The Secret Weapon to Getting Your Podcast Noticed with/ Eric Melchor

Listen for a fun chat with Eric Melchor, the mastermind behind PodKit! In this episode, Eric shares his journey from a mediocre tennis player in Texas to a podcasting pro living in Romania. He’s not just about dad jokes; he’s also the founder of B2B Pod Pros, helping over 50 podcasters land their first sponsorship.

Curious about how to create a stunning media kit without the hassle? Eric spills the beans on PodKit, a dynamic online tool that makes crafting your media kit a breeze—no more tedious Canva designs! 

Tune in to discover how you can impress brands and streamline your podcasting process in just minutes. Don’t miss out on this insightful conversation!

Connect with Eric:

Podcast Network: https://b2bpodcastpros.com/

Create a Podcast Media Kit with Podkit

Podcast: https://www.innovatorscanlaugh.com/

Subscribe and follow for expert tips and actionable strategies to start and grow your podcast. 

Grab a free copy of my guide: Start Your Podcast Now

Don't get stuck! Book a call with me if you have questions about podcasting. 

Transcript

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:01.075) My guest today is Eric Milcore. Welcome, Eric. Thanks for coming and talking to us on Tools on the Podcast train.

Eric (00:08.302) Yeah, thanks for having me, Rosemary. Pleasure to be here.

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:11.12) Yes, for sure. Okay, so you're the founder creator of PodKit. Before we get into PodKit and the other things that you do, tell us who's Eric. 

Eric (00:27.585) Well, I call myself like a mediocre tennis player. Originally from Texas, but I now live in Europe, but in Romania and I'm a father of two young kids. So I love, I love telling dad jokes. and then I started podcasting almost four years ago and I interview European startup founders on my show. Innovators can laugh.

Yeah. I mean, I think that's kind of it in a nutshell, but when I started podcasting, I saw that there was a need in the space for a network for B2B podcasts. And so I created one called B2B Pod Pros and I represent probably over 50 podcasters. Very happy to get more than 30 podcasters their first ever sponsorship with some pretty big brands in the SaaS space. And then recently we saw that there was a need for media kit, but specifically a dynamic online shareable media kit for podcasters because you know what a pain it is to put one together. mean, Rosemarie, have you ever put a media kit together like using Canva or PDF or something like that?

J. Rosemarie Francis (01:35.922) So I haven't done one like that, but Captivate FM, where I host one of my podcasts, they actually kind of sort of allow you to just click a button and get one. But when I looked at it, I was like, I don't really think I would use that anyway. So I think what you have going on is probably something that's worth me doing and passing it on to other people, yeah.

Eric (02:03.685) Yeah, from a design perspective, everybody who's taken a look at PodKid has said it's, you know, they love it. They think it's beautiful. We think that it impresses anybody that you share it with. It connects with YouTube, Spotify, Apple, then including the other social media networks like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And so you can add whatever links that you want to add, and you can create it in less than five minutes. And it never needs updating. All the stats, they automatically

J. Rosemarie Francis (02:29.049) Okay.

Eric (02:32.84) populate from each of the, each of the different social channels. And, we think it saves podcasters a lot of time, a lot of anxiety, a lot of effort. And so we're pretty excited about this.

J. Rosemarie Francis (02:45.818) Yeah, I can see that. why would a podcaster need a media kit?

Eric (02:53.147) my God. Well, you know, to attract sponsors, that's the biggest one. If you're looking to monetize your show, one of the first things that sponsors ask for is like, you know, tell me about your show. Do you have a media kit? So that's the biggest reason. The other thing too, is potential guests. You know, sometimes I would reach out to a guest and tell them about my show. And usually it was in the form of texts, but if you send this,

I think right away they're very impressed and they can listen to a specific episodes. And that's another big reason. I think you could land some bigger guests by impressing them with this media kit. And then also just look more professional. Instead of just sending a link to your Spotify, your show on Spotify, when you send this, it's almost like the difference being a really crappy resume versus one that's very well polished.

Eric (03:47.077) very well put together and that makes a difference. It definitely makes a difference, know, somebody who's looking at that. So that's the reason why I would say that you want to have not just a media kit, but a well polished media kit.

J. Rosemarie Francis (03:59.568) Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's like the window into your podcasting world, right?

