How to Use a Local Podcast to Build Authority, Network with Influencers, and Win Clients

0:00Welcome back to another episode of The Vault Unlocked. Today we're diving into a strategy most entrepreneurs completely overlook. How to use a local podcast as a business building machine. Not just for downloads, not for vanity metrics, but to build real relationships, real authority, and real clients in your own community. And to break this down, I've brought on someone who's been doing exactly that. Ben Albert is a podcaster, entrepreneur, and the creator of Real Business Connections. Over the past several years, he's helped business owners turn simple conversations into powerful networks and into real business growth.

0:36In this episode, we're talking about how anyone, even with zero audience and zero podcast experience, can start a local podcast and turn it into a client-generating platform. Let's unlock it.

0:57i'm excited to have ben here as a podcaster as someone who's an expert in really helping people whether they have experience or not starting their podcasts and local communities i'm excited to jump right on in ben for those people that don't know who you are tell us a little bit about you.

1:13Ben Albert:What's up, brother? This is going to be fun. Excited for the conversation. I wear many hats, but the goal is to get the knowledge, the wisdom, the info from the people who have it to the people who need it. And I am in the need it category a lot of the time. I'm not some guru that has every answer to every single question. But as you mentioned, with like starting a podcast, when I started my first ever show, it was a business podcast. I knew nothing about running a business. But by being a student, by learning every single day and getting the knowledge from the people who have it to the people that were looking for it, I got to grow.

1:50Ben Albert:We all got to grow together. And it's five years since the pandemic, which blows my mind, man. But I wouldn't have done anything differently. Things have been beautiful and blessed. So I'm going to assume because you said five years since the pandemic, you started this kind of journey during the pandemic? Yeah, I was in a sales role. I was in corporate. We were doing generally a lot of video, but like full service marketing all across the States. I mean, I had just started in a new role. So last one in first one out, pandemic hits, no travel, no video, no sales, no moving around the States. So at the time I was a huge music advocate on the side, had a music podcast.

2:33Ben Albert:I was still a big music fan, but music promoter Ben was broke, unemployed and non-essential. So the pandemic required me to create business Ben, who just happened to be an entrepreneur, didn't know what I was doing, but we learn every single day. And that's why podcasts like this are great. I love that. I love even how you call them two different Ben's, two different identities, right? One was fun. One didn't serve the profits in the bottom line, but one served another you know, your passion or whatever it is. But so what I mean, what got you to say, OK, I'm just going to jump into a podcast. And you specifically mentioned earlier to me, like local podcast.

3:16So tell me the difference between, you know, someone who's like a podcast, local podcast. What's the difference between those two?

3:21Ben Albert:I mean, well, first and foremost, most people don't have kale that tastes like peanut butter cups. If you've got kale that's healthy and tastes like peanut butter cups, everybody's going to want your stuff. You could be a jerk. You can be a good market. None of it matters. You got the best product of all time. Most of us are kind of commodities. There's a lot of people that do something similar to us, maybe even get the exact same results as us. Now, everyone's different. We have a unique fingerprint, but most of us are commodities in a sense. So you're a minnow in an ocean of sameness. So when you talk about local, at least you're entering a smaller pond.

4:06Ben Albert:I did not think I could be a top rated business podcaster with no experience in business overnight. But there wasn't a I had a mute local music podcast in Rochester, New York. So I said, let's start a local business show. I called it Rochester Business Connections for two reasons. One, a friend request on LinkedIn is a connection request. and that's where I was connecting with people. And two, I needed connections. So, hey, let's attract connections by having a connection podcast. And then one conversation at a time basically achieved way more than I had. I didn't have some lofty goal. I just wanted to figure out even what a CRM was at the time.

4:51Ben Albert:But I achieved way more than I could ever imagine. But I was a minnow in a tiny pond. And then as I grew, you can find bigger oceans. But that's why you start local or you start hyper niche, because if your own local community doesn't like you or your product, if you scale a turd, what do you get? You scale a turd, you get a larger turd. Yeah. Well, in my sales process, I always say shit in, shit out. It doesn't matter how good it is. no matter how good the funnel is no matter how good the marketing is if the top is not doing the job it just disrupts the entire process all the way down to the sales people so i get that uh so i mean that's interesting uh because i took it just just funny because i myself i took a different approach i live in canada and i'm ashamed to say but you know it was in i was probably 28 or 29 at this time and uh someone had just told me that the state of california at that time had more people in Canada.

