Apr 1, 2022
Today I'm talking to Jürgen Strauss about his success in building a community with humane podcasting and networking circles. Jürgen is a transformational marketing strategist, helping businesses build visibility, professional authority and connection with their dream clients. He is passionate about helping businesses achieve exceptional results through innovation and modern human-centred marketing.
Jurgen believes marketing seems to have somewhat lost its way in business, becoming less about nurturing relationships and more about chasing the elusive dollar and a bigger slice of the pie. His vision and philosophy is simple - make your marketing human again and make it about creating your client’s story, leading them on their exceptional journey with you as their guide. And he has created his unique 12 Step Transformational Marketing Blueprint as a simple, step-by-step way to do exactly that.
As a podcast host himself, Jurgen has held meaningful conversations with hundreds of outstanding entrepreneurs from all around the world gaining insight into what makes them ‘tick’, what ‘lights them up’, why they do what they do and what inspiration and value they can add to the rest of the world.
On a more personal note, Jurgen is happily married with two outstanding adult children of whom he is very proud. Jurgen is an avid photographer, and enjoys public speaking, and cycling – a passion he shares with both his “children”.
In this episode, you'll learn why income follows impact and...
- The flywheel system behind Jürgen's podcasting success (500 episodes)
- Tools and tech he uses
- How Jürgen develops human relationships with his guests
- The return on investment of his podcast
- How he created a community out of his podcast guests he calls networking circles to have deeper conversations
- And so much more
Jürgen’s Resources
Jürgen's Free Audio Course: InnovaBuzz Podcasting Flywheel
Connect with Jürgen on:
Sarah's Resources
(FREE) Sarah’s One Page Marketing Plan
(FREE) Sarah Suggests Newsletter
(FREE) The Humane Business Manifesto
(FREE) Gentle Confidence Mini-Course
Marketing Like We're Human - Sarah's book
Authentic & Fair Pricing Mini-Course
Email Sarah at sarah@sarahsantacroce.com
Thanks for listening!
After you listen, check out Humane Business Manifesto, an invitation to belong to a movement of people who do business the humane and gentle way and disrupt the current marketing paradigm. You can download it for free at this page. There’s no opt-in. Just an instant download.
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Warmly,
Sarah
Imperfect Transcript of the show
Sarah: [00:00:00] Hi, you're again. I'm so glad that we get another chance to talk to each other. I was on your podcast recently and now I have you here. I'm so delighted to have you on the humane marketing podcast.
Jürgen: Yeah, it's great to be here.
I know. Glad that we're talking again. Sarah.
Sarah: Wonderful. Our topic for today is podcasting as well as kind of a smaller topic after networking circles. But let's start with podcasting because that's really kind of become a big area of expertise for you. Your. Celebrating soon as of this recording are probably when it goes live, you have already celebrated 500 episodes of your own podcasts.
So, wow. Congratulations. 500 episodes. That's quite the milestone. When did you start and tell us a little bit about this journey of recording 500 [00:01:00] episodes.
Jürgen: Yeah, it's interesting. When I wrap up my. Show with a guest. And I let them know when we're going to publish in which episode number. And now each time I say, you know, it's episode 490 something.
I think we're recording at the moment and are, I always have to hesitate there and think, wow, you know, we've come a long way. So we start. Back in August of 2014. So we've been going for over seven years. Wow. And it started off a mentor of mine, suggested start a podcast as a marketing and positioning exercise.
And I'd always been a fan of audio. Books and even way back when I was still on cassette types and CDs and, and I used to travel a lot and I used to have to commute a lot when I was in my corporate roles. And I would [00:02:00] listen in all the. Travel times or waiting at airports and so on. I would listen to audio books and I found that a really great way to absorb a lot of material, much easier and less tiring for me personally, then reading the physical book.
When podcasts started, I'd I'd really just dove into the medium, but I always imagined it as something that was, you know, a professional radio studio. You needed all this expensive setup to do a podcast. And. This mentor of mine, he was actually running his own podcast. And he had actually, because he's, his background was in video production.
So he did have a proper studio. But he said, no, no, come and have a look. What I've set up. I'll show you. You actually need as a minimum. And when he showed me that, I thought, oh, I can do all that. And I'm a techno geek from way back. So I was sort of excited to get into that. And I used to do [00:03:00] home recordings of my kids playing music onto tape recorders and so on.
