303 - How to Grow Your Podcast Without Social Media

0:06 Good morning podcasters. Today is Tuesday, May 13th, 2025, and today we are talking about promoting your podcast beyond social media. And I think you're going to be amazed and inspired by some of these suggestions. So if you're listening via podcast, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. And as always, thanks for being here. Good morning podcasters.

1:25 How is everyone today? OK, I am Dr. Fey and while Mark is gallivanting around in Portugal today, what is the saying when the cat's away, the mice will play? And so that's what we're kind of doing today. I'm Dr. Faye and my Co host today is Dan and also in the room we have Ashley, Sid, Nick and Amanda. So today is going to be about promoting your podcast. But if there was no such thing as social media, what the hell would you do? How would you promote it? I think it's a fun topic and I think you're going to be amazed at some of these some of these suggestions.

2:10 But in the meantime, we have an ice breaker question. And Dan, Dan said, you know what, I think I have a good ice breaker question. I said go for it. So, Dan, go ahead. Well, thank you so much and I'm excited to be here as the Co host while Mark is away. So thanks for the opportunity, DRI. Don't know, maybe we can call this a what do you audition, right? I don't know if it's a great icebreaker or not, but I have an icebreaker that I think kind of sets us up for today. So we're talking today for this. We're talking about the moments that shape us. And I have to give credit where credit is due.

2:50 So I have a friend, his name is Pete Evick. He's a professional musician. He plays for Bret Michaels and he wrote a book called The Moments That Make Us that sort of inspired these thoughts. Today. I read the book a few years ago and I saw it on my bookshelf yesterday and it I was reflecting and before I get to that story that I reflected on in the question, I just want to I was inspired to go out and find a moment in history. So May 13th, 1940, today's May 13th. And I looked it up and apparently Winston Churchill gave his first speech as the Prime Minister of Great Britain May 13th of 1940, where he declared I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

3:35 And I thought that was fitting to this icebreaker story and question about the moments that shape us or make us. And so I was in the military circa 2008 time frame maybe 2007. And I was the next in line, the junior still leader for the my small organization, we call them companies. My first Sergeant, who was the leader of that company was out her medical appointment that day. And we had a weekly appointment with his boss, the command Sergeant major. So guess who got to go? That would be me. I went to the office and I sat down at the table and the Sergeant major looked at me. He said, you know, why are you here? And I said, well, I'm acting first Sergeant today. You know, we typically claim roles as acting in place of when we're filling in for someone and at least in that environment or at least until that moment.

4:38 Because what he said to me next shaped how I show showed up in my world. After that, he asked, He said if you were acting, then get the hell out of my office. It was very interesting. It definitely, I would say it positively could have gone either way, but I chose to accept that as a positive shaping of how I should show up in those moments moving forward. And so from then forward, every time I showed up to something like that or to something of importance, even if it was not my main role or my primary role, it was my responsibility in that moment. It shaped how I own those moments.

5:20 And so that's my question today is what's 1 moment that has positively shaped how you show up in your world today? Well, think of a couple moments. 1 is when it goes back so far. It's odd. When I was in grade school, I'm out on the playground in PE, which I hated, and I hear over the PA system, I am Romel Fay, report to the office. And I'm like, Oh my God, what the hell did I do? Now I know it's horrible. I mean, this polyester kind of stretchy uniform that, you know, all the girls wore PE that snapped at the shoulders. And I came into the office just so confused. And the secretary there, she leaned over the counter and she said, your mom is.

6:20 And all of a sudden, my heart, like, started beating because she paused. So your mom is Ty Fey, right? And I said, yeah, what is going on? She said, well, I I follow your mom. My mom was an entertainer, singer, comedian kind of gal. And she said, I thought that maybe you had wanted to follow in your mom's footsteps. And they're having auditions for a singer in the school band. And so I put your name in, not even knowing if you say at all. And I was like, what is this is such a weird experience. What is going on? I don't understand. And she said, yeah, go on. And I'm thinking, I got out of PE for this.

7:01 This is awesome. So she pointed towards the other. You know, go around to where the the band room is and talk to Robin Kress. She's there. And I'm like, so I walk in and there's this really hip kind of woman that doesn't even look like a teacher or my concept of what a teacher was back then. And hey, they are. My name is Robin. I'm like, this is a teacher telling me her first name. I don't understand what is going on. And Long story short, it might be too late for that. But Long story short, I wound up singing in this band as a lead singer. And we did.

