Unsloppable

We explore how content and authenticity build the trust that closes B2B fintech deals, with someone who's worked both sides of go-to-market — as an investor, operator, and content strategist: Leonard Burger.Includes actionable advice onUsing Video Through the Sales FunnelMatch content format to deal stage — top-of-funnel awareness vs. bottom-of-funnel conversionBuild short, internally-shareable videos that travel inside the buyer's organization without you in the roomTurning Thought Leadership Into PipelineAnchor every piece of content to a single "red line" story that ties back to your productTrack brand and product trust as measurable assets, not soft metricsBuilding Personal Brand Without Losing the Company NarrativeWhy marketers are often bad at marketing themselves — and how to fix itAlign personal visibility (founders, product leads, CS) around one shared storyStaying Authentic in an AI-Saturated Content MarketWhy authenticity became more valuable, not less, after generative AIHow to use AI tools for content without losing the voice that earns trustThe 100-word AI summaryLeonard Burger argues that in B2B fintech, trust — in the brand, the product, and the person — is what ultimately gets deals done, and content is the mechanism that builds it. Video plays different roles at different funnel stages: short clips convert internal stakeholders once a prospect is already engaged, while thought leadership earns attention earlier by connecting genuinely to a buyer's pain points. He warns that AI-generated content is easy to spot and erodes trust, making authenticity and a consistent personal voice more valuable than ever. The throughline: people do business with people, so brand, product, and individual trust must be built together, deliberately, over time.ResourcesGet actionable insights about enterprise sales & marketing in your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠oramatv.substack.com⁠⁠This episode was produced by Orama - thought leadership videos: ⁠⁠https://orama.tv/⁠⁠About Leonard BurgerCertified Product Marketing Manager (CPMM), Exec MBA, and angel investor navigating the intersection of growth strategy, fintech innovation, and venture building.Please contact me for anything related to: 👉 building high growth GTM engines, especially within fintech 👉 AI Venture building and investing 👉 startup, scaling and funding advisoryConnect on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardburger/About George AliferisGeorge Aliferis is the founder of Orama. He spent over a decade in institutional finance before moving into media to build the bridge he couldn’t find: content that makes complex solutions visible and engaging.Connect on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis/About the Unsloppable podcast:The show about enterprise sales in serious industries. Each episode, George Aliferis talks to commercial and marketing leaders in regulated, high-stakes markets about what actually moves complex deals — where thought leadership earns its place, and how they’re holding the line against the flood of AI-generated content drowning everyone else out.Unsloppable: how human intelligence wins.Timestamps

We explore the art and science of building a Go-To-Market strategy in B2B fintech with lessons that are applicable across industries, with someone who’s done it before and has spent years perfecting it: Leonard Burger.Includes actionable advice on Building Your Go-To-Market (GTM) EngineMap out a 4-phase GTM processAlign sales, marketing, product, and customer success around a single shared narrative Managing Complex, Multi-Year Sales CyclesBuild a system that outlasts individual salespeople.Use sales enablement toolingVisibility & TrustThe need for team members visibilityHow to build relationships before you're ready to sell. Org Structure for GTMWhen to hire a dedicated product marketerWhat's the ideal hierarchyThe 100-words AI summaryLeonard Berger explains how complex fintech enterprise deals can involve many stakeholders, take up to two years, and require a repeatable go-to-market (GTM) system rather than one-off selling. Using wholesale financing platforms as an example, he describes selling to finance providers while engaging dealership groups and OEMs, often replacing error-prone Excel-based processes. Success depends on sustained sales enablement: coordinated messaging, targeted account selection, and ongoing collateral—especially video—delivered at the right stages so momentum survives staff turnover and stalled deals. He also notes startups run two parallel sales cycles: selling customers and convincing investors. Visibility across channels builds trust, which ultimately closes deals. He advises product marketing bridge product, sales, marketing, and customer success, with a dotted-line structure across leadership.ResourcesJoin the newsletter to get actionable insights about enterprise sales & marketing: ⁠⁠oramatv.substack.com⁠This episode was produced by Orama - thought leadership videos: ⁠https://orama.tv/⁠Leo and I met via the ⁠Fintech Marketing Hub⁠ who organise their ⁠flagship Fintech Marketing Conference on 30 June.⁠About Leonard BurgerCertified Product Marketing Manager (CPMM), Exec MBA, and angel investor navigating the intersection of growth strategy, fintech innovation, and venture building.Please contact me for anything related to: 👉 building high growth GTM engines, especially within fintech 👉 AI Venture building and investing 👉 startup, scaling and funding advisoryConnect on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardburger/About George AliferisGeorge Aliferis is the founder of Orama. He spent over a decade in institutional finance before moving into media to build the bridge he couldn’t find: content that makes complex solutions visible and engaging.Connect on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis/About the Unsloppable podcast:The show about enterprise sales in serious industries. Each episode, George Aliferis talks to commercial and marketing leaders in regulated, high-stakes markets about what actually moves complex deals — where thought leadership earns its place, and how they’re holding the line against the flood of AI-generated content drowning everyone else out.Unsloppable: how human intelligence wins.Timestamps(00:00) What complex deals in B2B fintech look like (03:06) The long cycle of Tech against spreadsheets(05:39) Startups’ dual sales cycles(08:32) GTM as Infrastructure(12:34) Org Structure For GTM(15:16) Product Marketing Bridge Role(18:03) A dotted line reporting model