So I thought, you know, this is really just a digital version of that. So I've got stuff. And immediately reached out to all the people that in my corporate career, all around the world, I had these really good relationships with, but in my small business, no longer had a professional reason to connect with them.
With the podcast I had this ready-made. List of guests immediately and that's how it kicked off. And then it just became this flywheel that was almost impossible to, well, it was impossible to stop when people introduced me to others that I should talk to on the podcast. And over time, it evolved into this medium where I had a.
One hour masterclass, sometimes one hour, sometimes 45 minutes. Recently this week we had two episodes where we got quite carried away and went for an hour and a half, but [00:04:00] a master class from an expert in their field that I get the privilege to learn from. And then of course, I get to share that with my audience.
So it's kind of a win for everybody, right? So that's been the journey. And as I said before, I knew it. I was. At episode 400 and whatever, 490 something we're recording now. And soon we'll have episode 500 and going forward and I'm still enjoying it. You know, we've been consistent over that time, started off with one episode per week.
We went to two episodes per week. We. A little while we did three episodes per week because we had so many recordings backed up that guests were waiting six months to have their episode published. And I thought that was a bit too long to let them wait. So we caught up a little bit and, and balanced bringing people on to the recording session and publishing the [00:05:00] episodes.
And, and yeah, here we are at nearly at episode five.
Sarah: That's amazing. Yeah. It's just, wow. What a journey. There's so much in what you just shared that I want to dig deeper into. And you started with, you know, kind of the overwhelm of, you know, not knowing how this is going to work out and what kind of tools do you need?
I think that's often what we hear for someone who. Podcasting for the first time. So we'll go get into the tools and the tech and all that that we need. What I want to start with is, is what you then shared a little bit, but I want to go deeper into that. Like, what has this podcast done for you?
I would say on a business level, And on a personal level, I can tell that you're clearly passionate about it. So it's probably part heart project. But at the same time, you wouldn't be doing it if it was just for your own pleasure. So tell us a little bit more [00:06:00] about what this podcast has done for you.
Jürgen: Yeah, well, Probably after about the first 30 or so episodes that this was an amazing networking too, for me to connect me with people all around the world. And as I say, experts in their field, but that were giving me their time, their insights into their area of expertise. As a result, I was able to learn a lot of things that I could bring into my business or.
Connect with people that were experts that could help me do something in their business. So often I would, if I needed a particular service that a guest of mine had an, I developed a good relationship with them, I would turn to that guest for that particular service. And also some of my guests have become clients because.
We've built that relationship and they've said, Hey, we need [00:07:00] your help in doing something that, that you're good at. So that was kind of a very immediate benefit, but for the longer term now, and I know you want to talk about the networking events and, and things that I've also started doing this.
These guests on my podcast have kind of become a community. And I know I can reach out to most of them and get a very quick response to an answer. If I, if I do a question, if I ask questions and I'll get a very quick answer and, you know, insights or feedback on something, and also we've recently won, well, a few of the, a few of the guests we've done some work together in terms of a joint venture type opportunity.
So. Lots of different areas where it's, it's benefited second degree. I like to say. So we've started off as podcast host and podcast guests. [00:08:00] That's built a relationship and we've taken that relationship further in the sense of, Hey, there's an opportunity to either work together directly as a client and, and provide.
Relationship, or there's an opportunity to work together on a joint project. Or it's just a case of if I need some advice or also guests needing advice, reaching out to me, or I reaching out to them and asking for advice. So there's all of those things of not for me. Over the years. Of course, we've really fine tuned our entire system to produce the podcast from identifying guests, to making them feel comfortable when they come on the show to all the production, after the recording, to the promotion of the show and all of that, people have seen us do that and said, Hey, how do you [00:09:00] do all that?
So. Got all these services now and helping other people with their podcasts in various.
Sarah: Okay. Wow. What, what strikes me as very different from your approach is that, you know, usually when you hear people talking about podcasting, it's all about growing your podcast and getting more and more listeners and getting more and more reach.
Not once. Have you heard, have I heard you say the word? Listen. So, so it's like, almost like you're focusing I won't say more because you can chime in after, but you focusing a lot of attention on the guests, which probably most people don't do so much. At least I, I haven't seen it. Like I have not felt like, oh, I'm now part of a community whenever I've been guesting on a podcast.