5:50Sorry, California had more people than Canada. And I, and I, wow. And then my brain went to, so if I just went to California in that one little state, it'd be equivalent to trying to get the attention of all of Canada. I'm like, it kind of put perspective of how big the U S and how big the kind of the world is to me. Right. And I did the opposite. I'm like, screw Canada. I'm going to the state. Like I'm going I'm going to go try to be number one in California, which evidently would be number one in America, which evidently, right, would then Canada would probably find me type of thing. But I love the other way around.

6:31I like how you said just go small because you're right. The small populace isn't going to connect with you. What makes you think any other populace kind of will, right?

6:42Ben Albert:Not to just massage your back here, but you already had a ton of skills. You already had a framework. You already had success. A lot of people don't have that luxury when they start. And they try to win all of Canada or all of California, and they fall on their face. A lot of us don't have that luxury. If you're already kicking butt, you can think bigger from day one. And if you're not, you do need to take smaller steps a lot of the time. And I mean, it's a marathon, obviously. So you get there. It's just not always as amplified and you're not injecting steroids in it the same way other people can.

7:22So how like, you know, what are let's talk about that. Like, what are some of the steps that people can take when when thinking, OK, before we even get to the podcast, like thinking about, OK, I'm in my local market. I want to generate business or I'm looking to do something different. they're listening to the call right now they're listening to this podcast right now and hearing that we're saying create a local podcast they have no idea what is going on the thought of even having a podcast doesn't even resonate with them what are the steps that they can take to even start having a conversation or even thinking about if this is the right thing for them

7:58Ben Albert:let's do a couple things here first off I want to be descriptive not prescriptive I'm not going to tell them exactly what they need to do because their area is different, their business is different, their skill set's different. So I'll describe what I did, but I'll also kind of give the bird's eye view because it doesn't have to be a podcast. Podcast is just the case study. So where I start is the concept of being, becoming the center of gravity. You want people coming to you. You want them, it's more permission-based marketing. You want people coming to you, them attracted to you. You want your mentors, your peers, your audience that are spending money with you coming to you.

8:38Ben Albert:If you want a seat at the table, it's easier just to bring your own table than to try to get a seat at a table that you've been working to get at forever. If you want to speak on the mic, maybe you just bring your own mic. So if you want to win friends and influence people, you need to find a way to be influential. So a podcast is a way to platform yourself. If you want a platform, maybe you platform yourself. And that'll be the case study, but it can be a blog where you have collaborations and maybe you get guest mentors to speak on your blog. Maybe you have clients speak on your blog. Maybe you have prospects.

9:14Ben Albert:Instead of saying, hey, do you want to spend money on me? You say, hey, can I feature you as a roofing industry leader in Rochester, New York? And then at the tail end of them just filling out a form using ChatGPT to create the blog post, on the tail end you go, you know, can I talk to you a little bit about business? so you call them hey i'd love to feature you versus hey i'd love to sell you something so it's a way to become the center of gravity and a podcast is just a great way to do it because it's a way to get in the door with influential people and spend significant times with them and they want to spend that time with you it's not a pitch it's not really a cold call.

9:55Ben Albert:And you can do some discovery, you can build some rapport. And you can, in my case, like I didn't know how to run a business. I was better than probably 90 % of marketers, but I wasn't the best marketer on earth at the time. So I'm better than most marketers, and I don't know how to run a business. But I'm better than 99 % of business owners at marketing. So let's just start a business owner podcast in Rochester, New York, learn how to run a business from the people. And on the back end, maybe I can help you. And if not, I'm very confident you might know another business owner that I can help.

10:33Ben Albert:So as a sales guy, you're nodding, you get the strategy. It's very tactical, but it's one conversation and one relationship at a time. Because if you're just doing it to make money, you might have some ick factor. I did it to learn. And then all the clients and all the prestige kind of came on the back end just by being the center of gravity and starting a podcast. And being the center of gravity, I'd say, would you add consistency on that as well? A hundred percent. I mean, it depends. But like November 2020 is when I started my show. I did 22 episodes in a month. So that's an episode a day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, 22 in a month.

11:16Ben Albert:Then I went to three. Then I eventually went to two. Now I do one. But there's a lot of reason behind all that. But in one month, and I had already, the reason I did 22 in a month is because I just had so many interviews. I didn't have any clients. And I wasn't lazy. And it was a pandemic. So I was just having anybody on. And I was having conversations with business owners. We did 22 in a month because I already had like 30 recorded. So in 30 to 45 days, I met 30 business owners. and i didn't learn this from day one but i learned it over time and i started to do it over time i'd ask them to nominate other business owners hey i love this interview as a kick-ass leader in our local city like you know any other leaders that would be a good fit for the show and then they would open up their rolodex and nowadays it's a cell phone and send an email with eight people on it.