Why Unsloppable?Full article: https://oramatv.substack.com/p/becoming-unsloppable-1-blackstone?r=1ewf3The term was first heard from TBPN, who offer their own definition, but here is mine. A definition for people selling complex solutions to enterprise clients.Unsloppable, for enterprise sales, has three sides1: VisibilityThe default is that your buyers are drowning in content, and the loudest content wins. This trend existed before LLMs; the volume is now categorically different and an existential threat when your industry is boring complex.Your thought leadership is unlikely to go viral and if it did, it would probably become a compliance issue.Being unsloppable is about managing to stay visible by using your expertise. But how do you transform it to grab people’s attention?2: TrustDavid Maister’s classic Trust Equation, where Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-Orientation is a good starting point.There are 4 elements but Credibility used to be the foundation. I can talk about X because I’m an expert in X.AI has democratized the appearance of expertise. Today, anyone can write about aerospace manufacturing compliance and look credible at surface-level. When synthetic authority is virtually unlimited, buyers develop an intense skepticism toward all written content.Can your credibility still stand out? Or do you need to leverage Reliability and Intimacy? Or perhaps you need to bring Self-Orientation close to zero. But self-orientation is how you close the deal.3: Relationship-buildingI’ve mentioned that 83% of the B2B customer journey takes place outside the sales pipeline. That was 2025 data, it’s getting longer. The use of LLMs means buyers may become even more independent, increasingly pre-qualifying and pre-disqualifying vendors entirely through content, before any human contact. The window where a commercial can build relationship through conversation is shrinking. The risk is that it closes the door before the commercial gets a meeting at all.Yet, enterprise deal will still need human-to-human interaction.How do you still build a rapport with champions or the buying committee in this new environment? How much can you only rely on events/physical meetings? And how to sustain that connection throughout a long process and be present when there’s finally a trigger for a deal?The Blackstone exampleThis first episode of the podcast shows a company that makes it work in practice: Blackstone — the largest alternative asset manager — uses video to make its executives feel familiar to institutional buyers long before the first meeting. This episode was produced by Orama - thought leadership videos :https://orama.tv/About George Aliferis:George Aliferis is the founder of Orama. He spent over a decade in institutional finance before moving into media to build the bridge he couldn't find: content that makes complex solutions visible and engaging.Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis/About the Unsloppable podcast:The show about enterprise sales in serious industries. Each episode, George Aliferis talks to commercial and marketing leaders in regulated, high-stakes markets about what actually moves complex deals — where thought leadership earns its place, and how they're holding the line against the flood of AI-generated content drowning everyone else out.Unsloppable: how human intelligence wins.About Orama:We build thought leadership video assets for those selling complex solutions to enterprise buyers: human content for institutional solutions.https://orama.tv/Timestamps00:00 Blackstone is Unsloppable01:12 Q1, the billionaire president, and some kids03:19 The Blackstone filming setup04:47 Making executives video-ready06:55 Between two meetings08:17 How Blackstone stays Unsloppable10:30 Takeaways for Enterprise Sales

Dave Wallace's venture into podcasting started as a personal project and a way to catch up with a long-time collaborator, Dharmesh Mistry. Their podcast, "Demystify," focuses on FinTech and allowed them to explore their interests while growing their audience and developing media opportunities, such as a partnership with Fintech Futures (a leading fintech publication, part of the Informa Group), or a recent invitation to record a series of interviews in Dubai. But for Dave, it was also a personal journey and an opportunity to “find his voice”, and pursue new opportunities.👇🏼Below you will find key lessons for brands from our conversation👂Listen via the Substack player above and the usual podcast platforms👀 Watch on YouTube **Disclosure: Dave & Dharm Demystify is an Orama client**Key lessons for brandsA safe place to Dave’s advice to individuals and brands embarking on their podcasting journey is simple: just start. Podcasts offer a safe environment for people to express themselves and share their stories. Unlike the traditional belief that podcast hosts need to be charismatic entertainers like TV chat show hosts, for Dave, the key to successful podcasting is genuine interest and the ability to keep conversations going (which we all have). And who knows, a podcast may even help you find your voice, like it did for Dave.Leveraging content beyond audioDave stresses Demystify’s multi-faceted potential of podcasts beyond just being audio content. The episodes are a foundation for creating diverse content streams, such as articles, videos, and social media posts. Particularly for B2B businesses that naturally struggle with content, turning podcast conversations into content can act as an efficient content engine, generating white papers, LinkedIn articles, and even whitepapersA call to businessesThe podcast is not just about the audio experience; it’s an opportunity for brands to articulate their messages, share insights, and connect with their target audience on a more personal level. Dave argues that every business should consider podcasting—not necessarily to reach thousands of listeners but for deeper engagement with their specific audience.Companies are so terrible at creating their own content, like terrible. Whereas, people are good at talking. So actually recording a conversation within a business and turning that into a podcast and then writing content on the back of that. This is the way to do things.More about Dave Wallace:* Follow Dave on Linkedin* Dave & Dharm Demystify podcast on Fintech Futures* Watch the show on YouTubeUseful Resources for Brand Podcasters:* The Brand Podcast Checklist* Grow Through Conversations: a Framework for B2B Brands* Distribution and Audience Growth Playbooks for B2B ‘Shows’* How to stand out in a crowded niche (when everyone has a podcast) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

