I believe that every nonprofit should launch its own podcast, and so does this episode’s guest.

There simply could not be a more intimate way to connect with hundreds or even thousands of supporters, prospective volunteers and prospective donors every week.  Through a podcast, your organization can promote its mission, tell its story and significantly expand its base.

Mathew Passy is widely known as The Podcast Consultant because he has helped clients generate over 20 million podcast downloads!

At a time when very few nonprofits have jumped on this podcasting bandwagon, now is the time for your organization to start one.

Listen in to Episode 134!

                                                 

Links:

Mathew’s Website: The Podcast Consultant 

 Timestamped Highlights

(4:45) Mathew’s first ventures into podcasting.

(10:30) The many purposes that nonprofits can use podcasts to fulfill.

(14:30) Why your podcast still has great power without thousands of downloads.

(17:15) Why podcasts are much more engaging forms of outreach than other written or video platforms.

(19:30) How podcasts are fantastic and current ways to gain a larger audience for your events.

(22:10) Mathew explains the first steps in starting your own podcast.

(29:00) How listening to a podcast is a different experience.

(32:10) How Mathew helps nonprofits start their own podcast.

 

 

Episode 134 Transcript

Dolph Goldenburg: (00:01)
Welcome to the successful nonprofits podcast. I’m your host Dolph Goldenberg today we have the pleasure of hosting someone who knows a heck of a lot more about podcasts than I do. Mathew Passey is a podcast Guru, if you will, with a history of broadcasting and now a podcast producer, consultant and founder of the podcast consultant.com and I have to share with you that in podcasting I learned all of my lessons the hard way and if I was smart, I would’ve reached out to Mathew and gotten some consulting and the first 50 episodes or at about episode one 71 or one 72 now the first 50 episodes would have been so much better had I done that. So as the podcast consultant, as you probably already figured out, Mathew helps individuals and brands and small businesses and of course nonprofits become successful in creating their own podcasts.

Dolph Goldenburg: (01:04)
Now, not to mention that just from his collection of current clients, he is already enjoyed and his clients, which is over 20 million downloads. Now, that’s a pretty successful consultant if his clients have gotten into the ears 20 million times. So you, dear listener, may be asking yourself, why is Dolph recording a conversation with a podcast guru? Is he looking for some free consulting himself? Why is he doing this? Well, there is a very simple reason I believe that nonprofits should be thinking about starting a podcast of their very own. I cannot think of a better way to reach out and connect with current and prospective donors, communities, volunteers, supporters, and clients. Just think about it, listeners. If you’re an animal shelter, your target donor probably loves animals and probably has pets. So you could have guests who are professional trainers, rescue hearers veterinarians, lobbyists, and of course occasionally some of your dedicated volunteers, donors or staff.

Dolph Goldenburg: (02:16)
If you’re a nonprofit adoption agency, let’s just take this from a different perspective. You could be interviewing experts in the field. Think about it. You could be interviewing experts in-home studies, adoptive parents, adults who are part of an adopted family, authors and more. And so also when you think about this, that means when people find your podcast, they now find you as a nonprofit and you are coming into their ears on whatever regularity that your podcast is being produced, whether that’s biweekly, monthly, whatever. Now, while there are more and more new podcasts being created every day, there aren’t that many nonprofits that are launching their own podcasts. And I believe this is a niche for you and your organization to do some covert marketing. So as you listened to this episode, I hope you ponder how your nonprofit could benefit from having its very own podcast. Hey, Matthew, welcome to the successful nonprofits podcast. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here today. And, and I said this in the intro, but I genuinely mean this. Had I not been so cheap and I had, had I dropped some money on a consultant like you, my first 50 episodes would have been so much less painful and so much better.

Mathew Passy: (03:34)
Well, that is the idea is to sort of learn from the mistakes I’ve already made in broadcasting and podcasting for over 15 years. But you know, it’s okay to make your own mistakes. It’s the best way to learn. It’s the best way to improve and the best way to figure out what’s right for you. So it’s okay.

Dolph Goldenburg: (03:50)
You know, and I, I appreciate you saying that and I will say, I mean, I definitely learned, I learned a lot in those first 50 episodes. But you know, gosh, if I just could have even learned from someone else what I learned in the first 25 episodes, my life would have been better. Now, just so listeners are aware, you’ve not always been a podcast or you actually started at more traditional broadcasting. Talk to us about your journey from radio and traditional broadcasting to becoming really what could only be described as a podcast entrepreneur.

