Your B2B podcast looks and sounds like Diary of a CEO. That's NOT a compliment!

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That was the moment everything changed.
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We had to rethink everything.
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This is the conversation nobody in our industry is having
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You know what you just heard.
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You've heard it about 4,000 times on LinkedIn, on YouTube,
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in Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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Every single podcast that has launched in the past three years does exactly
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the same thing, including a lot of podcasts that I consult with.
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No matter how much I tell them, "Don't do it. It's, it's done. It's holding
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you back," they all still default to it.
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That drawn-out, cinematic, mixed-up, out-of-context montage.
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Because they all think having a bit of dramatic emotional music
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is substitute for zero substance.
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And here's the beautiful irony.
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People are doing it while sharing posts on LinkedIn about
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the importance of standing out.
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So let's talk about that.
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Welcome to B2B Podcasting Insights.
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I'm Neil Velio, founder of Podnos Podcasting.
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We are a podcast agency that help brands and individuals like you to get better
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results from podcasts, whether that be through the production, the marketing,
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or just generally telling you where you're getting things a little bit wrong.
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We're not here to shame you.
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We're here to help you grow.
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So back to the point of this episode then.
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Here's a thing that happens in B2B podcasting, branded podcasting
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in general, that would be funny if it wasn't quite so baffling.
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Someone spots a problem, they articulate it quite well, clearly.
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They post about it with evident intelligence.
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68% of sellers all look the same to their ideal buyers.
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Buyers can't tell you apart.
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Nobody differentiates on anything that actually matters.
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And the post gets engagement because it's true.
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It's wise.
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It is good perceived wisdom.
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And people are sharing that perceived wisdom because it confirms everything
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that they've suspected for a while.
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And then that same person goes and makes a podcast that looks identical to the
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one that their competition is making.
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Now, look, I'm not singling anyone out here.
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Well, I kind of am.
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But I'm not doing it behind their backs.
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I have told them to their faces that I found the post quite ironic.
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But it does lead us into a really important topic that is
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useful for all branded podcasters to be able to learn from.
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So let's do that.
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Let me tell you about this LinkedIn post that I saw just the other day.
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Uh, someone, a smart person, clearly knows her stuff, shared a
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stat that 68% of sellers look and sound the same to their buyers.
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Now, this post had big engagement, lots of people, mm, mm, nodding in
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the comments, lots of congratulatory pats on the shoulder, "Yes, you go.
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Well done,"
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and a few people tagging their colleagues and peers with that very specific kind
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of energy of, "Oh, this is definitely about you, not me." And then in the
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same post where they were talking about the importance of differentiation
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to stand out from competitors, they posted a clip of their podcast
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intro, and when I was watching it, I thought, " This is familiar territory."
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The swelling music, the dramatic pauses, the carefully edited montages
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of themselves saying really poignant things, but with not much context,
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almost like they want you to watch or listen to the thing in full
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to grab what's really going on.
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Yeah.
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It looked and sounded like the Yodel Van had turned up with their team new order
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with a carbon copy of Diary of a CEO.
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Someone in their team had been obviously watching a load of Bartlett
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content and thought, "Yeah, this is the kind of stuff we should be
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making." Now, I wanna be really clear, I'm not singling these people out.
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I'm not here to bully people that are trying to get content out.
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I get it, and the temptation is there.
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You see something that seems to be working, and you want
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to recreate the formula.
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I'm not going after any specific individuals on the internet here.
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I mean, for a start, that's not particularly useful of our time together
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here on these episodes every week.
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We see it every day on LinkedIn, the post that's talking about differentiation and
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needing to stand out from your competitors before posting exactly the same content
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that your competitors are posting.
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Now look, here's the thing.
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Diary of a CEO is genuinely quite a slick-looking show if you take it in
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the context of a YouTube video series that happens to also kinda be a podcast.
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Looks great, sounds great, not gonna fault that.
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It's done a certain way.
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It's got a certain feel to it.
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It's recognizable.
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It's kind of its own brand.
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And so what happens is when people are trying to build something that also
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signals a look, a feel, a brand, what they're instinctively doing is looking
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at what they think already works and going, "Yeah, we need to do that.
