless of who you are and what your podcasts are, or your show is for really think about how you’re going to measure it.
And don’t settle for just like number of downloads. If that’s not what works for you really, really look around and ask the tough questions, um, with whoever you’re working with about how are we gonna measure this in a way that matters for why we’re doing it, right?
Scott: [00:32:57] Yeah. No, very good. And, and, and I appreciate that you say if, you know, if Casad is for you or not, because these are just, these are just really, really good best practices.
Um, Okay, so that we kind of, uh, we did as much for podcasts is probably most people want to hear about podcasts. So that was a lot of really good stuff. Um, I, I wanted to ask just some more like entrepreneurial things that you’ve probably learned over your journey. Is there anything else that we didn’t touch on about podcasts that was a lot about podcasts
Lindsay: [00:33:24] for people that
Scott: [00:33:24] are like, like you like nailed it.
Lindsay: [00:33:29] Yes. No, that’s good.
Scott: [00:33:31] So, um, so first time, first time founder, and, and you’re, you’re killing it so that you’re, you know, in this you’re in a small percentile of people that lasts and people that are doing well as a first time founder. So, um, What are some lessons learned? What are, what are some things that, you know, have worked out?
Haven’t worked out? How did you stay in business? Um, when most people go under, after a year of trying to do their own thing.
Lindsay: [00:33:57] Yeah. Well, thank you. Um, first and foremost, not just me, it’s been, it’s been the team, um, that I have just been so, so lucky to, to be a part of and to lead. Um, so I think that’s huge first.
Surround yourself with really smart people that, um, make you better. And that are as passionate about what you’re doing as you are. I think trying to do it yourself. I think there’s, there’s a lot of glamorization of like being an entrepreneur and like, even if it’s not in so many words, like making it seem like it’s all just by yourself.
And so some truly aren’t like, you’re a team of one you’re by yourself. You’re literally building a thing on your own. I think the sooner you get. People in whatever way that means for your business. I mean, for me, it was bringing out two co-founders that have truly been partners in all of it from day one.
Uh, and then building out a team, um, that that’s, it, that has been at the success has been in people. Um, and the sooner you can do that, the better, and just making sure that it’s, it’s, you’re doing it quickly, but really carefully because. It’s hard. Um, it’s hard, it’s hard. It’s like parents not unlike parenting.
It is like the hardest thing and the best thing that I’ve ever done. Um, so that, and then I think from, for me personally, just being obsessed with learning and being really, really comfortable with being uncomfortable. Um, I spent 15 years in marketing, you know, progressively, you know, the step and then the next step in the ladder and handed the next job and kind of doing.
The career progression, it made sense. And then I made this jump and, um, in many ways using all the experience that I’ve had throughout my career, but also doing something I’ve never done before. And so you have to get really comfortable with asking questions that you feel like you should know the answer to and going to people that know more than you do and asking you to be like, Hey, teach me.
I need to learn about this thing that becomes so second nature to you. That was new to me. So I think, yeah, being an entrepreneur, being first founder for some CEO is just. Being really, really comfortable with being uncomfortable and being kind of assessed with learning and just not assuming that you have all the answers, but then also being willing to trust your gut when you just know it’s time to do something else.
Scott: [00:36:13] Yeah, no, it’s good advice. Um, being, being comfortable, being uncomfortable, asking a ton of questions, uh, are these, I’m just curious. This is, you know, Is, are these things that you just learned or did you already have some sort of mindset going in that it was okay to ask for help? It was okay to find other people bring them in quickly.
Because that’s something that, that in of itself is not like something that people just feel comfortable understanding if that’s how they’re going to have to succeed. It’s almost like an ego thing mixed with an awareness thing. So where did that come from for you?
Lindsay: [00:36:54] Good question. I think, um, just being in such a new role, I mean, it, it, I would imagine I really thought about this before, but I would imagine.
I, I, an unveiled suspicion kinda has a choice early on where it’s like, okay, here’s the thing. I don’t know how to do, like, am I going to fake it? And, and I, you know, cover up now and look like struggle and maybe, maybe even come out successful, but the really hard way by like going and trying to learn it on my own and, or I’m just gonna put myself out and be like, I’ve never done this before.
What do I do? You know? And what I found is that the times I was actually just talking somebody else about this, the times that I Rose my hand and went either to my board or an investor or one of my co-founders or anyone, and just said, I don’t know how to do this. What do I do? Uh, I had never raised capital before we just raised our series a, it was our second round when I went to our seed round.
Um, there, there were, there were some really basic questions about like pitching and like what should a pitch deck look like that I could have? And a couple of things I did, and I don’t remember specific examples, but there were some times I spun my wheels because I was like, I should know how to do this.