Not at all. I can think of it. Maybe a few examples where we [00:10:00] stay in touch. But, but it hasn't felt like, oh you know, you really matter? No, you're just like, you know, one of my guests and now move on to the next one. So I find that a really. Very different strategy and the very humane strategies that it's not, you know, just like, like a factory.
Okay. Next guest, next guest, next guest. So that's interesting, but do tell us also kind of about you know, your listeners, w what has developed out of the people listening to, to your pod?
Jürgen: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the listeners, I mean the listeners first and foremost why we do the podcast. So, and, and we're very clear, right?
From the get, go on, who are the ideal, who are our dream audience. And, and when we work with other people to launch podcasts, that's really where we start. We actually start with themselves with the podcast host and, and their business and why they're doing it and what they hope to get out of it. And then [00:11:00] the listeners for me, Then the next level of course, is the guests, because I say that I want to, I want everybody to have an awesome experience.
I know if I do the right preparation and come with the right mindset, that I will have an awesome experience, speaking to somebody like you on your area of expertise. My guests to also have an awesome experience. And if we together have an awesome experience, then it becomes an awesome experience for my listener.
I, I'm also very protective of my listeners in that I don't take everyone who like we get lots of pitches now for guests in the early days. Of course, I was very active in bringing guests on board. I still actively bring guests on board. However, The balance now is probably 50 50. So 50% of the guests I've been introduced to, and I invite them to the show, the other 50% pitch me and asked to be on the show.
[00:12:00] And for those that send me a request to come on the show, I very carefully filter them. Are they a match for my audience? Are they a match for the kind of topic areas? Cover, which is
Sarah: probably sorry to interrupt. It's probably the same amount of work to kind of filter them as to invite your own guests. I often find because the pitches, quite frankly, there's exceptions.
A lot of the pitches are just kind of like random. And so you have to actually do the work and figure out
Jürgen: well yours, your certainly stood out yours was an exceptional one that immediately got my attention and respond for that. Well, no, that's because that's the style I pitched to go on podcasts as well.
And that's the style of pitch that I do. It's a personal reach out and I get on video. I show them. What they can expect the. [00:13:00] W I actually have a standard response for people who pitch me and, and it's a templated response, so I'm very anti template, but this is a templated response, but my templates are very special.
I think And, and it allows me. So if I get a pitch, I immediately it's like hitting the tennis ball back into the other side of the court, over the net. And so the other person then has to do some more work to convince me that they're a good fit. So the templated responses, thanks for your interest in coming on to our show and we're being much more selective.
Because we really want to protect our, our audience and make sure that the guest is a really good fit for the subjects we cover and for the audience. So I say that upfront, I then say, Can you please, the first step is please schedule a short call with me and I give them a calendar link. The second step is send in complete this intake form.
So I have an intake form where they're giving me a lot of background [00:14:00] information and some of those questions are why are you a good fit? And have you listen to. An episode. And w w can you give me some feedback on an episode because I've it's kind of that evolved over time. I didn't use to ask that, but I've learned that not everybody listens to the show before they actually come on the show, which I thought was a given.
So I kind of put them through that filter. And then I also send them some videos of that I recorded a little while ago about what excites me. Podcast pitch. So I talk about, you know, if somebody sends me a personalized video that gets me excited, I'm immediately attracted to that person. And I immediately will we'll then look at their background and probably reach back out to them to have a conversation.
So I turn it around very quickly, like that, to all the pictures I get. And then. The next step of course is then if I have all the information back from the person and [00:15:00] we have that short call, then I can determine very quickly if they're a fit for my audience, if they're a fit for the show and the topics we cover.
And also the short call has the benefit of we get to know one another. So when, when we then do get on the show itself, we've already had a conversation. We already know one another, we we've already started a bit of a life.
Sarah: Yeah, exactly. That that was a few people do it, but not everybody has that kind of first, you know, 15 minute calls.
So that definitely helps you filter. Probably even though I can imagine for me as an introvert, it would be. Hard to say, you know, actually we're not a good fit. So I'm curious how, how do you do that? But yeah, that,
Jürgen: that was a bit of a challenge at first. If it's really obvious from. The pitch and if the person like some of the pitchers, and I'm sure you've seen these, if [00:16:00] people, when people pitch to you, they say, hi, I'm Juergen and I've done this.