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That looks great.
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That stands out What they're not realizing is that even the cheapest of
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shows that don't even have a team are trying to achieve the same look and feel.
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They're trying to achieve the same sound.
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You click play on your Apple Podcasts playlist and you hear
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podcast after podcast after podcast that has the dramatic intro
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music and three or four layered out-of-context clips running over it.
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It's been done to death.
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Even the lighting has its own branding now.
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So you see, this is the thing.
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Podcasts are operating on a couple of levels.
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You've got the container, which is for video, the pretty visuals, the
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captions flying around all over the screen, the dramatic sound on
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the audio version, the clips, the way that they work out of context.
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All of that is nice packaging, the container.
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And then the contents is the stuff of substance contained within that.
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So the reason for me to listen to the founder story, the takeaways and insights
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I'm gonna gain from engaging in that content for a specific period of time.
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The container's the easy bit.
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It's just an aesthetic choice you can apply in post-production.
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The content, now that's the hard part.
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The working theory presumably is if you produce something that
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looks like a successful podcast, sounds like a successful podcast,
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then you've got a successful podcast And you can trade on that.
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Which is a bit like buying a Michelin star restaurant style apron and
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then shoving your lasagna in the microwave and expecting chef's kiss.
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It's not gonna happen.
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Now let's talk about what happens on the other end of this, because there is a
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real human being who is your ideal buyer, that decision-maker that you've been
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trying to reach out to with your content.
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At some point, they're landing on your podcast.
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Maybe someone sent them a link.
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Maybe it's just randomly shown up in their Apple Podcasts library
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or in their YouTube algorithm.
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Maybe they found it by searching for it.
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Maybe they'd heard something about you and did a little bit of research.
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Maybe they were just randomly browsing Spotify at 11 o'clock looking for
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stuff to listen to for the coming week.
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Either way, they press play.
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Your dramatic music sting fires up loudly in their ears at full zero dB.
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Your carefully edited montage tease begins.
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And they watch a carefully acted version of you stare meaningfully into
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the distance while a quote pops up and then fades over a dark background.
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If they're listening to you, they're hearing the rush and crescendo of
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the cinematic music impacting, boom, and fading gently as your breathy
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words sizzle through their earbud.
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And what do they think?
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" Wow, this podcast's really trying to look and sound like Die of a CEO."
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Not, " Oh, this company clearly understands my situation." Not, "I should
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probably book a call with these people.
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They seem to have all the answers." Just, " Wow, I've heard this sort of thing
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before. Same music, different title."
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Here's the thing about Die of a CEO, which I really hate myself for
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admitting, but it has to be said.
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I'm all about transparency and truth here, as you know.
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The show works for Steven Bartlett,
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not because he's particularly good and not because he's had amazing success with it.
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Believe me, a huge amount of that success is manufactured.
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But it works for Steven Bartlett because Steven Bartlett is the product.
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The drama is him.
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The emotional arc is his actual life and how he tries to crowbar all of his
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own experiences into the expertise of the guests that he has on his show.
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The montage is a tease for a story that the audience already wants to
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hear because they already have a relationship with the person who's
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centered in the story being told.
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When a B2B firm produces a podcast about, I don't know, let's just say
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supply chain logistics, and then they adopt the same kind of format with
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the wispy, thuddy, droney, cinematic music and the whooshing in captions
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and overlays on the YouTube version.
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And I have seen this.
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I have personally witnessed a podcast about supply chain logistics with a
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dramatic cinematic intro, and I never fully recovered from it, by the way.
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And what the buyer is experiencing along with me when that is
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happening is not authority.
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What they're experiencing is, "Wow, this brand has so little confidence
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in what they have to say, they're dressing it up in this overly,
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ridiculously slick container."
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The production must be compensating for something.
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And buyers, even if they can't really articulate it because it's
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working on a deep subconscious level, they're feeling that immediately.
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Whether you like to admit it or not I, I'm sure it probably hurts if you are
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one of those people who've been sucked into that idea of, "We need to get three
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or four people editing this podcast because that's what the big shows do."