The term “embedded finance” is hugely popular in fintech and gaining traction more broadly. The potential is huge—$7 trillion by 2030. Yet a significant knowledge gap exists among non-financial brands and tech companies. To bridge this divide, Lars Markull, an embedded finance adviser who supports brands, infrastructure providers, and banks as they explore and build embedded finance products, has embarked on a content creation journey that includes blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, and events. He’s rapidly built a significant niche following and attracted sponsors, with indirect benefits to his main consulting business. He shared his insights about his content strategy and the challenges of balancing consulting with media activities.👇🏼Below you will find an edited transcript of the conversation👂Listen via the player above and the usual podcast platforms👀 Watch on YouTube for added charts & visuals. **NB: Embedded Finance Review is an Orama client and I’ve also interviewed Lars for my Fintech podcast.**Personal Highlights:* It’s a journey (you won’t get everything right on day one)* It’s a bit like a workout: You need a cadence, but build up gradually* As a consultant, you may not get a lot of direct enquiries, but producing content helps with visibility, authority, and relatability Transcript:George Aliferis: When I look at the Embedded Finance Review online, I see a newsletter and a podcast. How do you characterise it as a content platform for your consulting business? Lars Markull: It's been quite a journey. Initially, I started with insightful blog posts on LinkedIn, sharing insights about embedded finance. I identified a knowledge gap between FinTech companies and non-financial tech brands. My goal was to produce content for the latter group. The early blog posts were an educational series, which I'm reworking for an updated release soon. I soon realised the challenge of maintaining this output frequency, so I explored other formats like news curation. Now, I focus on a European perspective in my weekly newsletter, gaining great feedback from various sectors. The podcast naturally followed, amplifying the stories of those who've succeeded in this field. Recently, I've started organising physical events in European cities to foster connections between different sectors. It's a journey of education, especially for non-financial brands, as they navigate these trends. GA: You haven’t mentioned the word marketing. But building online communities via episodic content and then hosting physical events sounds like a good marketing strategy for many B2B brands. Did you first launch as a consultant and then move into content creation, or was it concurrent? LM: I always had a love-hate relationship with producing content. When I was employed in open banking, it must have been in 2016-2017; I started under my own domain with my own name. Basically, I started publishing blog posts. My big role model was Fred Wilson, a VC in New York who became famous with his blog, called avc.com. Back in the day, he published a blog post every single day. On some days it was a photo on the beach with a dog. But it was quite often really insightful stuff. I realised I wasn't always enjoying the writing part, but putting content out there is really helpful. Even as an employee, it was helpful to be visible in the space for the things you're doing. I pushed myself to post back in the day. I focused on embedded finance. By learning, and speaking to companies, I understood there’s a massive gap. The content is not there. That's when I realised I needed to come back to that. And, to be honest, now the content production around embedded finance is a lot more love and a lot less hate. Of course, there are still days when you are writing the newsletter or doing something where you feel like you have a bit of writer's block. It's good to have a rhythm to keep getting stuff out there. GA: And how do you think about monetisation?LM: I never did it for monetisation. I've now started taking sponsors for my newsletters, as this could give me more time to focus on content because right now it's a side thing. A newsletter is a great way for lead generation. It's not like I've received a lot of project enquiries, but I think it definitely helps with building your brand, not so much with the cold network but with your existing network. Sharing on LinkedIn is definitely helpful.So sharing on a weekly basis, my newsletter, and my podcast definitely helps me to be visible. And again, it's a journey. I don't think embedded finance review will become a media business, but the media element will become more relevant.GA: 11FS are doing it well, right? They have sponsorship and make money from the media element, but their core business is consulting. Do you have any tips in terms of the workflow and the process that you can share with us? LM: When I started blogging in 2016, I tried to keep a weekly cadence. I stuck with that for a month or two, then I stopped for a week, and typically one week of stopping meant stopping for another six months. So it's good to keep a rhythm. I think you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. I didn't start with a weekly newsletter. I started monthly, then biweekly, then weekly. You can learn a lot while you do these things. And similar to what I said about the embedded finance process, it's not possible to build a perfect thing from day one. You need to iterate to learn. I learnt that news curation and interviews are great because they don't require too much creativity on my end. I need to find people. I need to be active, find the stories, go out there and amplify them. But I don't need to come up with crazy new concepts around embedded finance.Find something that works for you; find a cadence content you feel comfortable doing long term.GA: What are the challenges or things you’d like to improve on?LM: I spend a lot of time thinking about the mix of consulting and content activities. How they can contribute to each other. There's a lot of thinking around that, but I'm not going to find the perfect answer. I keep trying things; with the sponsors now, I potentially have more time to invest and then see where it goes.Every day as an entrepreneur, there is a new challenge, something they didn't expect, sometimes small, sometimes big. I think that's just part of life. GA: You are a leading light in embedded finance, fulfilling an important mission to connect brands to finance opportunities. But I think you're also nailing it with your approach as an entrepreneur and content creator. More about Lars Markull:* Follow Lars on Linkedin* Subscribe to Embedded Finance ReviewUseful Resources for Brand Podcasters:* The Brand Podcast Checklist* Grow Through Conversations: a Framework for B2B Brands* Distribution and Audience Growth Playbooks for B2B ‘Shows’* How to stand out in a crowded niche (when everyone has a podcast)And to finish, a bit of fun😂And some interesting reflections on The Podcast Election This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

