How To Build Your Unique Podcast Host Style – Randy Ksar – Creating The Greatest Show – Episode # 049

by | Aug 14, 2023 | Creating The Greatest Show, Hosting a Podcast

Special Guest Randy Ksar on Creating The Greatest Show

Our special guest today is a seasoned podcaster, a marketing thought leader, a content strategist, and a customer experience storyteller. Randy Ksar is the Head of Content & Influencer Marketing at Uniphore and Host of the Conversations That Matter Podcast.

Join us as we uncover his podcasting insights, his passion for meaningful conversations, and his commitment to crafting engaging experiences. Randy explains the art of honing your unique podcasting persona, the importance of ensuring guest engagement, and how to incorporate new creative ideas to add spice to your podcast.

Watch Randy Ksar on Creating The Greatest Show!

Takeaways

  • Being a good podcast host means knowing yourself, your tone, and your style. While guests are vital, your confidence, question-asking skills, and ability to navigate challenges are key to a compelling podcast.
  • Your tone of voice and genuine interest in the topic and guest are critical. Your audience needs engagement within the first few minutes; otherwise, they’ll seek more interesting podcast options.
  • It’s not always a topic or the subject matter that makes people want to tune into a podcast. It’s also the actual host. Your unique approach, way of asking questions, and engagement are what define your podcast and draw listeners in.
  • Authenticity is vital in podcasting, especially with interview-format shows. Your style of hosting should be true to yourself, resembling a genuine conversation you could have anywhere. If not, consider rethinking your approach.
  • Podcasting is about building mutual value. Aim for meaningful conversations that provide value to both you and your guests. Thus fostering long-term relationships.
  • View B2B podcasting as a business endeavor; it should serve your company goals, connect with your target audience, and potentially convert prospects into leads and customers.
  • Add variety to your podcast with games and engaging segments. Don’t be afraid to switch things up after some episodes and experiment with new ideas. Podcasting allows for AB testing and adapting based on audience feedback.

READ MORE: Breaking Down Branded Podcasts

Quote of The Show

“Everything needs to relate back to the goal of what we’re trying to do.”

– Randy Ksar

Connect with Randy

Clips from the Episode

Ways to Tune In


Want to Learn More? Book a Call with Our Team! Let's talk about creating a Branded Podcast that crushes your company's goals.  

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00]

Casey Cheshire: I hit it. We can’t go back. We must go forward. I’m excited. My guest today, I’ve had a chance to work with him for a while now and I’m excited to pick his brain on podcasting. He is a seasoned podcaster. He’s a marketing leader and thought leader, a content strategist, a customer experience storyteller, he’s the host of the Conversations That Matter podcast, and I gotta say of the podcasters that I know he is one that caress and that’s a core value for me. So I notice this stuff he caress about the guests, [00:01:00] about the questions about the output. It really puts intention behind everything he does.

So that’s why I just can’t wait to peel back the onion and share with all of you the kind of conversations I’ve had with him the customer marketing lead at unifor. Randy Casar. Welcome to show sir.

Randy Ksar: sir. Hey, thanks for having me. That’s a great intro and I’m so excited to peel the onion as you say. So let’s get to it.

Casey Cheshire: And hopefully it’s one of those sweet onions so we don’t start crying midway through the show. It’s not one of those shows. So Randy, let me ask you this question that, that kicks things off and starts things out. Pull back the curtain for us on your show and share your most important strategy for Great Interview podcast. I.

Randy Ksar: Yeah, I mean I, I’ve been podcasting since 2008 and I think for me, one of the key things, and I get asked this question a lot, is what makes a good host? I think what makes a good host is knowing yourself, knowing that are you the right person to be the host, which.

Sometimes if you just want to [00:02:00] get the project started, like you just gotta do it, or else it’s gonna take, a few extra months to get approvals and you’re just like, let’s just do it. But I think it’s really also, we, the question of do you know yourself is around tone and around style, around your own story?

And so I think that’s, those are the key things is like, how do you want to be portrayed? How do you want people to know you? And does that come across in the podcast? Now, of course, the guests are most important. They’re your social matter experts If you’re doing an interview style but also you, you want to people are interested in you too, believe it or not.

And sometimes, the host of the podcast gets to Shaft ’cause you never really get to know them. But because you’re never the one being interviewed. But I think that’s, it’s really crucial to be able to be confident with yourself that you can ask the right questions, one of the first things I realize in a podcast is, you can have technical difficulties and there’s gonna be these odd moments of silence when you’re, [00:03:00] when your guests are perhaps not on anymore because of some technical difficulties. And you have to be confident in yourself to fill those gaps.

