Nick Bennett: What's up everyone? Hope you are all doing fantastic today. We'll give it a minute or two while people are trickling in. While I do that, I am going to go over some housekeeping items. I just dropped something inside of the chat here, and so I pinned it as well. So it's a production worksheet that Holly has kind of put together. It's actually really fantastic. So if you want to take a look at that, everyone should be able to have access to that. And while we're rating. Looks like we've got a few people trickling in here. So for those that don't know me, my name is Nick Bennett. I am a marketer at Casted, have been working with them for a little bit and super excited. I run our webinar series here. So excited for this one. So far we've done one of them. Kate and I have done one about a month and a half ago, but now we are back in the groove. We're back at it, and we're kicking off one to two webinars a month across really interesting topics. Hopefully it provides a ton of value for everyone listening, whether you're live, whether you're on demand. And so we are going to get things started. I have the fantastic opportunity to sit down with Holly. I'll let her introduce herself in a second. But if you don't know Holly, absolutely make sure to go follow her on LinkedIn. I am sure she'll share all the social platforms that she's on as well. But if you do have any questions, she's a fantastic resource. And yeah, Holly, let's let the people know a little bit about you, your background, all that good stuff, and then we can kick things off.

Holly Enneking: Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here. So I'm Holly Enneking. I head up marketing at Bolster, and this has been a great opportunity for me to really dip my toes into another sort of B2B pool that I've not been in before. So I had been in sort of a traditional software role in marketing at Return Path, moved into a services business when I was at a Salesforce consultancy called Lev, and now I'm at Bolster, which is a talent marketplace, really an executive search platform where we match CEOs with executives for full- time, fractional, and board roles. And we combine a really interesting dynamic, AI- driven platform for talent sourcing with experienced recruiters to help run smarter executive searches, get roles filled faster, and at a lower cost than the traditional talent sourcing an executive search approach. And it's been a really great opportunity at Bolster over the last year, year and a half, to really build up our brand awareness and our space in the market, as we have grown over time, as we've added on these full- time search capabilities in addition to where we started, which was really focused on fractional hiring at the executive level. And so the podcast and especially content marketing has been really central for us within the work that we've been doing at Bolster, and how we've been focusing on and expanding that brand awareness and really top of funnel activity at Bolster. So excited to dig in and share a little more about what we've been doing.

Nick Bennett: Love that. So a few things I want to go over for everyone that did join. On the right- hand side of your screen, so you have your chat, you have your messages. If you want to ask any Q& A, there's a great place to put Q&A. We want to make this as informal as possible. We want to make sure that we incorporate your questions throughout the entire event. So if you do have questions, please drop them in the Q& A. We'll get through those as we continue our conversation. And I would love to see while we're kicking things off, for those that have jumped in, where are you tuning in from? Just drop that inside the chat. I myself am in Boston, Massachusetts. Holly, where are you?

Holly Enneking: I'm in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Nick Bennett: How's the weather there right now?

Holly Enneking: We actually have some sunshine right now and ideal fall weather. It's been delightful.

Nick Bennett: Love that. So I am unfortunately not a reader, but I see a lot of books behind you.

Holly Enneking: Yes.

Nick Bennett: Which is your favorite book? I'm just curious.

Holly Enneking: Good question. So I am a big Harry Potter nerd, so you can see I've got my collection right there, front and center. Lord of the Rings, classic. Just anything fiction I'm really very into. I just read a new one, The Thursday Murder Club, which is by a British author, Richard Osman, that I highly recommend. I really love that one.

Nick Bennett: I love that. Awesome. It looks like we got Michelle coming in from Rolla, Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology. Very nice. That's awesome. Thanks for joining us.

Holly Enneking: Yes, the Hobbits. In the spirit of Halloween, my son was a Hobbit last year. He was Frodo and it was iconic, and a highly great costume option.

Nick Bennett: So I have twin girls, they're seven months now, and I have a five- year- old daughter as well. And so we actually just bought their Halloween costumes, and the twins are dressing up as ladybugs, and my five- year- old as a unicorn.

Holly Enneking: Amazing.

Nick Bennett: Should be a good time this year for sure. All right, so let's get into it.

Holly Enneking: Yeah.

Nick Bennett: So let's talk about how you create binge- worthy content. And there's a few things that I want to kind of cover here because... Well first I think that we should level set on for everyone that is listening, more so what is the podcast about? How do you actually define binge- worthy content? And just kind of talk a little bit more about, because we were talking right before we went on this, a little bit about the podcast, about how the two people working on the Daily Show. I think it would be really helpful for people to understand more about that.