Like I just, I do some part of my brain knows how to do this thing. I’m just gonna push through and do it. And you know what you find. Is that a day goes by a week, goes by. It’s not done. You have a tiny percentage done of whatever it is you need to do. You don’t feel good about got it. And then finally, the minute you raise your hand, say, I need some help.
Hey, can somebody, can you go join me in on this project? Or can we sit and talk about this? Or here’s this really seemingly dumb question that I have about this? Can we talk about it too? You’re like, by the end of that conversation, that’s, whatever it is you’re working on is half done. You’ve envisioned for the rest of it and you crank it out and it’s just.
When you get through that. And I think you start to have everything is data, right? Everything is data. When you start to have some data of like, Hey, when I don’t ask questions and I try to do things on my own equals unsuccessful. When I go ask questions, the people around me, you know, first of all, more successful and the people around me typically want to help.
I mean, I don’t think. I can’t remember a time where I asked a questions and it was like, Oh my gosh, Lindsay, you should know this. I had people say, Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to help. Like, I would love to schedule some time. Um, people want to help and people want, also people want to be a part of growing things.
And you know, when you’re in, when you’re an entrepreneur and you’re growing something people usually want in on it and people are happy to share their expertise. So, um, yeah, I think it’s, it’s, uh, It’s important.
Scott: [00:39:30] No, that’s, that’s good advice. It’s very good advice. Um, and like, these are not easy questions.
These are more personal questions, but I know that I like asking these to first-time founders and entrepreneurs. Yes. You had an agency before, but I guess this is a venture back, so it’s a little bit, yeah. More aggressive that way quicker.
Lindsay: [00:39:46] It’s just going to
Scott: [00:39:46] be, yeah. So yeah, exactly. So there’s a lot of stress and a lot of things that people don’t take into consideration and actually, um, Feel free answering this to whatever extent you want to.
But I was going to ask about, um, mental health, maintaining positivity. You seem like a positive person, but I know that there’s been a lot of shit that you’ve had to go through building this company where it’s not so easy to be positive all the time. Um, so what, what’s some advice for first time entrepreneurs on, on how to get through that?
Lindsay: [00:40:15] Um, well I thank you. And, uh, man, if anything is tested that has been. You know, raising capital in the midst of a pandemic with my kids home and my team promote has been a lot. I think you have to ask those around me how positive I was, but, um, like how, what my demeanor was. Um, it definitely made me that much more aware of mental health that you’re bringing it up because it’s not something to be taken for.
Granted. It’s not something to. You know, to assume is there for anyone and everyone, especially, I think that this one thing that they did before this last year is that, um, it’s really brought that to light. And I think that we’re talking about more, like we already know, um, to me, something that was not natural to me throughout basically my whole life until like last couple of years, um, was connection and people, I I’ve just always kind of been.
Not on purpose, but just kinda like, Oh, just you want you go do something, just go do it just on your own. And you don’t don’t look at anybody else. Just go do the thing and find that’s been fine and good, but I, I have, how much did I miss out on? Right. I just finished talking about like asking for help and how much easier things can be and how much better things can be.
And, um, you know, Through this and over the last couple of years, finding those connections, those other people who have gone through what I’ve gone through or that I can connect with, um, as peers and really go to, to celebrate successes and to just go to when I’m really low, um, that get me and that, you know, can, can call me on my bullshit and it can also, you know, raise me up on, um, uh, celebrate with me when things are going well.
That is something that I saw. I don’t know where it came from, but I saw for some, for so long, it’s a luxury and something that was frivolous. Um, not intentionally, but just like, Oh, you know, some people have that. Some people don’t, I guess I just don’t. And then once I finally got those connections, it changed everything.
And you talked about mental health, like having people to, to go to, and to talk to, and to connect with change with everything. And then going into this, this last year of pandemic. Um, I realized when I was completely, you know, subconsciously pulling away from those connections and I wasn’t as good. I wasn’t in a good place and I was alone.
I kind of went into a cave and had my head down, was just working. Whereas when I came up out of that and would go to those connections and, um, intentionally focus on relationships, even just turning like a text message or like the phone conversation, it just would make all the difference. And so I think that’s, that’s it to me is how, how are you?
Intentionally connecting with people. And as a leader, how are you doing that with your team and encouraging that amongst your team? And, um, it’s, it’s easy to overlook or assume it’s happening. Um, but when you actually lean into it, you really see what a difference it makes.
Scott: [00:43:15] Good. I’m glad you had some advice for that, because I think that that’s, um, on the range of entrepreneurial topics, um, we do speak about scaling growth, venture capital bootstrapping, but like the mental health piece is something that I try and bring out from founders who have built their own thing or are managing a team and even more so in COVID because it’s something that’s, um, Not really discussed enough to be quite honest, either have a leader who gets it and they have a healthy team, or you have, unfortunately, if a leader doesn’t yeah.
