Grow Your Business With Podcasting - Connversa

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in podcast production but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeremy Shere, Founder & CEO of Connversa, located in Bloomington, IN, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Conversa is a podcast production agency that helps B2B brands start podcasts to connect with prospects, grow brand awareness, and create better content. Our customers are typically small and mid-sized B2B brands across a wide range of industries.

Tell us about yourself

I got the idea for Connversa while working as a copywriter at a large medical device company. I'd previously worked as a freelance writer and radio producer, and I was a big fan and consumer of podcasts, but it wasn't until I worked at a corporate job that I realized that podcasting could be a powerful tool for business communication. That was made clear to me when I learned that the company's sales force was asking for a podcast featuring top sellers sharing tips for growing their businesses. I volunteered to head up the project and was excited about possibly building an audio division within the company. Unfortunately, the idea didn't get the support it needed and died on the vine, but the idea stuck with me. And so, on the side, I began connecting with sales enablement and marketing people at other (non-competing) companies and found that, indeed, there was a lot of interest in podcasting in the corporate world. I began working with a few of those companies as a side hustle and pretty quickly learned that there was even more interest in using podcasting as a content marketing channel.

After a few years, I'd built the side hustle into something approaching a real business, left the corporate job, and Connversa was born. I'm motivated to keep building and growing the business every day by several factors. The primary one is a simple necessity. Connversa is my only source of income. If I don't bust my ass every day to keep things going, I won't have any money. Another motivator is fear of failure. You often hear from entrepreneurs--mostly in tech--that failure is good, that you need to fail fast and often, etc. But nobody really wants to fail, for real. The ultimate and actual goal is to succeed! And I know that if I don't show up every single day and put in the work, my business will fail. Yet another motivator is the creative challenge. For me, starting a running a business is essentially a creative endeavor: creating products and/or services, creating ways to market them, creating jobs creating income creating relationships. And when you start from scratch, as I did, it's pretty much creating something out of nothing. That can be kinda scary, but it's also a very stimulating and rewarding challenge!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is having kept the business alive and growing for the past 3.5 years through all the ups and downs and uncertainty. It's a lot easier not to start a business or to jump ship when things go sideways, as they inevitably do. It helps a lot to have the support of family, friends, mentors, and so on. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the owner/founder being willing to keep going, no matter what. And somehow, I've found the will to do that.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

One of the hardest things about being a business owner is the uncertainty of how things are going to play out and the resulting stress. When I started Connversa, I didn't know what I didn't know, so I spent a lot of time feeling my way forward, often unsure of whether I was making good decisions and doing things the "right" way. Working with a business coach helped, but I mostly learned (and continue to learn) through trial and error. Which might sound benign, but the errors were often very painful and humbling. Another way of putting all of this is that running business forces you to confront your limitations and weaknesses. Ultimately that's a good thing, but it's not very pleasant at the moment. You have to deal with feelings of self-doubt and struggle to maintain perspective.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Start by analyzing product-market fit. Anyone can have an idea for a business, but unless there's a real and sizeable market for thing things or things you're selling, the business won't work. It's all too easy to get carried away by an idea that you think is awesome, that your friends think is cool, and that your mom supports. But until you validate the idea with people you don't already know and who you hope will become your customers, you don't have a viable business idea.
2. Prioritize sales and marketing. Even if you've identified a viable market, you have to understand that your product/service won't sell and market itself, no matter how much time you've spent perfecting it. The cold truth is that none of your potential customers give a damn about you or your offering. Not because they're mean or uncaring people. Simply because they have to care only about the problems they need to solve in order to do their part to grow the business, suppose you know that your offering can help them, cool! Now you need to get your prospects to know and believe that because their default position is that they have no need for your help.
3. Don't give up when things get tough. Starting a new venture is exciting. You're pumped and excited about how great it's gonna be to be your own boss, make a ton of money, and live your dream. Then reality sets in, and you find yourself grinding day after day, unsure if you're doing the right things, exasperated that multitudes of prospects aren't beating down your door to buy your amazing offering. You're tired, lonely, and scared. What if this whole thing was a mistake? Maybe you should forget it and go back to a normal job with a steady paycheck ... But if you really believe in your offering, don't give up. Set realistic goals and measure progress towards them. Celebrate wins, no matter how small, and learn from failures. Just keep moving forward, day after day, week after week, with a clear and realistic sense that starting, running, and growing a business is really, really hard. There's simply no getting around that. But if you're willing and able to put in the work, gut through the failures and mistakes, and stay the course, you will succeed.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://connversa.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connversapodcasting/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connversa/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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