7:42 It was a jazz band and we traveled everywhere. We went to Washington, was in California, so we went to Washington, DC at the Kennedy Jazz Center. We played there because people couldn't believe that the sound from this entire band was coming out of these 6th, 7th and 8th graders. It was amazing. So that shaped a good part of my life And, and I, you know, I worked for a long time as as a jazz singer overseas for a long time. So that shaped me. That that did actually shaped me. Yeah, I could certainly see how that would be, absolutely. And I guess anybody else want to share a moment, but we got Sid. Oh good, Sid. Good morning, everybody.

8:24 That's a great question. And so I was thinking about it and listening to your story, Dan, and to Dr. The thing that just popped to my brain was one of the moment. And there have been many moments that have shaped me and how I show up every day of the week. And one of them is the first time I got stopped in a in the hallway at an event and somebody recognized me and it gave me this moment of oh wow, they are listening, they are watching, they are reading. And that was like an aha moment for me. And there was one that tied into it as well.

9:05 In April of 2020, I wrote an article called April 2020. When you look back, what will you see? And it was about how you show up, right? It's about how you'd lead. It's about how you responding to people right now in this very moment of what's called a crisis, right? And randomly, a few days after that article published, I got an e-mail from somebody that I don't know, I don't remember his name. I still have the e-mail. And the e-mail said something along the lines up said there's no accident that your article made it to my desk today. It was a message that I needed to hear. And I appreciate you sharing these words with me because I've been struggling.

9:48 And he finished it with a rising tide raises all ships. And you were my tide today, Sid. Thank you. It's another one of those moments. I know it's one of those me too. Every time I tell the story, a kind of gives me chills, but it's one of those moments. It just is reminding you that is a content creator, whether you're a writer, a podcaster, a speaker and author, whatever it is, a video career, whatever it is you're doing, whether you realize it or not, people are watching and people are listening and you and what you do and how you say things and how you respond to things, people are taking notice of what you're doing. So those both of those were very impactful moments for me. I love that.

10:30 Thank you so much for sharing Sid and I agree with Dr. It's an inspiring moment. It's fascinating to know that someone is always watching. Anyone else have a life changing moment that kind of was a pivotal moment in your life that kind of led you either a different direction or guided you in a different way than you had before? Amanda. I'm sure this sounds very cliche, but it was the day I became a mom. The minute, you know, I held my sweet baby, I just knew what mattered in life and what didn't matter in life anymore. And the world just was very clear that way to me.

11:13 So it just made me really feed into the things that were important and really shake off the things that just were a waste of time or, you know, a waste of mental space. And so for the last 18 years, life just as brighter and lost a little bit more clear for me. So the day I became a Mama. So good and not cliche at all. I can absolutely agree that raising daughters changed my world as well. Not a mom, but I get the message. And Nick, you had your hand up next, Sir. Yeah, I'll agree, having a daughter has definitely changed my life. That wasn't going to be my share, though. I may have shared pieces of this in the past, but going through college and I know a lot of people are in this boat, but I, I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do. I was kind of going through the motions. I had started as a chem major because I thought I was going to go a route that direction and that wasn't cut out for me. So then I just went looks like a broad business management or business administration and was like, I guess I'll just figure it out as I went and really had no concept of any of this world of content creation, entrepreneurship, any of that. Like to me, that was kind of outside of the realm of what anybody could do.

12:37 It was kind of built for specific people and specific people were going to be in those positions and those roles and I had automatically just not even considered it as an option for me. So I graduated college. I got a job through a staffing agency where I worked in this tiny little cubicle at a risk insurance company and I cannot tell you how miserable this job was. I was literally in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. Doesn't sound too terribly bad with how many hours I worked now, but I was making next to nothing.

13:18 It was so I don't know. I was just frustrating because it felt like, OK, this is this is my life for the next however many 4050 years, 60 years. And I ended up reading a book called the millionaire fast lane. Actually, I ended up I read two books, 1 was the millionaire fast lane, 1 was unscripted. Both were by MJ DeMarco. And these books talked about getting free from like the rat race, so to speak, shaping the direction that you want to go with your life, making something yourself. And reading those books basically like rewired my mind.