Holly Enneking: Yeah, absolutely. So the podcast that we started back in March of this year is called The Daily Bolster. And as the name implies, it is a daily podcast. But what we're doing differently with this podcast than podcasts that I've worked on in the past, we had one at Lev for example as well, is these are short episodes. I'm talking Monday through Thursday, they are 10 minutes or less, usually closer to five. I don't think any Monday through Thursday episode has ever been more than eight. And then on Friday we do have a longer episode. But the goal is really cut out all of the excess, really get right to the point, and make it about just delivering a couple of quick hits, something that someone could take away and put into action right after listening to the episode. And try and make it something that for the audience that we're talking to, we're really trying to reach CEOs who don't have a lot of time, aren't necessarily in a lot of the traditional spaces that I have a marketer has been spending time in. Traditionally, I've marketed to salespeople or marketers, and they're in some spaces that I am also in. CEOs aren't necessarily on some of those email lists or at the types of events that I'm used to attending. But spending five minutes a day while they're drinking their morning coffee, listening to a podcast, that gives them something valuable. If they don't have to listen to it at 2X speed, that was really what we were trying to accomplish with the podcast. And so what we've done is create these really short episodes that are our CEO Matt Blumberg, with a guest that we've invited on talking about some of the things that align with the business, but we know are really interesting and important both to CEOs and to people who are maybe aspiring into that CEO role, CXOs who aren't engaging with a board, working with a CEO, building a business. That's really the audience that we're trying to reach. And so we have crafted the podcast in a way that we have guests who are talking about things that are really interesting to someone who is in that CEO chair. We're talking about managing teams, developing talent, strategic hiring, how you think about who you're bringing onto the team, and when and why and what that looks like. Working with boards, working with VCs. We bring in people from different venture groups who are talking about their experience working with CEOs, maybe someone who has transitioned from a CXO role into a board role, what that has looked like, how you make the most of those board relationships. Advice on, if you're pitching, what can you do to make your pitch stand out, and right off the bat, get someone's attention? The types of things that someone would really be looking to get advice on without having to sit through 30 minutes of background and fluff, and here's the setup to get to the meat of the episode. We're just like, " Cut all that out, right to the heart of it." That's where we're trying to drive people to. And we found that has been great for us because people really do consume a lot of the content in that way. We've been really lucky in seeing we had 60 episodes in our first season, took a little break. We're back in our second season now and in our fifth week of content. And we consistently are in the 88 to 98% listing rate. I think our average over the entire series so far is 88%. I just was looking at metrics for an episode released last week, and it's still at 100%. So people are listening to the whole thing, which less time means it's going to be easier for people to listen to it, and we see that consistently over the episodes. I did say too that we have longer episodes that we do on Friday. Traditionally, what we've done with those is we have a guest who does a short episode with us on a specific topic, and then we also do then a longer episode where we dig into their background a little more. And we've been lucky to have some really interesting guests who have some great experiences. We had the CEO of Blue Apron recently. I think we've got the CEO from Shake Shack coming up soon, which is a really interesting episode, some really interesting personalities and backgrounds. A really great episode with Brad Feld that was in our first season. And so it gives us an opportunity to sort of hear a little bit from them early on, and then spend a little more time with them in a sort of longer form, more traditional sort of style of podcast episode. But even those, we're still seeing in the eighties to nineties, even up to 100% listen rate, because I think the content is really valuable, interesting. And we're making it as easy as possible for someone to consume it, without having to set aside a lot of time to do so.

Nick Bennett: I love that. It's so interesting to me. I also have a podcast called The Anonymous Marketer. I'm actually moving away from that show and onto another one, but I've thought a lot about the length of a show. And as someone that, funny enough, I actually don't listen to any of my own episodes. Once I record it, I ship it. I don't go back and listen to it, and maybe that's a me issue. But, I do think that there is a sweet spot for when it comes to shows. And so I've actually been thinking more and more about, what is that sweet spot, especially when it comes to more B2B. But I'm curious, what made you settle on the length of the specific show, Monday to Thursday?

