We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Blaine Bolus
00:00:02 - 00:01:01
Welcome to uploading, the podcast where we take you behind the wheel with the world's best creators, marketers, and professionals who have cracked the code on how to profit through content. You'll learn the ins and outs of content strategy, creation, production, distribution, growth, platforms, tools, and more. If you haven't already, be sure to join Cast Magic, the all in one content workspace for professionals. We'll be sending out tips from our shows in our weekly newsletter, and we've also got a Slack community of over a 1000 creators, so make sure to drop in and say hello. And now get ready for the show. Welcome to today's episode of uploading. And today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Carly Baker, who is the listener acquisition manager on the audience development for podcast side of things at HubSpot. She's really involved in the HubSpot Podcast Network and helping and just overseeing so many different creators launch podcasts, grow podcasts, acquire listeners.
Blaine Bolus
00:01:02 - 00:01:23
Carly has experience working with one of the biggest podcast networks and access to a bunch of the best industry experts. So we're really excited to chat with Carly. Carly, if there's anything I missed at that intro, I'd love for you to kind of hit on it. But why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, and then we can jump into the conversation in terms of what it takes to grow and acquire listeners at the podcast level.
Carly
00:01:23 - 00:02:24
Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be on. I think you pretty much hit everything, and my background and sort of what led me to the industry is I'm finding out is similar to many folks, but I come from the audio industry on the music side. I went to music school and have just been in sort of the music creator sphere for a very long time as a freelancer myself and went on to study music business. And somehow all paths led to podcasting. And, yeah, I've been in the industry for a couple of years now and have had a really great opportunity to be a part of sort of the entirety of the podcast life cycle and creator life cycle at HubSpot as it's been developed and have had many different roles and just had a chance to kind of soak in and and learn from so many so many people both in network and and out of network that have really sort of crafted a lot of my holistic approach to how I think about creators and and brands and just leveraging the power of podcasting.
Blaine Bolus
00:02:34 - 00:03:00
Changes. One day, one thing's working. The next day, everyone's doing it, and it's not performing as well. So one of the things I really wanna focus on this conversation is now that we're into 2024, you've seen kind of what's going on in the landscape. I'd love for you to kind of talk about, you know, what are you seeing? What what is it in podcasting, especially this year, that is really working on the acquisition side of things?
Carly
00:03:00 - 00:03:58
Yeah. Absolutely. So there's there's many things. There's many levers, and I think actually sort of more levers than ever that folks can pull for growth. What I am loving seeing now is a just larger focus in general on partnership based growth. So whether it's partnering with brands, whether it's partnering with other creators, whether it's having sort of more of a holistic co marketing approach to, shows that have guests. Like, all of these all all all of these levers are really just rooted in less growth being one-sided or, depending on other parties to push you forward and betting and depending more on yourself and leveraging others to help you grow. So that's definitely a huge sort of increase that we're seeing in the industry as a whole, which I think just sort of mirrors now the fact that, like, it seems like every every single brand has a creator program now.
Carly
00:03:58 - 00:04:32
Just the world in general is really feeling the power and the influence that creators have and are really diving in. And so for folks that are looking to break into the industry, while there are more podcasts than ever, there's also more listeners than ever, and so the pools that were previously available to us have just expanded so much more, and that's allowing the sort of barrier to entry and the amount of niches and specialized folks, just an easier path forward in in terms of starting and and growing their audience in a in a way that's, yeah, it's just just much easier, I think.
Blaine Bolus
00:04:33 - 00:04:52
The one thing that you just mentioned was the term niche. Right? And one thing that Ramon and I talk about a lot is that not all podcasts are necessarily created equal. Mhmm. When you get into niches, you can go really deep, and you can maintain an audience that is into a very specific topic. And that's inherently very difficult than just going super broad and talking about everything. Right?
Carly
00:04:52 - 00:04:52
Yeah.
Blaine Bolus
00:04:52 - 00:05:11
So for someone who's thinking about, like, either starting a podcast or they're trying to decide what topic to focus on, how do you guys see, like, the evolution of niches and, like, how does that play in the podcasting world? Is are all audiences created the same? Is there different value in different niches? How do you guys think about that?