And I do that. And I'm an expert in these things. So it's all about me instead of the value that I might be able to bring to you. Audience or to your podcast. So if I get a pitch like that, I'm already very wary. And if then if the topic itself is, it's not really clear to me, it's a good fit. I usually just send back a polite decline.
Oh,
Sarah: that's easy. Via email. But what I'm talking about is when you talk to them. Yeah, I
Jürgen: have been, and I made a mistake recently on something and I So who this was because the podcast has been published. And I think we actually made a pretty good show out of it, but it turns out it wasn't all that good of fit.
I didn't think it was a good fit to start with, but I saw [00:17:00] some things that perhaps we could explore. So the person came on the short call and I actually said right at the beginning, I'm not sure. Your topic is a good fit for my audience in my show. And, but they'd pitched me. And so I said, but you know, maybe we can explore some areas.
So then we came up with some areas to explore and are around sales and are around lessons that we could take from this business, which was way different to anything else I've had. But the lessons we could take from that into our area. I didn't, I probably then on the show, I probably didn't, wasn't strict enough to keep the person on track for the lessons.
And I. Yeah, they took the opportunity to talk a lot more about their business. Then, then I really wanted because the business that they were doing was not really relevant to my audience as [00:18:00] yeah. That one, that one got that one got through, but I have said to people. Know, and I just say, look, this is not nothing personal.
You're just not a fit. You know, I'm very clear on who my audience is. I'm very clear on the type of content that I want to put in front of them. I want to talk about. And that's just me, that's just what I've chosen to do. And I don't think this is going to work if, if it's a good conversation and you know, Connected with so many people that have podcasts.
If I think of somebody who might be a good fit, I'll mention some podcasts to them, or I'll certainly point them to pod match and to match Mica the podcast services. And I say to them, Hey, if you're looking to get on other shows, This might be a suggestion. If I can think of one that that's a good fit.
And if you'd like an introduction, I'm happy to make that. Or alternatively, go and look at these websites because [00:19:00] that's where podcasts are looking for guests actually hang out and you can pitch.
Sarah: Let's talk a little bit about those tools and the tech and the systems, all of that stuff, because with two or sometimes even three episodes per week, I'm sure you by now and.
I say, you know, it wasn't always like that, but by now you have like the whole system, probably not completely automatized, but a lot of it is just kind of in the flow. Right. So you really just get to do what you love doing, which is the interviews. So tell us a little bit about, you know, the tools you use and the tech.
I think you have a team as well. So tell us a bit
Jürgen: about that. Yeah. So I've got a team that edit the show. Do all the promotional material produce all the promotional material that do the invitations upfront from the guests. So I usually [00:20:00] connect with people that might be possible guests. And then if somebody pitches me, it usually comes into my email.
So I'll respond to those. But I will also also copy in my, my team and my assistant, who does the scheduling and she will then sort the people she'll do some background research for me and invite the people and do all the scheduling with the scheduling. We've got a calendar system set up that once, once they're booked in, I think it's the same one you use.
Once they booked in that will. The appointment in my calendar together with the link to the platform that we record on it, we'll put that into the guests calendar. It's set up to send out reminders a week before, a day before, and then an hour before, just
Sarah: want to chime in and say what I'm using is acuity scheduling.
And I think that's what you're using. There's also [00:21:00] Calendly
Jürgen: that's right. This is quite a few of those around, so yeah. That's that's really important because it, it helps a lot in terms. So we actually, my assistant actually suggests three times, so we don't let them book directly at time because that got very out of hand.
We did do that for a little while, but that got very out of hand. 'cause I, I found that often I'd do five recordings in a day and that's just too much. I can do three, but at the end of three, I'm I'm exhausted. It's as an introvert, that takes a lot of energy. The, yeah, so the booking, so for the pre.
Get to know your calls that I allow the guests to book. So I've got in acuity, I've got times set up where I'll do those. Usually it's one or two days and specific time window that covers international [00:22:00] time zones as well. So that that's a bit of a challenge as well because of the time differences, but that's set up.
So. Just send out that link and the guests can pull at their convenience and that just links to my calendar. So I can only see times when I'm free within those windows that I've set. So that's the calendar part. We, we use squad cast to record. Conversations, the squad cast allows you to record locally at each site, and that produces the highest quality audio.