Holly Enneking: So for us, there's always a lot of talk of like, " People don't have a long attention span. They're not going to"... For us, it was really about the time constraint that our target audience has. They just don't necessarily have a lot of time to give. And so making it something, the way that we, and I think I said this already too, was we really want it to be something you could listen to while you're drinking a cup of coffee. You don't have to set aside a lot of time. It's not necessarily the traditional long commute where you can listen to a longer episode, isn't necessarily the case for everyone anymore. So how do we make it something that we're really just thinking about what is the best case scenario for our audience? Making it really short and easy to listen to. And what was really interesting for us, we did a survey at the end of our first season to see, is that really resonating for people? Do they like the short episodes? Do they prefer the long episodes? How are people actually consuming it? One of the questions that we asked in the survey was, " Are you listening to episodes the day they're released? Do you listen to a couple of them at a time? What does that look like?" And the vast majority said they were actually listening to them the day that they were released, and they listened every day of the week, which is what we were wanting. And it seems to be how people are actually consuming it, which I think just shows that it makes it really easy, just that we don't ask a lot of time. The five minutes is pretty easy, and then they can move on with their day.

Nick Bennett: Yeah, no, I love that. That's really great. Now going back to the key elements of content that kind of keeps audiences engaged, I think that's an important piece too. And I know you talked about, for me, hearing VCs, and founders, and people of big brands is something that I think is very fascinating. But what do you think the other key elements of content that keeps audiences engaged ultimately?

Holly Enneking: Yeah. I think what's important for us is that it's really about trying to deliver specific advice on a topic that's meaningful so that it's not just... When we get into the deep dive episodes on Fridays, it is a little bit more about their personal experience, and their career journey, and sort of how they have transitioned into different roles and different types of businesses, or whatever the case may be for that person. But then for the short episodes, it's really about, we're talking about one topic. We want you to give a couple of pieces of advice. And then it gives us an opportunity to then take that content out of the podcast and use it in a lot of different ways. So we're creating blog content, we're creating social content, we're activating our guests to help share the content with their audiences as well. It gives them an opportunity. And so that has really been important for us is just to keep really, really focused on what is the value that you are bringing to the audience. It's not about them necessarily. It's not about them selling their business, or whatever it is that they're trying to do. It's really about, how are you teaching someone something and how can we bring that expertise that you have gotten in your role and your experience, and whatever that may be, and how it fits to our audience, and deliver that. And what I think has been really wonderful is that Matt, our CEO and our host, and then the guests that he... He has a lot of relationships with the folks that have come in and been guests or is connected in some way to them through his really broad network. There's really a spirit of, how do we educate and bring knowledge to a whole new world of executives, and CEOs, and people who are growing in their role, and a real spirit of just giving and sharing knowledge. Matt talks a lot about being a student of the craft of CEO. And he has been a CEO for a very long time and has a lot of knowledge to share, but also is really eager to learn. That has not changed for him, even despite the amount of time that he's been in that role. I think that's really true of a lot of CEOs. There's the spirit of learning that's so integral to who they are and what it is that they're trying to do, that I think our guests really feel that, and then the audience really feels that too.

Nick Bennett: Love that. Yeah, I mean I definitely am also a big believer of that for sure. I want to kind of go back to a piece... You mentioned the surveys. And I find surveys very, very fascinating because one, as a marketer for the last 12 years or so, and specifically as a failed market, has done lots and lots of events. I've used surveys to gauge interest from audience, what works, what doesn't. But I feel like when you're consistently creating amazing content that resonates with your audience, I'd love to learn more about the survey process. What do you actually do with that information?

Holly Enneking: Yeah, so the survey was really helpful for us. There were a couple of things that we were trying to understand. Was the daily episodes really working, were people really listening to it in that capacity? One of the things that we tried in season one that because of the survey, we actually moved away from a little bit was we had really specific themes for every day of the week. So Monday was CEO tips and tricks. Tuesday was inside the boardroom. We had one that was a little more mentorship, self- development focused. There was actually an Ask Bolster. Someone came in and asked Matt a question, and he shared his perspective. And then we had the longer form episodes. And so that actually was really informative for us that it was really the CEO tips and tricks, the inside the boardroom, and the deep dives. Those were the ones that really resonated with people, they were the most interested in. Far and away that was very clear. And so we've really scaled back the other two topics in the second season. We've actually added in a little more around executive hiring, and recruiting, and that sort of element. But we eliminated the Ask Bolster type of session and just really prioritized the ones that were important to them. And that was purely just out of the feedback that we got from the survey. We also had a couple of people who, it was a great opportunity for us to get some just general feedback about the types of topics people wanted to hear. We got some recommendations of things that would be interesting to them. And so we were able to weave those into the second and the third season that we're in production for right now. And so it was able to give us some learnings about, " Okay, we're on the right track in this place. We're not necessarily on the right track in this place, and here's some things that we should think about incorporating as we go into another season," which is really valuable for us.