Carly
00:05:11 - 00:05:53
Yeah. Absolutely. There's definitely different value in different niches, especially on the brand side. What I think we're seeing a lot of right now is that there's a lot of shows that have a really, really large audience, but with a large audience just innately comes a more disengaged audience. And then on the other side of the coin, we're seeing shows with a much smaller audience, but they have a very engaged they have they're very engaged, They follow the the creators or the talent or the host, whatever word you wanna use, on multiple social channels. They hold a lot of influence over their audience. So when working with brands, there's a higher level of conversion. They're really believing in this person, and there's much more of kind of like a parasocial relationship.
Carly
00:05:53 - 00:07:06
And so what I think brands are struggling with right now is do we wanna go for reach? Do we wanna reach a larger pool of people who might not be a good fit for our product or service, but we're, you know, we have very sexy numbers in terms of the reach that we're getting? Or do we wanna focus on trust and conversion and make bets and work with sort of these smaller creators knowing that the outcome and, like, how far people down the funnel are gonna go is actually probably much higher. So I think when it comes to starting a new show, it's re it's much harder to have a really to have a very broad audience. The other thing that I will say is that no show should have a single audience that they're trying to reach. You should have 3 kind of audiences or personas that you're thinking about. So you have, like, the core audience, which should be the audience that you're always you want all of your content to resonate with. So you could think about it as, like, the center of a circle. The secondary circle around that is your secondary audience, which has some overlap with the core, but might be straying a little bit further, might expand a little bit on what your core is. And then you have kind of what we like to call the transformational audience.
Carly
00:07:06 - 00:08:37
So these are people that are not even in the 3rd circle, they're just kind of hovering around the other two circles. And those are folks where if you can serve the core and the secondary and bring those transformational people into those inner circles, that's really where you're gonna see explosive growth. So not only thinking about audiences as one person, but thinking about it as many people and trying to serve and always iterating on that I think is gonna be a really good way to continue with growth. And this translates well for shows that wanna be a little bit more broad and it translates really well for shows that wanna be super niche. I mean, I think I get a little scared by people that are like, I'm trying to come up with an example. Maybe they're like in the lawn care industry and they wanna start a podcast about the history of having manicured lawns or whatever and use it as like a marketing play for their business, like, is that gonna have a 1000000 downloads a month? Like, absolutely not, but it doesn't mean that it's not valuable for them or valuable for the business or a way to get clients. So with the way that audiences are growing in general in the medium, there is a way to grow no matter what size you are. You just have to be really intentional and really figure out how is the audience that you're reaching different than who you're reaching and how are you going to take sort of hold those two things as truths and continue forward while also expanding on those?
Ramon
00:08:37 - 00:09:15
Yeah. And sometimes some of those niche audiences can cross the CASM into, like, the mainstream if a huge trend takes over. You know? For example, SMB has been, like, really hot on Twitter, and the SMB sector has blown up. Whereas, like, 3 years ago, it was all, like, nah. SMB, not, like, as SaaS is the future. And so but now sort of like there's a turnaround in the market and the economy and the broader sector that SMBs are really profitable. And so, I think it's important for people to know too that, like, you don't necessarily wanna start something to catch on a trend. Just be early to what you really know
Blaine Bolus
00:09:16 - 00:09:16
Mhmm.
Ramon
00:09:16 - 00:09:51
And and what you're an expert on. Be and just stay faithful that, like, it could catch on, and then you're perfectly positioned. So I'm curious. And based on, like, you know, you're mentioning growth, etcetera. And so some podcasts know they know that they're not gonna get to a 1000000 downloads. And so but there are other metrics that aren't just downloads that define success. Mhmm. So how else would you how else do you guys look at success outside of, say, download numbers? And what are some of the benefits that people might be able to look for so they don't get discouraged if, like, okay.
Ramon
00:09:51 - 00:09:55
Well, I don't have a million downloads podcast. This isn't gonna work.
Carly
00:09:55 - 00:10:38
Yeah. Absolutely. So my my own sort of personal, crusade, you could say, is that down downloads downloads are not people. That's the most simple way to put it. Like, the downloads that you're seeing does not mean that someone is actually listening to the episode, and that's a very important distinction if we think about the amount of players, the technology, the way that every player counts download sort of differently. It is there are industry standards of what's counted and what's not. I think it's really important to not look at your download number as a source of truth and as a success metric. It's the best reach metric that podcasters have, but it shouldn't be the primary focus.