14:00 It took me from like, OK, I'm going to be stuck in this career. Maybe I can build up and kind of climb that corporate ladder, so to speak. And just, and to ride it out till retirement. And after I got done reading these, it was like, I have the ability to build something of my own to kind of break that mold in that half that you're supposedly supposed to go on. And that's really what got me into the entrepreneurship space. That's what got me into content creation and realizing that it can be like, anybody can do this. If you have enough drive and enough want, you can actually take that path. And it's not just reserved for like the mega names out there that are making billions and billions of dollars. Like I never wanted billions of dollars. I just wanted to live comfortably on my own terms. And yeah, it's ever since I've read those books, I have not thought the same about my direction into my path in my career.

15:07 That was definitely a big shift in my life. Very nice, Nick. Thank you so much for sharing that. I feel like we can just wrap up right there. That was a perfect point to close the show out. I'm just kidding, although we could. But Dr. you're back. I think that's a great segue to our topic. Your thoughts? A little out of breath because 3 minutes it's my personal best. Thank you very much. Can you even cook an egg in 3 minutes? I don't. I have the system down. I'm amazing. OK, so here's what the topic is today. The topic is, how do you promote your podcast without social media?

15:48 I want to open up the room 1st to see if anyone has anything that they might have done or maybe that they've heard of someone do it that is a little bit out-of-the-box. Oh yeah, Amanda, I don't know that it's. Necessarily out-of-the-box, but way back in the day, Mark sent me a podcaster that was basically like in like a friend's letters. And I wear that often. And people naturally, just because I have that shirt on, will ask me about like, do I have a podcast? And this young boy was even bagging my groceries at the store. And he was like, do you have a podcast? And I said, I do. And he was so young. And I was like, I don't know if he's going to become a listener, but he just thought it was so cool to meet someone who actually did that.

16:36 And sorry. What did the What did the T-shirt say? It's podcast. Like the Word Podcast? Yeah, it's the one that is in. It's in black and it's in the Friends logo that Mark wears. A lot, a lot of, a lot of yeah, yeah, yeah. I have one too I. Love mines? Yeah, me too. It's crisp, it's very bold, so people definitely see it. So something as simple as just wearing your own flair out and about definitely draws attention to any anyone who might be interested in listening or just a fun conversation starter. That is, I agree, and I've got a little story after everyone does their share. I know Alex, I saw his hand up. We did a couple of things.

17:17 We do stickers. We've done some remotes at libraries. So you partner up with libraries when we are Pod Fest. I have these baseball shirts that we wear and they're like hot pink. And you know, going back to what Amanda said, if you want attention, that thing will glow. And again, it has bookworms on it and our names and everything else. So it's just a, it's a good conversation starter. But I think doing remotes, partnering up with with different groups is a great way to kind of promote your podcast without actually spending on even any money. Like I said, we did, we did a library and we're going to, we're going to try to do a couple more libraries this summer. I just have to get work with the libraries. But yeah, it's something different. So when you say you did a library, do you do you call them beforehand?

18:09 Do you set up time? Listen, I want to. Walk and we just say we're doing this, dammit. No, what we do is we work with the program person at the library. And what we did was we pick a book beforehand with the children's librarian and then we have the children's librarian. We have a discussion with the children's librarian and they promote it and it's a it's kind of like a book discussion. Hey. And it's inexpensive. It's actually free. It's an easy way of kind of getting your name out there. That's awesome. Ashley, I think you have your volume fixed now, right? One thing I tried a while back is I took some podcast episodes of mine and I generated QR codes for each one. I just made them completely at random. And then I had these little miniature handheld posters made and I used Canva to make them look like a scratch off card. And I used a, what do they call that blackboard paint? I think it's what chalkboard paint. And I put the chalkboard paint over the QR code so that you could scratch it off like a scratch off card. And I would give these out at the farmers market so that people would get a mystery episode because at the time I had a local podcast.

19:28 They would just hear a mystery story about someone in the community by scratch catching off these cards. So that was a messy but fun one. That's fun and it's gamified. That is awesome. I love that, love that. We have a couple of comments in the chat, Patty Carter says. Local radio interview. That's great. Absolutely. Press advertisement, yes. And business sponsorship. So all of those are pretty good ways of doing it beyond social media, Amanda. 1st I did pin the link to that shirt so everyone who would be interested in it can go to it. Mark also has a ton of other like variations of that. So by one or two or 10 if you are interested. And then Chris and I have did like ad swaps with other podcasts.

20:23 So like Johnny we have did back of the cereal box. So he played one of our ads on there to talk about our podcast and we played an ad about his podcast or we just said like, hey, welcome to, you know, back of the cereal box for Chris and Amanda. And we kind of say it that way. So we're introducing ourselves yet it's kind of a commercial, but we're just walking welcoming them to this new episode of his podcast. So we've played around with it a little bit. It's super fun. We did it where it's a similar type entertainment podcast. Even though it's different, we think that what we thought that listeners could be the same and interested in both. And we actually have picked up a very, very like #1 fan listener from doing that. So that's just been super fun.