Nick Bennett: Amazing. Cool. Again, for everyone that is listening, if you have any questions, drop them inside the Q& A, drop them inside the chat. We want to incorporate those throughout the thing. If you're a brave enough soul, there is a video, live video Q& A. So if you want to come up on stage, ask Holly a question, we would definitely recommend that. It's a great way to just add some extra excitement to this whole thing. But while we're doing that, I want to move into this second pillar here. So let's talk about capturing demand in a digital world. So ultimately, what are the tactics that you're using to drive traffic and capture demand for the content that you're creating from the show?

Holly Enneking: Yeah. So there's a couple of things that when we started the podcast, we wanted to accomplish with it. And because it's a team of two, myself, and one other marketer, Rachel Henry who's here in Indianapolis with me as well, doing all of the production. Matt records the episodes, and then we're really taking over and running everything from there. We needed it to be something that really added to what we already had in place, was supporting our social media efforts, was supporting our influencer marketing efforts that we were trying to get up and running, was supporting the blog that we are already working on. How could we use this to be supplemental, rather than on top of and just another thing that we have to do? How could we make it feed some of those things? And so for us, the podcast has really been a great opportunity for us to really increase our activity and our engagement on our social channels. One thing that was really interesting in the first season of the show is we were really interested in how does using the content and having the benefit of having guests on the podcast that we're activating with every episode increase our reach on our social channels. So specifically thinking about LinkedIn and Twitter. I'm going to call it Twitter because I won't break that habit. But we saw a 70% increase in our impressions on Twitter and a 93% increase in our impressions on LinkedIn in the time, comparing when we were in season with the podcast to the time period beforehand, which was fantastic for us. One of the things that we really were intentional about doing when we launched the podcast was for every guest that we have, they are getting a notification the week before their episode is live telling them the date that it's going to be live so that they know. They're usually great about either connecting me to an assistant, or someone on their marketing team, or someone else who can help amplify. And then we send them an email again the morning that their episode is live with content they can use to make it really easy for them to post, graphics they can share, and then clips that we're creating. So we're creating clips in Casted, and then we share them with those clips as well, and then point them to our own social channels so if they just want to reshare something that we have put out on our platform, they can do that as well. But we've gotten such great engagement from them to actually take the action of sharing the content, that that has really increased our reach. And we saw such a significant increase in the clicks, replies, re- shares, than we did with any of the content that we had that wasn't podcast related. And then now that we're in our season two, we had sort of what we expected to be sort of a normal dip in that time between our two seasons. And we've been back in our second season now for a couple of weeks, and it's gone right back up again. So it's been really great to see that consistency that we saw in season one really coming back in season two, and really giving us an opportunity to get more eyes on the content that we're putting out there, increase our followers, increase our engagement, and then leverage our guests to help get us out in front of an audience that we didn't necessarily have access to before we were sharing this content. So that has been really powerful and meaningful for us, as far as just building up that brand awareness, and bringing in some new folks that we haven't been in front of before. Now what we're really trying to focus on is what I consider subscribers of the podcast. We have subscribers on the actual channels. We also do a daily email that we send out, so people can sign up to get an email notification. It goes out in the morning when the episode goes live, that tells them who the guest is, how long the episode is, gives a little quote, and then links to the episode. We have a group of people who are subscribed to that. So now we have the opportunity, okay, we've got this group of people who are subscribed to our podcast both on the podcast platforms or within our email. How do we start moving this audience down the funnel into being a client of Bolster? Signing up for an account, getting connected with a talent consultant, getting to a point where they're interested in starting a search. So that's really the fun stuff of marketing around beginning to nurture that audience, and get them from that really top of funnel brand awareness down into an engaged prospect lead and opportunity. And so that's been fun to see as people are signing up or getting engaged. I love when I get to see the podcast popping up is where they first heard about us, or when I see an active deal and someone isn't an active podcast listener, we have a couple of people who have listened to every single episode, which is incredible to see. And I love seeing that in HubSpot, and I love seeing when they pop up with an opportunity.

