Behind the Scenes at Social Media Examiner
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Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Podcast, helping you navigate the social media jungle.
And now, here is your host, Michael Stelzner.
Hello, hello, hello.
Thank you so much for joining me for the Social Media Marketing Podcast brought to you by
Social Media Examiner.
I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers and business
owners who want to know what works with social media.
Today, I'm going to be joined by Brooke Sellis, and we're going to go behind the scenes on
how we develop shows at Social Media Examiner.
And Brooke is actually going to interview me.
By the way, I'm at Stelzner on Instagram and at Mike underscore Stelzner on Twitter.
If you're new to this podcast, be sure to follow this show so you don't miss any of
our future content.
Let's transition over to this week's interview with Brooke Sellis.
Helping you to simplify your social safari.
Here is this week's expert guide.
Today I'm very excited to be joined by Brooke Sellis.
If you don't know who Brooke is, she is the founder and CEO of B Squared Media, an agency
that helps brands connect, converse, and convert on social media.
Her book is called Conversations That Connect.
Today, Brooke and I are going to explore what goes into developing shows at Social
Media Examiner, and Brooke will be interviewing me.
Welcome to the show, Brooke.
How are you doing today?
Hi, I'm so excited to be here, and I'm a little bit nervous to interview you.
Just a little.
Oh, heck, come on.
You're a pro, so take it away.
So I guess first questions first.
We're on the podcast.
People are listening or watching the show.
How do these shows work into your overall content strategy?
Give us the behind the scenes.
Well, we have been doing podcasts since the year 2012, and the very first show that I
did was the Social Media Marketing Podcast, and we're both, for those that are watching
YouTube, handling controls at the same time, which is always a lot of fun.
The very first show was the Social Media Marketing Podcast, and since then we've got a lot more
shows.
The strategy here is I believe, and I still believe, that long-form spoken media is really,
really important.
As of recording this in 2023, short-form content is all the rave.
You know, we've got 15, 30, 60-second videos across Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok,
Twitter, LinkedIn.
All these platforms are typically moving towards short-form content, but I'm a believer that
there are still people out there who are craving content that goes beyond 60 seconds, that
goes beyond 15 seconds.
The truth of the matter is, from a marketing perspective, how much value can you truly
add in such a short period of time?
It's kind of difficult, right?
We are a long-form media company, and there's always space for this linear media that we're
talking about today, which is spoken media that is specifically done in interviews.
The reason why we think it's valuable is because there are people out there that learn
in different kinds of ways.
A lot of people, like me, prefer to listen or watch content rather than read content.
Maybe because some of us are dyslexic, in the case of me.
Maybe because we don't have our eyes available because we're on the go to watch a video,
but we are willing to listen when we're out running or when we're at the gym or we're
driving the car or we're doing boring tasks like cleaning the dishes, or even showering
for that matter, right?
There are people that always want to learn.
And as a result, there's a place for this.
And the strategy for us at Social Media Examiner, having done this for more than a decade, is
to really find high-quality guests like you, Brooke, and to go out there.
First, it's a discovery process where we go out and we find people that we think are good.
We put them through our own internal vetting process, and then we invite them to come on
the show.
And everyone says yes.
Most of them do.
And in the beginning, it was harder.
Now it's much easier because we've got a platform.
We're well-known.
We specifically work very carefully with these guests to try to create content that is attractive
to an audience.
And it's not just an interview, as you know, Brooke.
We don't just show up and just randomly throw questions at people.
We really work to engineer high-quality content, and we can dig in on any of this kind of stuff.
But really, the strategy here is to not just say yes to anyone, but to find very specific
people, make sure that they have that deep bench of knowledge so that we can work collaboratively
to develop an original piece of content.
And then as we're doing this, there are ulterior objectives that we are doing here at Social
Media Examiner.
When we get people on the show, we work really hard to try to develop relationships with
these individuals.
And anybody who's had a podcast that's been around for a while understands the deep relationship
that you can build when you spend time with someone.
For example, we typically have a 45-minute pre-call with every guest before we actually
interview them.
And we do this, and it doesn't matter if it's Robert Cialdini or it's Gary Vaynerchuk or
it's Seth Godin.
We have these pre-calls with them because we know, well, I'm a Boy Scout, first of all,
and I believe in being prepared.