Carly
00:10:39 - 00:11:25
So I always I always wanna say that that downloads do not equal people. It's very important. Success looks different to everyone. I think it really comes down to the core reason or reasons why you started the show. I think what's great now and sort of what we're seeing that's changed over time is that creators are a lot more control have a lot more control in how they monetize their show. So the dependency on ad revenue or revenue shares through sort of traditional advertising buys is no longer the only way that creators can make money by having a podcast. So we think about companies like Supercast, which maybe you've heard of, that allows direct or audience to create our monetization. We have mem private memberships.
Carly
00:11:25 - 00:12:34
Of course, people are selling courses and digital products and all these other things. Like, you have a lot more options and choices challenges that goes along with monetization and with reach or with downloads is that many folks expect when they start a show that it's just gonna be explosive and they're gonna make a ton of money and the downloads are gonna be insane and their audience is gonna be massive and, like, podcasting really is a slow burn. It's not like the TikToks and the YouTubes of the world. And if you are at a place where you want to sort of capture the trends and the virality of the internet, like podcasting is probably not going to be the best median, for you to do that. And so those are 2 things that I also like to call out, but on the editorial side, something that we look at a lot is, like, average consumption rates for episodes. We look at average listen time. This tells you a lot about what your where your audience is dropping off, what they want more from you, what they want less, those types of things. We also are looking at deliveries, which is like a little bit different of a metric than downloads.
Carly
00:12:34 - 00:13:12
It's sort of like how many episodes are automatically going on, on your devices, which has changed a lot with sort of the new Apple updates and and those types of things. But I think the most important thing is when you're starting, figure out what success means to you and know that that's gonna change as your journey continues. It's never gonna look the same, as it was when you started. And if your numbers don't look how they how you want them to look now, that's okay. They may not ever look like that, and that's also okay. It's figuring out how you wanna use those numbers to give you the success that you want even if it looks different.
Ramon
00:13:13 - 00:13:28
Yeah. And, you know, it can also be an educational source. It's just an easier way with less friction to make content that can feed other channels, etcetera. I know that's the way we're we're leveraging uploading. We get so many questions from in terms of b two b content.
Blaine Bolus
00:13:28 - 00:13:28
Mhmm.
Ramon
00:13:28 - 00:13:36
So we might as well speak with the experts and and relay that. So, I wanna speak about HubSpot and their creator networks.
Blaine Bolus
00:13:36 - 00:13:36
So
Ramon
00:13:36 - 00:14:05
creator networks are something fairly new, super interesting, great way for, creators to to grow their audiences and get exposed to exposed to more data, that they couldn't get by themselves, and and we can expand into that. But first, I want to talk about how this whole initiative started within HubSpot. You know, I know HubSpot has always been big with content. They did it with blog really early in the day. So why podcasting, and how did that decision sort of came about in terms of, like, the inception of the program?
Carly
00:14:06 - 00:14:59
Yeah. Absolutely. So something that I think well, a couple of things folks may not know about HubSpot is we've actually had our own HubSpot podcast for a long time. I think probably for, like, like, 10 years now. We have regional shows that are done in different languages because we are, you know, our our market is very, like, global focused and a lot of these shows are still going on. So there's kind of always been a very quiet podcast arm as a content play, especially, like, early in in the industry. So that's kind of always been, been going on in the background, but I think folks don't realize, like, we have an entire media team of a 100 plus people at HubSpot that are all focused on all of our media properties, meaning all of our newsletters, our blog properties, our our podcasts. We have owned original content and licensed content.
Carly
00:15:00 - 00:16:12
YouTube channels, we have a YouTube network, like, we have an entire team of people that are kind of functioning as a media company within HubSpot as a whole. And a lot of this was, of course, built on the acquisition of the hustle, which is kind of what which is what brought My First Million to us. And with that acquisition and with, you know, having My First Million, the conversation was, well, we should start a network. Why should we not start a network? And at the time we were very early in identifying podcasting as a medium, but also really wanting to invest and kind of lead the way in the b to b creator space, which of course led to us starting the network. We also had an accelerator creator program. We were one of the first, if not the first business network to offer that. Like, creators have always been really important and kind of a part of the fold and and podcasting as well. So as the business has grown and as the media company, as a whole or the media function has grown, we've just kind of continued to expand the way that we work with creators, but also thinking about it in a different way.