If you do that. And it also records and uploads dynamically so that if we get cut off because of an internet issue, for example, in the recording, The conversation up to that stage is recorded and it's uploaded. So we, that just means we have to edit together the various bits. If we reconnect, then I've got various follow-up [00:23:00] systems.
So when I complete a recording, I will send an email. I'll personally send an email. Thank you. And the way I do that, now I have a template which basically. Outlines all the steps that happen from there. And in that template, I add a recorded message. That's personalized. And I added a I had the times when we're going to publish that episode, I will also.
Send out some social media posts immediately after the episode saying, Hey, just had a fantastic conversation with Sarah. And we talked about these things. Look out for the episode to publish in December or whenever then after that my team then takes over the. Produce the, what I edit the audio they produce shownotes they produce social media posts from that I upload the completed or the [00:24:00] edited thing, or actually that prompt me to do an intro and outro recording.
Then they edit it all together, upload that to the hosting platform and we use captivate if. And then yeah, then I schedule all the social media postings and they actually send an email on my behalf that tells the guests and also the people who introduced me to that guest that their episode is published.
I follow up with a personalized video message usually about a week after the recording. Just. Kind of keep the relationship going. And then once the episode's published, I make sure that I'm on particularly LinkedIn and commenting on the posts and commenting on other people, interacting on those posts.
So engaging in that conversation.
Sarah: Wow. That's really quite the production
Jürgen: and there's [00:25:00] probably a few bits and pieces that.
Sarah: How, how long would you say how much time do you personally spend on each episode?
Jürgen: Yeah, that's a great question. I actually looked at that recently because one of the jaw joint venture initiatives that I mentioned earlier, we were talking about sharing how you can get the time to produce a podcast down to.
Two to four hours per episode. I think that's about what I personally spend. So I might I do listen to other podcasts that my guest has been on. And I typically do that while I'm doing something else. So it might be while I'm commuting, it might be while I'm out walking. So I don't necessarily count that time.
As, as as work I do for that podcast, then I. Spend a little bit of time [00:26:00] looking at all the material that my team's put together, background research, and thinking about some of the topics that I want to cover. And that typically I'll spend about an hour doing that before the episode. And I've learnt over time that.
I don't need in the early days, I would probably spend about four hours and I would script out the episode very carefully. So I'd have his question one. Okay. What, what might Sarah say to question one while she might say this? She might say that well, okay. If she says this, I'll go here. That'll be questioned too.
She says this. That'll be questioned too. And I have have this very complex script and of course, most guests didn't say that, or I said something completely different and it threw me right off and then I'd come back in. Well, I've got to try and get this question in. And some of those episodes were really stilted because it was kind of like I was trying to get back on, on this track that I [00:27:00] laid out.
And what I've learnt over the years. And I discovered this, even some of my very early episodes that I had a relationship with the person. Cause I knew them from my corporate days and I thought, wow, they have really good episodes because it was just a natural conversation between people that knew one another.
And I thought that's what I've got to get to. Even with people that I don't know that well, and. I just take the approach of, okay, let's go five to seven bullet points of things that I touch on. And I was explaining this to a guest this week that we did the recording. I had actually eight bullet points for her and we didn't touch on one of them and we had an hour and a half conversation.
So it's really about when I get onto that. As long as I'm, I've read up on the person, I've got some idea about their background. I've got some idea about their expertise. I then trust myself to have a conversation that's interesting and [00:28:00] I'll start off with some things. And depending on, I just have to listen really carefully.
And depending on what I say, I will respond to what they say, and we could go off in any direction for me. It's just like, if I meet somebody. And at at some event, whatever it might be, I meet somebody there's no preparation goes into that. It might be a per chance meeting, but if we build a bit of a bond and we find some common interest that could certainly turn into a an hour conversation without any preparation.
So that's kind of how I approach it. Now, as I say, I probably do about an hour preparation, not counting. Time. I listened to podcasts. Usually it's done while I'm doing something else. And then after the show, there might be another hour of things I do to wrap up. And then after that, you know, there's five minutes here and there to send a [00:29:00] video.
Thank you. Later on. And we have, of course reminder system set up that reminds. Yeah. Now it might be time to touch base with Sarah again, or it's three months since you've connected or touch base with, with this particular guests or the. I just spent five minutes to maybe have a look at their LinkedIn, LinkedIn posts again, to see what what's happening in their world.