That's the Boy Scout model, right?
But I believe that if I can work collaboratively with a person to try to align their area of
expertise with who our audience is and kind of brainstorm topics that they're excited
to talk about so that I can actually present them to our audience in a way that is super
valuable for both Social Media Examiner, Social Media Examiner's audience, and the guest,
it always results in a better piece of output.
And that requires work.
I learned later in life that this is how Oprah Winfrey does what she does.
She works very collaboratively with her guests before they ever show up on camera, back in
the day when she used to have her show.
And that results in higher quality content, which is a win-win-win for everyone, the audience,
the guest, and the company slash host.
And I sneak in and just say, like, it's absolutely true.
So you first interviewed me almost a year ago.
It was June of last year.
And during our pre-call, not only did we go over our questions, Mike was helping me
set up my mic to sound the best.
He was telling me how to position myself to wear headphones.
Like, it's not just like it.
And that is what built the relationship for me, right?
Because I could tell you really cared about me sounding good and the production of the
show.
And I just thought it was, it was excellent.
And then I feel like our show was excellent, but it was because of the pre-interview.
Well, thank you.
Yeah.
And I don't just do that kind of work when I'm in the pre-interview.
I also ask them at the end of the interview, something kind of interesting.
I say to them, hey, is there anything you want to ask me related to this or not related
to this?
And then I'll be quiet and I'll let them just ask me questions.
And a lot of times some of them, they'll be like, yeah, you know, I'm actually thinking
about starting a podcast.
Can you tell me more?
And I start collaborating with them.
Or, you know, they'll ask me about how we do things at Social Media Examiner.
Or sometimes they'll say I could use some advice on some stuff as a seasoned entrepreneur.
What are your thoughts about this out of the other thing?
And what ends up happening is I end up spending sometimes an extra hour with them, just speaking
into them and sharing with them insights that I've seen having interviewed probably over
a thousand people now across all the other shows.
You know what I mean?
And they find that really, really valuable.
Now why do I do that?
Well, first of all, like Brooke said, I want them to look great.
I want them to sound great.
I want them to have the desired outcome that they want from being on this show.
Many people that come on this show have got a new product or a new book or they desire
to be more well known.
So me just giving them a little bit of coaching and a little bit of insights sometimes can
be very valuable to them.
And that also strengthens the relationship because in the end, relationships are what
it's all about.
Right?
Once I get to know these people, the next time they're on the show and we actually do
the interview, I ask them again, and it's usually a week later, Hey, you want to talk
about what we talked about last week?
Sure.
And then I get more time with them.
And what ends up happening is we get to know each other and we become friends.
And when you become friends with someone, they will do things with you or for you down
the road that they might not normally do.
And I don't do this to get them to do things with me or for me.
I really do do this to create great content.
But I also am in the back of my head.
I'm thinking about what the business objectives I have at Social Media Examiner.
You know, for example, we've got the Social Media Marketing Society, and I know that we
have opportunities for people to speak there.
So sometimes I'll ask people, do you desire to speak?
Right?
And then if they had a great interview, I might invite them to come speak there.
Or I might invite them to come speak inside of our conference at Social Media Marketing
World.
You know exactly how I do what I do, Brooke.
But it doesn't come across as weird or creepy because I don't need everyone to say yes,
you know?
And in the end, hopefully I've given them something extremely valuable.
Wait, so can I ask everyone with everyone listening or watching, is that how I got picked
to speak at Social Media Marketing World this year was because of our interview together?
Brooke, that's how 100% of speakers get picked.
Y'all, that's, write that down.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
So if you think about it, first of all, most of the people that speak at Social Media Marketing
World could be keynoting at other events, right?
And what we do uniquely at Social Media Marketing World is we have no application process.
It's 100% recruitment.
So you could argue that everyone who's a guest on my podcast is kind of auditioning, if you
will, for the possibility of speaking at my conference because that's where our business
model is, right?
You know, that's how we actually keep the lights on at night.
So yes, Brooke, that was a direct correlation, right?
But I don't normally talk about that publicly.
You got that out of me.
That's really cool.
Woohoo!
But you know, the other side of it is that it's not just me getting people on the show
so I can get them to speak.
I mean, it really is first and foremost about developing really rich content that will have
a loyal audience that wants to listen every single week because then I can advertise to
that audience, the conference.