I’ll tell you a quick story. When that happened When I first started podcasting, we were using a service called Blog Talk Radio. It was purely just a, you call a 800 number and your guest calls it in, and it’s like a radio show. It streams live to the web. I don’t even know if it’s around anymore, but there were times where the technology wasn’t working and someone hung up.

They had a bad connection. They were, sound like they were in a tunnel, whatever it might be. And there were times where people just You’re like, okay, I guess they’re gone. And it is, and they would call back a few minutes later, but that for those few minutes, you’re like, all right, now it’s time for your comedy improv time.

So it was, it’s tough. But I think as practice as they say, makes not perfect, but progress.

Casey Cheshire: Do you think that’s something you can [00:04:00] train? Like for people out there listening, if you haven’t had one of these uhoh moments happen, they’re eventually going to, can you prepare for those or is it just that you’re gonna go through ’em and eventually you’ve gone through enough of them?

Randy Ksar: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think that you can prepare for those moments because most people don’t know those moments exist. So I think if you’re looking to either Hire a podcast agency or perhaps find someone internally that’s the podcast host because maybe they have a better, they’re the extrovert versus introvert.

You want to train them on those moments of time where there’s, the guest hasn’t connected ’cause of technical issues or maybe the guest isn’t answering correctly and you need to keep them engaged and because you know that the audience is listening. So I think those type of moments you definitely can train for are, I guess the question is are people, are there some people [00:05:00] more, not necessarily familiar, but more natural in dealing with those situations?

I think so.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah, there’s people that are great at adapting and there’s people that prefer to plan, right? And so it’s almost like the planners should plan for this to happen. Like even hearing it on this podcast might. Be enough for people to go, huh? What would I say? You know what would I do if suddenly my guest just dropped off or their mic didn’t work?

And would I pause? Would I ask a question? And to your point, if you’re alive, you gotta keep going.

Randy Ksar: keep going. Yeah, for sure. Gotta keep going. Gotta keep telling the story.

Casey Cheshire: So let me take you back to the original part here, the, you first of all, are you the right person? Is there a litmus test? test? How do you know you’re the right person?

Randy Ksar: If it’s an audio podcast, Hey, even video, let’s talk, we’ll, just an audio podcast.

If it’s just an audio podcast. I think there’s a couple of things. One is just the [00:06:00] audio, do you sound. Interesting. Are you sounding like you’re interested in the person that’s a that you’re asking the questions to? If you don’t, then no one’s gonna wanna listen to that. Say you’re at a, it’s just like you’re at a party and you’re probably right next to someone having a conversation.

If it’s not interesting, you’re not gonna wanna listen to it. You’re gonna look like, all right, I’m gonna go get a drink or go talk to someone else.

Casey Cheshire: Time for a refill. I gotta go.

Randy Ksar: And. If you think about it, how many podcasts are out there these days, right? Your podcast player that you launched this podcast on, you have so many different options.

Casey Cheshire: Right.

Randy Ksar: If you’re not, if you’re not engaged with it within the first, I would say three minutes, then you’re gonna be like, all right, I’m gonna go find another show that maybe has. I don’t know. I was just listening to smart list I’m gonna go find a celebrity show that’s a little more, interesting.

Not that anybody would do it on this show

just wanna say that.

Casey Cheshire: [00:07:00] We’re both fantastic and we’ve been dropping legendary info for the first three minutes. And that’s a, I wanna get back to the I’ll come back to the three minute thing ’cause that’s really interesting. But you were mentioning, tone is important, style is important, story is important.

How do you want to be portrayed? I feel like we’ve talked just now about tone. The idea of like you showing interest, and if you’re interest that the audience is, and if you’re not, they’re definitely not gonna be. Talk to me about style. What does that mean? What does a podcast host style entail?

Randy Ksar: yeah, I think the style is your own we talked about what do you wanna be known for? Like people know you for. Not only your subject matter expertise, but also for how you ask questions for how you are in a conversation for how you’re engaging in conversation. And so I think that’s something that comes across pretty quickly in terms of impressions and first impressions.

And so it’s not always a topic or the subject matter that people want to tune into a podcast. It’s [00:08:00] also the actual host. And I think that’s, Definitely something that you need to put some effort in to make sure that you are saying the right things, that you know how to lead a conversation, that the style that you wanna portray is what you want to be known for.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah, and I think the big trap with the style is being yourself, and being really authentic and not trying to fake someone else’s style. I always think back to, Gary v super popular and then. You got a bunch of marketers all trying to be Gary V drop F-bombs left and right, like they’re Gary V, wearing a Gary V hat, and I feel like we can all tell, maybe they didn’t get the memo, but we can tell, the audience can tell if there’s this sort of air of, you’re not being authentic we can smell that or something.

