Rhea “Ray” Allen, is a podcast host of the Marketing Expedition Podcast. She interviews special guests, discusses trending marketing topics, and most importantly, teaches you how to build your brand and your bottom line. She is the President/CEO of Peppershock Media and is the founder of The Marketing Expedition Community powered by Peppershock Media, the company her husband Drew Allen co-founded in 2003, they have two boys Emerson & Kaden, and enjoy the great outdoors.
What is The Marketing Expedition all about?
Peppershock Media founder Rhea Allen brings her marketing expertise to the microphone. Listen in as she (and sometimes her co-founder partner/ hubby Drew Allen) interviews special guests, discuss trending marketing topics and most importantly, teach you how to build your brand and your bottom line.
Tell us a little bit about your background – how, and why you started your podcast?
We started the podcast as a way to share the nearly 20 years of marketing, video production, design, social media, and digital marketing experiences we’ve had while running our Ad agency and creative production shop, called Peppershock Media and to showcase and highlight our clients, industry partners, leaders, and experts. We are all going on a marketing journey and want to stay on top of all the latest trends, tips, tools, techniques, and technologies out there. This podcast allows us to be at the forefront of it all.
What was the biggest problem you encountered launching your podcast, and how did you overcome it?
At first, it was inconsistent as to when we interviewed and launched new episodes, and now we consistently launch the show every Thursday. Additionally, at first, we didn’t get the traction right away, it took time to build up to get over 20,000 downloads or listens.
What are some mistakes you made as a podcaster?
When I had to be two places at once. I had to be a chauffeur from when my family member had to have a medical procedure performed and needed a ride and because of Covid-19 they wouldn’t let people sit in the waiting room or go inside and so I had to be in the parking lot, in my car recording an interview, it was noisy with traffic, and then come to find out I didn’t actually end up hitting the dang record button on my phone and so none of it got recorded. Oh, that was not fun to have to admit I messed up. It was very frustrating! Now I do my best to stay in the studio to record with a quiet, nice mic, even if it is all done virtually.
Do you have any other projects or businesses you working on?
In addition to the Marketing Expedition Podcast powered by Peppershock Media, we created the membership website for our subscribers to belong to the Marketing Expedition Community. We have monthly virtual meetups and networking, webinars, events, and more.
Do you monetize your Podcast, or plan on monetizing, tell us how or how you plan to do it?
Yes, we do have sponsorship and endorsement opportunities and affiliate links we share on the show and place all the offers we share on our website Peppershock Media.
What are three books or courses you recommend for podcaster?
We actually produced a podcast all about podcasting. It’s episode #61. We were getting a lot of questions about how to create a podcast and so we made a podcast about it, since we explore marketing opportunities on the show. It’s there to help our listeners and in turn, we can help with podcast production, submission, distribution, and promotion too. We have a “podcast done for you” solution or a DIYer (do it yourself) training we can offer too.
How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast?
We automated the process as much as possible, and that helps make it easy. I’ve been quoted saying, “automate what you hate, measure what you treasure, dump what you don’t!” We are very results-oriented, and if something isn’t working we work to discover and uncover why and what can be done to make it better. We will never let it rest until the good is better and the better is best. I am a very driven, person with ideation and collaboration as some of my top strengths, others around me support the vision and assist me in my business, without my team we are not as good individually. We believe in a team culture, and I love to mentor, inspire, and coach them up to do things they haven’t done before, to fail faster, and forge ahead.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your podcast?
I wish I had the confidence to monetize our podcast sooner, I had to learn how to make sponsorships, endorsements and affiliates a part of the show earlier.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your audience?
There is no one effective single thing but a combination of many things such as asking the guests on our show to share it with their audience, leave us a review, to follow our social media platforms so that we can tag them when we share their episode on social media, and being interviewed on other people’s podcasts helps as well.
What is your definition of success?
My definition of success is being able to help others tell their story, doing what I love to do, and being rewarded with love and respect for all my accomplishments in life.
If you had to start a brand-new podcast today, what are the steps you would take?
I would start with why as Simon Sinek says, why do you want this podcast, who is your audience, why do you want to serve them, what’s your purpose. Then I’d make a plan, a strategy, a timeline, a budget, a marketing plan, and determine what the KPI (key performance indicators) will be, and test it all out and then launch it.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters?
My grandma always said, if at first, you don’t succeed, try and try again until you do. Record yourself and do a dry run through, see how you sound, what things did you say that you liked, what did you not like, and what can you do better next time?
What is your favorite quote?
I love storytelling at its finest, and my favorite quotes come from the film, “Princess Bride” which cleverly balances romance, choreographed swordplay, satire, and imaginative fantasy without missing a beat. Very few films can accomplish such a variety of genre twists. Reiner’s film owes much to the William Goldman novel on which it is based. And so the best quote of all time…
MAN IN BLACK
… as … you … wish…
BUTTERCUP
Oh, my sweet Westley; what have I
done?
WESTLEY
Can you move at all?
BUTTERCUP
(weakly stretching out
an arm toward him)
Move? You’re alive. If you want,
I can fly.
WESTLEY
I told you, “I would always come
for you.” Why didn’t you wait for
me?
BUTTERCUP
Well … you were dead.
WESTLEY
Death cannot stop true love. All
it can do is delay it for a while.
BUTTERCUP
I will never doubt again.
WESTLEY
There will never be a need.
How can readers get in touch with you?
To get in touch with us you can visit our website at peppershock.com for marketing and creative services, and to learn more about the Marketing Expedition Community.
To listen to the podcasts visit TheMarketingExpedition.com/podcasts.
Follow us on all social media platforms and ask to join the marketing expedition members group on Facebook, oh and I’m on Clubhouse now too as a moderator, find me @rheaallen.
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