Eric (04:06.105) Yeah. I mean, I saw something the other day that, know, your thumbnail for your podcast art cover, it plays a huge important for people deciding whether or not they want to listen to it. So if that's, if that's very important, the same thing is going to go for other things that are about your show, like, like a media kit, you know, even a YouTube thumbnail that has a huge implications on whether or not somebody's going to give it a listen.

J. Rosemarie Francis (04:27.876) Right, right. Okay. And I can see how useful Media Kit is for helping you to gain sponsors. And we're going to talk about sponsorship in a bit because I'm sure there's a lot of interest in that. But I often talk about a podcast one sheet. Is the podcast one sheet the same as a Media Kit? And would you replace the podcast one sheet with a media kit?

Eric (05:00.827) Well, with our media kit, can actually download it as a PDF. And so I think the two are, well, they're not very similar because obviously a one sheet is static and your numbers, they update and they change over time. So you have to constantly update that one pager versus this. This is online. It's dynamic. You can see the show playing in the background. You can actually click on links to your show and hear it.

J. Rosemarie Francis (05:18.834) Hmm.

Eric (05:29.029) I think in many ways it does replace the one sheet. but if you're not ready, you know, if you feel like, my audience isn't big enough and you just want to go to the one sheet around, I think that's perfectly fine. but just keep in mind, you know, with pod kit, it's very simple to create it only takes a couple of minutes. We've got a free version and a premium version, but you can also download a PDF of the, of the media kit if you want, and use that as well. And that could act as a one sheet.

J. Rosemarie Francis (05:58.33) Right, got it. Yeah, that's my impression of that too. Okay, awesome. All right, so how can we get a copy of, how can we get into creating our own media kit? One, as a product, but also two, as a mindset. Like, you know, we need a podcast because we want to do this and this and this. Now we need a media kit because...

Eric (06:28.655) Yeah. Well, because, so we talked about sponsors, but other things too. What about, you know, if you want your podcast to be maybe featured in an article or maybe possibly in the press, right? So you could send this out to potential journalists. they can take a look at your show, learn more about it that way. Maybe you want to collaborate with other podcasters and maybe do some sort of cross promotion or swap, or swap promotions for their podcasts for years. And so this is another reason why you would.

create a pod kit and send it over to them. Maybe there's a certain events that are happening and you're thinking about being a live podcaster at the event. And so you want to send your media kit to the event organizers. those are like, you know, outside of sponsorships, those are the reasons why you would want to have one and people that you can send it to as well.

J. Rosemarie Francis (07:19.538) Okay, awesome. I know I'm asking these little questions, but I think that it's not a new concept, the media kit, but I don't think we use it often enough. And so this hopefully brings a familiarity to people who've never used one and who've never seen one or not even heard of one for a podcast, right? Yeah.

Eric (07:43.408) Yeah, yeah. But when I, you know, for example, when I'm trying to create a proposal for an advertiser and I usually pitch five to 10 podcasts in the proposal. And if I'm working with a podcaster, I've never worked before. The first thing I ask him is like, Hey, you have a media kit and that media kit's going to primarily tell me about the show, which I could find out on my own. But what I'm really interested in are the metrics, you know, the downloads.

J. Rosemarie Francis (08:09.349) Right.

Eric (08:10.829) And who's the, the audience listeners, who are the demographics? And those are the things that are important to an advertiser. And same thing for me as a network operator, I need to have that information from every podcaster that I work with. If you don't have a media kit, then you're going to have to log into whatever platform that you're using. Go take screenshots of that information, then send it over. And it's a big hassle. And then after a couple of months, those screenshots are relevant in any way. And you need to go do it all over again, maybe for another sponsor.

J. Rosemarie Francis (08:32.71) Yeah.

Eric (08:40.209) So that's why having like a dynamic media kit that just updates automatically is saves you a lot of time in the long run.

J. Rosemarie Francis (08:46.65) Yeah, pod kit sounds useful and will save us time, something we need, Okay. All right, thank you. So I want to talk about sponsorship a bit because there's a lot of confusion around it. Can you tell us what make a podcast eligible for sponsorship and what can someone do if they don't feel like they're, someone would sponsor them.