Nick Bennett: It's honestly, do you guys use the... So on your demo forum, do you use self- reported attribution on the, how did you hear about us in OpenText?

Holly Enneking: So we were OpenText previously. We had made a shift a little while ago to make some specific options for that, and we put the podcast in as one so someone could self- select that they heard us through the podcast, or heard about Bolster through the podcast, which has been great.

Nick Bennett: That's awesome. Looks like there is a question. What's your process to determine which topics will be meaningful for your audience?

Holly Enneking: So there's a couple of things. So Rachel and I have a point of view about the topics that we think are important, and where we think that Bolster can add value and really have a point of view, and add something meaningful. Our perspective is that we really want Bolster's content to help make a CEO's job better and easier when it comes to thinking about talent. So that might mean hiring, that might mean managing, that might mean development for themselves, for someone else. So things that fall into that sphere, that's where we're really focusing on creating content. We also naturally within our business have a couple of areas that we're focused on around fractional. What does it mean to be a fractional executive, to hire a fractional executive, to maybe think about bringing that person on full- time? How do you know if you need someone fractional versus full- time? There's a lot to work and play within that sort of realm. The executive hiring space. So thinking about sourcing talent, having diverse talent, finding talent in different ways, growing talent, and maturing talent over time within your business. And then boards, we also do a lot of board searches. So getting a role on a board, adding to your board, thinking about your board in a different way. You don't have to just have your co- founder and someone from each of your investors on your board. You can have independent directors, and they can be really interesting and valuable. Our episode today was a guest who's a marketer, who was actually talking about why you should think about having go- to- market executives on your board and the value that they can add to a board of directors that is a little more non- traditional, is not necessarily an investor, but they can add something really valuable to a board. And so there's a lot of opportunity for us there. And then just crowdsourcing a little bit. We're really lucky that we get, we always put out there, you can email us at thedailybolster @ bolster. com and we get people who email us and say, " I'd really love to hear more about this topic." Or, " Thank you for talking about this." We actually just got one last week that was responding to an episode that we had put out, thanking us for talking about that topic and that it was really valuable. So that is great, just getting some natural feedback. And then we look at some of the engagement too. We're really lucky in Casted that we can see a lot of the metrics of for the episodes, what is getting a lot of engagement. You can see it at the clip level. We do a lot to go in and put the key takeaways, and so we can see which takeaways people are engaging with. That's then really helpful to say, " We're really seeing a lot of engagement," especially when we're talking about VCs, for example, in fundraising. That has a lot of interest for CEOs. And so how do we really think about that and make sure that we're meaningfully addressing this content that people are engaging with, seem to be seeking out? That helps drive us in some way as well. So we get it from a lot of different places, and what we have a point of view on, what feedback we're getting organically from people, and then the type of engagement that we're seeing in the platform too.

Nick Bennett: Yeah. No, that's fantastic. I'm curious, and I don't know a ton about SEO, but how important do you feel like SEO and keyword research is within this content process that you've developed so far?

Holly Enneking: Yeah. So I think it's sort of part and parcel to what I've said as far as the topics that we know, we can say something meaningful about where we see traffic, keywords and information that are being searched, where we have an opportunity to show up and have a perspective on that. We also really benefit from having short episodes that are really tactical topics that make it really easy to write a title and a description, that I think play really well in an SEO space. And so we do try and have an eye for, these are the types of topics by keyword that we're thinking about. We don't let it necessarily dictate everything that we're doing, but it's a nice guidepost of this is true north for us as far as where we feel like we have value to add to a conversation, and how are we making sure that we're staying true to that. But we try not to get too far into, " We have to make sure we got this keyword in there." But Rachel and I don't have time to flip that too deeply.

Nick Bennett: No, definitely. Now going back to the social media piece, you talked about Twitter and LinkedIn. Are you putting it on YouTube Shorts at all, or IG, or are you just focusing on those two platforms?