Carly
00:16:12 - 00:17:19
Right? So when we think about traditional networks, many of them are built on revenue ad shares, so the network has an ad sales team that goes out and pitches your show and brings in, advertisers for you to work with and takes a cut of that and you're kind of at the liberty of whatever they decide is a good fit and you're really not in the driver's seat for many decisions of your show. And when we think about the network that we've built, it's very creator first. It's very education and community focused. We don't do participate in, you know, those sort of ad sales and and revenue shares. So we really wanna focus on educating and helping our shows grow in a really holistic way and also having a community. And this is easier because we have a niche network. Right? We're all business shows. Everyone's in a different lane, but the lanes are next to each other, and so we have people that have expertise in kind of every area of business, and most of the people that are in the network are business owners themselves, either their podcast business or another business.
Carly
00:17:19 - 00:17:40
We have executives, we have CEOs, we have all sorts of different people in there, and so that's what's really special about it, I think, is we've found a way to build it that is not primarily to benefit us, although it is. It's also really strongly built to benefit the people that are in the actual community itself.
Blaine Bolus
00:17:40 - 00:18:15
Carly, could you talk a little bit about just for, you know, maybe some of our listeners who are getting their shows off the ground. Maybe they haven't joined a network. Like, Ramon and I are lucky enough with our other podcast, TTC pod, to be part of the HubSpot podcast network. But for a show that's, like, getting off the ground, they're seeing some early success as a creator. You know, what's the benefit of joining a network? How do these networks work for for shows? What what's the value prop to the creators? And then what is then what? Right? Like, then how do how do things function and how do things happen on a a a more day to day basis once you're part of a network?
Carly
00:18:15 - 00:20:04
Yeah. Absolutely. So for anyone that's considering joining a network, I think having intentionality behind it is really important. So really sitting down and thinking about, okay, what do I not have the capacity to do for my podcast or for my podcast business that I know would make a difference? That should be number 1. Number 2, what what are some initiatives or marketing plays or strategies that I have that are going on that are kind of working, kind of not working, and could use the help of a team to optimize and make these work for me? And number 3, what do I want to like, what do I want help with? What would I wanna offload and be fine giving someone else and having them take full ownership of doing on my behalf? Right? And so once you kind of have those 3 big pillars, then that's gonna help you filter out networks. So if you have a big pool of networks, you say, this is what I need them to have the capacity to do, I need them to be experts in area so that I can optimize these, and this is what I want taken off my plate, then you have a much smaller pool. Right? And what I think is after being on the network side, on the seller side, I wish that more creators came to calls with networks and could strongly share their value proposition and what would make them a great fit for the network, what they can bring to the network so that it's not so one-sided. Like, it should be a partnership of here's what the network is giving me and here's what I'm giving back to the network, and I think that's one of the biggest things that creators miss out on and they get a really sexy sales pitch from a network who's gonna do x, x, x, x, and x, and they get in there and it's not what they were promised, nothing's happening, they have no idea what's going on, they've gone dark, like, it's not the experience that they want.
Carly
00:20:04 - 00:22:24
And so being able to advocate for yourself and knowing, like, what you want what you're bringing to the table, what they're bringing to the table, and what that's actually gonna look like is very important. From, like, a from a deal perspective, there's many different types of deals, some networks, and this is something to be really wary of too, especially for a lot of larger networks. You need to think about if you wanna maintain ownership of your content, if you wanna own the IP, if you want a license deal, if you're okay with working in a network where if you leave you can't take any of the content that they produced on your behalf, like there's many many many many different legal things that are very, very important to understand what it would mean should you decide to leave, and what the ownership rights are, and all of these different their deal early and they maintain the rights and now they now all of this amazing content is gone, so that's something to be wary about and always to make sure that you're informed about what's going on and work with an attorney and and those types of things. And that's not, like, a very sexy part of the answer, but it's very important because there's no kind of standard for how networks are doing that as a whole. And the other thing I think that's important is when we think about creator networks, like, think about the network effect. Right? So if you're trying to monetize your podcast without doing revenue sales, if that's not a part of your network, and you're really looking to build a private membership and you see a network where 6 out of 10 of the shows, those folks have very successful private networks, like or private memberships, like, that's a network you should be interested in because you can learn from the people that are in there, and in return, you can give them something back. So thinking about how to leverage not only the network as the network, but the actual people that are participating in the network and what they're bringing to the table and and what that looks like and also what you're bringing to the table. So looking very closely at the talent that's in the network, the shows that are in the network, figuring out what you can learn to learn from them and also what you can bring to the table is super important.