Mathew Passy: (04:21)
So, as you said, I got my start in radio, I worked for a talk station here in New Jersey who worked in the newsroom, help them producing the news and weather and traffic and website and all sorts of different aspects of that. And while I was there, it was around 2007-2008 all of a sudden the iPhone hits the scene and podcasting goes from this really obscure technology to something that could actually be consumed with, you know, ease because you can now access podcasts directly from your phone. And so I turned to my boss and I say, we should, we should launch a podcast and we’ll just take a piece of the news that we do in the morning. You know, it’s a half-hour just news. We’ll take that, we’ll strip some of the daily elements, the commercials, we’ll just put that out there as a podcast. What do you think he’s like if it doesn’t cost me any money and it doesn’t require me to do any work, go for it.

Dolph Goldenburg: (05:09)
By the way, real quick, isn’t that what every boss says when you bring your great idea, if it’s revenue, sorry. If it’s expense neutral and you know you can, you can fit it into what you’re already doing. Just do it.

Mathew Passy: (05:22)
I don’t know if I would say that’s for great bosses. I think, you know, smart bosses. Yeah. But really great bosses, they’ll take a gamble, you know, if they know that somethings if they could see that there is real passion and fire behind an idea and the employee who’s bringing it to them is really is trustworthy. I think they’ll take a chance on something that costs them a little bit of money if there’s a payoff. But, but either way he, you know, he’s like, whatever, go for it. Let’s, let’s launch a podcast. And so we did, we launched a podcast, you know, scrap, scraped it together, put it out there. It was fine. So there, there, that was my first podcast. That was before I was even listening to podcasts. Then I took a second job with a larger media organization and that was actually the job description was 50% doing radio reports and 50% podcasting.

Mathew Passy: (06:06)
They had been at the forefront of podcasting. And so I spent the next eight years actually producing podcasts on a regular basis, hosting, editing, producing, creating a few of my own shows from scratch while I was there. They gave me a lot of leeway and a lot of latitude. An, I was having a lot of fun and honestly, I thought it was going to be there forever doing it because we were, you know, getting into this renaissance of podcasting. In fact, it was towards the end of 2014 that I thought I was up for this big promotion that would basically be overseeing this expanded digital audio strategy, at the company. And I was waiting for, uh, an interview about that position and it kept getting pushed off and pushed off and I was like, okay, you know, things happen. It’s corporate America, you know, whatever.

Mathew Passy: (06:49)
And I come to find out towards the end of the year, mid-November, the reason why that meeting really kept getting pushed off was because the company was exiting the radio business and we were all getting laid off. Syndicated radio was tricky at the time. I don’t want to go into the boring details of it, but it made sense to get out of radio, but they decided we’re just going to cut the entire audio unit. So radio and podcasting just disappeared. And I was out of a job. And so I was, you know, notably upset. Right? Nobody wants to get laid off. It’s how you eat and how you put a roof over your head. Yeah, yeah. You know, it wasn’t the best feeling in the open. I thought I would have some opportunities for another full-time job. I had already been talking to a few folks and had some ideas of what I was, you know, what my next move was going to be.

Mathew Passy: (07:36)
And those things were taking a long time to come together. And in the meantime, all these people that I used to interview for the company doing podcasts with and were like, Hey, we missed it in the podcast. They were a great marketing vehicle for us. They weren’t even, you know, they were just guests on them, but they would put the episodes out and be like, look, we run a podcast. So like, can we do one? Sure. I don’t see why not. I have a computer, you know, as long as we figure out a way to record your audio, we’ll, we’ll make it happen. And so I as a side gig, I just started producing a few podcasts here and there for people that I knew. And meanwhile, I’m still looking for a job. I’m not going the entrepreneurial route.

Mathew Passy: (08:12)
That’s not my thing. I wasn’t at all thinking about it. Long story short, over the next three years while I was still working part-time, looking for more work, doing, you know, various things here and there. The podcasting business just kept growing. People were finding me on LinkedIn. They were finding my, you know, at the time, pitiful website. And low and behold, I got to this point where I, I couldn’t afford to work anymore because I was leaving money on the table from podcasting. The podcasts we’re paying better. It was taken up too much time. And so, you know, about a year and a half ago I stopped doing everything else and I went full-time podcast production and consulting and I, yes, now I’m an entrepreneur. Now I’m a small business owner. All these things I never thought I would be. And, um, and in the, you know, in the meantime, I, you know, tried a lot of other different ventures in the podcasting space, worked on the podcasting newsletter, did some podcasts and sales for a little bit, been to a lot of conventions and conferences and spoken at various places.