Hmm.
Sarah: I love that. Follow-up as well. I think that that really feels like that's a big focus for you, the, the, the human relationship and, and I, I love that piece. So it's kind of like, yes, we use system. But we use the systems in order to really deepen the human relationships. Are you exactly that's?
Jürgen: Yeah, that's my whole philosophy around marketing is exactly that, that the systems are there to take care of the mundane and free up [00:30:00] people's time so that we can build those relationships.
Yeah to any of those relationships. The
Sarah: other thing I would just also highlight is is that, you know, maybe for some listeners is they're like, oh my God, you know, this is two to four hours of time investment for each episode, plus you have a team. So. And, you know, how, how much time would that mean for, for just a single episode.
So that's definitely something to think about. And yes, a podcast is a lot of work and and the other thing that you really show is it needs consistency. You know, how many podcasts do we see that start? Didn't have 20 episodes and then, and then they'd disappear. Could be a thing that you do for like a special event.
I have a friend of mine who does a podcast right now because he's launching a book. And so from the get-go it's like, well, I do this about the book and it's part of that book launch. So, so [00:31:00] that's fine. But if you're starting a podcast and then, you know, just kind of. Wayne's out after 15 episodes then that's probably not the goal.
Yeah. The other thing I wanted to go ahead.
Jürgen: Yeah. Sorry. It kinda comes back to what, what the purpose of the podcast is. And, and the book launch is a great example because I think a podcast is a really great way to enhance a book launch and. Help grow book sales, particularly at the beginning. And one of the beauties of that is that in terms of content, the book author already has the content, right.
They've written the book, so you can reuse that content. So all the research that I do is about understanding. The guests that I'm bringing on, understanding their business, what drives them and getting to know them a little bit. So if you're doing a solo podcast, it's about preparing the content [00:32:00] that you're going to present.
And if you've written a book, you've got the content you've done that work. So really the podcast itself is, is. The preparation part is already done in writing the book. So it's really more about, okay, how do I repurpose that? And then of course, afterwards, there's quite a bit of work in production and promotion of the podcast.
The good news for that is, as you said, there's a lot of podcasts out there that kind of fade out after I think seven to 12 or 13 episodes is the pod fade period where people. Get frustrated because they're not getting immediate results from it. And also they starting to realize, Hey, this is actually quite a bit of work and yeah.
And, but the good news is if you're, if podcasting is for you. And you really want to do it and you're consistent and you stay at it. You can build systems around it [00:33:00] to make it a lot easier over time and you will stand out because there's, I think there's about. Melian active podcasts around now at the moment, whereas there's 600 billion or more bloke blogs out there.
And yet people put a lot of effort into writing blogs, thinking that a blog is going to. Mike them stand out in the world. Whereas if it's more, it's so
Sarah: different to hear you then to just read you all the time. Right. So that relationship really develops in a different way. Two things I want to say.
And then I want to talk about those networking circles, but the first thing is I think w here we're a lot about giving ourselves permission as well to do it our way. So just because people listen to you who have, you know, in seven years have developed these systems and I are now really proficient at it.
No reason to start out [00:34:00] small and say, well, you know, let me start with one episode every two weeks. I think what's, what's more important is the consistency than the actual quantity. So I want to give our listeners permission to say, Yeah, I just want to start building these relationships and maybe the purpose is not so much to get, you know, thousands of listeners, but to have a reason to people, to get people, to come to you and talk about a topic.
So that's
Jürgen: absolutely, and permission. The most important thing is who, who is the audience you want to get in front of? Who's the audience that you have a message for that you can make a difference in their world. And if you get in front of that audience and then have that consistency that you mentioned, Sarah.
And Mike, the expectation clear up front. So you could start off a podcast and say, this is going to be monthly. We're going to publish [00:35:00] on this particular day of every month. And here's what each episode will contain. So look out for it and tell people how they can follow the podcast or subscribe to it.
And then. That's and then you just organically grow your audience. From there. You encourage people to leave reviews. You encourage people to share it with other like-minded people that it could help and consistency and adding value is, is the.
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. And also the letting go maybe of this idea to have the perfect show at the very beginning.