Does that make sense?
Now, it also helps if the people that are at the conference are familiar voices, right?
And familiar names to the audience.
Because then people will be like, oh, I know half those people because I've listened to
Mike's show and they were on the show and I want to learn more from them.
But I will tell you, I don't ever tell my guests to hold back.
When I'm working with them, I coach them to provide the best valuable content, full stop.
And then a couple of the little things.
Sometimes we do other things.
Sometimes we have other shows, right?
Like we'll talk about some of those other shows.
But some of the people that are on this show might end up working with us on some of the
other shows that we do because it's really relationship marketing at its core, right?
And a lot of times the people that are on this show might know someone else that might
be valuable for us to get on our other shows.
So that's kind of it.
And then, you know, we can talk about like what we do with the content and all that kind
of stuff.
But yeah, that's kind of like the strategy at a macro level.
You know, it's relationship building, but nobody sees that from the outside.
One of the advantages you should keep in mind is that when you listen to my guests, they
generally feel really relaxed because they know me by the time we do the interview.
Yeah, I can attest to that.
That's absolutely true.
Well, so you kind of touched on content.
And I think if someone is listening or watching, they know that you have a very large presence,
right?
And they I'm sure know that you have a very large audience, but you also have large audiences
in different parts, right?
Just like you said, people like to consume content differently and you have to meet them
where they are.
So what is your strategy or what does it look like to, you know, create the content and
then distribute the content and then analyze how the content did?
What does that look like for a social media examiner?
Well, this is the crazy part.
There are some people that are consuming this content in written form only.
So we make articles out of every one of these and we don't, they don't even look like a
podcast.
They're actually written by a writer that we reverse engineer the key points and we
make an actual article out of it.
And when you go to social media examiner, you'll see a big, beautiful graphic we create
for every article.
And then it'll tiny say this article was co-created with Michael Stelzner and Brooke Sellis, for
example.
Right.
And it's not until you get to the end of it that you realize you can consume this in
audio and video form.
So that's our big audience, our readers, right?
We have over 400,000 people on our email newsletter for them.
They don't actually necessarily listen or watch content they prefer to read.
So we structure these interviews in such a way that they can be reverse engineered into
articles, which is really kind of engineered from the get go to be that way.
That's why when you listen to my interviews, often you'll hear me say, okay, what's the
first part?
What's the second part?
What's the third part?
Because I coach my guests to kind of break it into sections so that as someone learns,
they can realize we're breaking it down into subsections and it's not just a free flow.
There's actually structure to it because I'm thinking about the different mediums in which
we're producing content.
So the first shocker for those that are watching or listening is that we create these articles
out of it.
The other thing that people that listen to the audio podcast may not realize at all is
that we also are recording this in video right now for the YouTube channel.
And there are YouTube watchers that are like, duh, that's the only way I watch you.
But there's a much larger audience that's listening to this on Apple, Spotify, Google,
or Amazon music or wherever they get their favorite podcasts.
That is the really, really, really big audience that consumes this stuff and it gets downloaded
to their phone, you know, automagically, if you will.
So when we create this content, we are filming it in video and we are creating it video first
with the idea that we're going to extract the audio out of it and we're going to create
an audio podcast and then we're also going to create an article of it.
And it's a pretty complicated process that requires typically a three to four week lead
time.
So this is part of the reason why this show doesn't cover hot news topics because there's
a production schedule and we've got a lot of players involved that edit the videos,
that edit the audio, that create the articles, that get the graphics done.
I mean, all this kind of work, it's a lot of work that goes into creating this, but
we only have to record it once.
And from this comes everything.
That's a smart content strategy for those of you who are listening or watching because,
right, it's kind of follows like that touch it once mentality.
I don't know if anybody has heard of that, but if you want to be more efficient, the
idea is to only touch something once.
So if we only have to touch this part once, obviously, then that makes it a lot easier
and more efficient for the production things to happen on the back end.
Right, correct.
So feeding off of that, how do you analyze content?
Like how do you know when something's successful or not successful and what do you do with
that information?
Okay, well, first of all, before we talk about analyzing, we should probably talk about how
we kind of get the word out about it because we didn't touch on that.
You might feel like we did, but we actually didn't.