Randy Ksar: or something. Yeah, no, I think that’s totally true. Like you, people can see BSS a mile away. So if you are I dunno, say [00:09:00] you’re interviewing a customer and you’re trying to make it sound like just embellishing them way too much, you’re giving them a pound on the back way too much.

People just see that a mile away. So I think that the way that you, your style is. Is, needs to be authentically you. My background, a lot of it is in social. So when we write social content, we’re making sure that people, that we write in a very human, authentic, and engaging way. And so the same thing with a podcast is that you need to make sure that you’re doing, that you, if you can’t recreate the conversation with this subject matter expert on your podcast at Starbucks, then it shouldn’t be on a podcast. I feel like if you can’t have a real conversation with ’em outside of the podcast, then you shouldn’t be having a conversation with them.

Casey Cheshire: What do you mean by that? If you couldn’t sit down with anyone at Starbucks or with your customer or

what’s

Randy Ksar: I think like when you go, like when you, in a public space, [00:10:00] when you’re, say waiting in line at Starbucks and you’re having a conversation with someone that you’ve never met before.

That person, you’re not gonna sell them outright, right? You need to get to know them. You need to know who they are, what they do. Why are you here? How’s your day going? That also needs to come across in the style of conversation that you do with a podcast guest. At least that’s my feeling,

Casey Cheshire: That’s interesting to listen to, right? It’s conversation with two people and they’re waiting for something else and they’re being nice to each other and they’re, you never know who you’re gonna meet, right? So that’s fun to listen to

And I can see why. And that sounds like your style though, right?

Because I know there’s like a Tim Ferris of the world who’s I’m just gonna pepper this guy with questions and I’m not gonna have any conversation. I’m, tell me your answers and get outta here. And I guess, to each their own. But back to your original point, like if your style is that, then by all means do that.

Randy Ksar: Yeah. And again it’s different for different people. But that’s just the way I’ve been brought up is Have a conversation with ’em, get to know their backstory. Really be interested in [00:11:00] why they made certain decisions in their life.

So that’s how I go about doing any of the podcasts that I do.

Casey Cheshire: Do you ever find that the backstory is sometimes more fascinating than everything

else?

Randy Ksar: Oh

Casey Cheshire: yeah,

Randy Ksar: Yeah. Sometimes when you’re interviewing these guests and they work for say, a company And they haven’t done it before. They get really, like podcasts, deer in the headlight don’t really know how to how to say the story of the company.

And so they get very rigid. They’re very structured in their answers. And you get these odd moments of silence. You’re like, all right, how do we transition to the next question? So I think it really helps when you have those. A, when you ask ’em about their passions or maybe their families, and that’s what I do usually when we, before we start to get them like a little relaxed, a little loose.

Because a lot of stuff that I do is remote and but even when I do it in person I try and Not just, how’s your day going? ’cause people just say the obvious oh, it’s going great when you know full well that there’s some backstory there. You really [00:12:00] wanna try and get to know what their passions are, who’s important in their life what do they do outside of work.

Those are the type of things that people, all of a sudden their smile comes up. You get those great authentic answers.

Casey Cheshire: Not a lot of people get asked about their past either, on an interview you get asked usually about your job history. So I feel like there’s something special we get to do when we ask someone about their story. They’re like and they get to tell us about picking raspberries as a kid or whatever the case may be, and that whatever was special to them.

It’s have you ever had those Oprah moments where someone. Share something powerful about their past and you’re oh man, I,

is this okay to record?

Is this okay?

Randy Ksar: Yeah, I’ve had it definitely numerous times, but I think there was one point where I was doing a prep call with someone and I didn’t realize I, we were just, we were talking about the podcast and what to expect and giving them some ideas for answers, and then somehow [00:13:00] we started getting into our backgrounds.

And that’s when he just started opening up. And it was really cool ’cause we all of a sudden our values were the same. So we were talking about faith and religion and it just was something that I’ve never really talked about with a guest before. And so that was really cool to, to see that within, the prep call, not that we talked about on the actual podcast, but it made for a more authentic.

And trustworthy conversation. When we started recording the actual podcast,

Casey Cheshire: That’s huge. I wanna highlight that for people. I heard a powerful topic came up in the prep, and even though it doesn’t make it into the show, It like you had that much more of a connection going into the show because you realize you had some values that were lined. And I prob I’ve had that sense too, where you just, you’re excited to talk to the person.

You’re like, oh man that’s my whatever guy, and that’s the cool I’m excited for it. It separates it. So it’s not just another, oh, I gotta do another podcast with someone’s, some guy, some [00:14:00] business guy or gal. It’s no, this is this person. I’m really excited for this episode.

Even if we don’t talk about that at

all.

Randy Ksar: that at all. Yeah, the goal is that you’re building a relationship, right?