Mathew Passy: (09:14)
And yeah, I just sort of have grown into an own this moniker of being the podcast consultant and, and I love it. I think it’s a great space to be in. I think there’s a lot of opportunities and ideas and, and interesting stories to be told. And um, just a real quick go back to what you were saying about the nonprofits. Not only is it a great brand-building exercise because that’s what podcasts do for so many people, but I’d say, you know, you’re saying covertly, I would say more overtly, it’s a great storytelling platform. Nonprofits usually have the best stories to tell. And this is a great way to tell those stories, to drive volunteers, to drive donations, to drive interest. You know you don’t have to pretend you’re doing it to be brand leadership or you know, name recognition or, or any of those other things you want to tell the stories of the nonprofit. Let’s launch a podcast, go for it.

Dolph Goldenburg: (10:07)
Right. And, and I will also say like what a great way for nonprofits to build new relationships and cultivate existing relationships. So for example, you know, if you have a donor that made an amazing, life-changing gift to your organization, you have that donor on and talk about, you know, why they decided to do it, assuming they’re willing to be public about it. And now you’ve cultivated that relationship with that donor and I promise you they send that episode to all of their friends and you could do it before they make the donation.

Mathew Passy: (10:36)
Right. I know podcasts who use this as a networking tool. One of my first clients, he was out there and he said, you know, I don’t really care about the numbers. I don’t really care if I get a million downloads or whatnot. Honestly, all I want to do is there are people I want to talk to in my industry, and if I call them up on the phone and say, hey, you have an hour, they’re gonna be like, who are you? But if I tell them I have a podcast, all of a sudden doors open up. And so in the nonprofit world, if there are people who you think are interesting, who are, you know, parallel to what your mission is and your values are and your goals are, and you invite them in for a podcast, do it at your offices, do it wherever you’ve now opened up that networking and you can cultivate that relationships. You get that donation versus doing it after they’ve already made it.

Dolph Goldenburg: (11:28)
So Matthew, you just told the Dolph Goldenberg story. One of the, and I say this all the time, what are the things I love about having a podcast is I can read a book and if I liked the book, I can call up the person’s publicist and say, Oh, I’d love to have, I’d love to have a 40 minute conversation with his New York Times bestselling author and boom, you know, two or three weeks later we’re recording this conversation. There are now a part of my, and, and I’m often shocked. I’m like, wow, you know, I can actually get time with people like that. And never in my life had that ever been a possibility.

Mathew Passy: (12:04)
Yeah no, it is. It is incredible. Some of the doors that open up and, and honestly, I think there’s a lot of folks who think, yeah, I can, he’s a podcast and talks to really, really famous people that everybody talks to. Famous people. But the stories that are not being told and the people who you meet in the network you build by inviting them onto a podcast because of one little nugget of information you learned about them. I mean those are, I think would make for better episodes and really great content.

Dolph Goldenburg: (12:28)
I’ll share with you. The other thing that I love about podcasting is it really allows whoever’s doing the podcasting, nonprofit, for-profit, just as a hobby, whatever, um, it really allows people to niche down in a way that just general broadcasting does not. And I’ll share with you my own podcast journey, which started actually unlike you with this great idea of, hey, we should be in podcasting, but I don’t really listen to them. Started listening to podcast way back, I was an early adopter Matthew in 2005 and 2006. And, um, when I started listening, this was back in the day and I did not have an iPhone. So this is, so this is back in the day when I would actually have to. Um, and, and let me also say that I play in an obscure sport. So I do Brazilian Jujitsu, which maybe is not as obscure now, but it really was pretty obscure and the early knots and so, and so, like I was on a forum and I was like, Ooh, there’s a Jujitsu podcast.

