One of the most fun, most rewarding parts of having a successful podcast or YouTube channel is the opportunity to do collaborations. You’ve seen these done on other shows and today we are giving you a strategic view into how to do collaborations effectively and make them a win win for all involved. They can be a great marketing tool, but more importantly, a great relationship builder as well.
In this episode Tiff and Christine cover the best uses of collaborations they’ve seen in podcasting and YouTube and how to reach out to your dream collaboration partners.
“We hope you use collaborations to elevate what you’re doing to another level in your industry.”
Christine Baird
Topics covered:
- (0:56) How independent podcast hosts collaborate on limited series
- (3:55) Using crossover episodes to co-promote your show
- (7:25) The benefit of featuring a trending guest outside of your usual circle
- (11:40) How to invite people to collaborate with you
- (17:25) Sharing your platform as a publication available for big announcements
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Links mentioned:
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- Tiff Tyler
- Christine Baird
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Many thanks to our production team
- Worthfull Media for audio editing
- Mosaico Productions for video effects
- Amela Subašić for artwork
Transcription of this episode:
(auto-generated, please forgive typos)
Christine (00:04):
Welcome to Think Like a Producer podcast. I’m your co-host Christine Baird.
Tiff (00:09):
And I’m your co-host Tiff Tyler. Being in the podcast industry, being in the content creation industry. This is what we learned, and this is how you can get out of your own way and get started.
Christine (00:20):
You name it. We’ve probably done it. This podcast is about bringing all the wisdom to you. Tune in weekly, to learn how to think like a producer.
Christine (00:32):
Welcome to this week’s episode of think like a producer. This episode is all about collaborations. I’m pretty excited to talk about this. I think Tiff is too because this is where it gets fun. Like you’ve done all this work to launch a show and do things right. And get your production set up and grow it. And like all the other stuff we talk about. But like, what’s the point. If you can’t do really fun stuff with your show and awesome collaborations. So we’re going to give you several ideas today of ways. Podcasters use podcasts and YouTube shows. We’re kind of speaking about it in the greater sense to collaborate with people in their space or people, not in their space. And hopefully this will just spark a ton of cool ideas for you because the examples we’re give — we’ll give you will be pretty universal.
Christine (01:22):
Like you should be able to just apply them to your industry or your show. So, first off, I’m going to give you an idea about independent podcast hosts. So let’s say you’re a podcast host and someone else in your industry as a podcast host, or a peer or someone kind of related to your world, let’s say you both have podcasts. And then you decide to come together and create a special limited series standalone show on a very niche topic that you both know and talk about, but you haven’t really been able to like dive deep in on your individual shows because your individual shows are about what your individual shows are about. Let me give you an example. I thought it was really cool that I got turned onto this summer. So I, through an email newsletter, I had been referred to this show that two marketing experts were co-hosting and they both had separate brands.
Christine (02:16):
They had separate businesses, they had separate podcasts, but they were both marketing experts. They both had a lot of experience and they decided to come together and create a limited series called duped the dark side of online business, because they had run into all of these issues, working with clients in online business, where the marketing had gone south, and it’d gotten weird and they’re like, we need to talk about this. We need to kind of do a whistleblowing on what’s happening in online business. So they created this standalone. I think it was a 12 episode limited series show. It had its own name, its own obviously hosting service links website. Like it was a standalone show, but they only ever 12 episodes on purpose. Like they thought of it as a limited series. They marketed it that way. And I ended up listening to several episodes because I work in online business.
Christine (03:09):
It was really interesting to me. It was a fascinating show. We’ll link it in the show notes, but I thought that was such a cool collaboration. Two separate podcast hosts have their own brands and businesses, but they had crossover in this particular topic. And they thought, instead of trying to just both talk about it on our individual shows, why don’t we come together, make a standalone limited series. And obviously, you know, within the show notes of that show, you could find both of their own companies and brands and podcasts. So it did great marketing for both of them, but I thought it was awesome. And I think that’s really relevant to many industries. So that’s my example. Tiff, do you have one for us?