21:11 We've, we've not done it for a while because he's had a step back due to some health issues, but that was really successful and a lot of fun. And it was great. Like shouting out and supporting another fellow podcaster. Oh, that's great, Nick. I saw your hand up. Yeah. So I, I didn't necessarily do this for the podcast that I had done this for a different business that my brother, myself and my dad had started. And I was just thinking like this would probably play really well on the podcasting as well. But we went to an event that was happening in the Charleston, WV area and we set up a vendor booth at the event and we ran like a giveaway and all kinds of stuff. So we got a lot of foot traffic coming in checking out what we were doing, who we were signing up for the giveaway. And then we had worked out with the organizers for, you know, because we had kind of a cool, cool giveaway. So at the event, they like brought us up on stage and we gave away the the prize to the winner. But setting up a vendor booth where you just got people wandering around, drinking, eating food, having a good time, like come have a chat with you.

22:19 Like that would be a great way to promote a podcast or even get people involved in some aspect of your podcast. I think it'd be really fun to do. Dr. Well, I was just going to say, you know, what I'm recognizing is the activities related to the podcast topic or premise itself. You know that you shared a link with me yesterday. I don't know if you plan to share that here, but I listened on my way back yesterday and it was it was definitely some out-of-the-box ideas that they share. Do you want to talk about that at all? Before I do, I think I saw Sid's hand up. Perfect. Well, thank you Dr. So I have two. One of them I do and one of a friend did.

23:02 Obviously I write for an industry magazine and my column comes out probably about five times a year. And a lot of times in my column I will reference my podcast. I'll say on my podcast recently had so and so and they shared so and so. I don't put a link to it, but I do talk about it and share that, you know, in my podcast, the trend report, blah, blah, blah. So that's another way to promote if you do writing or anything. And then I also publish A blog about my podcast. And I'm when I do that, I'll be sure, I'm sure to backlink to the company's website. And so if you're Googling the company or you're Googling the CEO that I entered or whatever, there's a great possibility that my podcast is going to come up right?

23:53 And you're going to see it. And I have one particular that is I know that it comes up a lot because of the downloads and it still gets it's the CEO and when you Google the him or the company because of the backlink, I show up in the search, which is really great to be able to be discovered that way. My friend Alexandra has a podcast called the design Pop and she is in the same industry, but her podcast is about office furniture dealer designers. And every June we have this really big show called Neo Con in Chicago. It's coming up in a few weeks. And last year she made, let's call them Taylor Swift bracelets that said the design pop on them and they were really bright and colorful. And she started handing them out and people started noticing them. And like, where did you get that? That's really cool.

24:37 What's the design pop? And like she was blown away. Like she made like 100 or so of the bracelets and she goes, I ran out the first day. And so that's just a, especially if you have a community around you that knows you and knows you're showing it. And because it was so colorful and people were wearing it, people were asking where is the, where did you get that? What's that about? So that's another A good promotion is a. Good promotion. You're right. I can definitely see that. OK, so number one, this whole topic was inspired by two different things. One is the story that Dan told last week about what he did in a coffee shop. And Dan, I'm gonna let you pick it up from there. That could go anywhere.

25:24 Dr. What did I do in a coffee shop? And I love how this topic has unfolded, by the way. But yeah, So you know, a few weeks ago, I don't remember what inspired it specifically, but I had heard of some creative ways, I think. It was talking about don't getting out of your comfort zone. Yeah, and that was the topic we were talking about then, for sure, and getting out of my comfort zone. But there was something else that had inspired what transpired next. And, and I don't recall specifically what that was, but Long story short, I decided to print out a couple different signs 'cause I was split testing, but I took these signs that says, hey, I'm a coach, you know, let's have a conversation, no strings attached.

26:09 And I sat down in the coffee shop and set up my little signs in front of me, which certainly took me out of my comfort zone. That's the essence of the story, though. I want to know how many people in the room just kind of raised their eyebrows and what I don't think I can do that. That is way uncomfortable. But that is so awesome, so awesome. And I was so inspired by your story that I immediately went to the computer, got on Canva and started designing my own T-shirt. And you know, when you go to podcasting conventions, is that still a word? Conventions made ups.