Even though it could be just one episode, your hope is that this person can, both of you can be of value to each other. So hopefully the conversation that you have is not just a one way that they’re actually getting value from what you’re saying and how you’re listening and answering back to their responses.

So that’s, I think is something important to, to remember that the, we talk about this in like in the influencer marketing world, is that it’s not just a one-time relationship. This is a longer term relationship where you bring value to each other’s businesses. And same, when you’re talking about a podcast, guess it’s same thing.

Casey Cheshire: We’re so aligned on this, right? I care so much about relationships and connections that, that’s even our company wise to. Why

Create human connection, right? It’s so important. But the idea, I love that we’re focusing on [00:15:00] it for a second, the idea it’s not a one-time relationship, which is interesting to me.

And then also creating value for them. And it, and I was thinking initially that you were talking about like afterward you’re creating value for them, but it sounds like you’re even thinking about how can I create value for them while they’re a guest? Is that right?

Randy Ksar: Is that right? Yeah. I think one of the things that we talk about on conversations that matter is we want people to get 1% better.

This is a community driven show where we bring in questions from the audience. We also are speaking to. Inviting guests onto the show because they’re, they can, they’re relatable to other peers within the industry. And I think that’s a key thing when you are trying to learn from each other. Not only are they sharing kinda what their insights, what their challenges were and how they overcome ’em, but I know for me, since I’ve been in the industry for a while, I also try and share my expertise and how it relates to them.[00:16:00]

And so my hope is that not only can I share what I’ve gone through, but also we’ve done 60, I forgot what the number is, 60 something episodes so far close to that. I can bring lessons I’ve learned from other guests to them too and be like, actually, Joe Smith said the exact same thing.

He was having the same problem and this is how he overcame it, and that can help. The guests I’m talking to in their daily life, in their job, that their, and the challenge that they’re going through

Casey Cheshire: Hey, 1% better. 60 times later now we’re 60%

Randy Ksar: 60% better. You would hope.

Casey Cheshire: I wonder if this ties in you, I was gonna ask you about the last part of that sequence, the tone, the style, the story, and I wonder if that, is that 1% part of your story for conversations that matter or what do you mean by story?

Randy Ksar: The story, it’s something that needs to be relatable. A story has a beginning, a [00:17:00] climax, and an end. That story needs to be super, relatable to people especially for the target personas that you’re trying to, reach in your podcast. Just like with everybody, the podcast is, has a goal, and it has a target audience that you’re going for.

It is a business. We have to remind ourselves of that. Yes, you’re having a good time. You’re talking with your, peers. By the end of the day, it’s also you have to be a little selfish and like, why am I spending all this time doing it? Why am I making this investment? It’s for, especially in the B2B world.

For a brand like ours, we’re, trying to make sure we build relationships and talk potentially to our prospects that can then be turned into into actual leads and actual customers. Yeah.

Casey Cheshire: How often do you remind yourself of that? Because I, I think I was talking about how intentional you are. It’s great to hear you bring that up. The idea of let’s not lose side of the goal. Like we’re not gonna go interview Ronald McDonald or maybe we’ll there’s a goal we’re trying [00:18:00] to achieve. How do you remind yourself of that?

Randy Ksar: yourself of when we talk together with, Liam on our show I I’m always reminded of who our target audience is, who are we trying to reach? And that is helpful for him in finding the right people that, we’ve talked about, and also writing the pitch.

And deciding on the themes and topics. topics So everything needs to relate back to the goal of what we’re trying to do. We need to make sure that whatever story that we’re telling or whatever story that we’re hearing from that audience is relatable. That is, is to back to the original kind of goal of what the show is.

So if we’re doing an AI show, talking about the latest AI innovation and how it relates to customer experience. That guest needs to somehow weave back into that. And then from that show, the social content needs to weave back into that and the blog post and, whatever other [00:19:00] marketing channels that we amplify it on.

So that’s how

Casey Cheshire: do you ever find that res restrictive, You can’t just have a random person

on.

because you you have a goal, it’s not the Randy Caar show

Randy Ksar: show.

Casey Cheshire: This

is a business pod

Randy Ksar: that’s a good question. I think they’re, your audience is human just like anybody else. They might get tired of the stale old show over and over again and sometimes it’s good to change it up.

So if there’s someone that. I don’t know. Say we have Simon what’s his name? Simon Sinek on, he’s not an ai, innovator or, thought leader, but is he gonna provide huge value to people in doing their job, no matter the industry in, no matter the the seniority that they have? For sure.

Would I have, I don’t know, a celebrity like, Bradley Cooper on. I would [00:20:00] sure, I would love that. And I, and would people be interested in listening to it? Yeah. Would I change my whole guest outreach based upon him? No, but I think it would bring kinda a little break in the action, but also you just need to find what’s relatable to that person’s life and how it relates to your target audience.