Ramon
00:22:25 - 00:22:46
What do you guys look for in, when vetting out or seeking potential shows? You're not just investing in the show. You're investing in the host as well. So what do you guys look for within, you know, the components of the show and then the components of, like, what makes a a person be a good fit to join the HubSpot Podcast Network?
Carly
00:22:46 - 00:23:33
Yeah. Great question. So we take a really sort of holistic approach, so we don't have barriers to entry in terms of numbers. Like, we don't say, oh, this person has you know, you have to fit between this amount of downloads and this amount of downloads. We really have shows of kind of every shape and size. What's really important to us more more than reach, I think, I guess you could say reach is important, but believing in the editorial angles and the talent of the host is very important, especially in the business space. You wanna work with someone who's giving legitimate advice, has diverse viewpoints, has their own experience, and is aligned with what we call our heart values here at HubSpot. So that's really important part of it.
Carly
00:23:33 - 00:24:50
We also look at, like, the diversity of guests that they bring on, are they bringing on diverse voices? We look at, you know, production stuff. Is their production value really high? What kind of social channels do they have? Are they like a thought leader in their industry? You know, those different types of things. And then we sit down and kind of look at all the different components, and and score them based on that. We also think about shows in terms of what the priority for the business is, and I think this is a way that makes us a little different maybe than some networks is we have strategic priorities as, as a business. And of course, because we are advertisers, we're always really really wanted to get more, like, sales leaders in the mix. So some of it is dependent on sort of the business and how we wanna expand the businesses, audiences sort of as a whole, but also the, like, qualitative and quantitative, aspects of shows are are really important. The one thing I will say, during my time looking for shows is please invest in podcast SEO. I think some people call it PSO, which is really funny.
Carly
00:24:50 - 00:25:20
I really like that term, but discoverability is really hard. And if I'm looking for a sales leadership show and when I search sales leadership podcast on Google and your show doesn't come up, how is your audience gonna find you? How are advertisers how is anyone gonna find you? So think about that. Think about what networks and advertisers and your audience would search for and make sure that, you know, you're optimizing for that, because I'm sure there's many shows that I would love to listen to, but I can't find them. So think about your digital footprint.
Ramon
00:25:21 - 00:25:45
Yeah. That reminds me of, the easy and lazy name of DTC pod. If you just look up DTC podcast, just make the title what people would Google, and then you will be number 1 in the results. But, as we approach towards the end, I I definitely wanna touch on, discover wait. What was the word? Jeez. I just blanked. Discover Discoverability? Okay. Discoverability.
Ramon
00:25:46 - 00:26:29
That's my Spanish kicking in in my subconscious saying don't make up a word. So, discoverability, RSS and so podcasts are RSS. And so there is this kind of blend happening now between YouTube shows being ran as, like, podcasts. So you speaking of SEO, there's a bunch of SEO benefits from YouTube. People are reverse engineering the show to even start based on the SEO volume from YouTube. So where do you see this going? How do you how are you thinking about YouTube SEO? You know, you can chip away years years out of podcast, and the RSS feed is there's no algo to boost you. Mhmm. And so people are coming to this realization.
Ramon
00:26:30 - 00:26:35
How are you thinking about YouTube as as sort of like podcast YouTube first shows?
Carly
00:26:35 - 00:27:38
Yeah. Absolutely. So I think it's really interesting, and, you know, people ask me about this all the time, and I think it's kind of become, like, very divisive thing to talk about in the industry. Personally, I I think YouTube is amazing for so many reasons. I think you have so much freedom to do a lot of testing. You can test thumbnails, you can test titles, you can really like go on the back of YouTube studio and see like what terms people are searching for that are coming to your videos, like, that is mind blowing compared to what we get on the RSS, which is literally nothing. So the power of YouTube is certainly amazing. Do I think that everyone should upload their podcast to YouTube? Personally, I'm gonna say no, and what I what I think it comes down to is that your audience isn't necessarily on every channel, and if there's not an audience on YouTube for what you have going on with your content, because a lot of people are doing it doesn't mean you should do it.
