JP Gaston: Creating Award-Winner Podcasts

JP Gaston

JP Gaston is the co-founder and host of The Biz Dojo, a podcast focused on providing insight from the masters of the industry for everyone to learn. He is a registered Project Management Professional, with over 20 years of leadership and facilitation experience. He holds a certification in Workplace Mental Health LeadershipMental Wellness Coaching and is a Certified Life Coach. He’s also a musician who has toured across the country playing for audiences of all sizes and has over 10 years of experience in broadcasting.

A 4-time nominee as one of Calgary’s Top40 Under40, JP Gaston has been featured in Fobes for his insight on bias in the workplace. His broad experience and progressive leadership journey have given him a unique understanding of business and team leadership. His interest in psychology, mental wellness, and marketing also factor into his leadership style.

Always looking to inspire and motivate, JP Gaston also spends time as a volunteer and supporter of several local, national and international charities.

When he isn’t coaching, facilitating, or podcasting – JP recharges his battery through music and sport. You can usually find him at the hockey rink, baseball diamond, or on the golf course. His world-view is also shaped by travel and adventure, with inspiration drawn from time spent in Africa, Spain, Japan, Scotland, and other countries around the world.

What is The Biz Dojo all about?

The Biz Dojo is a podcast that shares stories of successful and interesting individuals across all industries, and all walks of life. We’ve had CEO’s, sports icons and national champions, renowned celebrity chefs, local entrepreneurs, executive coaches, non-profits, and more. Our philosophy is that anyone can be a master and that success is relative and personal for everyone. Our focus is on bringing in those who have found success and share their stories of triumph, failure, and lessons learned along the way so that others may learn.

Tell us a little bit about your personal background – how, and why you started your podcast?

Seth Anderson and I (JP Gaston) started The Biz Dojo out of a shared love of learning, leadership, and all things business. We both have extensive experience as senior leaders and have had a broad range of experiences along the way that have connected us to some really interesting individuals. 

For my part, I have previously worked in radio, toured in bands across the country, and held leadership positions in both small businesses and large corporations. I am also a certified Project Management Professional, Life Coach, and Mental Well-Being coach. Each of these experiences helped to connect me to different industries, and a wide variety of viewpoints. It has helped to shape who I became as a leader, and who I continue to become as I learn more. 

Seth and I met one afternoon back in August and decided that we should look at bringing our shared experience and expertise, love for learning, and networks together. So, we drafted up a plan for the show, and just went for it – both feet in. It had a few changes after launch as we refined the framework and got more feedback from friends, family, and fans. 

What was the biggest problem you encountered launching your podcast and how did you overcome it?

There’s a lot to learn about launching a podcast. Luckily, we’re planners. A lot of those start-up challenges many podcasts face have been a bit smoother for us. This is a result of our planning and our existing experience in broadcasting, facilitating, interviewing, etc. 

Where we did have some challenges at launch was really around listenership. Where you might think strong support already exists, for example with friends or family, it simply doesn’t translate to listens. Not everyone is into podcasts, and even then not everyone is into whatever podcast venture you might be taking. We better understand this now and have worked hard at our social game – expanding our reach from a few hundred at the start to well over 100,000 for our second season. It’s incredible what a little extra effort and strategy can do for social reach. 

People often think starting a podcast is easy – and it is. But starting a good podcast, and taking the time to give it the attention it deserves, and making sure your guests shine their absolute best – that’s hard. 

What are some mistakes you made as a podcaster?

We aren’t risk-averse, which in itself might be a mistake. I believe our biggest mistake is in underestimating the cost and time required to put out a quality product. It isn’t just an hour a week recording – it’s the time on social, promoting, editing, finding guests, making interview kits. All those things that go on behind the scenes. While I had some exposure to this as a broadcaster, I never wore all the hats at once. Now, with just two of us running the podcast, we’re having to put on all the hats. We love the work – it’s just a lot more than we had anticipated. 

Do you have any other projects or businesses you working on? 

Right now, our focus is on The Biz Dojo. We’ve gained a lot of notoriety in a very short time, and with that comes an opportunity to grow quite rapidly. So, for now – we’re focused on this passion-project. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some things we’re doing a bit adjacent to our main project. We’ve launched merchandise, a line of coffee, and several other items are in the works. While these could be argued to be the same project/business, it’s so vastly different that it really is its own separate project.

Do you monetize your Podcast, or plan on monetizing, tell us how or how you plan to do it? 

We do some monetization currently, though we operate in a not-for-profit model. Our intent is to share our knowledge and experiences, and the stories of others to help leaders from any industry grow. The podcast has some expenses to help enable that mission, and as a result, we do have 2 key sponsors. They help to offset the cost of just creating and maintaining the podcast and our brand. 

We are looking to expand our monetization, and are always seeking unique ways to do that. One way we are exploring is definitely around the merch and coffee brand we’ve created. We have created many great partnerships and relationships through this venture, and leveraging those contacts to help us find new and unique ways to monetize further is our goal. For now, we run a pre-roll sponsor add, and have an in-show sponsor for a specific ‘segment’ of the show each week. 

What are three books or courses you recommend for podcaster?