So I think it’s always possible.

Casey Cheshire: And I love the idea, this is a cool concept, right? Because I think sometimes we can get so serious and wrapped up in our business goals that we forget, like you just said, that our listeners are human. We’re human. We like, throw us a bone here. The, we’ve seen this with business copywriting and marketing copywriting. copywriting.

don’t, if you read something and it looks like it’s written, written by a marketer, it’s probably bad copy now, right? Because we can tell or chat, G P T. Made it so it’s like we want that human experience.

experience. by the end of the day, are you, can you draw a line between Bradley Cooper and ai,

and ai? do you think?

Randy Ksar: I dunno [00:21:00] about ai, but AI has so many sub, subtopics to it and maybe one of them is experience,

true.

Casey Cheshire: And

conversations right.

Randy Ksar: in conversations. And so could that be related to him? The reason I bring him up, I was just listening to an episode of Smart List.

And he was, he made a guest a guest appearance on one of the podcasts.

Casey Cheshire: Should we try to book him for conversations that matter?

Randy Ksar: whatever podcast, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me. We’ll book ’em. So yeah, I think it’s you can change the way your podcast is structured.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah.

Randy Ksar: So it’s not just the guest and who it is, but. Maybe there’s a portion of your podcast that you can switch it up. Take a look at like the late shows they’re on, Jimmy Fallon and others. They have all these little games in between the show, right? ’cause they don’t want to have a whole 45 minutes or whatever the time is for just that interview with that celebrity or musician.

They need to switch it up. And they do that. They, you could see them. They’re coming up with new games and new ways to engage the [00:22:00] audience based upon trends, based upon yeah, just new creative ideas. And so the same thing could be done with your podcast is you’ve tried it out for a good, say 60 episodes.

And now it’s time to change and add a little, a little more, spice to your podcast. So I think it’s possible and that’s the good thing about podcasts and any digital content, you can do some AB testing, try it out, see how people resonate, get some feedback and kinda go from there.

Casey Cheshire: I can see that really being fun for the host too, right? Because. We can get into these Groundhog days, whereas it’s another guest we’re talking about, and they’re talking about the exact thing that somebody four episodes talked about and we’re trying to get their own perspective, but ah, it could be crazy.

So just the idea of being free enough to switch it up, there literally are shows where you

eat hot

Randy Ksar: where you hot rates.

Casey Cheshire: with celebrities, right? So if they can pull that off, what can’t they pull off?

Randy Ksar: Yeah. No, that’s so true. That’s two guys are [00:23:00] geniuses. How they got actually, how they actually got the first guest to do it and subsequent guests is amazing.

Casey Cheshire: So I wonder if that, between the two ferns started that trend of just just yeah, ridiculous but serious.

Randy Ksar: jabber. Yeah.

Casey Cheshire: How many hot wings do you think you, would you make it, would you make

Randy Ksar: You make it? Oh my gosh. I think by three I would be just like toast.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah. Has anyone not done them all?

Randy Ksar: No, I think everyone’s gone through. I think, I guess when it came down to it, would I just kind of power through?

Yes. But I probably would be stuck in the bathroom for the next, six, I need a hotel room and whatever, and just, no sunlight and just sleep it off for a few days. It,

Casey Cheshire: I

Randy Ksar: Yeah.

For me, that wouldn’t work. I’m intolerant, so that

Casey Cheshire: Oh, that really wouldn’t work.

Randy Ksar: Yeah, exactly. Some all milk or old milk, something like that.

Yeah. But yeah, that’s a, [00:24:00] again, I think that the point I think I’m trying to make is you could switch it up, have some fun with it. It doesn’t need to be the whole show, it could be just a portion, of it. And I think it could work out.

Casey Cheshire: Let’s talk prep. Let’s talk prep for a little bit. How do you like to prepare for shows and for guests?

Randy Ksar: sharing? Why is that? I wanna do research on them. I wanna find out, I go to their LinkedIn profile, see what they’ve posted, see what they’ve shared recently see what comments they’ve gotten. I’ll do a YouTube search and see if they’ve spoken on other podcasts or maybe at different events.

Just wanna see their style. What they’ve been asked before. If I have someone that has been, either has their own podcast or maybe has appeared numerous times, is just making the AI or CX show circuit, I don’t wanna say, I don’t want to interview them with the same questions.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah. So if you hear they keep getting asked that one question, you’re

like, you’re like, how do we mix it up here?

Randy Ksar: Tell us about your book. They’re on a book tour, so ev everyone’s heard that [00:25:00] same spiel over and over again. So I think it’s a matter of personalizing as best as you can, diving into who they are and the content that they are, because they have a goal too, especially if like they’re a consultant or author, they wanna promote their stuff on our show.