Holly Enneking: Yeah, so because we release it... We're recording it on Zoom essentially. We have the video. We do publish to YouTube as well as to Apple, Spotify, all of the other ones. So when we're thinking about engagement, I'm traditionally looking at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts, although apparently that's going away next year sometime, and actually moving into YouTube. But yes, we are activating it there. We also push out... So when we're promoting our content, we do promote it on Instagram as well. It had been a space that we had a social account, and didn't really know how to use it. And we've thought the podcast, having the video component, having the guest, that could be interesting for us to try and build it up. Honestly, it hasn't been super successful for us. LinkedIn and Twitter, especially LinkedIn has just been so much more valuable, that I would say that I think Rachel and I would agree that Instagram might be on the cutting block as far as, do we continue to promote content there in season three? Because it's added effort that isn't necessarily returning anything for us where we are getting that engagement on LinkedIn. I think the idea was there. I think it's just not a space where we have built up a lot of audience, and I don't know that the audience that we're going after CEOs is really spending a lot of time thinking about Instagram as a place where they might get valuable content. So we've been testing it out. It hasn't really converted. I do think there's more opportunity for us when it comes to YouTube, especially as we get... We're a little more established in what our process is, what it takes to get every episode out. And so now, we're at this great place where we can I think start testing a little more and getting a little more experimental with how we're driving more subscribers on that space, how we're maybe doing some other things, bringing other content onto YouTube, doing more video. So I think there's a lot of potential there and I'm excited to test it out. But we've got the baseline, we're pushing it out there. We have some subscribers. We see engagement there. But there's definitely room to grow.

Nick Bennett: Yeah, it's so interesting. Because as a marketer, the one platform that I think is very fascinating that I think there's tremendous upside for is YouTube, specifically Shorts. But I've done so much research on Shorts, and just listened to a lot of podcasts. We were talking right before this, but for anyone that's looking for someone, Jay inaudible talks, he interviewed someone that gets at a minimum 10 million views per short that she posts, and she knows how the algorithm works. And there's these 30 second videos where every single one pops off and she gets at a minimum, 10 million views. And it's just so fascinating to me one, how the algorithm works between all these platforms. But specifically Shorts, I think you're going to see a lot of B2B marketers specifically jump over there and they're going to start to produce a lot more content that's Shorts specific, but I think it's going to come down to the thumbnail and just that whole package, which I mean ultimately, you're going to need a team to kind of put that whole thing together. But I don't know, it's just where I think personally, where I'm going to double down on out of all the platform outside of LinkedIn. I just think there's a lot of upside there for sure.

Holly Enneking: Yeah, totally.

Nick Bennett: Cool. All right. Let's dive into revealing some tips for building an ever- growing pipeline here. So I think to kick things off, ultimately, how do you convert engaged audiences into loyal customers?

Holly Enneking: Yeah. So I think for us, the podcast is still very much a top of funnel activity for us. And we're really using it as a way to build up the Bolster brand, get some awareness, and really build trust and credibility around Bolster as an expert who can help a CEO or a scaling business think about talent, development, working with a board, building a board, doing these types of activities, because we've demonstrated expertise. So we're doing that through, we have a couple of books that we've published as Bolster, Startup CEO, Startup CXO, Startup Boards. We have our blog that has a lot of really great content. The podcast is another opportunity for us to get the message about Bolster out in a way that is adding value, getting interest, getting someone's attention, bringing them into top of funnel, and then really thinking about now, how are we converting them into someone who is more engaged? So for us, our primary CTA is really to join Bolster. When someone goes into Bolster, you create a client account, you get connected with a talent consultant who tries to understand what is it that you're doing within your executive team. Are you maybe thinking about bringing on someone fractionally? Are you thinking about hiring? Are you thinking maybe about a coach or mentor for yourself, for someone on your team? Might that be something you're interested in? Maybe you don't know exactly what it is you need yet. Maybe you need some support in actually doing some analysis and assessing yourself as a CEO, your team, someone in a specific role. All of those are opportunities. And so creating an account, having that first conversation can be an opportunity really just to get some insider advice and insight about what it is that you might need to think about. Even if you don't necessarily have a need right now, it can be a great way just to start thinking about what is the strategic talent approach that I need to be taking, and start down that path. And then when you do have an executive hiring need of some kind, then you'll be ready to go with Bolster. So that's really where we're thinking about, is how do we take someone from being educated about these executive talent needs and taking the next step? The next best step for us is really creating that client account. And so that's really where our CTAs for this lie. It's also a really great opportunity for us when I think further down the funnel when I'm thinking about existing clients. So we have had a lot of current and existing clients who have been guests on the podcast, and that's a really great opportunity for us to create a nice feel good opportunity with that client, where they're getting an experience of being the podcast guest. They're getting all of the assets to promote it, to share it out with their own networks, and not necessarily to talk about Bolster specifically. We're not asking for a testimonial. It's not really about the work that they did with us, but really sharing their expertise. It becomes a really nice opportunity for us to continue to build that relationship, create a strong relationship, create a lasting relationship. Because the reality is that people aren't hiring an executive every single day. How do we keep top of mind and make sure that people remember, " I do need to find a mentor. I want to add someone to my board." How do we make sure that they're thinking about Bolster in a way that they come back to us, instead of maybe going down another route with fulfilling those needs? So that's really where I see a lot of great opportunity for us is really early on, and then maintaining, and building, and fostering relationship long- term with folks in order to have them come back to us again. So really still that brand awareness piece. That's really the big play for us here is just continuing to build and promote the Bolster brand, and make it something that people feel like, " Yes, if I have some sort of talent need, whether that's hiring, whether that's development, Bolster is a place that I can go to in order to fulfill that need."