So what we do is we create little 60 second video clips from the highlight from like we
find the money quote in the interview.
Yes.
Right.
Which requires work.
And then we actually create a cool little video that we post on Twitter that will kind
of allow the guest, if you will, to retweet that and instantly get that little clip of
that video out on their social platforms, if you will, to promote their appearance on
the show.
And for those that aren't watching, our brand is kind of embedded here into the show.
So it's obvious that this is the social media marketing podcast.
We also put little baked in kind of closed captioning into the video so that for anyone
who's watching it with their audio off, they can get the essence of what's happening.
In addition, we promote the article in we send out three newsletters a week, Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
On Monday, we'll promote the article as just another piece of written content.
But on Friday, we'll promote it as an actual podcast.
So because, again, we know some people are readers and some people are interested in
the multimedia content.
So that's kind of the way we get the word out.
Some platforms are better than others as far as promoting things.
But generally speaking, we try not to link out to the various sources like YouTube and
all that stuff, because one thing we know about social media is they want to keep people
on the platform.
So we're generally not doing that.
And as far as the analysis goes, this is where it gets kind of intriguing.
In the podcast world, it's very easy to analyze because Apple and Spotify provide you really
good retention analytics, which show you whether or not people stick.
They show this kind of drop off that people are familiar with on YouTube.
And you can very easily see with Apple and Spotify, the number of listens, the completion
rate and the drop offs.
And that's a really good sign as to whether or not the show flow was strong or not.
So if the show flow was weak, you can see obvious areas where people drop off, which
typically means the guests went off on some crazy tangent or I brought them down a rabbit
trail that our audience could care less about.
On the YouTube side of things, YouTube recently introduced podcasting as a new function.
So you can create a playlist on YouTube and you can determine that it's a podcast.
And then what that allows you to do is it allows you to see analytics across the entire
show.
Not just across individual videos.
And this is brand new data that we're still beginning to wrap our heads around.
And then as far as articles, you look at time on site is typically the metric that matters
or views, because this is where it gets really intriguing.
When it comes to YouTube and when it comes to the written word, there is no quote unquote
way to subscribe to podcasts.
You cannot subscribe to a podcast on YouTube unless you subscribe to a channel exclusively
designed for that podcast.
Right. But the Social Media Examiner channel has lots of podcasts on it.
And there really isn't yet a way for us to quote unquote allow people to subscribe to
that. So it is kind of we're at the mercy of the algorithms when it comes to the YouTube
side of things. And when it comes to the article side of things, it's kind of Google slash
YouTube's discretion to decide whether or not to go out and find an audience for that
content. So it's kind of a crapshoot.
But the audio side of it, it's exceptionally consistent.
So you have all these different shows, you have all these formats happening, all of this
production and content going into things.
How do you or do you try to I'm assuming the answer is yes, attract different audiences
based on the shows or because it's all kind of surrounding social media, it's all
targeted towards social media people.
Well, we have four shows, which might be a surprise to people, but we do have four shows.
We're going to talk about the four show here in a few minutes.
But we've got the social media marketing podcast, and that is the largest show.
And that's targeting marketers from all over the world.
Right. Anyone who is interested in everything from creators, right, which are, in my
mind, video folk, audio folk, written word folk, people that are creating any kind of
content to entrepreneurs, right.
Small business owners, agency owners to the marketing community, which is the biggest
audience. Right. These are people that work for a business they don't own.
And their their job is to do the marketing.
Right. That's the biggest audience.
So this show is designed to be a 45 minute deep dive.
So this show is designed to be kind of the education show.
And I've had people tell me, hey, I listen to your show every day, which kind of
surprises me because it's only once a week.
Right. But what they're doing is they're actually using it as their professional
development training. And they're just downloading years worth of episodes and they're
listening one per day.
So that's what the purpose of this show is.
This show is designed to bring you tactical tips on the social platforms.
Sometimes we will cover things that don't have anything to do with the social
platforms like persuasion or neuroscience or email marketing, which are all things that
marketers are interested in but are not necessarily only applicable to social media.
The other show is the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, which I started many years ago
and now is hosted by Jerry Potter.
Now, that show is very different because that show is a live show that's typically
15 to 20 minutes.
And that show comes out every Friday and it like one week will cover TikTok.
The next week will be YouTube.