And so I think it’s just a matter of trying to get a little more personal. In terms of the questions that you ask that’s is personalized in terms of them, but in terms of the content that they’re trying to share,

Casey Cheshire: it’s like the, one of the greatest compliments when you get, you ask that question and someone’s

Man, that’s

Randy Ksar: that’s a

Casey Cheshire: You’re like, aha,

Randy Ksar: yes.

Casey Cheshire: cool.

Yeah. I’ve never been asked that before. You’re like, oh, you’re like, oh yeah, okay, cool. It’s, but inside you’re like,

yeah, that was my goal.

Randy Ksar: Nail nailed it.

Casey Cheshire: Exactly. Do you have any strategies for getting to those questions? I’ve heard from you, watching videos to know what not to ask because man, they get that all the time. But how do you find those

Randy Ksar: Yeah. I think it’s, [00:26:00] I think it’s, a lot of times it’s community driven, so trying to understand what’s out there in the community that they can react to.

So for instance, if they are in customer experience or let’s take not my industry, let’s take I dunno, healthcare. And there’s a show, I’m talking to the latest physicians or nurse practitioners, maybe there’s an influencer that’s out there that’s posted something that they can react to.

Now granted, you need to give them a heads up, so that’s not too controversial. But that could be a way of doing it, right? So not using their content, but what it does is that it shows their expertise. It shows that person can share their opinion, and that is a thought leader, right? And that’s the person that you want, that people can relate to.

And maybe your audience might have the same answer or they for. Even better purposes, it might not be the same answer and they’re like, you know what? I don’t agree with that. And they’ll write back to you or comment on social. I think that’s something that you can do.[00:27:00]

Casey Cheshire: The idea of the reaction videos is actually

brilliant.

I don’t think it’s something I’ve thought about, but yet I’ve watched these on YouTube all the time, like reaction videos are very interesting. People reacting to either another video or something they’ve read. I. It’s really interesting and it busts them out of that cycle.

And you mentioned interviewing authors and sometimes the challenge I have with authors is they’re so

polished

that they can slip into

robot

mode. mode Very easily and start answering, even if you did, especially if you ask them one of those questions. But even if you don’t, they can slip back into that same pattern.

And they’re, one of the authors I talked to he had done like 150 pods and he scheduled them all to, to launch the day that his book launched. Brilliant. But he was tired and he didn’t really care about the show. And man, they can slip into that stuff. So the idea of

Randy Ksar: of having

to

Casey Cheshire: to something

Randy Ksar: gets

them outta that.

One of the pieces of social content that I’ve seen, Work [00:28:00] really well. Not on a podcast, but on a late show is mean tweets.

I don’t know if you’ve seen that before, right? When it’s usually on Jimmy Kimmel. I think that’s what he does it on and celebrities reading their own people that mentioned them on Twitter Or now ex on Twitter.

Yeah. Yeah. Just, commenting on whatever it is. And they actually read it out loud.

And so they have to either keep a straight face or they laugh about it, or they have some, Not necessarily negative reaction. ’cause that’s Jim Mc Kimmel ain’t gonna throw ’em under

the bus. Yeah.

But that, I think the key thing is if you can pull out from the community that they’re a part of, that’s gonna be, great for them because now all of a sudden they are put in a spot where they can really leverage their expertise and authority to those, to their peers.

And so that’s why I just love doing that, either in a rapid fire session towards the end of the podcast or even just in the beginning just to jumpstart it and get an opinion. Going[00:29:00]

Casey Cheshire: Especially it almost reminds me of Newsjacking, especially if it’s a topic that people are searching, they’re interested, they wanna know what the hot take is. Makes for a great YouTube short man. I could see that. Just hooking people in. Hey man. What’s your take on that recent disaster that happened over there?

I. If that’s their industry or whatnot, or what’s your take on

your Y, Yeah powerful,

And because it’s timely.

Randy Ksar: They have been asked that before. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Yeah. I would curate something from the past week or two from an influencer within their community and say, what do you think?

This is what this so and so person said, and go at it.

Casey Cheshire: What about the guest that is basically a c i A operative because their LinkedIn profile hasn’t been updated since they were in high school, and now they’re the c e o of a successful company. And you, there’s like

nothing

on them. right?

Randy Ksar: Yeah.

Casey Cheshire: What? How do you create a

unique

Randy Ksar: experience for

those companies.

I think for those people, you need to make sure that [00:30:00] they feel comfortable in speaking that you find out what their true passion is ’cause. If you don’t, if you can’t tell from the research that you’re doing or their bios or you know what they’re promoting, then you really have no clue what’s gonna happen.

And you, as a podcast host, need to know in advance to a point what they’re gonna share. So if you do ask them a question off the cuff that you know what’s, what they potentially could could say. Or that, that answer is gonna be money and gonna be a good, micro clip that you can amplify.