Tiff (03:49):
Yes. So I think of comedic YouTubers that will come together, you know, around Halloween time, Thanksgiving time and put together a concept where they grab all their fun, other YouTube creator buddies and make these longer skits or these collaborations that, you know, it’s just for this one channel just for this one particular time, they know something’s trending, but getting five of these all-star YouTubers together, as opposed to just one huge, all the audiences come together and it just, you know, it takes off every time they try it. So that’s what I think of when I think of these sort of like people coming together for these one-time skits comedy on YouTube, that would definitely be it
Christine (04:26):
That’s a fan. Okay. The next collaboration idea we have for you is crossover episodes. This is probably pretty self-explanatory, but this is really common. Like tons of people do this and this again works. If you both have, if both you and the person you’re collaborating with have existing podcasts. So let’s say maybe you have one specific episode idea and you both have equal things to say, and you know that both of your audiences will be really interested in this topic. A lot of times the coolest thing to do is record the episode together. And then you actually post it on both of your shows simultaneously. So your audience gets it, their audience gets it is of course cool exposure to the other person. But that happens all the time. Like I’m not even going to given a specific example because it’s so common, you could call it a crossover episode or you could just call it whatever you want. Like, oftentimes it happens if let’s say you’re launching a new event or maybe you co-wrote a book with someone. And so you have something cool coming out with this person. And so you just record one conversation about it. You posted it on both shows and it works really well. Obviously both audiences get exposed to the other person, but they don’t have to go somewhere else to get that conversation. So that’s a pretty common one in podcasting. Um, Tiff, what would that look like on YouTube?
Tiff (05:49):
Oh, like you said, it can be like across all kinds of genres. My favorite is when, uh, of course when like camera tech channels come together and give two different sides. So, um, if you are a geek like me and watch a lot of YouTube videos, there’s like the Sony fanboys and the Canon, you know, fan boys. And so when a new camera’s released or something, they’ll give both perspectives and you can get, even when they’re both be in, in two videos, one will be on one person’s channel home, the other parts, the channel you watch, part one, you watch part two, you and you get both perspectives. Um, like I said, gamers, even comedians, you know, I mean, it can go across all kinds. If you are doing interviews and you actually are filming it and putting it up on YouTube, um, crossovers can be for any episode, any kinds of episodes or any kinds of shows.
Tiff (06:33):
But those were my absolute favorite to watch you just like cameras and comparisons in different people’s perspectives. Because if you don’t know, Christine is using Canon, I’m using Sony. Like truly, it’s just, oh anyway, geeking out over here. Um, but yeah, that’s the example I would give. It’s just basically having these one part two part three parts, but it’s giving exposure to different channels. And the great thing about YouTube is in that end screen and the description, you can always link up the other channel. And now you’re getting hopefully people who are like Christine said, they’re fans of a similar genre. So you can just kind of get some cross subscribers, some more people to subscribe to your channel just because you know, someone else in your space and you guys, everyone likes you both. Why not?
Christine (07:15):
I love those. And oftentimes what you just said made me think Tiff, like it’s, sometimes it’s just brand ambassadorship. It’s just like getting your name out. They might not come over and subscribe to your show, but it’s just reinforcing that you’re a powerful, relevant thought leader voice in your space. And you know, co-hosting a crossover episode with someone is that’s like social proof. You’re like, Hey, like I have relationships. I’m a real person in this space. So maybe don’t like worry too much about how many people subscribe to your show just after. It’s more like, you know how this thing, you gotta have multiple exposures to an audience before. They’re like, oh, that’s a real person. I’m going to go check them out. Okay. Third collaboration idea we have for you is what we’re calling features. And this would be where let’s say you have a show and you have a specific topic.