The next week will be Instagram.
And really what we cover is just the news since the last time we covered that topic.
So, for example, if we just did YouTube, then maybe about a month later, we'll do
YouTube again and we'll just cover all the things that you've missed that are features
that matter.
Right. And that show is very popular, but that show is targeting the marketers who want
to keep on the leading edge of the changes that are happening with the social platforms.
And it's very much a show where we bring a guest on to cover specifically, hey, Facebook
just did this or hey, TikTok just did this.
What does this mean?
Right. Should we pay attention to this?
And it's very much like the like first first reaction to the news.
Then I have another show, which I host called the Web3 Business Podcast, which might be
a surprise to some people listening.
But that show covers the next frontier, which is not AI as much as it's more like
decentralized media, non fungible tokens, NFTs, metaverse, decentralized autonomous
organizations. And some of these things might even be familiar to a lot of people, but
it's covering business models of how the blockchain and Web3 is altering the way we do
business. And on that show, I bring on successful project founders that have and even
sometimes not successful project founders.
But we we dig deep into like, what have you learned about community development in this
new world? What have you learned about like monetization opportunities?
And and it is definitely a small show, but definitely the next frontier.
And that show is also a 45 minute deep dive.
And that show we do publish as an article on Social Media Examiner.
But the talk show is not published as an article.
The talk show is actually broadcast live on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
And then it's edited into an audio podcast that goes on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon
Music. So kind of different shows for different folks.
That's kind of what we're doing.
Well, you just covered three of the shows.
But as you mentioned, there are four current shows.
So why the fourth show?
What is it and why did you decide to do it now?
Well, and this is where we were flipping the script, right, Brooke?
So I would love you.
Oh, no, actually, we're not flipping the script yet, are we?
OK, OK.
Like, all right. All right.
No, we're not flipping the script.
OK, you're right.
You're right. OK.
See, I'm not used to like asking.
I know. Yeah, folks, this is a work in progress.
OK, so here's what happened with the new show.
We decided to launch a fourth show.
And the short version of the story is Social Media Marketing World had its 10th
anniversary recently, and it would have been our 11th anniversary if it wasn't for the
world shutting down. And many of the marketers that have been coming to this show for a
long time, this conference essentially grew up.
You know, they started many, many years ago, and now many of them have gone on to
bigger things like starting their own company, starting their own agency or
consultancy. And I heard a lot of feedback from people that were there.
Hey, we want more content designed for us, for the agency owners, for the agency
marketers, because we deal with different kinds of problems that are happening here
at Social Media Marketing World.
So after hearing because what I do at Social Media Marketing World is I speak to
hundreds of people that's other than my keynote.
I just talk to people and I try to really understand kind of where they're at.
And many of them line up and want to talk to me.
And I ended up writing something in our Facebook group a couple of days after Social
Media Marketing World. And I kind of said, hey, folks, first of all, we wouldn't be
here as a company if it wasn't for you deciding to trek to San Diego and support this
conference. And it was legit because we would not be here if it wasn't for this
conference, because this is the main way that we pay the bills.
And in the middle of that, that letter, I said, hey, we hear you.
We have an opportunity to improve.
And I would love to create more content for specifically marketers that work at
agencies and brands at Social Media Marketing World next year.
And I said that was something we were going to work on.
Then I went back and I got a crazy idea.
And I got to tell you, Social Media Examiner was a crazy idea.
Social Media Marketing Podcast was a crazy idea.
Social Media Marketing World was a crazy idea.
Social Media Marketing Society was a crazy idea.
All things start with crazy ideas and not all ideas work.
They're experiments, right? And if they don't work, they don't work.
If they do work, they can be huge.
So here is my idea.
How can we send a signal to the world that we are for the marketing agency folk?
What could we do that would be over the top?
You know, that would be like, wow, these guys are really for us, right?
That's what they would say.
So what I decided to do was start a brand new show called the Marketing Agency Show.
Shockingly, there are very few podcasts out there that are specifically by
marketing agencies and for marketing agencies.
And we're going to, some of you are starting to connect the synapses in your
brain a little bit as to why Brooke is here.
But what I did was I went to ChatGPT and I said, create me a awesome podcast,
host, job description in the voice of Michael Stelzner for Social Media
Examiner, host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast.