Dolph Goldenburg: (13:24)
How do I get this podcast? And so I used to have to go to the website, download it to my computer, and then attach my zoom with a wire to my computer and transfer like this 100-megabyte file, from my computer onto my zoom, and then I could leave. And I used to live in Philly, right across the river from Jersey. So, you know, you know, so, so then I could ride Septa and listen to my Jujitsu podcast when I was on Septa. And, um, and, and, but I remember like, it gave me such, this sense of like connection to the broader Jujitsu world that I had not had up to that point. And I also remember thinking, um, I, I have no idea how anyone would ever create a podcast, but this is really super cool. And so that’s kind of where my podcasting journey started was, was, you know, this sudden realization of, oh, podcasting allows you to really niche down. So you know, so and that, and that’s frankly what most nonprofits do. So the vast majority of nonprofits are not, you know, $100 million, you know, organizations. They’re typically 100,000 to maybe if they’re lucky, $1 million organizations and they have a, they have a pretty narrow niche, whether it’s within their community or nationally or whatever. And podcasting really lets you hit that niche. Exactly. And then what’s more, build a tribe around that niche.

Mathew Passy: (14:43)
Absolutely. I mean there is something to be said about shows that can garner millions and millions of downloads, but there, there’s more to be said about the show that can garner a thousand downloads and 900 of those downloads are high-quality rabid fans of what you are doing, who will engage, react, respond you know, and get involved. There’s, there’s actually this a guy who owns the horse radio network. Uh, his name is Glen, the Geeky, he’s very famous within the podcasting space. And I remember him telling me that even though he has a show that does almost a million downloads a day or something, some crazy number, his most profitable show is the tiniest one because it is so niche and nobody else in the world is talking to this community the way he is that advertisers will pay him such a high premium. And I know nonprofits are not necessarily about that kind of, you know, lifestyle, but still it’s just, it’s a lesson to be learned that I’d rather have an engaged audience,

Dolph Goldenburg: (15:48)
large audience. And, and it’s, it’s interesting you say that and, and first I agree with you. And I’m, that’s kind of the boat I’m in. I mean on, on most episodes at this point we get eight and 900 downloads about a month out and industry rate numbers. Like I don’t want you to pretend like those are fantastic numbers. Well, should be happy about that. Well, so I have to share with you the main reason I’m happy with that is episode one, one month out had like 45 listeners. So the fact that over the last three-plus years, we’ve built it from an epic, from a tribe of 45 to eight or 900. I’m pretty happy about that. But I also have one of those personalities where I’ve never fully satisfied and I’m like, oh, we could be doing more.

Dolph Goldenburg: (16:31)
And, it’s one of the things that makes it difficult to work with me or for me is I’m always like, oh, we can be doing more. And, you know, there are different perspectives on that mindset. But for me, it pushes me to keep moving forward. But, you know, from my perspective though, you know, like those podcasts that are only getting a thousand or so downloads, you know, those are probably podcasts that there would be very difficult to commoditize the way advertising currently works in, in podcasting. But I do just have this strong sense of, you know, of what you’re doing is you’re building this tribe, you’re building this community around you, um, and it really enables you to do and be so much more. And so for me, that’s why podcasting is so powerful. Yeah.

Mathew Passy: (17:19)
I mean, it really, it’s because you can get niche. It’s because you can get specific. It’s because you can, you know, like you said earlier, he can write, you can write a really long blog post and, and pour your passion and soul and ideas onto the text and put it out there. But you can’t convey that same passion and emotion the way you can with your voice. And honestly, I think sometimes it’s even better with your voice alone versus with the video, the video. There’s a lot of other things to distract and, and you know, to think about and are you look right at, you know, you make an across space while you’re doing it, but you know that, right? Pause that right. Emphasis the way your voice drops. So the way you get really loud and passionate about what you’re talking about, I mean, you can really drive a message and make a connection and make it more intimate and personal with, with your design audience. And I mean, going back to the, again, you know, 800 downloads, if 500 of those people kicked in $5 to a nonprofit, for whatever drive they were doing for that month, that’s $2,500.

Dolph Goldenburg: (18:26)
That’s good money. I mean, you know, that could cover podcasts. It costs for the tire here for some folks. But it, it, there’s, you could do a lot with an engaged audience. So, you know, I strongly encourage people to think about it. Right? And, and the, and the other thing that I often talk about is, you know, so like if you’re a nonprofit and you’re thinking about creating a podcast, and you know, you’re probably won’t start off at 800 downloads, but you’ll work your way up. And if you’re committed and you keep doing it year in, year out, you will build your base. And that’s part of the podcasting game as you know, there’s very few that in their first two weeks, you know, hit the iTunes charts and there’s a lot that never hit the iTunes charts better stuff, phenomenally successful.