Nick Bennett: Yeah. No, totally makes sense. Now, I know you talked a little bit about the different stages of that journey, and a little bit about the CTA joining Bolster. Do you change up your CTAs or offers, or I guess pair them for different stages of the funnel, or is it kind of like same offer, same CTA for all of it?

Holly Enneking: Right now, it's same offer, same CTA. But I think that there's opportunity, especially as the business continues to evolve, and we're thinking about how marketing fits in with our broader business. So we're really doing and leaning into more opportunities around full- time search and what that looks like. And so for me, that presents the opportunity of, how are we activating our team of recruiters who are going out to their own networks, and arm them with the podcast as a tool that they can reach to, and provide insight, and provide something valuable that is not necessarily a straight Bolster sale, but just like, " Here's something that I think you might find interesting." Here's a question that you and I talked about. For example, there's a question that we hear a lot is around compensation, board compensation. There's a really great podcast episode that gives you that answer in four minutes. That is a really great way to be able to take some of that content, make it available to a team that's going out and having conversations to get someone into that prospect or opportunity state, where I think we have the opportunity to think about that differently. For us, in all cases, it's always ending with, how are we driving to a search? That's really our end goal in the same way that someone might be thinking about a software sale or whatever that might be. Our ideal state is start a search, get someone looking for talent in our platform, whatever that may be for them. And so I think there's then some opportunities in just how we're using it in different places. I'm excited to get into some events next year, where we'll have some in- person events where we can talk about the podcast and drive people there. I think that's a really interesting... Get more familiar with the brands, understand, get some value, find something hopefully interesting for you. Gives us an opportunity to then nurture that relationship and move them into a state, when we know that there's an opportunity that they'd be a more active prospect for us. I think it's a really great opportunity for us from that perspective. But I think it'll be something that will be really fun to continue to test and evolve over time, as we figure out how we can make this match with and think about how it changes for our audience as they're in different stages with us. Because you never know when someone might need to hire an executive.

Nick Bennett: That's 100%. And so I feel like you talked about it a little bit, but does the content evolve throughout the buyer's journey, or do you want that to be the case?

Holly Enneking: I don't know that it needs to right now. I think different types of topics fit at different stages for the types of clients that we're thinking about. Like an early stage CEO is probably thinking a lot more about fundraising, about working with their board and what that looks like, versus a later stage CEO who's maybe thinking about, " I have this company that's scaling so fast. How do I make sure that I'm nurturing a really strong culture, that I'm continuing to build this state of not losing the entrepreneurial spirit that I've had in the past of moving fast and making fast decisions, now that I'm in this really big organization?" Or, " I'm thinking about moving into a totally different industry, what does that look like?" And so I think it's different based on all of the different stages that someone might be at of the buyers that we're working with. And so what we're trying to do is make sure that we have enough diversity of content that not every episode is going to work for every single person, but something may be really interesting for this group right now, and something else may spark for them later. But also, we're only putting out five minute episodes. So if it's not necessarily a good fit, you might still get something interesting that applies to you and you can add to the way that you're thinking about your business. And something may not be a totally great fit, but you've not put 45 minutes into something that's not a great fit for you. And so I think that we are trying to, as we're thinking about the types of situations that our buyer is in, making sure that we have enough content that is fitting in for them at any given moment, and we have the benefit with the daily episodes, that it gives us an opportunity to take a lot of bites at that Apple.

Nick Bennett: Yeah, fantastic. So I know we're coming up on time, so I want to kind of open it up to some Q& A. If you do have any questions, drop them in the chat, drop them in the Q& A. If you want to come on live, we can do that as well. There was one that was also submitted here. What are the key lessons you have learned from Bolster's content marketing success?