And it created this killer job description and I modified it a little bit.
And I used ChatGPT 4, I believe to do this.
Then what I did was I posted it inside the Facebook group, the very same Facebook
group that I said, we heard you.
And I put the graphic up there and I said, exciting.
We're hiring a brand new host.
And then the comments with the link.
Then I decided to email only those who attended Social Media Marketing World.
And I pretty much took a smaller version of that.
And that email landed in Brooke's inbox, which we're going to talk
about a little bit later, but all I did was I only promoted this to those who
were at Social Media Marketing World.
And who are Social Media Marketing World customers for this year.
And I said to myself, you know, these are the people that amongst them is someone
who could be the host of this show.
Brooke, it was crazy.
We had almost 40 applicants, many of whom, if I mentioned their names, most of
our audience would know who they are.
I was like, gobstopped at the interest in this.
And so we started with 38 applications and we ended up nearing it down to about
six.
And then I decided to go to two of my employees, Lisa, who heads up our
editorial department and my assistant, Jen, who does all the vetting for all the
guests that get on my show.
And I asked them to actually narrow it down further.
They narrowed it down to four and then to three.
And they conducted interviews with all three of these individuals and they
brought back finalists to me.
And there was one person who was presented to me as the finalist and her
name was Brooke Sellis.
So Brooke, now I want you to share what happened, you know, like from your
perspective, because obviously we did an interview and stuff, but like, take us
back.
Like, how did you, when you got the email in your inbox, what were you thinking?
Tell us about the process that you went through to actually get interviewed.
Yeah.
So obviously I attended social media marketing world this year and thank
goodness you decided to send an email and not just put it on Facebook because I
don't use Facebook personally.
So I get this email in my inbox and I'm like, huh, this is so cool.
Like, obviously I love agency content.
I'm going to throw my name in the ring.
You know, I'm just going to, I'm just going to put an application in, not
thinking I would get it or anything of it.
Right.
Just thinking like, it sounds fun.
Let's just, why not?
So then I get an email.
I want to say it was really quick.
It was like, it might've been,
and explain the process.
Like how did, how did it work?
Like, did you just have to click a button or was there more to it?
No, I had to go fill out like this whole application.
It was like an intake form, you know, and like talk about, you know, me, my agency
experience, any sort of podcasting experience.
Why did I think I would be a good host for this show?
And I think I literally just wrote because I think it would be fun and fun was an
all capital letters.
And I put a smiley face after it.
And that was the truth.
And I'm going to tell you, Brooke, I think spent a lot of time on her application
because it was very well thought out.
We were asking very detailed questions because we wanted to assess number one,
what's their background on the agency side of things.
And number two, do they have the skills to be able to actually host the show?
Right.
And then why were they interested in this?
And Brooke was astutely aware of the benefits of potentially for her and for
social media examiner, if we were to work together.
And she made that very clear in her application process.
Oh yeah.
Should I tell that part?
Like, are you okay with me telling that part?
I mean, I don't care.
So again, I had an interview with Mike a year ago, almost about my new book at the
time that was coming out and I was on the podcast, the podcast came out, it was
great.
And I started to get leads like people going to my website and filling out like
a, I want a free consultation with Brooke form and signing up.
And I closed a lot of that business.
So for me, you know, again, not knowing that this was all going to end up here,
like it opened up my mind, like, wow, interviewing on podcasts with the right
energy aimed at the right audience with super valuable, helpful content from me
could lead to business, which it did.
So I think that was part of what I put in the application.
Like, Hey, I know how big this is because like, I'm still, I'm still getting leads
today, almost a year later from that interview that I did so long ago.
So I knew it could be valuable for both sides.
So I filled out the app.
I got an email again, I think it was like a week.
It was like short time later that said like, congratulations, you've made it to
the next round.
We need to set up an interview with Lisa and Jen.
And then I got nervous because I was like, wait a minute.
I never thought I was going to even like, you know, like, thanks so much for your
application, but no thanks.
So I went on the interview with Lisa and Jen and it was funny because, you know,
they were asking like very serious, very, you know, deep questions, but we just
giggled a lot.
And I think we had fun with it.
And I just, you know, I just was authentically me.
I told the truth.
I didn't try to shy away from anything I didn't know, or I didn't think I could do
or things that I hate.