Carly
00:27:38 - 00:29:32
Right? And so that's kinda one of the big things that, the big viewpoints that I have on it. I also, like, after working with YouTubers, like, YouTube native creators have such high production value in their setups that it makes like, if you're gonna compete with people that are professional YouTubers, like, the barrier to entry is extremely, extremely, extremely high. So it's much easier to build an audio audience and maybe try to convert some of that audience over to YouTube once you have kind of more of an infrastructure going on that can support that, like, really high production value, so you can kind of compete with other people that are only investing in YouTube. YouTube also has a direct feedback, you can get direct feedback and you have more of a parasocial relationship with your audience, right? Like they're seeing you, they're seeing your set, they're seeing your mannerisms, like, it's kind of taking that one step further, but that can also be distracting, I think, in some ways, opening up the floodgates to direct comments and feedback on the content that you're making. But I think ultimately there's lower lift, lower barriers of entry to sort of explore what video could look for you. So TikTok, like, YouTube shorts, and, like, having a clips channel for your podcast with CTAs to move over to your audio show, I think are a good way to kinda like dip your toe in the water with video and see kinda what's going on. I do think that SEO and discoverability on the RSS side will hopefully continue to become better over time, and I think with sort of the way that Google search is changing and kind of the new era of search and just, like, asks for increased discoverability for these platforms that it will happen. I think it's a little bit slower.
Carly
00:29:32 - 00:29:52
And because YouTube is so dependent on search, it's always kind of just been a part of the platform in a really easy way. And so I'm hoping that, you know, these players on the audio side will continue to invest in in tools and just increased insights. But long story short, my answer is
Ramon
00:29:53 - 00:29:53
Yeah.
Carly
00:29:53 - 00:29:59
Is YouTube right for you? Yes, no, maybe. Depends depends what your goals are. Depends about your content. Depends about your audience.
Blaine Bolus
00:30:00 - 00:30:35
Yeah. And I think an easy way to even get started with YouTube, and this is something we even did for uploading Mhmm. Was you can just start by syncing up your RSS SV to publish to YouTube podcast. So at least you're covered on that side. You've got some of the discoverability. And then when you've got the bandwidth, you know what content's hitting, and you've got the kind of operations in place to pursue a video strategy, then you can kind of go to YouTube. But, Carly, I think you're spot on. It's sometimes one of the most overwhelming parts of creating content is just nailing the operations to be able to, you know, create content that's purpose built for all the different platforms in the way they need to be.
Blaine Bolus
00:30:35 - 00:31:12
So I think that's probably a really good middle ground. And I also love what you were saying about SEO and podcast. One thing that Ramon and I have been doing a lot of has been taking you know, using a tool like Cast Magic and taking the content that we're generating from our own episodes Mhmm. And actually creating it, publishing it to our own website. So we're outranking even the, like, hosting providers that just have, like they don't have, like, really complex show notes, and they don't have, like, the full transcript or anything like that. So we're kind of using that as a medium term arbitrage to be able to put out more of our own content so we'll be able to beat them to our own SEO.
Carly
00:31:12 - 00:31:37
Yeah. No. I I love that. And, definitely, like, transcripts and really detailed show notes are great for SEO. Like, investing in having a really good podcast website and being able to dominate search is great. I love that. And, of course, I I it it makes me so happy that y'all use your own tool because I feel like most people that are founders don't use their own tool. So I'm glad that you're you're testing and and iterating and using that as a part of your strategy.
Carly
00:31:37 - 00:31:38
It makes me happy.
Blaine Bolus
00:31:38 - 00:31:58
Yeah. And and now we now we've got a whole new podcast to use it on too. Car Carly, as we wrap up here, just have a few lightning questions for you. So wanted to get your thoughts on these. So first one is, could you name a creator that you, really admire and why you admire them?
Ramon
00:31:58 - 00:31:59
Yes. KBS.
