BRX Pro Tip: Launch Conversation with Lee & Stone
Stone Payton: Well, Lee, I think it’s fair to say that we’re beginning to hit our stride in terms of expanding the network, bringing on entrepreneurs in various communities across the country, bringing them into the Business RadioX family, setting up these new Business RadioX markets for these licensed studio operators. And I wanted to ask you, just getting started launching a new Business RadioX market, what are some things you’d be thinking about? What are some of the first few steps you would take? Let’s talk that through a little bit.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think at the heart of our business, it’s always the guests, right? It’s important to identify who the right guest is for the show. So, the first thing I would do if I was launching a studio in a new market would be to build this kind of dream list of guests. And that would be business associations that were in the market. I would identify referral partners. But, ultimately, it’s who are the businesses and the business people that I want to invite on the show to be a guest, to have them come on and share their story.
Lee Kantor: And I try to build this list both via build an email database of all these people and a LinkedIn database, so I have access to these people so I can ask them to come on a show without having to pay money to attract them. So, I would be connecting with them on LinkedIn and I would be building an email list in a CRM system so I can periodically send them content and send them invitations to come on shows. So, that would be my first move is kind of building this database of ideal guests for my house show.
Stone Payton: Yeah, and I’m the same way. And I would complement that with the activity I’ve already have some history doing. If it is my local community, which is typically the case when we’re setting up a new licensed studio operator, but I would start to socialize the idea that we’re launching the studio, and so the people that I’m already in relationship with, that’s another way to serve them and to get some buzz and some energy around it.
Stone Payton: So, while I would want to think through very carefully who I need to be in relationship with that I am not, I would also want to capitalize on those relationships I already have with people who, of course, have their own network. It’s kind of a balance, right? Like make sure you have a critical mass of people that you want to be in relationship with, but at the same time don’t be too scared to cast a little bit of a wide net. Have other folks from the community in there, give them a chance to share their story, promote their work, because one thing we have learned over the last 20 plus years is guest flow. I mean, that is the machine. That’s the cog that makes this whole machine work, isn’t it?
Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s so important to build that pipeline. And that’s always a great place to start is to start with people you already have a relationship with and just kind of, like you said, evangelize to them in saying, “Hey, I’m doing this thing, I would love for you to be a guest. And oh, by the way, do you know any other business people that are doing interesting things that I can connect with so that I can invite them on as a guest?”
Lee Kantor: Because, like you said, a good guest usually turns into two or three other good guests because you don’t know who your friend knows and your friend doesn’t know who their friend knows. So, it’s a great way to elegantly and organically build up your potential guest list is you start with people you already know and then just kind of ask people for referrals for other interesting guests.
Stone Payton: So, that’s a great start on a path to genuinely serving, actually helping people. What do you think the lead playbook would be? Again, you’re not brand new to the community, but you’re brand new as a licensed studio operator, what do you think the lead playbook would be in terms of beginning to actually make some money with this thing?
Lee Kantor: Right. You have to have, I think, two offerings to begin with. You need kind of a low price offering for people who can’t afford what, really, you want to sell is this higher ticket sponsorship. So, I would create some sort of a community partner program that sells a low price kind of a branding opportunity.
Lee Kantor: People who want to attach their brand to the Business RadioX brand locally in the marketplace, and that could be $100, $200 a month thing where their logo or their link to their website is on all of our email communications or on the website, things like that. Some digital branding opportunities for community partners. Give them access to the platform in terms of they can invite guests. You know, do things that don’t cost a lot of money, so that all of that initial money is pretty much just pure profit. So, I would have some community partner offering at go.
Lee Kantor: And, also, I would have some done for you, done with you business type show offering the associations, the chambers, the executive MBA programs, some of these larger institutions that we can be doing interviews of their clients or members or their students on their behalf and sell that at a good price, you know, usually in the $2,000 to 5,000 a month range. So, something that they can afford, something that is very tangible. It’s done for them for the most part.
Lee Kantor: Also, give them a chance to come on and be smart and create the thought leadership, and then also spotlight their existing customers or members or clients, so that you create a flow of content that’s shareable, that their people can share, that their sales people can share, that their organization can share, and that you can execute pretty easily on their behalf. So, those would be my first two moves until I had enough revenue to graduate to having my own physical studio in that market.
Stone Payton: So, going back to that done for you offering, I mean we’ve got some good use cases, maybe talk a little bit more, dive in a little bit more on because you’re actually the lead on executing it for one of our clients and it really is almost entirely done for you. And they’re getting tremendous benefit and we’re making a nice margin, yeah?
Lee Kantor: Yeah. So, like I said, we work a lot with associations and membership groups where we’re interviewing their members. This provides a tremendous value to the members. It helps keep them sticky. It helps them feel good about the relationship. And one of the deliverables back to the association is, during the interviews, I typically ask for some sort of a testimonial, like, how has this group helped you or impacted your business? And they are happy to share an anecdote.