Christine (08:06):
You’re in an industry, you’re in a niche, but it just so happens that someone totally unrelated in a totally different space does something that’s trending, that’s relevant to you. It can be really cool for you to invite that person on, to talk about the thing that you usually talk about because they have a totally fresh voice and perspective. Here’s a fun example. Very recently, like this summer Austin City Limits, huge music festival in Austin, Texas, Brene Brown, the queen of vulnerability who is a Texan and is based there. She had a live podcast recording at the music festival with a kind of the trending lead actor from Ted Lasso, not Jason Sudekis, but Brett Goldstein who plays the character of Roy Kent on Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso is super trending right now, very popular. His character is very popular. His character is not known for being very vulnerable.
Christine (09:00):
And he, as you know, writer, comedian and actor is obviously open to that and has a lot of that. So it was totally made sense that the queen of vulnerability would interview the actor who plays this popular trending character. Who’s not vulnerable. And they had a great conversation about empathy and vulnerability and, and everything. So that was a really fun one that just came through recently. Um, but think about that. Like, you don’t have to be like a trending actor and like the most well-known TED speaker of all time to make that happen. It could be something in your specific niche that just happens to be trending somewhere else. And you could invite that person on to have that conversation because that’s what they’re being featured for right then. And that’s, it’s really fun because it is a fresh, different voice. Um, we’ve seen this in our industry.
Christine (09:51):
A lot of our clients are in the kind of entrepreneurship or self-development space, but sometimes there’ll be a well-known actor who will come out with a book or a show. And it has a lot to do with what people in our industry talk about. So sometimes they’ll get an, a list actor on their show simply because that actor has come out with a piece of work that’s kind of different than their normal. And then it’s relevant for them to come into our space and you’ll see them like on all the podcasts. So this is a cool way we will call it a feature collaboration, but it’s really fun for the audience typically because it’s a very different kind of voice. It’s oftentimes somebody they know from another place and it’s fun for them to see that person featured in your space. So that’s my example from podcasts land, Tiff, what do you have
Tiff (10:41):
Tube always when movies are coming out, we see it’s, it’s kind of like the huge trend that, you know, uh, for example, um, when black widow came out, you know, all these things with Scarlett Johannson and all the, uh, her co-stars and everything they’re doing, like answer these top search, Google questions, or how well do the co-stars know each other. And then that’s when you’ll see brands who also happen to have YouTube channels, like vanity fair and Vogue and different things like feature all these stars and you just see it across the board. Um, I bring a black widow cause my brother is mad at me that I didn’t like watch it. As soon as it came out. I like recently watched his movie. It’s great. It’s a great movie. But now I’m like going down the YouTube rabbit hole and getting to know all the stars and seeing all those videos that come out across all these different channels.
Tiff (11:25):
So features are cool because usually like Christine said, it’s something that’s relevant, something that’s trending right now. And so people are searching for it. They’re looking for it after they watched the movie, they want to go see people talk about it and see the behind the scenes and see the deleted scenes. All these things are being featured pretty much across the board at the same time. So, you know, we’re, we, we definitely don’t say, you know, always hop on trends, but it’s good to know what’s going on so that you can, um, you know, get attention for what people are actually looking for. Now, we talked about these different things, independent podcasts, you know, coming together for limited series. We talked about crossover episodes. We talk about features and I think Christine, for anyone listening, they’re like, well, I’m going to just start it out.
Tiff (12:08):
Or might’ve been doing my show for a year or two, you know, maybe I don’t have a relationship with this person. Like how do I actually reach out to these people? How do I get these, these kinds of, um, things going, because you know, I’m just me or I’m just a small team and this is something we’ve talked about on other episodes, but this is like our favorite thing to talk about. And it’s just like reaching out and building relationships with people. And it’s a long game. We’ve talked about this. I think when we were talking about, you know, networking in a new city, definitely check that episode out because talk about Christine moving from LA to Utah and you know, me moving from Florida to LA and how we were able to build relationships in a big city and a small city. If you’re thinking how, you know, what’s the best way to reach out, it’s all about building relationships and playing the long game.