Eric (08:54.587) For sure, yeah. I think what makes us a podcast eligible is if they have a specific audience that they're speaking or catering to. I think that's the most important thing because if you do have a specific audience, then obviously there's brands, there's products that are trying to reach that audience and they would see your podcast as a channel of being able to speak and just get in front of that audience. just having a very

J. Rosemarie Francis (09:37.052) Mm-hmm.

Eric (09:46.609) clear idea of who your audience is and all your topics and all your shows are in some way relevant to your audience. That's number one. That's the main condition. If you're a show that you're kind of just talk about anything randomly, whatever, you know, comes up that week or something that's newsworthy that week and the next week, it's something completely opposite in the week after I've had podcasters approach me and saying, Hey, can you help me get sponsors?

And they've been at the game for a few years and they're actually really good hosts, but I tell them I can't help them because they don't even know who they're talking to. They don't really know who their audience is. And so that's the main thing. The second thing I would recommend is depending on the number of downloads you have, if you have more than 10,000 downloads a month, then you can work with a large network. But if you have less than 10,000,

J. Rosemarie Francis (10:22.63) Right?

Eric (10:39.547) consider reaching out to a niche podcast network. And there's more than 50 of them. There's a podcast networks, for example, for lawyers. And that network primarily works with advertisers who want to be in front of lawyers and attorneys. There's networks for people that are in oil and gas, people that love music, people that love books, people that are into politics. My network is specifically B2B marketing or B2B SaaS. but there's, know, like I said, over 50 different networks and I would consider reaching out to them and sending them your pod kit or your media kit and just saying, you know, I would love to be a part of the, your, network, you know, let's talk, you know, let's see, because, because they're actually, you know, helping podcasters that are in that genre in that category get sponsorships. That's, that's what I do for, for my podcasts.

J. Rosemarie Francis (11:31.95) Right. Okay. All right. And just for those who know, who don't know, what is a podcast network? I mean,

Eric (11:40.357) Well, yeah, yeah. Podcast network is like, you know, they have a portfolio of podcasts that they represent. And, you know, and I'm talking specifically the niche networks, not the big networks like Podbean or Spotify, right? Niche networks, you know, specific category of podcasts that they represent and they have a portfolio generally of at least 30 podcasts in that portfolio. And what they do is...

whenever a sponsor, a sponsor, a potential advertiser or a sponsor approaches them, they actually, you know, create ad spots for the podcast that they represent. And those ad spots, could be, they could be dynamic ads. They could be host read ads. I mainly deal with host read ads, but essentially they're trying to, trying to make the podcasters a little bit of money by getting them advertisers that are suitable for their audience.

J. Rosemarie Francis (12:35.556) Right. Okay. All right. Thank you. What is Eric grateful for today?

Eric (12:42.233) my God. So I woke up this morning and the car wouldn't start. The car battery was dead. Anyway, I spent half my day at the car dealership and we got it worked out. And so now it's running properly and the car starts. So I think that's like the thing that I'm grateful for today.

J. Rosemarie Francis (12:57.298) All right, I appreciate that. Okay, thank you. Now, can you tell us, you have PodKit that you offer to podcasters and you run a podcast network. Are those the only things you offer to your audience? us and tell us how we can get in touch with you.

Eric (13:21.743) Yeah, so PodKit is available for every podcaster. We've got some really cool stuff coming down the road. In addition to the dynamic and shareable media kit, we're going to use Incorporate AI. And so AI will automatically find you suitable sponsors that are ideal for your target audience. That's coming down the road. Coming down the road, you'll get notified with anybody who downloads your media kit or takes a look at it too. And we're trying to create it so that you get an email.

not just an email notification, but then also details about who looked at your media kit too, like the company and maybe some more information. So that's primarily what I'm focused on right now. And then in terms of the podcast network, it's specifically podcasts that are in the software as a service space or in digital transformation or web three, and even a little bit of human resources.

J. Rosemarie Francis (13:59.218) No, okay.

Eric (14:19.249) And I typically try to work with advertisers that are mid-size and enterprise SaaS companies. And so if you're a podcaster in the B2B space and interested, you can learn more at b2bpodpros.com.

J. Rosemarie Francis (14:32.43) Okay, b2bpodpro.com and podkit is at pod.it and we put those links in the show notes as well. Now one more thing and how can somebody can some can someone still join your network and you have room for more and how do they do that? Do they go to your website for that?

Eric (14:57.381) Yes, go to b2bprodprojpros.com, click on add your show and you can actually see more information about it. You can actually see some videos from members that are inside the community, what they think about it. And there's a form that you can fill out and I'll take a look at the form. And if I feel like we're a good fit and then we can just have a quick call and then I can't answer any questions that you may have. But usually there's some criteria. Again, you got to be in the B2B space. You've had to at least publish.