I strongly recommend either a broadcasting or audio engineering course. You can save yourself a lot of money doing all the audio mastering and whatnot yourself. Now, it’s not a simple process to get things right. There are many great services out there to help – but I say, learn it yourself. It’s worthwhile! There are a lot of great courses out there, as well as YouTube channels. My favorite is Mike Russell YouTube Channel, who also offers courses for those interested. 

Depending on your type of podcast, my second piece of advice is to listen to a similar style of podcasts. It doesn’t have to be in your precise niche – i.e. you could listen to a comedic interview program, even though you’re doing a business interview-style program. This will help teach you the general framework and will make sure you don’t just follow the same formulas as every other podcast in your genre/market. It will help you stand out. 

Finally, as far as an actual book goes – I would recommend “So You Want To Start A Podcast by Kristen Meinzer. It’s really well written and provides valuable insight for those looking to dip a toe (or a whole leg) into the podcasting pool. 

How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast? 

It’s so much easier when what you’re doing is a true passion. It’s not only something we feel in our podcast, but also something we have noted from every single one of our guests on the show. They are all successful in their fields, and it’s because they have built a foundation upon something they’re truly passionate about. 

Hearing stories of others every week and what motivates them also helps fuel our fires. We not only pursue our passion, but are constantly looking at how we can improve ourselves to better deliver our product, or connect with our customers. This ongoing pursuit helps to keep us feeling fresh and invigorated. 

What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your podcast?

We did a lot of research going in, but the one thing I wish we knew – or at least, better understood – was how difficult it can be to build that social network. Even using your existing networks to try and get things off the ground is difficult. Getting reviews, likes, comments, engagements on posts – it’s a lot tougher than you might think. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your audience?

In our case, and in most situations with a podcast – especially an interview-based style – the best strategy has been playing the social game. This isn’t just about our posts, but also engaging others to follow up and promote the show on our behalf. This includes guests. 

We have some guests with incredible networks, and our most listened to shows are the ones where they actively share with their social networks too. Word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to grow your audience. For a podcast with guests – use them to help shout it from rooftops. 

What is your definition of success? 

Success is relative and highly subjective. For some it’s money, or power for others, some seek fame – for our part, success was passed a long time ago. Success for us is to share interesting stories that help both ourselves and others to grow. Just a few episodes in, we were already getting listens around the world, and hearing some incredible feedback from our listeners (and not just the family/friends!) 

Now, we have an ever-evolving list of goals. As we sit at 1500 listeners, we target 2000. We look to expand our Facebook audience by X, or our LinkedIn followers by Y. It’s about sustained growth right now, and so success (at the moment) will be to continue to grow and share our story and our podcasts with those who might benefit. 

If you had to start a brand-new podcast today, what are the steps you would take?

The most critical step would be to create a plan. I would focus on putting together a solid mission and/or vision statement for the podcast and outline my entire first season. This is important, as it would allow me to focus on the many items that pop up during the first few weeks of production. Create a schedule, stick to it. 

The outline should also have outlines for things like “how will I record”, “how will I edit”, “what program will I use to interview”, etc. It should also be where you set the frequency of the podcast, and I would approach that by understanding how often my listeners want to consume information. 

For example, a daily podcast about the Emmys is probably a bit too much. A monthly podcast about stock prices probably isn’t enough. I’d want to find the sweet-spot of episode release timing, and episode length (are you a 10min podcast? 4 hours? And why is that the right amount of time?), 

I would get detailed on my summary for the show and would hen iterate on a good show name and catchphrase/slogan. 

Finally, I would start producing episodes. Ideally, I would get 3 or 4 episodes under my belt and edited before launch. This would give me a bit of a buffer in the event a guest cancels, or I become ill and can’t record one week, for example. It’s exceedingly difficult to plan, prep, interview, edit, post and support a podcast episode in real-time. Some buffer is necessary to take off the constant pressure of pumping out content. 

Finally – with everything ready to go, I would launch, post on social platforms, and have a podcast party where my friends all come over and help me spread the word, post supporting comments/likes/subscribers on all the social platforms. 

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters? 

Podcasting is both an art and a science. Take the time to get to know both sides – the technical and non-technical elements of podcasting. It will take some work, but it gets easier over time. Podcasting can be an amazingly rewarding experience when done properly. A little work on the front end will make your experience that much better and will let you focus on delivering a great product in the end. Be bold, explore whatever you feel needs exploring, and don’t be afraid to stand out by doing something different. You are unique, and you’re thinking of doing a podcast to have that unique perspective heard – let it shine through. Be respectful of others, be humble even through successes, and remember to smile and love what you do. More than words, that love of podcasting finds its way to the ears of your listeners. So, in the simplest terms – set yourself up before you start, don’t be afraid to take risks, and most of all – embrace the journey you’re setting out on. You’ll be great! 

Of course – let me know of your podcast too. If any of this inspired you, I’d love to check it out. If you have questions, I’m happy to help however I can. 

What is your favorite quote?

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.

Jimmy Carter

How can readers get in touch with you? 

The best way to connect is either through our website: www.thebizdojo.com, or connect with me through the social pages for our podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram or Twitter using @bizdojopodcast.

Podcaster Entrepreneur: Darrell Evans – Uncover the Journey of Mindshift Podcast

 

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Opinions expressed by interviewee participants are their own. 


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