Tiff (12:58):
So if you have these, you know, dream guests or people that you want to collaborate with and do these things with, what are they doing right now on Instagram? What’s their favorite book that they’re reading right now? How can you kind of reach out and start a conversation? You know, there’s, this book might be getting around, but it’s like, you’re always, it says something like you’re always one to two or three degrees away from somebody. Like you’re always connected to somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. So letting people know, um, there’s this guy who’s really famous for this, uh, Matt [inaudible], I’m going to say his name wrong, but he wants to interview the rock. Uh, he made a documentary, um, with the minimalists and took off on Netflix. He got really popular. He makes these great videos on YouTube as a great channel, a very nice aesthetic, but he has a dream of interviewing the rock and everybody on his Twitter knows that everybody, uh, you know, they make jokes and different things about and send him messages.
Tiff (13:52):
And people have actually like retweet a bunch and like sent it out to the rock himself. So, you know, it’s just knowing what people want. We all know that Gary V, New York Jets, you know, just putting these things out there, you never know who in your space is going to be somebody that can help you or support you with building these relationships and getting these people on. Um, but Christine, you know, what other advice can we give? Cause I know this is kind of one of my favorite things to talk about, uh, boats, the next step we think when, uh, building relationships and reaching out to people,
Christine (14:20):
It’s really about creating a win-win. And I know that’s kind of a catchy phrase, but it is a true principle. This goes for mentorship. This goes for asking things. This goes for getting your dream guests. It’s about making sure that it’s a win for you. And it’s a win for that dream collaborator. It will rarely work out that it’s going to be one sided. Like it’s all going to benefit them, or it’s all going to benefit you. So this is like basics of relationship building, right. But it really, it really in podcasting, uh, all the time clients ask me, how do I get booked on big shows? How do I get big guests and like build a relationship and create a win-win and think about how you can make an offer for them to do a collaboration with you. That legitimately benefits them in a big way.
Christine (15:09):
Not just like, oh, you get exposure to my audience. Like probably they don’t need exposure to your audience if they’re your dream collaborator, right. It’s, it’s about really understanding what matters to them, what they have going on, what they need support with and then creating an opportunity that sounds so fun and so aligned and so awesome. That it’s an easy. Yes. Um, and, and that goes for you too. Like we wouldn’t ever recommend that you like dream up this whole thing. That’s going to cost you like $5,000 and screw up your schedule and make you take a bunch of red eyes and be super stressed out just to do a collaboration like that does not sound fun. Like that is not a win for you. So, um, having been in this industry for a little while, we’ve definitely seen a lot of creative tactics. People have used to try and make collaborations happen.
Christine (15:57):
We’ve seen a lot of stuff that doesn’t work and we’ve seen stuff that does work, and it’s really important for it to work that everyone’s going to have a win-win. Um, and sometimes that looks like being willing to like, wait until your schedules align something. That’s, it’s as simple as that. Like instead of like, I have a dream to get this person on my show to do a collaboration, and I’m just going to make it happen in the next two months. Well, maybe the best time is 12 months from now when they’re doing a press tour. And like, that’s all you need to do is just wait and know, and be in relationship with their publicist. So just think of it as a win-win like, this is your intention, your collaborations are always going to be win-wins and then that’s what you’ll create.
Tiff (16:38):
That makes sense to me. And like Christine said, the staying on top of what’s going on with these dream guests and people that you want to bring onto your show, or do these kinds of collaborations with, I just remember one really cool story because I can’t get over, you know, interviewing the late great Kobe Bryant. Um, I know that, uh, when I was working on school of greatness and Louis wanted to interview him, of course, he’s on the top five of dream guests to have on the show. Uh, and it just so happened to be that he was launching his own podcast for kids. And of course, Louis has got a big podcast, top 100 podcasts. It makes sense that now Kobe’s whole team was actually promoting across big top 100 podcasts. And so it came together and he came together. So last minute we got the call the day before that we had to go and show it to a studio and record.
Tiff (17:22):
And it’s still one of the most memorable shoots I’ll ever have, but it’s something where you can’t really, you know, change what they have going on, but you just sort of are always aware and always letting people know that you’re here and you’re around. And book releases, like Christine said, movie releases like you just, you just want to be there and continue to grow and, and get your show to a place where you want it to be where you love it. When you know, when people listen to it, they’re going to love it. So when it’s time, they have that book coming out, your show of such top quality and you know, you’re doing great interviews at this person that has no choice, but to come on. Um, and yeah, and then maybe just one more tip Christine for reaching out to people, what would we say?