And there, there are times, there’s some people that aren’t active on LinkedIn and LinkedIn isn’t the best place to outreach them.

And I think it’s just a matter of, that prep call is gonna be key on, learning about their story. You might need to do a couple prep calls to get it to a point that you feel comfortable with.

And the key thing is, if it’s not the right host, maybe just their job title is perfect. You’re like, [00:31:00] that’s my target audience. But it’s, you meet them in person and they’re like, it just ain’t, there’s, you’re not vibing. It’s just not working. Then maybe it’s not, it won’t be a good episode.

So you should feel confident that, I love that we create a relationship and that, we talked with each other, but just. It’s not, don’t think this is gonna be a good thing that we can do together. So you should feel con confident that you can say no even after the prep call.

Casey Cheshire: Okay, so two things there. One prep call totally makes sense. That’s the place where you discover what they forgot to put on all.

their social platforms. But two, the ability to say

Randy Ksar: to

say no, it’s hard.

Because It’s hard.

Yeah. ’cause you’ve already built that like anticipation.

Casey Cheshire: How do you do it? Do you

Randy Ksar: How do You do it? You have kids. It’s hard for me. I think I give people the benefit of the doubt.

I want them to be successful. That’s just my nature. And so I think it’s just a matter of being honest. And most people, if [00:32:00] you’re honest, then it’s okay. You haven’t wasted their time. And you know it, and they’ll be okay with that.

Long as you’re honest then you’ll be okay

Casey Cheshire: Because you’re saving them from pain,

back in the day, I have a story for you. Back in the day, I was at a networking event in a city that I, I was traveling to and I was having a good time.

I might’ve had a couple beverages. I met someone that was a really cool person and I was like, you should be on my podcast, right? It’s a B two B marketing podcast and she focused on B two C and which isn’t a deal breaker, and fast forward several weeks later, we’re on a prep call. I guess this is another vote for why you do prep calls, because we got on that thing and I’m telling her the questions and she’s thinking in her mind.

Huh. That’s like a foreign language to me, and we just agreed on that, call that, that, she had someone she knew that might be a

better fit for this particular show. And man, [00:33:00] so much respect to that. versus us both knowing it and still doing it, and it just

Randy Ksar: it’s feeling like

Casey Cheshire: Waste of time

for

Randy Ksar: time for us and the Yeah, you’re right. I think sometimes it could be a lead in to someone else and. Especially if it’s someone within the industry. It’s a pretty small industry, no matter the size of it. There’s people network so much and so it might be an opportunity for them to introduce you to someone else.

One of the things that we ask on our podcast after we hit, the end button is who else do you think I should interview? And I think that’s a great question because that just opens up not only more relationships, but they. You can see whether it’s a a good podcast or not, based upon whether they answer you truthfully.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah.

Randy Ksar: And you’ve done a good job if they actually give you some recommendations.

Casey Cheshire: Man. What a great way to

get guests too, especially, you have a great, you have a great guest. You really hit it off. Who else should I talk [00:34:00] I this show is super meta, so I’m gonna, we, we talk about things that we’re doing if we’re not doing them. So I’m definitely gonna have to ask you that question at the end of this show.

Who else should we talk to? Yeah, what a great

tip, great tip. Because they’re like self-selecting and I’ve had folks even, and be helpful and not just tell me a name. So I’m like, cold outreach. They’ll introduce me on email, that’s great. You get a little, Hey, here’s my new friend, and here you should have this person.

Oh no man, they’re amazing. And then that just, it’s almost like exponential at that point for the pod.

Randy Ksar: Totally. Totally.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah. So I’ve got a bit of a hypothetical question for you next. question for you guys.

I may or may not have a time machine up here in New Hampshire, right? So you come visit, we get some beer, some lobster, and we go in the time machine and we get the chance to go a year later 50 plus podcast episodes into the future, and we get a chance to listen to your podcast. What do you want it to sound like? What do you, is it the same, is it different? Have you made changes to it,[00:35:00] a year from now?

Randy Ksar: Now? What does it sound Good question. One is we begin customer stories in a non-salesy way. There is, I forgot who the show was. Gimlet Productions. I dunno if you remember them from way back when. Yeah, they used to do, so they record their first season was recording themselves on creating a podcast company. It was fascinating.

They were pitching the top I forgot who it was. It was a shark. Anyways, they were pitching in VCs and going through their business plans and dealing with their family but then in the middle of each episode was A very well produced ad that didn’t feel like an ad. It felt like it was just a customer, or they took the, or they took the sponsor, say it was stamps.com and they just talked to a customer stamps.com and made it into something that was really interesting and engaging.