12:10Ben Albert:And I'd one by one meet eight more business owners just in that conversation. And because it was local, because it was small, because they aren't a celebrity on a 50 podcast tour, it was the first podcast they had done all year. And they were excited to nominate other people for the show because it was, and there was this like sex appeal of the fact it was small and local that you actually don't get from talking to celebrities on a big show. And that's how I built my business. It was just meeting people one conversation at a time. And marketing, I could get better at that pretty quickly. But a big part is I learned how to be a leader.

12:51Ben Albert:I learned how to run a business. I learned what a CRM was. A lot came in that. you know? Absolutely. I love it because you said it wasn't tactical, but that was quite tactical. I'm just trying to think of this, that person that's sitting there going, yeah, but the, yeah, but people who are saying, yeah, but how did you even, how do you even get guests? Like what happens when you're starting new and you don't even have people, you know, you don't even know where to get gas. There's, there's websites to get guests. I'll tell again, descriptive, not prescriptive, but I guarantee it works. I literally guarantee it works.

13:27Ben Albert:Local podcast. I went to SUNY Brockport, State University, New York, Brockport. So I'm a SUNY Brockport alumni. I go on LinkedIn, search features, SUNY Brockport, business owners, Rochester, New York. Hey, Kayvon, I see you went to SUNY Brockport as well. Congrats on making it big time. That's the message. If they connect, great. If they don't, whoop-dee-doo. I can send a thousand of those messages. So if they connect, great. If they don't, whoop-dee-doo. When they connect, I say, dude, I'd love to feature you. I literally had not even started it yet. But I'd love to feature you on Rochester Business Connections.

14:10Ben Albert:It's a business podcast for local leaders. Would you be interested in sharing your story and inspiring our audience? love it i love it and if someone was listening really listening to what you said you only need to do that one time it's two messages and then you're getting introductions after the interview that's what i said you only have to do that one time because if you're good on the podcast at the end of that podcast you already said it who else do you know in the community that would love to be and featured in here and you do that every time you're using other people's networks it's so simple.

14:46And I would do both.

14:47Ben Albert:I wouldn't just do it. I would do both because here's what happens. Like lots of opportunities mean, wow, like I, it's weird to say this, but I'm so bucked out that I actually don't have space on the show yet, but I'd love to continue the conversation. So the more people I talk to, the better. And then I can bring the right people on the podcast, this or that, or you could do a panel discussion. You could have three people on the show at a time, meet three people at a time. There's so much you could do there, but what's beautiful is most people said yes. Success rate, if they reply, some people don't reply, who cares?

15:24Ben Albert:Maybe they don't even read it. The success rate of the replies was like 90 % plus. And for the ones that say no, they're probably just shy and that's okay. But no one's going to say no to the, hey, can I feature you, platform you, market you, make intros for you, and all you got to do is talk about yourself. It's like the easiest pitch of all time. And that's why I said SUNY Brockport. I said LinkedIn. Part of why I like LinkedIn is it's less crowded than like Instagram. It's easier to get through people's DMs. But if you take that and you just apply your industry, your podcast, or maybe you're starting a blog or something else in your school, you could just do the exact same thing, just rinse and repeat and just fill in the blanks for yourself.

16:15Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I love it because you just take it something that most people would assume is so complicated. And it is quite it's quite simple and easy if you just follow those simple steps. And then one thing leads to another. So for you, when did you see that? Like it started cracking a little bit where you're like, OK, there's momentum here. Oh, I'm starting to get some traction. Oh, you know, things are turning around like when that started happening. And what was it that started that?

16:42Ben Albert:Yeah, I mean, as a reminder, I'm starting in November of 2020. So it's a pandemic. Everyone's cooped up at home. But the certainty came in waves. And yeah, it was to an advantage that people were cooped up at home and bored and a little lonely. But people wanted to grab coffee or a beer. And it's like, yeah, you got to follow the rules. But people wanted to meet with me. The kid who has never ran a business doesn't know what he's doing. They liked me and wanted to meet with me from day one. And that to me was an immediate sign that maybe we have something here. And still to this day, I sound arrogant, but it's just the reality.

17:26Ben Albert:It's really easy to get a meeting with anyone I want. And it's just because of the platform I've built. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I can attest to that. With this podcast as well, we reach out. When you start building that platform, people will be on it. Even the B-level people come on, and then you get the A-level. You just got to stay in the game. Where is it now? Tell us about what's going on right now for you. What are you working on now? How is this podcast taking you to that next level? How are you using this to grow the business, to impact more people? Yeah, I mean, it's behind me, real business connections.

18:06Ben Albert:What was once just Rochester, New York is now international. We do always pay homage and I have a local segment called Rochester Business Connections, but now we're international. And it actually wasn't until recently and people had to basically smack me upside the head. Like I had been podcasting originally in music, but since 2016. And I completely built my business and my brand just by platforming myself and building the relationships. So it was literally was only until recently that I was like, oh, I can just do this for other people. So some B-list people, not huge names, but some pretty big names.