Welcome to the new joiners. I’m George, from Orama a content studio that helps Β2Β brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint, a series of short solo episodes, continues.When I posted earlier about YouTube, I was wondering: should B2B brands invest in YouTube? Here I share tips on how to make it work.Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.The InvestOrama channel is nearing the 20,000-follower milestone. We should reach it next month, and it happened with minimal recent effort, I only posted twice this year. My podcast channel follows a similar organic growth path on YouTube - with the same level (or lack of) activity - a trend I don’t see on Apple Podcast and Spotify unfortunately. That inspired me to revisit my YouTube Journey and share some key learnings.My YouTube JourneyMy journey with YouTube began straight after I left finance. I started by offering YouTube channel management services and worked with channels across varied industries like food, jewellery, tech and sports. The brand channels I’ve worked with have accumulated around 100 million views. That number would be a total failure for any video of Mr Beast, but if you consider brand videos with a CTR of 0.5%, that’s potentially 500,000 new business opportunities.YouTube users have changed. It used to be seen as a platform for independent creators. Soon media brands adopted it, then consumer brands, but 10 years ago very few brands could boast a million followers (Chanel was one of the first). Now, all prominent B2B tech brands such as AWS and Google Cloud heavily invest in YouTube and build significant audiences. Whatever your technical topic, there’s an audience on YouTube for it. Creators who understood the platform's potential have long garnered millions of followers by sharing technical content, from math to coding. Here are 20 essential tips from personal experience on YouTube (from my channels, or others):👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 If you want to fix your channel, but don’t want to spend time on it, I can help. There’s an offer at the bottom.20+ YouTube tips for brandsHow to approach YouTube1.You don't need to post all the time on YouTube or promote your content. YouTube can do the work for you, like it did on my channels. The traffic comes from YouTube directly.2.YouTube is reliable, unlike other social media platforms. Do you remember Facebook’s pivot to video? (LinkedIn also had one, but it never took off). 3.The difference with other social networks is that it's based on content, not notoriety, not how popular you are already. When Apple, or Nike (or the Pope) launched their Instagram account, they had millions of followers instantly. Just like BCG, Goldman, Amazon, did on LinkedIn. That’s not how it works on YouTube, where it’s about the content that you post. 4.It’s an opportunity for smaller brands to punch above their weight - that’s a consequence of the point above5.It’s an opportunity for SEOYouTube is the second largest search engine after its parent, Google. It is incredibly competitive if you look at the amount of videos posted. But if you compare it to non-video content, it's a lot less competitive. If you have an SEO strategy, it's, it's not easy, but it's easier to compete on YouTube than just on the World Wide Web in general.6.But it’s more than search. But it's also a suggestion mechanism, and both combined means your content can live forever and be discovered by new people. That's unlike other social media where your posts have a lifespan of days or weeks max.7.Analytics ruleYouTube provides a LOT of data, you can pinpoint your search terms and target them with free tools like vidIQ. And therefore it pays off to have a very analytical approach and that also means that brands that naturally have an analytical approach should have a competitive advantage by applying those skills. 8.The ROI is always high if the ‘I’ stays lowIn terms of return on investment, well, it can be high because in my case, I haven't published much recently (the I - Investment is low) and it keeps growing and bringing in revenues directly (ads) and indirectly (sponsorships, courses). But I did a lot of work upfront. Once you've built a proper show, a proper channel, once you find something that resonates, it has long-term benefits.9-You should post regularly: it’s good advice, but it's not a golden rule. This channel has just posted one video and has been growing ever since. You can forget this preconception about having to post, weekly or even monthly, even if it's beneficial. 10-There are things that you can do to maintain the channel which are much less time-consuming than creating actual content. Although I haven’t been posting, I regularly respond to comments. It just takes a few minutes and I enjoy it. I also tweak the titles and thumbnails based on the analytics that have been fed.Optimization11-Content and optimization are a product. CONTENT X OPTIMIZATION = IMPACTIf you score 10 in content and 1 in optimization, it's going to be hard to break through. If you're very good at optimizing, but your content is not great, you won't have fantastic results. But if you take care of both, then YouTube can really work for you, and optimizing is a lot less 12-There are 3 essential things that you need to think for optimization Start with the title, thumbnail and description. Check your ‘Impressions click-through rate’. If it’s less than 1% you need to change something.I've posted before about thumbnails and titles.13-And then there are little things: Think of playlists to organize your content. I don't think tags matter. But you have Cards and End Cards, which are powerful ways to link to other types of content. They can bring your CTR from 1 to 2 or 3 percent. 