How Matt Aaron Uses Podcasting to Build Relationships For His Food Startup

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Make no mistake. This episode is not an effort on our part to convince you to start a podcast. Far from it. In fact, after you listen to this episode with Matt Aaron of FoodStartupsPodcast.com and myself, we may convince you to do otherwise. And this is coming from two individuals that have published over 200 total podcast episodes between us.

Here’s the thing. The intent of this episode is not to discourage you from podcasting as a way to promote your food startup or develop key relationships within the food industry. But I think I speak for both myself and Matt when I say that you should have a realistic expectation of what you’re getting into before starting a podcast for business purposes so that you don’t end up wasting a few weeks or months of your life. Time is money and we want you to save as much of this precious resource as possible.

One thing to note is that this episode is not a technical “how-to” on everything you need to get started with podcasting for a food business. This is more of a conversation about the benefits, challenges, and offers a high-level guide on how to get the most out of this medium. I have linked up to a few good quality resources if you do want to learn the technical aspects though.

What You’ll Learn

Disadvantages of Podcasting

• Time consuming – Between scheduling guest interviews, coming up with questions, recording an interview, and writing blog posts that summarize what you discussed on the blog can take hours. Matt Aaron estimates the average episode takes around 4 – 5 hours total before it is ready to published to the world.
• Slow Results – This could be lumped into the “it takes a lot of time” category, but I thought it warranted a separate sub-heading for emphasis. It takes a long time before you start to realize the benefits of all your podcasting. Often, not a whole lot of exciting things are going to happen in your first year publishing podcasts on a weekly basis. This was the case with myself anyway.
• Learning Curve – Podcasting is a skill just like any other. The ability to interview total strangers and make it interesting is not a talent that 99.9% exit the womb with. There are also some technical things you’ll need to learn. Nothing about podcasting is difficult per say, but if you’ve never done it before there’s certainly some things that take some time to figure out at first. You’ll consider banging your head against the wall on more than one occasion before you release your first bit of audio.

Advantages of Podcasting – Yes… There is good stuff too!

• Relationships – One huge boon of podcasting is that you have an excuse to meet and have a conversation with just about anyone you want in your industry. From my experience, you’ll be amazed at the level of people that will accept an invitation to be on your program even if you’re just getting started and don’t have a big audience.
• Ask Anything – Ever wish you could ask someone that you look up to just about any question about business and have them answer it? If you have a tough question that you’re struggling with in business having on an expert can be a terrific way to get free consulting for your own venture.
• Acquire New Skills – There’s not shortage of things you’ll learn on the way to publishing the next great business podcast. As you’ll hear in the audio lesson, you’ll get better at asking questions, listening, outreach and also the technical side of publishing an iTunes podcast.
• Press – Overtime, you will start to get more press because you’ve interviewed so many people. It could take a solid 1 – 2 years though to get the kind of press you’re wanting. It can happen though if you stick with it. This website has been featured in publications like Entrepreneur Magazine, Make! Magazine, and others. But none of this press happened until about 3 years into operating the blog.

Mentioned in the Show

Andes Fruits Colombia – Matt Aaron, our featured guest on this episode, is the co-founder of this company that is helping to introduce North American to the super-food that is Goldenberries. Check out Matt’s website to learn more about Goldenberries, recipes you can make with the product, and the background of his business.

Food Startups Podcast – Over 100 podcast episodes published and we get the feeling that Matt Aaron is just getting started. This is one of the best resources online for getting advice on starting a food business of just about any kind. Topics covered across the podcast include raising money, mindset, importing product, tech and much more.

Seth Goldman, Co-Founder of Honest Tea Interview – This is one of the interviews referenced by Matt Aaron during our conversation with Seth Goldman, Co-Founder of Honest Tea,  an organic beverage company that sources product all over the world. Seth launched the company in 1998 from his home and his beverages are now carried in more than 100,000 locations and the nation’s number 1 organic bottled tea. 

L.A Son – Book about the life and times of Roy Choi of the groundbreaking Kogi Truck(s) that operate in LA. Matt Aaron recommended this book to learn from Choi’s incredible story. The book also includes a variety of recipes so you can recreate Choi’s BBQ from the comfort of your kitchen.

How to Start a Podcast – Nice article on LifeHacker.com that outlines the steps needed to actually start your own podcast.