Lee Kantor: And so, we’re able to capture, you know, tons of this type of content that’s super important for the association because they don’t get that kind of organically. And then, we’re able to elegantly deliver that to them as a standalone piece of content that’s just part of the interview that we just kind of sneak in there. And so, that’s a big part of the offering.
Lee Kantor: And then, also, we periodically facilitate some sort of a roundtable or a discussion with the executives of the association that allows them to be the thought leader that they are, and to share their wisdom and knowledge, and facilitate a kind of robust conversation about their work and their mission and things like that. And that’s also an important deliverable back to them in terms of content that might be difficult for them to create on their own and then to have it being facilitated by us.
Lee Kantor: This third party established business talk network is important for them in terms of credibility and then it creates a ton of content. I mean, we’re just creating so much content for them to use in a variety of platforms throughout their whole kind of media mix. So, we’re creating the audio, we’re creating digital text, and then they can use that for video. We’re posting it everywhere. So, it’s just a tremendous amount of value and it’s pretty much done for them.
Stone Payton: And another core revenue stream for us that I’m going to ask you to dive into in some detail here in just a moment is the done with you in studio but, of course, it pretty much requires having a physical studio. But I’m thinking a good half step between what we’ve talked about, the done for you and kind of the community partner revenue streams, a good half step before making that commitment to establish a physical studio.
Lee Kantor: There’s equipment available now that’s pretty darn portable. And there are facilities now, you know, co-working spaces and other places that would be delighted to have you come in whether you’re in it or will you strike some kind of deal. You come in every Friday or two Thursdays a month, and you could actually take this portable equipment, you know, have radio day down at the local chamber or the bank or the co-working space, and you could start to ease into that physical studio kind of dynamic.
Stone Payton: What do you think about that as a half step before going to what I know I want to talk about and the company was actually founded on, which is, you know, a full physical studio?
Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that that’s a great half step. And the equipment that you use for this kind of portable situation can easily transfer to that, you know, full-blown physical studio. So, it doesn’t have to be an or, I mean you can use the same equipment for both things. So, it’s one of those things where that could definitely work. It just requires you to then start feeling comfortable in and around this type of recording equipment and make sure you have your redundancy and all that stuff, which obviously we teach all of that.
Lee Kantor: But I think that that opens up and unlocks way more revenue streams. Now, you’re doing live events. Now, you’re showing up. Like you said, you could show up at golf tournaments. You can show up at trade shows, conferences. You can go into their office and just interview their people or their customers. So, radio day is a great half step to go in and start unlocking more and more of the revenue streams you get with Business RadioX.
Lee Kantor: I mean, when you look at it at the end of the day, there’s dozens of ways to make money with our platform. And the more tools you have at your disposal, the more of them you can access. So, yeah, that’s definitely a great way to go about taking the brand that you’re working with and then giving more and more people the opportunity to share their story in a variety of places and ways.
Stone Payton: Okay. Let’s talk about the bread and butter way of helping people and making money. The company was founded on this. You’ve got it pretty well baked, man, and very transferable. But let’s walk through some of the key tenets of that.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. At the heart of our work and the way that it began was helping B2B professional services, people in local markets meet those hard to reach people in person, face-to-face in an elegant, non-salesy way. It was helping them differentiate themselves from everybody else because they were creating a show that was spotlighting and supporting and celebrating the work of the niche that they work in.
Lee Kantor: The people that are the most important to them are invited on as guests. They come into the studio. They get a full-blown studio experience with microphones and headsets inside of a studio. It’s a photo op. They take a million pictures. It’s just a really intimate, great way to build and deepen relationships with the people that are most important to you.
Lee Kantor: And that is our bread and butter. This is what we do for folks in all of the studios all around the country. And this is where we help in those local markets. Those professional service experts who might feel like they’re a commodity, they’re just like one of a bunch of them, this helps them differentiate themselves and position themselves as that indispensable leader in the community that are doing the hard work of telling the stories of the folks that are in their niche and in the industry that they’re working in.
Lee Kantor: So, that’s the bread and butter. That is really the heart of the business in a lot of cases that have physical studios, because every day we’re interviewing real people in person, face-to-face, and helping people build and accelerate their relationships with those people who are most important to them.
Stone Payton: Well, this has been a refreshing and revitalizing conversation for me, man. I’m ready to ramp up and do it all over again. But, yeah, anyone who’s listening, if it’s a conversation you’d like to have and you would like to explore the idea of joining the Business RadioX family, becoming a licensed Business RadioX studio operator, let’s talk it through. There’s a tremendous opportunity there, first and foremost, to leverage the platform, just like you would do with your clients – and we’ve done for 20 plus years – to grow your existing business.
Stone Payton: And as Lee has described, I think, very well, there is also tremendous opportunity to genuinely serve, to help people, and make a very comfortable living while you’re doing it there in your local community. If you’d like to have that conversation, just reach out. My direct line is 770-335-2050. My email is stone, S-T-O-N-E, @businessradiox.com. And we’ll set up some time and talk it through.