18:46Ben Albert:I'm behind the scenes doing their marketing, doing their podcasting, their YouTube. And then in front of the scenes, I have a community called Grow Getters Only at weallgrowtogether.com where we put on free events and we have an inner circle mastermind. And a common question is, how do you get such good people in your mastermind? Well, I had them on the podcast first. so it's all like an ecosystem to me interview people on the show i interview people i want to learn from so that's easy peasy and the best of the best that maybe they share the episode maybe we have rapport the people that just didn't treat me as a channel like they actually were in it for the community they're the ones that i invite to speak at the mastermind so everyone every step of the way is winning and that's i don't know that's the way i like to do business I love it.

19:39So you just leveraged. I just absolutely love it. You leverage the guests on the podcast and then the right guests, the ones that there's there's a real connection there and that, you know, have the value that you're looking for. You then invite them to be a guest speaker in your mastermind where most people don't get to have access to this guest and access to this knowledge. And you're just using other people's knowledges on your platform and helping other people get the information and access to people. Like I said, that typically you'd have to pay a lot of dollars for. You'd see from behind the, you know, from 20 seats back all the way in the nosebleeds.

20:19Ben Albert:and to put a little icing on the cake i found asking someone to give a keynote is a bigger ask especially when they get paid for their time so in the mastermind it's it's literally the best of every world asking someone for a keynote like they want to be comped for that the audience in my mastermind preferred the interaction anyways they didn't want to at least virtually see a talking head the whole time. So what we do is we do is ask me anything. So if you're in the room, we do an ask me anything. And then I release it like three months later as a podcast episode, which is content that shows people what it looks like to be in the mastermind.

21:08Ben Albert:It's everything all at once. Yeah, man. So there is a master plan. There's a strategy here. Took me 5 years. But every day I chip away and I integrate different plans, see what works and get better every day. And marketing, I've been in this industry for a while and I've seen it changing so much. And right now, I feel like we're really in an authentic trust era of buyers. So how have you seen with, I see you're shaking your head. So I think you, you agree with me on that. Um, how have you seen the marketing change and what are, what are you doing now to, to, to adopt and to, to change with the times?

21:52Yeah.

21:53Ben Albert:So first off, it definitely depends on what you sell. I'm literally at a point where like if I feel inflammation, I'll get on ChatGPT, talk to ChatGPT about it, give them the stack of the nootropics or vitamins I'm currently taking, ask them their thoughts, and I'll make a purchase based on ChatGPT suggestion. I do it all the time. I'm looking for discounts on Black Friday, Cyber Monday. I'm always asking ChatGPT for discounts. Let's say I'm in a new city. I'm asking ChatGPT. These are what I like. You already know everything about me, bro. Give me some suggestions of what I can do. So that's a whole nother discussion for another day, but optimizing your marketing to be found on search for the chat bots, but that's a certain kind of service.

22:45Ben Albert:Like I'm a restaurant. I want people in the door. Like I'm going to look at chat GPT for restaurant suggestions. Yeah. When you're doing something that's high ticket, high trust and a long-term kind of book of business kind of service. Like in theory, I can hire any insurance agent, but I'd rather like them. In theory, I'd hire any marketer, but I'd rather like them, not just get results. And in theory, I might be kind of lonely and I want someone that I feel like trusted and connected to. And there's no better way in an AI marketing world with lots of noise to build trust than to build community around what you do.

23:26Ben Albert:because not only do they get to learn from you, they get to learn from everyone else involved. It's a great way to sell yourself without talking about how great you are. You just let your results speak for yourselves. So again, if I'm a beauty salon and I want travelers to come by because I'm on a strip, I'm going to market differently. But if I'm selling a product that nets me an average$30 ,000 per client and I want them every year, do trust is the name of the game because they can hire anybody for that product yeah so how do you build trust i mean how do you build trust nowadays because that's what i said trust is the name of the game people want they have they want trust and they want authenticity but how can you how are you using uh those angles in marketing today that you're seeing that there's a lift with your clients because i know you said you run you know you do a lot of marketing as well so as as this is in the marketing section as well.

24:22I'm interested to understand how you take these tactics, which I love, right? Have a podcast, take that podcast, create the relationship, serve that person, take the same relationship, get them into a community to help them get them exposed as well, right? And then use that same expert you just did a podcast with, reload that as an episode as well. Like these are all great things. How do you market and build the trust around all these things so people start to actually connect, feel the authenticity and start to build that trust before they actually ever speak to you?