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You're putting your energy and your financial investment into
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the wrong areas of the show.
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The truth is, the fancier the wrapper, the more suspicious your buyer becomes
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about what's actually hidden inside.
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It's kind of like the audio and visual equivalent of a restaurant that spends
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more time worrying about the font on the menu than the meat in the kitchen.
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Your buyer doesn't need you to be cinematic.
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They need you to be informed about their situation and willing to share
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with them your solutions for it.
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And those are two completely different missions with your podcast.
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And one of them is considerably cheaper to produce, but will
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get you 10 times the results.
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So if the answer isn't dramatic music and meaningful pauses and
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moody-looking dark faces staring into the abyss, then what is it?
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I warn you now, this is gonna sound really underwhelming.
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Not because it isn't effective.
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I mean, it absolutely is.
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But it requires a different kind of effort that can't be outsourced to
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a probably overpriced video editor.
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The answer is specificity.
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The answer is specificity, genuine, uncomfortable, alienating to some degree.
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Genuine, uncomfortable, alienating to some people, specificity about exactly
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who you're talking to and exactly what problem you're solving for them.
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A B2B podcast that's actually differentiated sounds like it could
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have only been made for one particular person, for one very specific type of
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buyer, about one section of society that is suffering from one specific problem
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that nobody else in the industry is currently addressing Not because the
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problem's a secret, but because saying them clearly requires you to take a
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position with some degree of authority that could put you at risk of reputational
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damage should you be getting it wrong.
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And let's be honest about it, taking a position on something definitely means
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that someone is gonna disagree with you.
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And that's frightening to a lot of marketing teams, especially when this
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disagreement comes in the public comments or ends up becoming borderline trolling.
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So instead, what they do, they play it safe and they ramp the dramatic
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music up just that little bit louder.
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Oh, and they add another couple of graphics and maybe
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a different colored caption.
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The podcasts that are actually moving deals, the ones where prospects get onto
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a sales call with your team and they say, "I already know how you work," we've said
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it before on all the episodes so far.
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They don't open with a montage tease about what's coming up in the episode.
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They open with a sentence that makes it clear to them that you are about to bring
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them full awareness that you understand their problem and you're here to solve it.
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They make it feel like your episode is for them and nobody else.
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And here's the thing that's slightly annoying about all this.
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That kind of differentiation is available to every single podcaster
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within the sound of my voice here, regardless of your budget.
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You don't need an expensive lighting rig.
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You don't need a team of 20 editors.
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You don't need someone who's spent 15 years learning DaVinci Resolve or Adobe
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Premiere or any of the other huge industry tools that charge thousands and thousands
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per month subscriptions to be able to use.
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You don't need someone who's an expert in key framing and color adjustment and
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depth of field shots and wide angles.
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You just need to know your buyer well enough to say something
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to them that resonates enough
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And be specific with them enough with their situation before
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they've even told you what it is.
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That's it.
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That's the winning format.
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Everything else is just container.
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Now let's go back to that person who had the fancy podcast intro who waxed lyrical
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on LinkedIn about the fact that 68% of sellers all look the same to their buyers
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and there's a need for differentiation.
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They had the right diagnosis.
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They just went looking to provide the answers with someone else's production
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budget, with someone else's style, with someone else's container, and their
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buyers are probably noticing that.
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I can't be the only one who looked at that post, saw them going on about
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differentiation, and then posting exactly the same kind of podcast
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that their competitors are posting.
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Even if their competitors, even if their ideal buyers couldn't
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quite figure out why they felt compelled to hit the skip button.
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Even if their competitors couldn't fully figure out why they felt
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compelled to just scroll past.
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Each episode I answer a question that's come in from a founder or
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marketer who's working through exactly the kind of challenge that they know
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that we talk about on this show.
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And if you'd like to send us, uh, a voicemail, we now have voicemail, uh,
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we now have a voicemail page Where you can record it on your phone or however
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you want to get that audio to us.
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Go to podnos.co.uk/feedback.
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That's P-O-D-K-N-O-W-S.co.uk/feedback.
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And this one has come in from Dominic in Norwich, and he says, " Hi, Neal.