So that’s what they were known for, is that like mill portion. Yes, the podcast got ’em a lot of fame and they[00:36:00] I forgot, I think got, I think they got bought up by, was it Spotify? I

Casey Cheshire: I think so. Yeah.

Randy Ksar: Yeah.

And I love to see that woven in. And I have a role that focuses on customer marketing, so that would be really cool for us to do that.

And then I think. Where I’d like to see some changes in the future is how can we probably be more timely and re relating to trends. And then lastly, I’d love to take the show on the road. I think interviewing remotely is great and it’ll still happen, but I think if I can go to different either customers or industry events, I love doing that.

I did that in the past. And that always gives a, I love hearing the background noise at a, an event, even though people might think it’s loud that just knows that you’re right in the middle of a community that is just their brain is just like

trying to learn.

Casey Cheshire: A good mic. You only hear it as a nice little background,

Randy Ksar: Yeah. Yeah. So I love, those are the things [00:37:00] that, I wanna weave in. And, we will, we’ll work on that together.

Casey Cheshire: Yeah, it’s really interesting about you tying into, to Gimlet. So if a, if the pod starts focusing on cust, are you interviewing customers and then there’s another customer interview in the

Randy Ksar: customer

Casey Cheshire: middle?

Or

How

Randy Ksar: How do

you see that

I think as you, as anybody builds their podcast people need to be reminded of what the pod, who the podcast is from.

And I think that’s an area where, okay, you built this audience, you have this initial reach.

That’s the phase one, right? It’s like the influencer phase, the initial set of audience listeners. Phase two is when you start getting those influencers to share and spread the word and amplify your podcast content. And once that happens, people need to know that it relates back to the original brand.

And Of course you’re gonna have it within the intro and outro, but as we know, people don’t listen nine all the time to the full podcast. They need [00:38:00] that in between. Reminder and I think it needs to be done in a creative way. ’cause if it doesn’t feel like an ad, then they’re gonna want know what that, you know what that story is in the middle.

Casey Cheshire: Ha, those are the best ads when it’s a

customer talking

about

experience and it’s, and they’re just in because they’re almost naturally real with you about it because your peers. And it’s interesting, especially if it’s a story based on the story, and then what’s cool is it adds to the value, right?

Instead of

detracting oh God, I gotta God gotta skip this. where’s my

fast forward Yeah No, yeah, it’s oh, that was interesting. Okay, now back to Your

Randy Ksar: Your show.

Yeah. That’s what you do. You’re like, all right, and here’s a story from, brand A that, recently implemented X, Y, Z.

And hopefully it’s related to the topic that you did. And then you, it’s gonna take some production, right?

It’s gonna take a little extra work.

Casey Cheshire: Extra work.

Randy Ksar: But I think if you have three or four of those in your bucket that you can weave [00:39:00] into different podcasts, then I think it’s gonna be great.

Casey Cheshire: That’s cool. I look forward to seeing that happen, man. Where can people reach out? They want to connect with you, fellow podcasters, information about,

Unifor and conversations that matter.

Randy Ksar: matter. All

the things. Yeah. So the best way to reach me is on LinkedIn. Just hit me up there. Open book can also email me at randy dot ks ar@unifor.com and otherwise love to talk podcasting, digital social customer marketing.

Podcasting in any degree, whether you’re just starting off or whether you’ve been doing it for as long as I have,

Casey Cheshire: Hell yeah, and I gotta say people check out conversations that matter. We’re gonna link to it in the show notes again. Intentional about outcomes, intent. Going back to the goal, we talked about the very beginning. What’s the goal? What kind of person do I wanna present myself as a story? All this stuff, it’s a masterclass, Randy.

So I, I want people to

go check

it out. Thank you for being on here, man. I dunno if you’ve had fun. I look at the clock that time’s just flown by. But I really

appreciate you

coming on

here

Randy Ksar: coming on here and just [00:40:00] hanging out for Yeah I loved it. I love the conversation. I learned from you as well. I love that we work together and I love this podcast, so definitely give it a good rating for those of you listening in, if you enjoy the content today,

Casey Cheshire: Hell yeah, man. And for those listening, if you learn something, I freaking know you did. ’cause I literally have two pages of notes front and back. Then share this with someone else. Be a thought leader. One person I. Or two, or nine or 4,000, whatever the number is. But good information in other people’s hands.

Do it on LinkedIn. Tag Randy, tag myself. We’ll hop in the comments. We’ll have a little conversation about it. And with that,

Randy,

thank you again, sir.

Randy Ksar: Yeah, no problem. Have a great day.

Casey Cheshire: All right, everyone. This has been another crazy episode of creating the Greatest Show.

Randy Ksar: Show.

Casey Cheshire: will catch you all you all next

[00:41:00]

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