26:50 I don't even podcast cons. You see a lot of those T-shirts that say, ask me about my podcast. Well, I wanted to do a take on that. And so the one that I designed says, tell me about your podcast. I'll rate, review and subscribe. You know, since I'm a producer, I wanted them to tell me all about their podcast and just get into a conversation. So the shirts just arrived yesterday. I haven't had a chance to wear them out in public, but I'm excited to do that. So the other thing that inspired this was I heard an episode from Buzz Cast.

27:33 It was from December 6th and the title of it was 25 Plus Creative Podcast Marketing Ideas that Will Grow Your Audience. And we're going to give you a link to that particular episode. But do yourself a favor and Fast forward it to the 8:30, 7-8 minutes and 37 second mark because they just kind of are shooting the stuff before that. So maybe Dan and I can ping pong these ideas back and forth. The first one, so the premises is that people wrote in about what their podcast was, who it was for. And there's one particular person on the panel of Buzz cast, sorry, I forgot his name, that came up with all of these really incredible ideas.

28:27 So the first one was it's a kids podcast and his idea was produce a simple and I don't know what this is. I think it's a kid thing. Cypher wheel cards think the classic rotate to decode puzzles with a hidden joke or a Riddle and the QR code linking the episode distribute them at STEM fairs, STEM fairs, libraries and after school programs to spark kids curiosity and send them home talking about cracking the code on a on the podcast. I think it's a great idea.

29:08 Dan, what do you got? Yeah. Well, I think that's AI. Don't know what that wheel is. I mean, I know how you described it. That makes sense. Oh my God, you guys don't know what that is. No. No. You never saw A Christmas Story? It's been a long time. Come on, give it up. Give it up. So basically it Amanda, I know, I, I, I can't even believe this. Amanda's laughing in the chat. So it's a code and you have to spin the wheel and then figure out what the letters are. And when Frankie did it, he was in the bathroom and the mom's banging out in the bathroom and he finally gets the code and it says drink more Ovaltine.

29:50 I know exactly what you're talking about and Dr. then described it accurately. I never knew what it was called. And it was also in that one book, Demons and Angels, you know, Tom Hanks, it was safer than that, too. It's just a puzzle. It's just a puzzle thing. Yeah, OK. So. What do you think of that idea? Oh, I think it's brilliant. I think it's a brilliant idea. Everybody likes likes a good challenge, so try to figure something out. I, I think it's a great idea for, you know, those early teens, if that's your target audience for your podcast. So the next idea that they that I'm assuming you want me to go down that list, right? Yeah. And we don't necessarily have to go down word for word for word.

30:30 We can just pick around any anything that kind of sparks. Well, the next one's fitting, so I just wanted to be sure. So the next idea that they threw out was reference a military veterans podcast. And they did go in to the, they did do the effort of explaining the audience. They really did their research, which I thought was really cool of them to take the time for anybody that submitted their podcast to be reviewed in this way. They did their research, they did their homework, and they came back with some really good feedback. So they offered two ideas for a veterans podcast, and the first one was to partner with places like your local VFW, your American Legions or your Disabled American Veterans posts, and host live story nights from other veterans in those communities leaving you. Yeah, absolutely.

31:21 And then, you know, they suggested leaving branded business cards for those episodes in the hallways. That way any other vets or other curious visitors could scan those and listen to those shows as well. And then a big thing in the community that's definitely has spread beyond the veterans community into the civilian side of things has been rocking. Most of you have probably heard of Ruck events. Go Ruck was a huge community that started by military veterans and they suggested creating Velcro rucksack patches. The rucksack is the the backpacks that they use stamped. Listen to my story with AQR code on that.

32:04 I thought those were really good ideas for a veteran centric podcast. That is very good idea. Very good. So here's one. It's called Makers Playbook, and it says the idea is produce high quality pottery shop towels. Yeah, I know behind the scenes I think dad is highlighting one that I skipped. It's I'll let I'll let you take that one, Dan, but after I'm done with this, produce a high quality pottery shop towels embroidered or printed with your logo, podcast name and QR code. Send them to local ceramic studios and classes.

32:46 And every time a student grabs a towel, they'll see your show about making a living from crafting. I think that's great. Really interesting. Dan, why didn't you take that one? That you? Oh no, I'm going to skip that one too because I like the next one. The next 1 was pretty fascinating. And it was Nepal on the move or Nepal now on the move. And the idea of this podcast was speaking to those people who were immigrating or migrating from the US to Nepal or Nepal back to the US. And that's really who they were speaking to. So their suggestion was to create custom luggage tags and gift them to people.