14-Analytics over Creative Your optimization, includes copy and design, things that maybe B2B brands are not the most comfortable with, or are not part of their core skills. But, this is a simple fix, and with iteration and analytics, you can make it work.15-Thumbnails and hooks are not clickbaitIt’s something I've learned through YouTube that I'm not yet applying it to other content. Unfortunately, it's not enough to put valuable content in the hope that people will find you.You really have to get them a strong incentive to click. And then to keep watching. I apply it fairly well on YouTube, but not on this blog, for example, and it’s something I want to improve.About your videos16-Resonance is keyWhen you find a point of resonance, just like in physics, when an item vibrates in response to oscillation, that matches its resonant frequency, it changes everything. So it's the same with your business. You need to find something in terms of style, content, and format that match your audience and things will start to click. The view count will start to rise. You'll have some feedback. All things will come together17-There’s an audience for your niche, whatever it is.That includes your B2B super specialized subsegment of FinTech or whatever. It's not boring. There are probably creators that are reaching millions of people, or just thousands of people on that topic. And I think the more niche you go, the better it is. But no, just publishing content is not enough.  18-Think of the format. It’s the unique way you're going to present things. My channel didn’t work at first. I wanted to explain and clarify key technical aspects of finance. I used to post very “good” content with very good speakers. And it didn't really ‘work’ until I found the concept of linking it to series and financial scenes.It’s pretty much the same content with the same people, but it’s reaching tens or sometimes a hundred thousand views per video.   * A classic interview with an expert, Nicolas Rabener: 1,500 views* The same expert, but referring to a Billions episode: 55,000 views19-Face the cameraFor a long time, my channel was ‘faceless’. It's not very practical for me to film myself and also I don't like it. But I decided to embrace it, because you want to create this connection, especially if you're selling a service or something on top of your channel. At least people get a feeling of what it would be to talk to you, relate to you, and work with you. Don't shy away from that.20-Apply your branding diligently, but it's about perfectible vs. perfect.It will not be a 10 out of 10 for the first time, probably forever, but you can improve over time. Keep the end goals in mind21-Capture value outside YouTubeThis is what creators do, and this is what brands should do as well. Try to capture emails straight away.  22-Selling is fine. The content can be totally related to what you have to sell your product, your service. Explaining how your product and service can solve issues should probably be your strategy on YouTube. I use Ahrefs as a reference, they are doing it really well without being ‘pushy’. And they're cashing in significantly.We're coming to the end of my “September sprints”. I hope you enjoyed them. If you’re interested in making YouTube work for you, here’s an offer exclusive to clients and subscribers to this newsletter. Free YouTube AuditWhat is it?We use various analytical tools to assess the completeness and performance of the channel. We will provide you with an assessment and some recommendations. (This is not an assessment of the quality of the content itself).Why do I need that?A YouTube audit would most likely precede a YouTube strategy. Once you know what works and what doesn’t, you can de-risk your content creation.How does it work?No login is required, we will scan your channel with various publicly available tools using YouTube APIs and that will be enough for a first report. If you want more details we can look at your analytics.Get in touch here and provide your YouTube URL if you’re interested: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

Something fun happened since my last post.Open or close with a conversation?My last post was about business development and content-based networking.To write it, I must have been doing searches that got the internet excited about selling me ways to grow my business, and I've been served countless ads, including this one multiple times:It's about learning a complex funnel system that “attracts and converts high-ticket clients”. What struck me there is that the purpose of the whole system was to lead with a conversational close (below). I've been talking about the opposite: a conversational opener. Both can work together of course. But, you need to know what type of deal you’re into. If you sell “simple” solutions, but it’s hard to identify the buyer then maybe you need a complex funnel system, like the one above. When it comes to enterprise sales, where you have a clear idea of what institutions can buy your services, but it’s a complex solution, starting with a conversation is a better approach. It’s the opposite of the “traditional” marketing playbook.Beyond “Content-Based Networking”My earlier post was about business development and it was inspired by a book called “content-based networking”. Here’s a pretty good one-line summary by ChatGPT."Content-Based Networking" by James Carbary teaches how to build meaningful professional relationships by creating and sharing valuable content that fosters authentic connections with key individuals in your industry.Firstly, it’s worth thinking about sales vs. networking. Although the summary above and the book’s title are about the latter, from memory, the focus is on the former. It’s about finding a balance.Then I want to mention the elephant in the room: where does it fit in a brand’s content marketing?And finally, there may be additional, personal, selfish benefits (based on personal experience) that trump profits.Networking vs SalesThe book says “Invite your ideal buyers”. Why not? But I think there's something a bit problematic about it: keeping a genuine interest (or pretending well enough but that’s even harder).I'll take a personal example. I've been invited to the “Business Spotlight” podcast. The host was, well, Spotlighting my business.Approach it cautiouslyAnd he offered some services (coaching starting with a free session!) straight away on the back of it. I wasn't in the market for that. But even if I were, I could see them coming from a mile away. I participated anyway in the podcast. I