And I thought it went really well.
So then all of a sudden I went from like, I don't think I'm going to get this to, oh
my God, I might actually get this.
So then another week passes and I get another email.
Congrats.
You're a finalist.
Now you have to interview with Mike.
And that was also a rollercoaster because obviously, you know, we all know Mike or if
you're familiar with the social media examiner brand, you know, Mike and being to
social media marketing world for so many years and reading your content and listening
to your shows.
It's a little bit nerve wracking, right?
To have Mike Stelzner interviewing you.
So again, I just tried to be myself.
I tried not to be nervous.
I tried to just answer questions in the way that I could.
And like an hour and a half ish into the interview, I think you said, can I be honest
with you or something like that?
And I was like, oh no.
And you're like, I think you should host the show.
And then I just, I don't even remember the rest.
It was like I went blank and the rest was like a huge smile with rainbows and
unicorns.
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, so folks, what we know so far is that Brooke Sellis is hosting this brand new
show called the marketing agency show.
And what I would like to do before I ask you what it's about is I'd like to ask you
to tell everybody, what did you decide to do?
Cause a few days later it was going to be your birthday, right?
So what did you decide to do to let everyone know?
And what was the reaction from people?
Yeah.
So this happens literally a few days before my birthday.
So I decided to make a birthday post on LinkedIn saying, you know, I just got the
best gift from social media examiner and Mike Stelzner.
I'm going to be the host of the new marketing agency show produced by social
media examiner and people went nuts.
I looked at it today actually.
And I have like over 2,600 views of the post.
I have like almost 50 comments.
I have, you know, almost a hundred reactions on the post.
It might be one of my best performing posts ever.
Yeah.
So I was like, Hey, it's, you know, here's another thing.
Some of the people who applied actually DM me on the side on LinkedIn and they were
like, Hey, congrats.
I went out for the show too.
And I was like, Oh man, you would have been great.
Sorry.
And what kind of private messages were you getting from people and your mastermind
and stuff like, what was the reaction that maybe people weren't saying publicly about
this opportunity?
Yeah.
Well, I had to keep it quiet, right.
And the beginning, but I did tell my mastermind group because there was a couple
of people in there that I wanted to interview and they were floored.
They were so excited.
They even sent me emails after we hung up from our mastermind, like saying like,
congrats again.
Like, I think everybody was like truly excited, which feels good because that's
what I feel.
So if other people are feeling what I'm feeling, it's a good feeling about what's
to come.
Right?
Yeah.
So why don't you tell everybody what the show is all about and who it's for?
So it's for agency owners, agency marketers, right?
People like me who've been doing this for, well, I've been doing it for a long
time.
Some people may not, which is even better because we want to talk about the
subjects that nobody else is talking about.
Right?
So most people don't want to talk about pulling back the curtain on how they run
the business.
Like how do they actually get to where they are?
How did they scale?
How did they fail and make it through so that they could continue to grow?
Right?
So I want to talk about the good stuff, like the stuff that really will help you
that nobody else talks about.
Because I know almost every year in my own agency, I say, I wish there was a
manual for this because it's so hard and you can't really find articles written
about the nitty gritty.
Right?
I have those conversations in the background in private with some other
owners or with my mastermind, but none of that is public and I want to bring it to
the forefront and make it public.
So what are some of the things you're going to be covering other than the goods?
What is the good stuff?
The good stuff.
One of my guests will be talking about how to downsize gracefully.
Like what do you do when you need to downsize, whether it's a personal
decision or a professional decision, or you're forced into it, how does that
look and how do you do it gracefully?
Right?
One of the topics is, you know, a agency owner who's considering replacing some
of his headcount, some of his team because of AI and some of the things they're
doing with AI.
Nobody's talking about that.
Nobody's going to come up there and say like, Hey, yeah, we're going to,
Everybody's thinking about it, but nobody's talking about it.
Exactly.
We're all thinking it, but nobody's talking about it.
And that's exactly the kind of topics that I want.
So again, we want to talk about those things that people are secretly
whispering about, but not talking about publicly.
I just want to bring it to the forefront.
So, you know, the guests that we do have on the show will be willing to pull that
curtain back and show, you know, don't look at the man behind the curtain from
the wizard of Oz.
I want to see the man behind the curtain essentially.