Carly
00:32:02 - 00:32:23
Okay. My my gut reaction is, Britney Broski. Do either of you know who Britney Broski is? She's kind of a niche. Not yet. So so she her her initial rise to fame, I'll keep this short, was she became famous or became sort of on the scene for the kombucha girl meme. Do you know what that is? Am I exposing myself as Gen Z here?
Blaine Bolus
00:32:23 - 00:32:24
But Please.
Carly
00:32:24 - 00:33:15
Okay. So so in the early days of TikTok, she made this video of, like, her reacting to, like, taking a sip of kombucha and then, like, just kinda went viral during the early TikTok days and in general. She's continued to build her brand. And what I admire the most about her is I think it's extremely difficult to be authentic online. She's a YouTuber. She also has a podcast and also has a very big TikTok following. And she is one of the few people that as she has grown and sort of risen in fame really quickly is still exactly the same person as she was in that meme video and just fully embodies and shows up as herself every single time. And it's like in a way that's kind of jarring, but is also so heartwarming because you just know it's truly her and who she is, and she talks about that a lot, how being really authentic online is important.
Carly
00:33:15 - 00:33:32
And I think it's really commendable, especially being a woman on the Internet. It's very hard. So I really just love her and love, like, kinda what she has going on. So that's my answer. I think her YouTube is The Broski Report, and her podcast is called that as well if anyone wants to listen, but she's great.
Blaine Bolus
00:33:32 - 00:33:48
Love that. We'll check it out. Next one is, I know this one might a tough one for you because you have so many shows, but why don't you name a show in your HubSpot podcast network that you guys are really excited about? Maybe they just joined, and what gets you excited about their show?
Carly
00:33:48 - 00:34:23
Oh, great question. So hard because we had a lot of people join recently. I wanna give a shout out to the show called Mistakes That Made Me. It's a brand new show. She just started in January, and it's focuses primarily on, like, mistakes that business owners have made and what that has meant and how that they've turned that into success. And she's really wonderful. The conversations are great, really authentic conversations. And I also love that, like, for her sort of full time job, she's an email copy strategist, which I feel like is a very niche job and is also, like, very interesting.
Carly
00:34:24 - 00:34:49
So really excited about her show. And then we also just signed or, yeah, just signed last year Talking Too Loud, which is a Wistia podcast, which is just hilarious. Chris Savage is a host, and he just is it's very funny, like, very irrelevant, like, just great conversations, with folks in the in the c suite that are not your typical interview show.
Blaine Bolus
00:34:49 - 00:35:00
Perfect. And the last one I got for you is if there's one content, strategy or medium that really excites you in 2024, like, what is it and and why?
Carly
00:35:00 - 00:35:47
Yeah. Great question. For a platform, I'm gonna say LinkedIn. LinkedIn is gonna be the future of b to b. I mean, it's it's already kinda coming there, but that's gonna be huge. That's what I would say I'm excited about in terms of platforms for creators is LinkedIn for sure. For trends, I think social selling is getting really big, and it's very interesting. Like, we're having, like, the old early 2000s, like, QVC, like, live TV is coming back on TikTok with TikTok Shop, and I think it's such an interesting, investment for TikTok as a platform, and I'm really excited to see kinda how create what that means for creators and how, yeah, sort of a new era of social selling, sort of continues to grow in 2024.
Blaine Bolus
00:35:47 - 00:36:05
I love that. Ramon, we may have to do a feed swap with our DTC pod because we go Yeah. All the way in-depth on TikTok shop and all these, ideas on on that podcast. But, anyway, Carly, wanna thank you for coming on the show. For our listeners who are tuning in, where can they connect with you and learn more about the HubSpot Podcast Network or anything that you guys are working on?
Carly
00:36:05 - 00:36:25
Yeah. So if you wanna learn about the network, you can go to the website. It's hubspot.com/podcastnetwork. If you wanna connect with me, I'm on LinkedIn. My at name is carlycbaker. Pretty easy. We'll link it link it down below in case you can't find me, but feel free to, yeah, hit my DMs if you have any questions, and thank you both for having me on. It's been real fun.
Ramon
00:36:25 - 00:36:26
Thank you, Troy.
Carly
00:36:29 - 00:36:30
For coming on.
What is Castmagic?
Castmagic is the best way to generate content from audio and video.
Full transcripts from your audio files. Theme & speaker analysis. AI-generated content ready to copy/paste. And more.