Dolph Goldenburg: (19:05)
Um, but you know, from, from my perspective, like, you know, if you’re a nonprofit, how many opportunities do you have to get into 700, 800, 900 person’s ears on whatever frequency it is. You know, so there are actually nonprofit executives that will get in a car drive across town to go and talk to 20 people where to go and talk to our Rotary Club of 60 people. And this is your opportunity as you build the base, right, to, to literally do every week talk to a hundred or 800 or eventually 2000 people, which to me is an off the chain opportunity.

Mathew Passy: (19:43)
And you know what? Speaking of opportunity, so many nonprofits, they host events, right? They’ve got their annual meetings, they’ve got their, you know, whatever it is. And a lot of these events have a keynote speaker and a couple of people get up there and talk and you know, your regulars will show up and the committed will be there and they’ll pay the whatever to show up and do the whole thing. Imagine though, if instead of saying we’re going to have a keynote speaker, we’re going to record a podcast. Isn’t that just such a fun hip, young, exciting event? I feel if you say an s and it’s the same thing, it’s almost the exact same content, but instead of somebody standing behind a podium, two people sit down with mikes and you record it and you say it’s a podcast recording and you just, you drive a different emotion, a different sense of what the event is all about.

Mathew Passy: (20:32)
And I think you can get more people to come out and be excited and realize you’re doing new fun, hip, interesting things. Um, and again, going back to the networking thing, hey, do you want to come and be our keynote speaker? Uh, I do, you know, 20 those a year. Honestly, no, blah, blah, blah. Do you want to come and be our podcast guests for this event? Oh, that sounds interesting. Let me try that. I think it just, it could be a fun way to open up doors, open up opportunities, bring in new blood, bring in more attention. Um, so it’s, and like you said, there’s, there’s a way to do it where the barrier to entry is low. You can do it very affordably, especially for nonprofits. And I talked to a lot of them, um, for calls pods and you know, it, it can be done and you could still sound great. You don’t have to put out something that sounds like someone podcasting from their mom’s basement.

Dolph Goldenburg: (21:20)
Right. And so real quick, I just have to say, Matthew, what a phenomenal launch idea for a nonprofit podcast. If you piggyback your first episode on your annual meeting or a keynote or something like that, you might start with more than 45 downloads the first week. You might start with 200 down those the first week. And part of it is, you know, this is kind of an incremental increase. If you start at 200 downloads the first week, you’re probably way ahead of the curve at year four in year five.

Mathew Passy: (21:48)
Oh yeah. I mean, if you have the right person leading that meeting, whoever’s going to be your intro speaker or whoever’s gonna, you know, get it going. Everybody in there. All right, everyone takes out your phones, go to, if you have a pocket you know, an iPhone, apple podcast or Google podcast type in this word, everybody hits subscribe, boom. You’ve just committed an entire room to it and right. And then ask him, and everybody tweeted out that I just subscribed, you know, like it’s right. There’s a lot of things you can do with people in a room.

Dolph Goldenburg: (22:16)
Yeah. And part of what I love about that is then if you know, over the next three days, you drop your first three episodes, your next three episodes, then people are going to be like, oh, I liked this podcast, or I don’t, and they’re gonna stay on. Or they’re not. But then you, oh my gosh, Matthew. So you’re a genius. First of all, I totally see why you’re the podcast consultant. So, um, now I have to ask you, and obviously part of it is probably reaching out to you or someone like you, but if there’s a nonprofit that wants to start a podcast, what do you think their first steps are?

Mathew Passy: (22:44)
Your step is I think you have to figure out why you’re doing it, right? I don’t like the idea of vanity casting or podcasting because it’s the hip thing to do, right? I think there are plenty of people who they or others in their industry who have a podcast, like, I need a podcast. Do you? Or you know, everyone’s like, oh, podcasting is so cool. Let’s launch a podcast. It’s, it’s not gonna end well. Um, and it’s going to reflect poorly on your brand. If you put out a product that you’re not delivering consistently or you’re not thinking about the quality or frankly, you’re wasting people’s time. So the first thing you really have to do is why are we doing it? At the end of the day, we get somebody to listen to. We get someone to invest their time in this podcast and when they are done listening, what is it that we want this person to do?