always say yes if I don’t need to prepare, it’s good practice, but I didn't think this led to a very genuine conversation. There was no incentive to share the episode or recommend it to other people - although I could have. I’m sure you readers have a more subtle and meaningful approach - but I wanted to offer some caution anyway.A bigger audience = more value to the relationshipIf your show is popular, your business can become popular and that’s content marketing (see below). But even if we miss that completely, it means having a bigger spotlight on your guests, offering more value to the people you will interview. You can’t completely neglect audience growth from a relationship-building point of view.Networking > OutreachSecondly, I think this ideal buyer targeting misses a networking opportunity, although the book is called content-based networking, not content-based sales. Being introduced to a connection is probably more useful, more valuable than a serendipitous connection, especially if the introduction is a warm recommendation. If you look at complex deals that benefit from a network-led approach, the various stakeholders and partners can be excellent guests who contribute to your ultimate goal, even if they are not the buyers.There’s probably an ideal mix of outreach (interviewing prospects) and networking (I’d look at Goldman Sachs and A16Z for guest strategy clues).Podcasting and content marketingYou’re podcasting. You're creating a lot of content(!). I know what you think if you’re a podcaster… But from a brand perspective, if the primary motivation for your podcast was business development it’s easy to see it separately from the rest of your “content”.It’s a content engineGood news! You can still pull them together. Or if you don’t have a content arm, a podcast, a series of conversations can be your content engine.It's a powerful one and it's also a very efficient one. Let's say you have monthly episodes. You can easily transform each conversation into multiple articles, posts, and clips. They can also help you to create whitepapers, where you regroup the perspectives of different experts. And these can feed your content calendars, week in and week out.It takes two to converseIt's not just about the guest. It's also about your point of view, and your expertise that you can showcase for the podcast. That’s where the host strategy matters. Your listeners will get a feel for the organization.That's why I often say that someone at the company should be the host, by default. It can be more than one person, but it should not be the intern who's comfortable in front of the microphone. The host represents the company. Even if just a hundred people listen? Who would you send to an industry conference attended by a hundred people?And the fact that it's video is not neutral. It's a way to create a connection at scale. Conversations are more than content collaborationsThis draws straight from my experience as a podcaster who recorded hundreds of episodes. On content collaborationsI think content collaborations are usually a good idea. It's a good way to break the ice. It works really in terms of audience growth. And you can do it in many ways on social media. There are Instagram takeovers, YouTube collabs, etc. From a more traditional business perspective, you can write an article by sending questions to experts who will be featured in return. But a conversation is more than that. It is interactive. It has the potential to bring you from point A to point B. You both learn something. It affects your perspective on the world, even if it's not always in a groundbreaking way. That makes it particularly important for relationships.But there are even more benefits in being able to ignite these conversations. Other benefitsI evolved my podcast, originally The FinTech Files (about financial technology), into an area of finance that I was even more interested in (investing).Because this was primarily a personal exploration. In doing so, I transformed a podcast that was bringing in business (as discussed here) into one which isn’t. Because I'm interviewing authors, experts and academics, not brands and my business, Orama, works with brands.It still amazes me to have this opportunity to reach out to people I admire, my favourite authors, personalities, etc. And most often they will agree to have a conversation with me. The non-monetary benefits are huge. It’s not a complete financial loss though. It was a time when this exploration of investing was important to me. And it impacted my finances overall by making me a better investor. But you may say it's a selfish perspective, to the benefit of George Aliferis, the individual, and the detriment of Orama, the brand and you probably have a point. As the sole owner of the business, I’m ok with that… and I'm now thinking of relaunching my FinTech podcast but with a different angle.So far so good with the September sprints. I started them with a swim training metaphor so here’s another one. Even if you only race long distances it’s beneficial to include sprints in your routine. These solo episodes are not sustainable and I’m here for the conversations, but it’s been a good drill.So I'll do another one, which may be the last one. And it's related to something that's happening on my YouTube channel as it's about to cross 20, 000 followers even though I've posted almost nothing this year. It’s an incentive to revisit the missed opportunity for many B2B brands on YouTube. Thank you for listening, watching, or reading! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