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Thanks for the show.
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I love it.
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Quick question.
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Every time I have a guest on, I share the episode everywhere I can, but
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they never seem to return the favor.
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I've tried sending them the link.
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I've tried tagging them on LinkedIn.
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I've even sent a follow-up message with the clip ready to go and nothing.
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It all feels a bit one-sided.
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Is there something that I should be doing differently,
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or is this just how guests are?
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Cheers, Dominic." I'm assuming when you say you've tried sending them the
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link and they never seem to return the favor, what you're talking about
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there is that you've been a guest on their show and they've been a guest
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on your show, and you shared their episode, but they haven't shared yours.
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It is quite common, and the problem isn't the follow-up, it's the expectation.
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Most guests agreed to come on and talk, not to help promote
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and market your podcast.
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And the way to fix that is something I call frontloading.
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So before you record, not after it, tell them explicitly what you're
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gonna be sharing and ask if they're happy to help you and combine efforts.
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You can also get around this with a one-sheet with, you know,
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pre-written social copy, uh, handed over immediately after recording.
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It converts far better than a polite nudge three weeks after you've
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published the episode and heard nothing.
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Nine times out of ten, they will have forgotten the conversation even happened.
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You can go one stage further with this and say to guests that they need to
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sign an agreement that if they come on the podcast, they have to share the m-
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they have to, they have to participate in the marketing efforts with you.
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But you are probably gonna reduce the amount of guest intake that
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you can get using that formula.
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But anyway, I hope that helps.
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I know it sucks when you put all that effort in and it just
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seems to fall on deaf ears.
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Of course, always better to find out from ... Always better to source
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guests that you know are very generous with their social media sharing.
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And also understand that, to be fair, most of that effort is wasted anyway
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because social media accounts for less than 1% of your overall podcast traffic.
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So great for personal branding and great for your social media, but
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don't lose too much sleep over it.
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All right, quick tip then for B2B founders right now This
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one's about episode titles, and
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this one's about episode titles, and I still, after all these years of doing
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this, whenever I do audits with people, I still see the same common mistake
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with titling, and what they're doing is they're naming the podcast episode
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before they've even recorded it, and then the entire episode is anchored to
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that con- and then the entire episode content is anchored to that title.
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Flip that round.
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Record towards the general pain point that you're trying to address in the episode,
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and then once you've landed, having listened back to it, on the most poignant
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and specific version of that pain point, title the entire episode after that.
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What you'll find is that the title that you land on once you've taken that
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strategy is always gonna be sharper, more specific, and more honest than
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the one that you started with when you were planning your episode out
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because you actually said something.
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00:21:08
You stood for something, and now you're naming what you said and stood for
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00:21:12
rather than aspirationally gesturing at what you hope you might say.
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00:21:17
So try that with your next episode and compare the two titles, the one that
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00:21:21
you wrote before you recorded and the one that you wrote after you edited
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00:21:26
and listened back, and the difference will probably completely stagger you.
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00:21:32
Okay, so if today's episode sparked some thoughts within you, resonated,
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00:21:37
and you're looking at your own show and you're thinking, "Yeah, all right.
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00:21:41
I might be sort of influenced by Diary of a CEO," the link to my diagnostic
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00:21:47
sessions are in the episode description.
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00:21:49
But just in case you're in a position to just type it out into your browser right
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00:21:55
now, go to podknows.co.uk/diagnostic.
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00:22:00
We'll work out together exactly what your show is doing, where
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00:22:04
it is, where it needs to be.
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00:22:06
And if you did find this useful, genuinely- I really would appreciate it
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00:22:10
if you would share it with someone else running a B2B podcast that you know of
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00:22:14
and who is right now adding dramatic music and stings to their podcast thinking
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00:22:21
that is going to in some way help them sound and look like a successful podcast.
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00:22:28
Especially if they're wondering why their downloads haven't
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00:22:30
moved since they started.
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00:22:33
I'm Neil Vellio.
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00:22:33
This has been B2B Podcasting Insights.
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00:22:36
And until next time
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00:22:38
Keep that pipeline going.
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00:22:39
Yeah, that'll do.