Mathew Passy: (23:35)
And the other thing is for the nonprofits and for the brands also, I would say if you are launching a podcast, think about a show that you would want to listen to or produce, even if it wasn’t attached to your brand, right? Nobody wants to subscribe to a commercial. Okay? So if you’re going to do, you know, let’s just say talking about animal shelter podcast, right? If you’re going to do the whole, hey, we need some, we need more donations, podcast, whatever. Nobody wants to be solicited. But if you’re going to do stories of successful adoptions, well pet enthusiasts over the world would listen to that regardless of whether a response heard by a shelter, a vet, an individual, you know, even just the crazy cat lady down the street could put out that podcast and people would listen. So think about putting out content that you would, that you would put out, regardless of whether your brand’s name is attached to it.

Dolph Goldenburg: (24:31)
And, and Matthew, if I can jump in real quick, I, but, and if you disagree, tell me, but from my perspective, even like in the last 90 seconds or two minutes of the podcast, it’s fine for the organization to say, Hey, you know, we’re supported by donation. So if you’re moved, go ahead and go to our website, click donate to us now and give us five bucks or 50 bucks or whatever you feel you can give and so forth. But from my perspective, like the people that listen all the way to the end, those are your most engaged people. And so if you are going to do a promo like that, do it at the end of your podcast so that you’re hitting your most engaged people. The people are most likely to say, yeah, I really, I love this place and I want to give.

Mathew Passy: (25:14)
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong. This is still your marketing vehicle, right? This is your platform. We don’t listen. Radio stations in general, their entire job is to keep you on their station until they can get you traffic and weather or keep you there in between commercials, right? If the commercials weren’t there, then they’re not giving that stuff away for free. Right? There has to be a reason. So your podcast, your content is the reason that people come to you, but it’s okay to say, while you’re here, by the way, would you mind doing this? Would you mind doing that? Would you mind donating, sharing all those call to actions? It is your platform. You should absolutely enjoy it. My whole point is don’t, but don’t just say though, the call to action is the podcast, right? Nobody wants 40 minutes of please to donate, please donate. Please donate.

Speaker 2: (26:09)
Right, But they will say, wow, those are really good stories. Oh, you guys need a donation. Well, you just gave me so much emotional joy or so much insight or so much knowledge or whatever. Oh, oh, there’s a volunteer event. Great. We should like, we didn’t even know about it. Right? It’s the same thing you do with the email marketing that you do. It’s the same thing you do with any signage that you put up for stuff that’s going over the place. It is your platform. Use it to your advantage.

Dolph Goldenburg: (26:43)
But you know, make sure that you’re also not wasting people’s time and asking them to listen. Right?

Mathew Passy: (26:43)
Well, and admittedly like if you’re wasting people’s lot time, people aren’t gonna listen, you aren’t gonna get the downloads and at some point you’re going to get frustrated at three years of saying, oh, we still have 45 downloads. Hendry are going to cam the podcast. And, and again, you might also have a different perception and feeling about that brand. So not only are you going to say, Eh, I’m done with the podcast. You might say, you know what, I don’t really want to support this organization anymore, which is why I think it’s important. If you’re going to do this, you know, anybody can do it and anybody can do it at a low barrier to entry, but there’s still a right way to do it so that it reflects well on your brand.

Dolph Goldenburg: (27:18)
Right, right. So, um, one last question. Just as nonprofits are thinking about starting podcasts. So I have noticed that there are people who listen to podcasts and then there’s people who do not listen to podcasts. And this is actually, by the way, and I noticed this across the board, but this is also true in my own home. So I love, I love my husband Matthew. We’ve been together for 15 years. He is not a podcast listener. The only time we listen to podcasts is like, um, if we’re on a road trip and I’m like, oh, let’s listen to this podcast together. And it’s always something I think we’ll enjoy. Like the judge John Hodgman podcast. Yeah. Just, I just, uh, buzz marketed you John Hodgman, but you know, but like the judge John Hospital, um, oh, I’m sure John Algebra does not know who I am, but I probably do not listen to my podcast, but you never know.

Dolph Goldenburg: (28:06)
Um, but, so, um, you know, but, but, but so and so it’s, I find this really interesting because like, he and I have very different, um, perspectives about how we consume audio and he’s still sort of a radio listener. And, you know, sometimes satellite, but he’s still a radio listener. And I’m a podcast listener. Um, and it also, by the way, before I ask you about how those two different types of people are different and how you market specifically to, um, to podcast to those that listen to podcasts. Um, I also have to share with you the great thing about this is it means I can talk about, I’m on the podcast on the successful nonprofits podcast and I know that he’s never going to download it. So, so every now and then I’d be like, you know, I mentioned I mentioned x, Y, z about you on the podcast and you said, did you, and I’m like, yeah, cause I know you’re not going to hear it because, um, but so let me tell you, I, I, I love him. I love him, I love him. But my best friend from Grad school was my first review on iTunes. I had to be like, Hey, you know, Megan beats you to the iTunes review. And then he went and he, and he did the iTunes review. But, um, but so as nonprofits are thinking about, um, creating a podcast, obviously they need to be thinking about the audience. So w how were podcasts listeners different from everybody else? Gosh,