Christine (18:00):
So this is something we’ve seen actually happen. That’s pretty cool. And I don’t think, I would’ve thought this up on my own. It’s where you offer your podcast as a publication available to someone in your space who just needs a platform to share a big announcement, a really personal story, maybe some kind of press release. This could be someone who literally isn’t doing anything with you, but they don’t have a platform. They don’t have a podcast and they need an outlet, a publication to share in long form what this big announcement is. So we’ve seen this happen with podcasters in the past, let’s say they, they had a really big story to share. Like they were coming out with like a really personal thing. And they knew I kind of need someone to be there to facilitate this with me. Like it’s very personal and I want to share it with my audience.
Christine (18:56):
And so they’ll literally invite a guest host onto their own show, like a trusted friend who they know like has that capacity for them. And they will literally have that person facilitate the conversation because they’re sharing something really big. Um, we’ve also seen it where let’s say someone in your space who maybe you’re friends with, they don’t have a podcast, but they have a really cool announcement to make that’s relevant to your whole industry and would be really relevant to your audience. And so they come on your show and you essentially give them your platform to share that. And then you not only obviously become the source for that story. So like every one that is referencing that announcement is referencing your show because your episode is where it happened. But you also get to literally kind of share your platform. Isn’t that the fun of having a platform is like being able to do more with it than just your own agenda.
Christine (19:48):
So that’s a really cool way to think about collaborations where it’s maybe not going to be just promoting your own stuff or this other person’s in collaboration with you. It’s like, Hey, I’ve got a platform. I would love to make this a space where anyone in my industry knows, like if they’ve got something really big to share with our space, they can come on the show and share it. So that’s kind of a whole another level where you start to think about your show as a publication in service to your industry. And that I think is happening more and more. And I think it’s really cool. So yeah, I won’t get too specific because you can probably already think of a bunch of ideas, but press releases, big announcements, um, personal stories that need kind of more of an intimate space to be told. Uh, those are all awesome, awesome ways that your podcasts can step up and be that for other people who don’t necessarily have that, or you might have something to share and you bring someone on to help you tell the story.
Christine (20:45):
Okay. Hopefully head is just billing over with ideas now because, uh, this was a pretty idea heavy episode, but we really want you to just let this sit in your brain and marinate and think through. And when the time comes and the opportunities are there, we hope you consider collaborations to not just serve your audience and give them really awesome content, but truly to kind of elevate what you’re doing to another level in either your niche or industry, um, really cool opportunities come from, from doing collaborations. So if you’ve been scared to explore and partner, don’t be because sometimes the best stuff comes from a collaboration and unexpected one. And, and of course, we’ll just kind of wrap this episode with a little note. Um, don’t do collaborations just for the sake of doing collaborations. We’ve seen this before, too, where people are just like, I just need to get as many people on my show as possible to just try and get as much exposure that’s going to dilute the quality of what you’re doing pretty quickly.
Christine (21:50):
So be open to collaborations, but don’t be overzealous. Like don’t kind of like throw away the quality of what you’re creating for your audience by just like doing a collaboration with everyone. Um, but when it’s right, when it’s a, win-win when you have relationship, when it makes sense, when it’s exciting, go for it, uh, because it’s a super awesome way to use your show, have fun, build relationships, serve your audience. And I think we’ll wrap it there as always. We have way more of those kinds of info and coaching for you in our incubator program. And the other ways people work with us, you can always hit us up if you’re interested in that link in the show notes, and we will see you next week for a new episode.
Christine (22:37):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Like a Producer. This has been a Worthfull Media production. Massive thanks to our team who makes the show possible. Worthfull Media for audio editing, Jorge and Veronica from Mosaico Productions for video effects and Amela Subasic for our amazing artwork and graphics.
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