Okay.
So how's it feel to actually have a show that's your own show?
Cause you've been on other shows where you've been a cohost, right?
But how does it feel to actually have a show?
That's really 100% you.
It's so much fun.
Like it's so much easier to, I, you know, if you're thinking about starting a
podcast, here's a little tidbit for you.
I think a lot of us, and this is what I've done.
So it's, this is from personal experience.
You get nervous about being the only person.
So you partner with someone, right?
Because that seems easier.
You, it just doesn't seem as hard, right?
It's not all on you, but really what I've discovered in starting to record the
marketing agency show is that it's so much easier and so much more fun when
it's just you and a guest.
And so I am super duper excited and just excited for you to hear some of
the stories that I've already heard.
I mean, people are really willing to open up, which is shocking to me, but so good
because I know that you're going to just eat this information up with a spoon.
Okay.
If people want to subscribe to the show, where do they find it?
So you need to go to social mini examiners, YouTube channel, which is at SM examiner,
or just listen in wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
So Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, and make sure you add it to
your library so that you don't miss a show.
Yeah.
And the name of the show is marketing agency show.
And for those of you that maybe are listening to this for the first time, it's
really important when you find a new podcast, especially in your favorite apps
to click the little follow button, because that will allow your podcast app of choice
to automatically download the new episodes for you for whenever you want to watch the
show, Brooke, I'm super excited to see where you're going to go with this show.
It's formally launching on the last day of May, 2023, May 31st.
So for those of you that are listening in the future, after the launch, just.
You know, if you go to our YouTube channel, you're going to see a playlist, kind of a
podcast and not called a podcast.
You'll see the marketing agency podcast list there.
And then of course you can search anywhere and then maybe eventually we'll, we'll do
articles out of this.
We haven't decided, but for now we're going with what we call minimum viable product
launch, right?
Which is, this isn't really a product.
It's a media launch, right?
But this is only going to be available in the beginning and audio and video form.
So I can't wait to see what happens and folks, we would love to hear from you.
Hey, I've got some exciting news for you.
I am super excited to announce a brand new show as part of the social media examiner
network. It's called the marketing agency show.
It's a new podcast designed to explore the struggles of agency marketers.
Join show host and agency owner, Brooke Sellis, as she interviews other agency
marketers and digs deep into their biggest challenges.
She'll explore topics such as navigating rough economic times, leveraging AI,
service diversification, client acquisition, and so much more.
Even if you're a consultant or a brand marketer, I'm sure you'll find a lot of
value in this new podcast.
To listen, simply pull up your favorite podcast app, search for the show title
marketing agency show, and then click that follow button to automatically get
weekly downloads of the show.
Again, be sure to check out the marketing agency show.
Brooke, why don't you tell everybody the best place for people to reach out to you
on the socials if they want to connect with you?
Well, I've got my Twitter handle up on the screen, but I'm not on Twitter quite as
much these days.
Hopefully I'll be back again soon.
So look for me on LinkedIn.
You can just search Brooke Sellis.
I think I'm the only Brooke Sellis out there and make a connection request.
And don't forget to, you know, leave me a note when you make that request and just
say something like, Hey, I'm a fan of the marketing agency show or whatever it is
so that I can connect with you and start the conversation.
Or tell her that you heard her on the social media marketing podcast.
Right. And for those that aren't watching the video on Twitter, it's Brooke.
B-R-O-O-K-E-S-E-L-L-A-S.
All in one word. And if you look her up, obviously, on LinkedIn, it's just Brooke is
with an E on the end because most people probably don't realize there's an E on the
end of it. Right.
The silent E.
The silent E.
Yeah. You can just Google Brooke Sellis and honestly find me wherever I am.
All right, Brooke. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Really appreciate your time.
Thank you for letting me interview you.
That was fun.
If you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over at socialmediaexaminer.com
slash 566.
And if you're new to the show, be sure to follow us.
If you've been a longtime listener, would you let your friends know about this show?
I'm at Stelzner on Instagram and at Mike underscore Stelzner on Twitter.
This brings us to the end of yet another episode of the social media marketing
podcast. I am your host, Michael Stelzner.
I'll be back with you next week.
I hope you make the best out of your day and may social media continue to change
your world.
The social media marketing podcast is a production of social media examiner.