J. Rosemarie Francis (15:20.282) Okay.

Eric (15:26.257) 30 episodes, you have to be consistent with your publishing. So there is a little bit of criteria involved. And if you meet those criteria, then I'd be more than happy to chat with you.

J. Rosemarie Francis (15:37.572) Okay, awesome. Thank you. All right. So before I let you go, I really appreciate you coming and talking to us today. And before I you go, can you give a podcaster three tips on starting and growing a podcast?

Eric (15:56.793) Yeah, you know, I'll talk about first making the guests feel comfortable. And on of the things that I do is before I do a recording, usually 24 hours or 48 hours before I send the guest a personal video, typically 20 to 30 seconds long. There's different apps that you can do. The one I use is called Bonjuro and I record a video video on my phone. Sometimes I'm outside walking or doing an errand.

Basically, it's like, hey, you know, Eric here from innovators can laugh. That's name of my podcast. Look forward to having you as a guest so we can talk about, you know, X or whatever. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm just, you know, I just dropped my kids off at school or kind of just tell them a little bit about what I'm doing. And then also just let them know that I'm excited to chat with them. And if they want to see a clip of the podcast, then they can click on the button that I, that goes along with the video. So that's one thing I do. Another thing that I do.

Eric (16:53.105) that also makes the guests very, very comfortable and it puts them in a good mood, is that on my guest registration form, I have a question that asks, what is your favorite song? And then when they actually log into the Riverside Studio, I have their favorite song playing in the background. And so it's like one of those things that you hear your favorite song, it automatically puts you in a good mood and you're smiling. And many times,

J. Rosemarie Francis (17:13.134) Awesome, I love that, yeah.

Eric (17:22.117) I had never heard of their favorite song before. And so I'm hearing it and it's like a good conversation starter. Like, you know, I never heard of this song or this band. It sounds really good. And I've discovered a lot of new artists that way too. So it's good for me as well. But it's just another thing that before we even hit record, they saw my personal video, they got their favorite song, you know, in the studio. And I think it really relaxes guests and it makes the conversation.

J. Rosemarie Francis (17:28.944) Yes.

Eric (17:50.843) just a lot more fluid and a lot more fun too. So those are like two tips. And then the third tip in terms of like growth, one of the things that worked well for me is Quora. And so I would create a Quora post for every episode that I did. And I would do it in a question-like way and answer the question or kind of give like a summary about the episode. I would do...

J. Rosemarie Francis (18:07.42) Hmm.

Eric (18:19.957) picture of the artwork for that episode in the Quora post and with a link to my podcast. And that's probably been one of the best things that's helped me in terms of audience growth.

J. Rosemarie Francis (18:32.754) I like that idea. You know, a lot of times when we're starting podcasts, they tell us that you should go on Reddit or Quora and start following people and making posts. But I've never heard that, know, posting your actual episodes on, you know, as a post. I think that's a great idea.

Eric (18:53.413) Yeah, I mean, if you form it in such a way where, for example, again, I work with or I interview founders. And one of the founders created an app that allows you to pay your bills easily from a mobile app if you're in Europe. And so one of the questions I did was like, what's the easiest way to pay your bills in Europe? And I talked about the founder and information about the app. And I put a link to the episode where they can learn more.

J. Rosemarie Francis (19:19.911) Mm-hmm.

Eric (19:21.345) And, my God, that's gotten, you know, thousands of views and a lot of engagement. And so that's how I try to form it in a question-like way where somebody may be looking for a certain query and they stumble upon my post. And if they're interested in learning more, they can listen to the episode.

J. Rosemarie Francis (19:42.17) Okay, that's awesome. Thank you. And thank you for those tips. I could have used the first two myself, but anyway. All right. Okay. So any parting shots?

Eric (19:55.857) No, no, no. Thanks so much for having me on the show, Rosemary. And again, anybody interested in creating a free media kit, go to podkit.io or .it. And look forward to hearing from any podcasters out there that enjoy the episode.

J. Rosemarie Francis (20:11.058) Okay, thank you. I really appreciate you coming and sharing your knowledge with us and I really enjoyed this chat.

Eric (20:18.009) Yeah, me too. Thanks, J. Rosemarie