33:32 Yeah, give them to those people who were in that travel zone, right, With a map of Nepal on one side and AQR code and a tagline on the other side. That said specifically, their suggestion was every migration has a story. And I thought that was what a fabulous idea for any travel podcast. You know you if you're in the airport and you see people traveling to the same areas as you and you hand those out as gifts. What a great way to promote your show offline. Very great. Yeah. So here's another one having to do with kids. It's called Kitty Wink Crew, And the idea is that you put together sticker sheets featuring your.

34:16 Oh, OK, so now this was a person on Buzzcast talking to the person who submitted this idea. OK, so he said, put together sticker sheets featuring your octopus mascot and episode teaser. Donate them to libraries, story hours and children books, book festivals, kids plaster them everywhere, turning every sticker into a mini podcast billboard basically. I think that's great. Absolutely. Go ahead and take. One well, I'm curious if it's OK to check in and I'd I'd like to see if any of these have I have inspired other ideas for any of the people here on stage or our listeners.

34:59 I, I will say this, water bottle stickers are, are stickers in general are really big for any podcast. 1, they're really inexpensive. 2 They can be as creative as you want and especially if you're in the kids space, all these kids get Chromebooks and they all have like protectors on them. So I know like Lucy, she, she throws stickers on all of her on a Chromebook and her water bottles and people like to just be creative. So those magnets, those kind of things, people love tchotchkes like that that are not, there's not a big investment in it. And if it has AQR code, great. I mean, we do that, you know, along with the shirt that we do, we also put, we have T-shirts that we make up with the QR code right on it. So it just makes it easy.

35:44 But the stickers are are so easy. You can always get a deal on all the different sticker mule or whatever else. That's awesome, and I know I saw Ashley's hands go up. Yeah, I just had an idea. I thought I'd share. I've, I've probably shared this before, but I used to have a photo booth business. We would travel around to different music festivals and events, class reunions, that kind of thing all over the country years ago. And I was just thinking that I could set up a photo booth at the music festivals that I cover for my podcast and make it sort of a donation based thing where people can come, maybe throw it a dollar and they can get their photo taken. And when they get their print out, there is the Insignia for my podcast, the QR code, all that good stuff. Not quite sure how I do it, but I think it would also be cool to record the interviews inside the photo booth. And that's just an idea I'm tossing around. Oh yeah.

36:43 You could also just have like, you know, people have like the mustaches and stuff like that, you know, the little with the sticks. You could also have stuff about your podcast, like musician notes and maybe guitar, you know, paper guitar, whatever else. And yeah, you can even turn into a mobile studio. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah, like crops related to the to the podcast and meet music. That'd be really cool. But Ashley, I was thinking that, you know, those photo booths, they're very kind of confessional kind of feeling, right? So you can really get into some deep stuff in that photo booth. Interesting, interesting. The chat room is very lively with Caddy Carter.

37:24 So some of the things that Caddy Carter has been saying is sponsor a sports team now that's getting into kind of non organic kind of stuff that would cost some money, but it's definitely on the list that I was going to read out today. Sponsor sports team community nonprofit projects in topic industries that you can partner with to create special episodes they can share with their connections. Patty Carter also says podcast in public spaces. Let's see, 24 hour podcast fundraiser Patty Carter also suggests local independent business events and he or she says, sorry, I'm at work. So there you go.

38:10 I appreciate the involvement in the engagement, that's for sure. Well, there's definitely one more I wanted to talk about and one more I think they talked about that did not make your list that I thought were really good. So if you don't mind. Yeah, so the and these two kind of well, so the budget your business won is the idea is, and this is great for business coaches, this is great for other coaches or consultants is teaming up with your local Co working spaces. A lot of our areas have these Co working spaces that you can visit and it suggests teaming up with them to host a boot camp or a workshop of sorts and providing your branded content, your checklists or workbooks that also recap episode information.

38:58 And they specifically were talking about like a financial coach who could help with budgeting and financial planning. And planning is the probably not the right word, but that's the idea. And referring those people in attendance back to your podcast or back to your website or whatever it may be after those workshops. The other one is, and this is something I'm doing here locally because I am also part of a surf company. We are a lifestyle brand and we mostly do lessons and we host a couple events, but we're building out the lifestyle branding side. And one of the things that came to me recently, we go to these tiki bars here on the East Coast of Florida to enjoy live music scene. And at every one of them, they always have those disposable drink coasters that they put on the bar or on the tables. And they're not very expensive to get, you know, a couple 100 or 1000 of those printed.