So I had to smile when you said how you prepared your questions, because that's another thing that comes with experience to not make it sound like an interview. So, you know, kind of getting just into this flow like you now, I only have a couple of bullet points that I know that. Want to address.
And then every now and then my eyes go down because I have [00:36:00] to look, oh, where are we heading that? But other than that, it really is just kind of this, this flow, but it wasn't always like that. I, you know, I have, we've made a,
Jürgen: we've made a real conscious decision to avoid the use of the word interview. I say, in fact, all the documentation, I think I've gotten rid of all of it.
Although, you know, there were a few places where it kind of stayed. Was there, but I think we've gotten rid of it in all of our documentation, all of the emails that we send out in our sequences to remind people when they come on all of the platforms that we use, where, you know, the reminders go out through acuity and that everything has been changed to our conversation will be recorded.
So I talk about it as a conversation and to me, Changing my mindset around this is just a conversation and yes, of course. I'm going to ask questions and yes, of course. I'm going to follow up questions with, oh, that's interesting. Tell me more about that or [00:37:00] that's interesting. Why do you say that? Those kinds of things, but it's not a scripted process.
It's, it's a conversation.
Sarah: I think. One of the things that I noticed when I listened to podcasts that are probably in the beginning stages is when they say you know, next question, because actually that's not how you talk in a conversation. You don't say I'm going to ask you the next question. So maybe that's something.
Kind of also take out of your vocabulary. You don't need to say, you know, let me ask, well, you can say, let me ask you this or something like that, but, but it doesn't have to be announced as the next question.
Jürgen: That's right. Well, there's a, there's a real funny one, which I know I've had. Quite a few times where people say, can I ask you a question?
And my normal response is, well, you just did. [00:38:00]
Sarah: That's true. All right. Well, let's use these last five minutes to talk about the, the networking circles. So that's where you take the relationship even to a further level with your guests. Tell us about that.
Jürgen: Yeah, that's right. Well, well, my friend Qur'an ninja one.
Runs these networking dinners. And so he gets together a group of like-minded people, a small group in a dinner setting and facilitates conversations that go deeper than the traditional networking event where. You meet somebody and, oh, hello, I'm Juergen. What do you do? And they say, what do you do? And you exchange business cards and then you get home and you throw out all the business cards into the rubbish bin.
Cause you, cause none of, none of those people are the businesses that they're in. That's not what you're looking for right then and there. So it's kind of a bit of a waste of time. The, [00:39:00] his. Facilitated meetings were actually much deeper conversations about sort of meaningful things. So I took this when, when we when we were in the early stage of the, of the pandemic and there were lockdowns and everybody was getting on zoom and I thought, how can we make these zoom meetings more interesting?
And it coincides. With the time when we had a episode, episode two 50, I think it might've been where I decided what I'm going to just bring people together on zoom and bring former guests together on zoom to celebrate 250 episodes. And I'll kind of run this event. Like those networking dinners that, that Qur'an runs and.
So I did that and I used the zoom breakout rooms. So I kind of set the stage top people. We're going to have some deep and meaningful [00:40:00] conversations and it was a safe space. And if you're not comfortable going deep and. Be prepared to be vulnerable, then now's a good time to leave. And everybody got really excited and said, no, no, we're here.
We're on board. So I start off with breakout rooms of two people. And I asked a simple question, like, what's got you excited right now. And people have two minutes to say that now, depending on how. Much detailed. I want to go into they'll share something. And then when they come back into the main room, I then asked for volunteers to share what they've learnt about others.
And it kind of creates a real dynamic atmosphere and everybody feels part of this big you know, feels this connection. And then we. Send them off to a second breakout of one-to-one. And I usually ask a deeper question there of what's the [00:41:00] limit. Something like what's a limiting belief that you've ever come.
And how did you overcome it? Is one that I've used. And so that requires people to get a little bit vulnerable and then. In, we did three more rounds and I put people in groups of three or four at that point and ask some more questions like that and then bring people back into the room. And I have music going when they come back into the room and I'm usually there dancing to the music.
So it's kind of a fun party atmosphere. And I thought I did that because. At the trigger point was this celebration of over milestone podcast event. And then everybody had so much fun people and I encourage people then afterwards to say, okay, you've learned something about other people. Connect with one another outside this event and continue the conversations.