Holly Enneking: I think the thing for us that has been really important is to really keep our eye on the ball when it comes to, what is the end goal that we want? The goal that we have is we want to add value to a CEO when they're thinking about talent and whatever that might be for them. And it's not necessarily about leading with the Bolster message, it's about bringing real, actionable value. And if there's not something that's actionable in a takeaway and something that they can put into practice, then what are we doing here? And I think that that has meant that it's allowed us to create content that we can do a lot with and use in a lot of different forms. I think that's been one of the things that I've enjoyed the most about having the podcast, is that it has brought so much more content to us as a small team of two. We are drowning in content. We have so many opportunities when it comes to repurposing for blog posts, for webinars, for social content, for email content, all of these great things. And that I think has been really fun. So being really thoughtful about, what is it that we're trying to accomplish? Are we accomplishing that goal? And then how do we do as much with this piece of content now as we possibly can? That I think has been central to my takeaways of what we've gotten out of the podcast.

Nick Bennett: Fantastic. It looks like there's one more question. What advice do you have for repurposing content across multiple channels?

Holly Enneking: I would say don't be afraid to repurpose things multiple times in as many channels as you possibly can. I think we all know it takes someone hearing a message seven times before it resonates, before they actually take it in and consume it. And so never be afraid of, " We already said this in this place." No, say it everywhere all the time. And that is totally acceptable. Because there's different ways that you can say it across all of the different platforms, the way that you're communicating the content in the podcast, versus the way that it shows up in a blog, versus the way that it shows up in an email. They may be all the same central theme coming from a same voice. But the way that they are displayed, consumed, taken away from is very, very different. And so I think that's where there's a lot of great opportunity to be playful, and find ways to test, and iterate, and see what works or what doesn't work. And I think just going out there and just going for it is the number one thing. Lindsay, the CEO of Casted did... In our first week, she was one of our first guests. I think the advice that she gave was really pertinent to this, was literally just hit record. Just get started. Just turn on the mic and just go for it. And that's the best thing you can do. Waiting too long or hemming and hawing, just go for it. It's just marketing. It's not life or death here. Just go for it.

Nick Bennett: Love that. That's fantastic advice actually. I'm also a big believer of that. Amazing. All right. Well Holly, where can people go to connect with you, to learn more? If they want to check out the podcast, feel free to drop anything, plug anything. Let's make sure so people kind of know about that.

Holly Enneking: Yeah, so definitely feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me there. Just Holly anything. You can find me that way. If you're interested in the podcast, or obviously anywhere where you might find a podcast, you can also go to podcast. bolster. com. That will take you right to it. I think we're something like 70 episodes in, maybe even 80 at this point. I'm excited to hit the 100 mark here soon, which will be really great. But yeah, you can find us in any of those places. And also, just bolster. com if you're interested in learning more about Bolster. I'll also just plug the podcast worksheet or production worksheet that I put in here. This is essentially what Rachel and I use to manage the podcast for ourselves. There are so many pieces and parts that go into making sure that we've got all of our ducks in a row when it comes to publishing an episode. And so we have found this really valuable for us in making sure between the two of us, that we've checked all the boxes, we've done all the things in order to make every episode live. So I hope if you're able to take advantage of making a copy of that for yourself and leveraging it, and modifying it in whatever way is best for you, that it can be helpful as far as making your podcast successful, or at least making the process of managing it a little more successful. Because that part can feel really overwhelming. It can feel like a lot of boxes, but when you really break it down like, " Okay, we've got these things to do, this is what has to happen to get the episode live," I think that can be a great way to tackle it. So hopefully, you find that helpful.

Nick Bennett: Fantastic. Yeah, it's in the chat here, but for everyone that's listening on demand, we'll be emailing that link out as well so that you can make a copy of it. I know I plan on doing that. And this is fantastic. Honestly, we're right on time. Holly, thank you so much for today. I learned a ton. Again, as someone that's an avid podcaster, I think this was fantastic. And for everyone that is listening, we have our next webinar coming up on October 25th with Zoe from Sumo Logic. I'll follow up with some more information about that one. But Holly, thank you so much for joining me. This was fantastic. Again, hope everyone got a ton of value out of this, and we'll catch you all soon on the next one.

Holly Enneking: Thanks so much, Nick. Thanks everybody.

Nick Bennett: Bye everyone.