Mathew Passy: (29:22)
I mean the one thing that’s different about podcast listeners is that we tend to do it alone, right? Even you were saying that you sometimes you’re on the road with your husband and you try to listen to a podcast in the car and Eh, my wife and I would listen to podcasts in the car together. You know, there were a few shows that like serial, I, we only listened to you together cause we got into it. But it’s, it’s tough to find good podcasts you want to listen to or it’s tough to be with someone else and be like, just sit here and don’t say anything. Uh, it’s like, you know, it’s like watching a movie but it’s not the same thing cause you’re, you’re, your eyes aren’t completely fun anyway. Podcasting is, is a very intimate experience. Even though we want to reach as many people as possible.

Mathew Passy: (30:06)
When you are podcasting, you should be focused on talking to one person at a time, right? Cause we listen alone. We listen in our cars alone. We listen with earbuds on the train while we’re jogging, while we’re doing dishes. It is such a one on one experience. And even though you want to reach as many people one-on-one as possible, you want to talk to them intimately, right? You don’t want to, it’s not radio where you’re standing back going, hey everybody, welcome to the wacky CEO radio show, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like you, you want to feel like that the podcast is in the backseat of your car having this conversation and you just get to be a part of it. And so, you know, no fake radio voices, you know, no overly animated nonsense like genuineness, realness, authentic ness, authenticity, I guess is the right word I should use there.

Mathew Passy: (31:01)
Um, but really, even though you want to reach a lot of people, you want to reach, you want to talk to one person at a time. I think that’s the big difference when it comes to podcasting versus other mediums, right? We want to reach as many people as possible in everything we do. And so we talk to as many people as possible and most of the things that we do, but you will have a lot more success if the person on the other end feels like they’re the only person you’re talking to. And it will help you build a relationship with them. And that’s what’s also great about this. Like you said, you feel like you get to know these people. You feel like they’re your friends. You know, you’re gonna run into John Hodgman one day and you’re going to tell him, Oh man, I love you for this.

Mathew Passy: (31:41)
This is easy to be like, who are you could you know him? You feel like he’s your buddy because you, you enjoy what he does. Um, so that would be the big key is to think about the one person on the other end of the Mike listening and don’t create some fake avatar. You know? Oh, they’re 30 something. Their name Billy, they have two kids, blah, blah, blah. Think about one real person who’s going to listen and talk to that one real person. You will sound so much more authentic, so much more real, and you’ll have so much more success.

Dolph Goldenburg: (32:11)
That is some great advice. That’s some really great advice. So let me ask you real quick, obviously I need to get to the off the map question. We’re rapidly starting to run out of time. Before I do them, let me ask you, um, what types of services do you provide that can help people start or grow a podcast? Oh,

Mathew Passy: (32:32)
we don’t have enough time for this answer, but I’ll give you the, I’ll give you the short answer. Basically anything to help you launch, edit, promote, uh, and Ho maybe profit from your podcast equipment format. Uh, you know, music, art, social media, just eh, we, we will hold your hand and basically all you’ll have to worry about is talking into a mic.

Dolph Goldenburg: (32:57)
Awesome. Excellent. Um, so that’s a great now opportunity for me to relate for me to move to the, off the map question. Um, in reading your bio, Matthew, I noticed that you said you’ve had [inaudible] and listeners, I think, you know, that we can see each other. So Matthew is grimace when I said that. Um, so, um, and we, we don’t, we don’t publish the, um, the, the video feed because, well, neither Matthew nor I are dressed to be on youtube right now. But um, but in your bio you said you had it quote a litany of interesting jobs outside of broadcasting. So now I have to ask you, what is the most interesting non-broadcasting job you ever had?