39:55 And in this case, we're going to put the surf logo on the one side and then, you know, lesson information and the phone number to reach us on the other on the backside. It's a great thing to do with the podcast, especially if your audience is, you know. In one of those environments, and there are obviously different audiences at different tiki bars or bars reels outside. But we get the travel industry here. We get, you know, some older crowds who come for different bands and then we get some younger crowds at other spaces. So there's a good variety that we could utilize with those prints. Absolutely. One that I found intriguing that they talked about on that episode.

40:39 The podcast is called Sass and Sips. They do romance novel reviews and cocktails. And the idea is partner with a local distillery or bar or cocktail bar. Yeah. To develop smoke monster martinis. And they put that in quotes or night Court nectars and they put that in quotes as well. Printed on a recipe cards. Tie each drink to an episode and leave the cards on the bottles or bar tables for patrons to scan and sip along. Now along the lines of this, one of my producer friends is producing a new show with between two friends and they just want to, I think they're the name of it is Bitch and moan or something like that. Oh, bitch and sip or something like that. And I said, you know, they need to go to local bars and have like a contest between the bartenders of who could come up with the best recipe, the new a new drink, like a signature drink for the show.

41:48 And like you can stretch this out over several, you know, several episodes. And I think it's a really good idea. And of course, they they'll be the judge doing all the bitching and sipping. So I think that would be. You've just reminded me, I actually recorded, I was an interviewee on a podcast and it was a veteran centric podcast, but it was, I forget that, gosh, I'm not going to do it any justice because I forget the title of the show at the time, but it had to do with, you know, the pub style or bar style interviews, which you've just alluded to. And there was a story about doing open mic storytelling at bars and coffee shops was one of the suggestions that they've made.

42:37 So I was interviewed sitting at a pub drinking a Guinness. It was a fun interview. So I'm debating on whether or not to do this one, but we kind of alluded to it. So, Ashley, I'll let you make a decision as to whether or not you want to cut this out. Do you want me to do it? So, so the one that you and I were kind of alluding to, it's called Dom Sub Living. And of course it's like it's a BDSM kind of show. And the idea is design conversation starter card decks. Each card poses ABDSM friendly icebreaker question on one side and on the back invites players to learn more. That's in quotation marks via AQR code linking to the relevant episode and the map at meetups, workshops, or any other nightclub type of places.

43:35 I have a question. So listen to. This, I had this idea a couple weeks ago and I haven't done anything on it, but so my question is get your thoughts on it. So I mentioned this big events coming up in June and one of the things I thought about we didn't directly promote my show. I guess I could turn it into an episode was to have somebody with me different showrooms and recording. And I have a little microphone basically. And I go up and ask like the CEO of the company or maybe the vice president of marketing or a sales Rep or whatever. Like what's been your best, what's been your most favorite part of Neo Con or what have you enjoyed most about Neo Con 2025? And then get them, you know, two or three minutes worth of them talking.

44:20 I get it on camera, so I could use it in social media, but I can also then turn it into a episode to say hear from the attendees or the hear from the exhibitors at Yukon about. I can actually do both the exhibitors and attendees. What do you think about? I like it. I like it and. Maybe on the microphone. Now would you, would you have like a real microphone that you hold and would it be on your phone that you would? I haven't thought that far ahead, but then. I'd want. To record it on my phone, I don't need to spend the money to get a camera guy to follow me kind of thing stuff, right? Right. The only reason why I ask is because. On that microphone, you can put one of those identifiable.

45:00 I don't even know how to. It's like a branded thing. We the name of your podcast would be on the microphone. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know. You might like Mel Robbins. Yes, that. Box that goes around. It that thing? Yeah. Hey, Jonathan. Hello, Jonathan has this. Sparked your. Creativity or your memory of anyone doing something a little bit outside the box. If it weren't 7:00 AM, it would have. Yeah, well, you'll have to down some. Coffee and then re listen to the replay that absolutely. I just didn't know where. Sid was going following the BDSM podcast so really hard to. Follow that. So yeah.

45:41 And there's another one. Well, this one is kind of one that Dan, he didn't do it exactly about this podcast, but the same kind of method. It's called discount story time, adult fiction readings. Post a pop up open mic storytelling night at bars or coffee shops and out coasters. That's what Dan said. And out coasters with episode details or QR codes record a bonus live episode and promote the next event via your own on air ads. I think that's awesome. That's awesome. So there's another way and that's a platform called Press Ranger and it's press ranger.com and it's basically PR in a box.

