How a recurring live event helped launch a branded podcast with Jessie Lizak

Episode Summary

Sometimes, the best way to start your company’s podcast is by building some of the skills first.

But how can you develop some of these skills within your marketing team? How can you take a few baby steps first…before you launch a big podcast initiative?

In this episode, Jessie Lizak, the CMO at BDEX, joins host Tristan Pelligrino. BDEX is a company that allows B2C companies to use data to reach the right people at the right time.

And Jessie is the host of the company’s podcast, Deconstructing Data.

Before Jessie launched the company’s podcast, she actually launched her own live event series to test the waters. And during this conversation, we uncover how her solo experience gave her the foundation needed to launch the company’s podcast.

Featured Guest

Key Insights

I wanted to start a podcast, but instead, I found a partner to organize live events. Whiskey Wednesday is a weekly show hosted by Jessie and her co-host Eddie. Jessie wanted to start a podcast, but she didn't have experience in the area, so she contacted Eddie, whom she knew from Linkedin. ''He's in sales, and I'm in marketing, and we'd find ourselves talking about our day jobs, sales and marketing alignment, and being like, ‘Man, we should go live with this. Why don't we go live and start talking like the rest of the world?’ And so, that was sort of how we started, and we tried to bring on two guests each time — someone in sales and marketing to have these conversations with us.''
A podcast was a logical step after the success of Whiskey Wednesday. That made Jessie admit to herself and others on the BDEX executive team that she is prepared to dive into a new project — a podcast under the company's umbrella. Initially, the top management was unsure whether a podcast was a good move, but Whiskey Wednesday’s results made them revisit the idea. ''I understand that there's hesitation around it, and if you're not someone who listens to podcasts, then you don't understand the value of it. But I saw that our audience would be those people who would be listening to podcasts, and we packaged it up.''
Whiskey Wednesday enabled me to build my personal brand, which also benefited the company. Instead of the rooted belief that building a personal brand may harm your employer, Jessie proves that working on independent projects can contribute to brand recognition and business growth. ''I have relationships and sponsors I've introduced to BDEX that I met at Whiskey Wednesday. So there has been a direct benefit. So it's all about building a personal brand, and it's a win-win either way.''

Episode Highlights

Whiskey Wednesday: An Opportunity for Marketing and Sales Professionals to Gather and Learn From Each Other

”Whiskey Wednesday is a live broadcast that I put on with my partner Eddy Banham, and he’s a co-host. We primarily bring on sales and marketing professionals and thought leaders we find on LinkedIn and ask them to talk about hot topics.

So hot sales and marketing topics — a lot of times, around alignment. So a lot of our most popular shows will be those where we’re getting into the hard discussions about who owns what in terms of revenue between sales and marketing, primarily in B2B SaaS. But we also get into sales or just marketing on some podcasts.”

We Wanted to Make a Fun Yet Educational Live Show; Hopefully, We Succeeded

”Finding guests is the fun part. Organizing interesting conversations like this one and all the ones you have, like Whiskey Wednesday, is still fun. […] And getting to work with my partner Eddie. We have a great time together, and he’s a brilliant salesperson, so he’s been able to take what we’ve put together and monetize it. I’ve closed deals too. […]

We started to learn a lot more, even about what we were talking about: B2B, sales, marketing, and alignment. […] It’s been a fun experience, living what we talk about and learning. So a great part of what I love about podcasts going live is this chance to sit there, listen to people, and learn so much from them, and then get to use that and go back and build what we’re doing.”

The Challenges of a Live Show

”It was a technical thing. So just making sure it all worked. And then, once I got past that, it felt like the sky was the limit because I had fun with everything else. […]

We’re B2B SaaS where you don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re doing. So to me, that was the part that was hard. It was just like getting set up. But now that we have our rhythm; once we have the technicalities down, we get the creative down.”

Whiskey Wednesday Led to a Podcast

”We call it Deconstructing Data, and that leaves us available to — in the beginning, when it was harder to find guests — talk about anything data-related.

That can go across a lot of different professions. So we’ve had a lot of different discussions, but we try to focus on data and advertising, first-party data, the cookieless future, and identity resolution.

And trying to inform primarily American marketers, although we are [among] the top 50 marketing podcasts in Japan. So there’s a lot of appreciation for more of the technical aspect of marketing and advertising internationally.”

How a Podcast Contributes to the Overall Marketing Strategy

”We get so much from it because we’re getting video content and audio content that can be repurposed for multiple channels. So just doing this one recording will leave us set up for TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn for weeks. And then also we can share it with our guests.

There’s a little time beforehand where David gets to meet people and then talk to them again. And a lot of the time, we’re talking to people who could potentially be customers. And that feels great as a marketer to help make these connections. […]

We’re trying to get leads for BDEX and inform our audience about BDEX. But, of course, we want buyers. So we want people who trust us, and that’s what the podcast does. It helps close that trust gap with our buyers so that when they do need what we provide, they think of us.”