And out of that people have gone on podcasts. Podcast [00:42:00] hosts have met potential guests. And so they've, those people have come on as a guest in their podcasts that I didn't know, one another beforehand. I know that there was. People that actually went on and did business with one and other out of that very first event.
So it kind of starts off with having meaningful conversations between people. Trigger some relationships. And of course not everybody, not every conversation led to an ongoing relationship, but those where people felt, Hey, there's a connection here. They've went on to build that relationship. And I know some of the people that were on that early event are now running those events themselves as well.
And I've been a participant in those events too. So it's a lot of fun being a participant as well, but it's kind of an interesting way. To use some of the technology that's available in zoom to help people just break through that, or what do you do and give us your business [00:43:00] card to actually get to know one another at a human.
Sarah: Yeah, I love that so much. And, and I was just on a, on a conference recently last week where we had that kind of setup and the idea was to meet each other in small breakout rooms and not use our job titles to say, tell the other person who we are. And it was a really difficult concept for people to understand.
And so I just put in the chat. Networking like we're human cause that's really, the idea is like, well, what if you didn't have a job? You know what, if you didn't have a job title, who are you as a human being? And so a lot of that we also do in the humane marketing circle. It's just like, you know, we show up as human beings, but it's true that we have.
Kind of been brainwashed to these networking events. And so we always feel like we have to put on a show. And so I love what you're doing also [00:44:00] with this concept of bringing the guests together. I think that is just so, so smart. And, and, and, and I think it helps you. Kind of slow down the process, you know really just changing the focus on the relationships and not just, like I said before this factory of, of guests and one after the other.
So. Beautiful. I, yeah. And, and I just received your email about the 500 networking invitation. So I can't wait. Yeah. I'm not
Jürgen: sure that's going to be a networking one. I haven't actually worked out exactly what we're going to do there, but the idea for that is that I have a conversation with a group of people on episode 500 and, and I've decided it's probably going to be.
Three or four parts. So three or four episode, five hundreds because of the number of people that, that I probably want to [00:45:00] bring on. And I I just, I, I will need to plan how to run this with perhaps eight to 10 people together on a podcast. Yeah. Like a panel. And I, when I say. Do standard questions. I do actually have five questions that I ask every guest at the end of our conversation, or sort of as we wrap up the conversation, there's a, what I call the buzz, which is an innovation round.
And there's five questions that I ask every guest. And I'm thinking of maybe taking a couple of those questions and going deeper with each guest in kind of a panel discussion.
Sarah: Wonderful. Can't wait. Well, we're getting to that part of the show here too. And, and, and I always ask myself kind of my guests, a personal question, but before that, I would love for you to tell people where they can find you and find out more about your work and your podcast and all of that.
Good.
Jürgen: Yeah. [00:46:00] Well, if you go to my website, Nova biz.com dot a U R I N N O V a B I Z or Z for the American speaking people. The you'll find the podcast there as well as the other, the other information about our business and on the pages, you'll see a little. When normally is a chat bot, but it's actually me on video with a welcome message.
And you can respond to me with your own video or an audio message, or just a normal text message. So the idea of that is it's not a chat bot robot. It's me inviting a conversation. So I'd love you to let me know that you heard me on Sara's podcast. What you liked about it and also any feedback? Yeah.
Sarah: Wonderful. Yeah. [00:47:00] Like that invitation. Well, this has been delightful. Thank you so much for taking the time. My last question and this time, it is a question is what are you grateful for today, your again, or, or this week?
Jürgen: Well, there's lots of things that I'm grateful for them and I'm healthy. I've.
We are coming out of the extended lockdowns here in Australia from COVID. So recently. I was able to visit my 93 year old father and celebrate his birthday, his 93rd birthday. And I hadn't seen him in person for six months. I was also able to visit my daughter in Melbourne. So you know, we we'd had locked downs previously.
We couldn't go that far. So I was able to visit her and go out bike riding with her, which we love to do together. So I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for my wonderful wife here. And of course we were together all through the lockdown. So that was good. And yeah, and just all these wonderful [00:48:00] guests that I have on my podcast that, and all these connections and opportunities to come on.
Other people's podcasts like this.
Sarah: Thank you so much. I love talking to you and we'll do it again, even without a podcast interview. Thank you so much. You're going to take care.
Jürgen: Thanks Sarah.