46:29 It is a paid service. I have this, I haven't used it yet. They have a huge database of podcasts that you can, you know, maybe get some ideas of who to pitch to. But of course, guest swaps, promo swaps, link your podcast in all of your emails that you send out, just put a little link to your podcast and paid ads. That's what Press Ranger is. Press Ranger will do press releases for you. So that's, I'm kind of thinking of doing this for one of my clients just to see what it's all about. So I have not have not done that yet. So that's some of the ideas that this Buzzcast episode kind of inspired this topic along with what Dan did. And yeah, it's got me buzzing and I really want to try some of these.

47:31 Out of all of these, is there anything that really strikes you to think, oh, you know what, I think I might do this anyone. One of the things that I thought because Alex mentioned library, so I thought maybe going to a library with some of your branded cards and for instance, if it was a sci-fi podcast, go to the sci-fi section and, you know, put little cards in the books that might be good. Yeah, Jonathan, I would just say that many of the. Live in person experiences, sort of things that you can put together that's going to help you drive a whole new audience to your podcast.

48:12 So I think that's always going to be a great way to just get out there and and meet new people. You know, whether it's sponsoring, networking, you could do, I mean, there's so many things that you could do. So just taking advantage of those in live and in person experiences because that's what people are buying into right now is experiences. So try getting into that stuff, yeah. That's. Yeah, thanks. I was just. Going to say I really like Dan. 'S idea about the coasters, I may actually try to implement that since I have a local podcast. We have tiki bars on the Gulf side too, so might as well hit them up. That'll be fun. Yeah.

48:53 And not only that, but. Maybe you can do a little bartering with the people with the company that prints them up. Maybe they can put their little advertising on the bottom or something like that. So it might not cost you an arm and a leg to get those done. And I saw a suit hand up. Yeah. So I'm going to do 2 things so. Mark created a shirt that says ask me about my podcast and I bought it in the blue. Color. Yesterday and I'm going to wear that to this convention that I'm going to on Wednesday as I'm walking around meeting people and it'll have AT shirt and jeans on and say ask me about my podcast. But I also think I'm going to order a backpack because I need everybody carries like a bag or a backpack or something. And I'm going to order a backpack with my logo on the back of it because I'll have it on my back and maybe put AQR code on it that can scan to listen to the podcast or scan to my landing page or something like that. So I'm going to do those two things for this event coming up in.

49:57 That's fantastic. Reminds me. When I told. You about the T-shirt that I had made, which is tell me about your podcast. Not only do I have it on the front, but I also have the exact same thing printed on the back. Yeah. And Ashley, I saw your hand up. Yeah, I just had this idea. We haven't talked. About NFC codes, they work kind of similarly to QR codes, except they're, I think they're a little more visually pleasing. I used to do this for musicians. I, I put together EPK packages for musicians on occasion. And what we have done is you can get the NFC sticker tags and you can program your podcast link onto that NFC tag.

50:42 And then you can buy like these little, I think you can get 1000 of them for maybe 10 bucks, these little key chains. And then you just stick the NFC tag to the key chain. And then you could put a tiny podcast sticker on the other side and then boom, you've got something, they just scan the NFC tag with your key chain and then they're at your podcast. So what's an NFC tag? Please, I don't. That's new to me. I wish I knew the acronym, but go. Ahead, Dan. Sorry, it's a near field communication tag. Basically it's short range wireless data exchange, but if I'm not mistaken, isn't that only available for Android?

51:22 I use Apple and it works for me. Good. I wasn't sure. And you? Know what? I used to have an Android. That did that, that did the NFC, it was fantastic. And that was many years ago, and now all of my androids, I don't have that ability any longer. Interesting. I think it's a. Fascinating idea it is. Fascinating idea. Janae has joined us at the end of the hour. Janae, how are you? Good morning. So awesome. To hear you guys about the topic you're talking, what is this that promote you have a different way to promote your podcast and I just jumped into Taco NFC because I love tech and that is correct. It is new field communication and cool to hear that they have stickers now.

52:07 I didn't know about that. That's pretty good stickers. That's awesome. So listen everyone, I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Dan, thank you so much for Co hosting with me and fulfilling this kind of wish list that I've had to do this kind of show. But until tomorrow, have a great day and thanks for joining us. Bye.