I can’t say with a hundred percent certain even I’m sure some people on their team are not doing that. Great. And they’re pretty damn depressed over the past year and a half or two years and whatnot. So, you know, the more, the more it can be brought out, I think the better
Lindsay: [00:43:59] it’s so true. And it’s so true to an extent because there is a lot going on and especially with a startup, I mean, things are moving quickly.
Everybody’s really busy. And I think, yeah, work really hard. And especially now, when you’re not physically seeing, seeing people or like noticing that somebody is not coming into the office as much, or not really going out with the people as much, like it’s easy, it’s easy to overlook. And I think for Casad, it’s something that’s really important to me.
And it’s really, really important to my co-founders and we can check each other, like, Hey, I don’t think the team’s okay. Or I think we should probably mention this. Um, and so that’s that connection and actually caring about humans. Is something that’s so, so easy to talk about, but really important to actually
Scott: [00:44:40] do something about it.
Yeah. Okay. Um, one last, uh, entrepreneurial question and then some rapid fire. Um, uh, so first you can spend a tiny bit of time on this one. Uh, some advice for somebody who’s looking to start their own company. Would you recommend it? Would you say, go keep working your job? How should you do it? Okay.
Lindsay: [00:45:01] So the, the way I would like to phrase this question is.
The way to make the decision is if you can imagine somebody else doing it instead. So if, if you’re like, I don’t know whether to do this, I have this lifestyle. I don’t, I’m afraid, whatever the big, the thing that I could not get away from when I was trying to make the decision was like, it would kill me if I saw someone else start this company instead.
And it was like, I can’t, therefore I can’t not do this. And so I think we can all imagine. Doing a thing or not doing anything, but when you put it in that perspective, I think that’s an easier way to see if it’s something
Scott: [00:45:41] it’s simple. It’s very simple. I like that a lot. Um, okay. So, uh, a few, a few rapid fire questions, and then I’ll, I’ll get some contact info from, uh, information from you.
Um, okay. Uh, one. One common myth, like a very common myth about entrepreneurship that you’d want to debunk.
Lindsay: [00:46:01] Oh, that it’s all about hustle and grind. Um, and that it’s, it’s only for a certain type of person insert whatever stereotype that is. There it’s. Anyone can be an entrepreneur if you have passion and it does not have to mean possible and grind.
Scott: [00:46:16] Good. And I think that’s also the hustle and grind is a whole other conversation. I think that’s problematic, but, um, no, that’s a good point. Okay. A resource has helped you along the way could be a person, could be podcasts, could be a book, something that you’d recommend, people,
Lindsay: [00:46:30] all things Bernay Brown. I love her
Scott: [00:46:34] the second time.
I’ve heard her name on this podcast and I guess I gotta go now. I got a really list. I’ve got a really, yeah. Dare to lead is a good place to start. Yeah. Yeah. Um, a lesson that you’d tell your younger self.
Lindsay: [00:46:48] Oh man. Um, So I have a mantra that I did not go find on my own. It found me, I don’t really know how, but it was the thing that’s started to be part of my life.
Just boldly be yourself. I think I spent way too much time. I know I spent way too much time trying to be this for this situation and this for this person and take this feedback. And therefore I need to show up as this at one point that just broke. And I said, Nope, I’m going to adjust boldly, be me. And sometimes that’ll be a win.
Sometimes that’ll be lost, but at least they’ll know that it’s me. And it sounds really cliche, but when you actually can get to that point and I wish I’d gotten there sooner, um, it’s a game changer.
Scott: [00:47:21] I love that. And I actually think that’s one of the most attractive reasons why people should go into entrepreneurship because sometimes there’s a lot, there’s a lot of pressure to not be yourself when you have to answer to somebody else.
It’s difficult. Um, okay. And then, uh, last question. What does success mean for you?
Lindsay: [00:47:40] Oh, man. Um, to me, it’s that I’m using, um, all that’s been given to me. To make the difference that I’m supposed to make and the way that it shows up and kind of like the barometer on that as the people around me. So, um, whether it’s my family or friends or it’s company, um, am I showing up for it?
Am I using what I have to show up for them so that we can all collectively do what we need to do? And, uh, that kinda shows up in the success of the people around me.
Scott: [00:48:13] I love that. Okay. And then most important, where do people go find you online? Casad online. What are the socials and the website?
Lindsay: [00:48:20] Sure. So Casad is Casta dot U S um, can find us on Twitter at
Uh, you can find me on Twitter at Castillo Lindsay with an a, um, and I’m on LinkedIn, pretty active on LinkedIn as well. You can figure out how to spell my last name.