Mathew Passy: (33:39)
I suppose so. I don’t know if people listening are familiar, but there’s a place in New Jersey, six flags, great adventure, huge amusement park, their suits all over the place. And when I was a kid, I was employed to operate the scream machine, which at one point was the fastest, tallest, most lubes rollercoaster anywhere in the world, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I had that job for two days. Uh, I went in for the first day of training, uh, was told like, you with great. Eventually, you go in and you apply and like you just apply for a general job and then may tell you where you’re going to be. So I go in first day of training gets hold of my assignment is going to be listened to the first day of training and like, Eh, I don’t know about this one, go back for my second day of training and then, you know, more details come about what they expect and the corporate culture. I was like, ah, I’m not going to do this right. But I was technically employed by them and was supposed to be the sixth fly. Oh, the great, uh, the scream machine operator. Uh, but I wound up leaving that job pretty quick.

Dolph Goldenburg: (34:42)
[inaudible] that’s awesome. Because for every high school student that goes to six flags, this green machine is it. So people are like, oh my God, you operate this green machine.

Mathew Passy: (34:52)
Yeah. Well, I was able to say that for a few weeks and then my friends are like, yeah, but now you’re wearing that shirt for the moving company.

Dolph Goldenburg: (34:58)
yeah, that, yeah. Okay. You have out of that Nia jobs. That’s awesome.

Mathew Passy: (35:03)
Well, in fact, the shirt I’m wearing, I know people can’t see this, but this is still the shirt from the moving cup. In fact, I still have it to this day.

Dolph Goldenburg: (35:08)
So that’s also where you and I are similar. I still have clothes from high school and people will be like, oh, whatever. Like I like that shirt, like tee shirt or I like, actually I’ve one blazer from high school, the Blazer, my parents bought me for college interviews back in the day when you had to do college interviews and um, and so every now and then I’ll wear it and people say, I like it. And, and I’ll say, oh, thank you. I’ve had it since high school. And people who look at me and they’re like, how long is that? I’m like, Oh, I’ve added about 32 years. Three years. Exactly. Um, it, it used to be a sign of my youth and now it’s not. But so Matthew, it has been so awesome spending some time with you today and I just, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing with nonprofits around the country some ways that there’s some reasons why they should launch a podcast and some initial steps to get them started.

Dolph Goldenburg: (35:57)
So listeners, you can connect with Matthew at his business consulting podcast of the podcast, consultant.com that’s the podcast consultant.com if you want to start a podcast, if you’re a nonprofit already has a podcast and wants to just grow it and expand it. If you need help with marketing, if you want to figure out how to produce your podcast better, he is the person to talk to and you can go to pot, the podcast consultant.com now there’s two other URLs that Matthew has that I need to point you to. And the next is cause pods.org if you are a nonprofit already has a podcast, then make sure you reach out to Matthew about being a guest on his podcast cause pods.org this is a great way if you’re at the 45 listener level or the 4,500 download level for you to expand your tribe even more and finally make sure you check him out at podcast me, anything.com that’s podcast me, anything.com hey Matthew, thanks again for being on the podcast.

Mathew Passy: (37:05)
It has been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for reaching out.

Dolph Goldenburg:

If you are planning the launch of your nonprofits podcast, you’ve got a great mind map going on your wall. Keep those ideas flowing. Do not stop to write down the info from today’s show because we have all of Matthew Patsy’s information@ourshownotesthatsuccessfulnonprofits.com and now one of the things, listeners that make my life’s work so meaningful is the opportunity to connect with progressive nonprofits that are changing the world. And I know a lot of the listeners of this podcast are board members or executive staff of those types of nonprofits. Now I’ll also share with you that oftentimes folks reach out to me and they just asked me, hey, we’ve got a project. What’s your bandwidth right now? Um, I am actually starting to book engagements for about January 2020 so my schedule is really, really full. But I’m also at a point where my schedule is filling up about three months in advance.

Dolph Goldenburg: (38:09)
So if you are interested in starting a project in January 2020 now would be a great time to reach out to me so we can go ahead and get it on the calendar. Now if you have enjoyed today’s show, please do me a favor. If you’ve not already hit the subscribe button on whatever podcast platform you’re using, then go ahead and hit subscribe. And if you have already subscribed, do me a favor by rating the podcast. If you’re in a super good mood, maybe even write a few words or a sentence or two of a review. If you’re in a bad mood, don’t do it this week. Do it next week. That’s our show for this week. I hope you have gained some insight to help your nonprofit thrive in a competitive environment.

Disclaimer: (38:56)
I am not an accountant or attorney and either on or provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been provided to him. Formational purposes only is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. Always consult a qualified licensed professional about such