Welcome to the new joiners. I’m George, from Orama a content studio that helps Β2Β brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint continues with a critical question: Business Development.Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.In this episode get into the heart of the matter, podcasting for business development. I've hesitated to do this episode because if you're an insider, it's a bit taboo. You don't want everyone to know that your podcast is about sales. It's a go-to-market strategy. It’s different from a content strategy where the audience is the target client. Here it’s the guests themselves. And how would your guests feel about that?I convinced myself to go ahead because firstly, I don’t think it’s that much of a secret anymore. The word is out, many brands apply that and that includes many Orama clients. Secondly, it's not a straightforward playbook. I want to revisit it and clarify. As always, I write with mainly B2B Fintech in mind. But if you're in another industry, consider yourself lucky in terms of marketing because B2B fintech faces a lot of challenges. It's finance, so it's highly regulated. And think about selling to banks. That's got to be a long and complicated conversation, right?We’ll break it down:* Unlocking enterprise sales with a podcast (Why it works)* Content-based networking (How it works)* How to make it work in practiceUnlocking enterprise sales with a podcastThe idea: create content to connect with others and build relationships. * build a platform* invite people you want to meet for a conversation* collaborate on the content * follow up after the content collaboration* deepen the relationship over time. * reap the rewards (sell more)It works. I can’t share details from our clients, but I can share my firsthand experience from returns on my podcast.To keep it relevant for enterprise sales the reference is:* Not THIS podcast* Not podcasting services, which are my main business at Orama (Also it doesn’t work to interview people in Fintech just for the odd chance that one of them would want a podcast - see Alignment below).Instead, I will use:* My now-defunct podcast The Fintech Files, which explored B2B Fintech* Consulting services that I offer on the side, opportunistically (bus dev, marketing)Two guests became clients, Mockbank and Nordigen. I also did a consulting mission for this organisation, which was not a guest but was a connection from a guest. And through podcast connections, I was also invited to interview for a head of marketing role at one of the big Open Banking firms (I was not in the market for a job, and it wasn’t for me, but it’s still an opportunity)Keep in mind: I wasn’t doing podcast interviews with a sales agenda, the opportunities appeared spontaneously. There was a connection between all of those: Open Banking. A topic I was curious about and that I became well acquainted with through 5 conversations on my podcast. I didn’t even think about it then, but now that I look back I was connected with the Open banking community.NB: since then I transformed the podcast into somethig different and I interview authors and academics in the investment space with 0 probability of them giving me a ‘job’. The reason for this pivot is for another episode.Content-based networkingUse podcasting for targeted connectionsSimilar opportunities might arise serendipitously if you network intensely, schmooze and attend all the right industry events. The power of networking is nothing new. You can also refer to it as the power of weak ties. “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”But you can bypass serendipity or the randomness of being in a room with the right people and go straight to the CEO's office, the investor table, the meeting you want -through this medium.The title of the chapter is from a book, that I’m loosely referring to here.Collaborating > NetworkingThe other advantage is that it's not just about networking.You're going to work together to create content, not just one conversation, but repurposing this content in many different forms. Your incentives are aligned, for example, you want to get as many people as possible to watch the content. Collaboration (on content) is a step towards a more commercial collaboration.Podcasting and ABMFrom a B2B marketing perspective, you can see it as an ABM (Account-Based Marketing) tool. You can target specific organizations that you want to connect with. This can be part of a broader go-to-market toolset: ads, events, outreach, etc. that will create multiple touchpoints that form a cohesive strategy. For smaller organizations, it can work as a standalone strategy, because it doesn't cost much, and it's very accessible If you don't have a budget for anything else. Connect with the CEO of your ideal client, can open a lot of possibilities.WIIFT A key principle is that you put the spotlight on your guests. It's about them. They're the stars of the show, the heroes of the story.It's What's In It For Them (WIIFT), and that provides a very different approach to cold email. What is the success rate if you approach executives with a carefully crafted commercial proposal that corresponds to their needs, is personalised, etc? Answer(s): a) it depends b) very low. Both are correct!If you invite people to your podcast the success rate will be very high. First you need to have a few episodes on your belt. They need to be well-produced. You need to do a decent job at promoting them. But this is the bread and butter of podcasting. To be specific, for my Fintech podcast, where I was booking CEOs or senior executives, the default answer was yes. I’d say the success rate would be around 80%. And that means there was no need to chase the 20% who didn’t respond because there were always enough guests available.I’d split the guest booking experience into three phases: * Start with “friends” to build a track record (3-5 episodes)* Then you can start reaching out to people. * People contact you to appear on your show. Many CEOs pay PR companies to book them onto podcasts, they’ll do the job for you and help with questions and logistics.Your agendaObviously, it's not to sell them something. It's a relationship-building exercise and the sales can come later. But it’s your agenda, and you can ask them anything you want, or at least suggest the questions. You can guide the question and you can understand very important things pertaining to your specific goal. It's also good for market research. This ABM approach is not just about, entering the organization, but also about understanding your target organization.How to make it work in practiceLet's talk about practical aspects, starting with my personal experience related to Open Banking. Genuine interestI hadn’t started with an agenda of “getting involved in Open Banking”. I was genuinely interested and that’s why I invited multiple guests to discuss the topic. One conversation led to another, I was immersed in that community and from there opportunities came naturally. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be strategic about it and that’s about alignment.AlignmentFrom a business perspective, you need to carefully align your podcast’s purpose and guest strategies with your market. For example, if you sell, software to higher education, your ideal guest could be the CTO of these companies. If you're selling marketing services, then you should target their CMO.But often it’s not that simple. Maybe the marketing decision for what you’re selling is not taken at the CMO level, maybe it’s someone in content or social media.For enterprise sales, it’s probably not a single person or department, you may have many stakeholders, influencers that weigh on the decision. But that’s where the opportunity to interact and explore through your platform is even more beneficial. If that’s your case, I recommend the Goldman Sachs guest and host strategy.Content collaboration in practiceThere are many ways, and many platforms to do that. For the B2B FinTech, LinkedIn matters more, but you can adapt. Some of the obvious things you can do on LinkedIn are: * Create a post to thank the guest and link to the full conversation* Create clips, long or short. Even if you don't have videos, you can create clips with animated audio. * Carousels with quotes from the podcastThose are examples that we typically create with each episode for our clients, but The importance of the workflowIf this is not your core business, you don't want to spend too much time on this and it's easy to get distracted. I’ll revisit this in a future sprint (another one: I’ve got a lot of drafts!) but as these are recorded and edited conversations, they require a few steps and tools or providers. A seamless workflow is the key to making it last and getting all the long-term benefits (don’t exhaust yourself).Network beyond the episodeThe conversation can be part of your ABM strategy, your sales team can leverage it. But you can also use the content to help build a relationship over the long term.We discussed it previously. You can post regularly about them, even if you had one conversation, that was a year ago, So you've got a good workflow. It's part of your schedule. You get regular guest, your network grows and it'll be easier to seize the opportunity or push for them use this to trigger a commercial relationship that's how you grow your business as you grow your podcast.Further thoughtsIf that sounds interesting, but you’re not ready to commit, you can start with a Minimum Viable Podcast:Relationships can unlock enterprise market sales, and podcasting is a very effective relationship-building tool.Thanks for reading DisContent - by Orama! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

Welcome to the new joiners. I’m George, from Orama a content studio that helps Β2Β brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint continues with a critical question:Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.How do you start a podcast? How do you start a podcast? That’s the question I get asked the most. It's coming from brands and individuals alike. And although it looks simple, it hides multiple layers. It's a bit like: how do I launch a website? or a business?My answers so far have been perfectly accurate but largely ineffective. I want to solve this here.For podcasts, I think you can break the original question into three:* What are the practicalities of launching a podcast?* How do I build and sustain a podcast that will elevate my brand, differentiate from competitors and generate returns?* How do I get started and test it out?A practical answerYou can go to Wix, Squarespace, or whatever, create an account and create a website.For a business, in the UK at least you can register a company with a few documents and £50.And for the podcast equivalent you need two things, assuming you already have a computer. * A microphone because otherwise, your sound recording will be of poor quality. You're exposing yourself to a lot of background knowledge and other issues. * A podcast hosting platform: multiple options are available on the web, and many are free. I'd recommend, starting with Spotify for podcasters. You can also use Substack, where this podcast is hosted. Both are free and you can load your audio files there.* Follow the brand podcast checklist for the other details: TL;DR: logo, blurbs, etc.* You’re all set! Your audio files will be distributed via RSS feeds across platforms. A comprehensive answerIn reality, people want a website that showcases their offer, attracts traffic, etc. They want to create a business that generates some kind of value. A podcast that can sustain itself and bring some sort of satisfaction through the host or benefits as a business.Then there are answers but they get much more complicated.Maybe a good way to create a website is: to gather all the content; create a wireframe; use a template. That’s for a simple version. Or maybe find the right agency that will do everything for you.For a business, it can be infinitely complex. Make a business plan. Find customers. Build a product. All that sort of thing. They require significant effort and investment, even if it’s just time, upfront.The podcast equivalent is not that complicated, but it also benefits from careful preparation and creative thinking. We've created a document as a guide: the B2B Show Bible template. (I call it “show” not “podcast” on purpose). It is a very useful guide if I say so myself. It helps to launch a podcast that sustains itself, makes it easy to book guests, and to differentiate. And links to the end results (not just podcast metrics) they want to achieve.We use it with clients to guide them through their launch. But it implies commitment, professional assistance, and a minimum personal investment. It only makes sense if the brand wants to create a series of episodes, say at least one per month for six months.But… You may not feel confident if this is going to work for you. And, if you will be able to sustain it. And that's where I think we need the third and differentiated approach. The idea would be to try it out. Figure out what it implies until you're fully ready to commit. In particular for scale-ups.If you’re a large business, this may be just a small line on your budget. If you’re a startup founder, you can nimbly drive this.The need for a third answerBut it’s harder if you’re somewhere in between, a scale-up. You’ll be using resources:Brainstorming the name of your podcast alone could take hours. If you need a logo and copy, you’d need to raise tickets to your design and copywriting teams, and so on. It creates pressure. You have to deliver something meaningful: ship many episodes and prove the value to the company. That’s a cold start problem.But you can also see it from a different angle.You simply want to have a conversation with someone and share it with others. That's what we typically understand as a podcast. Maybe it's just insight from one of my colleagues, your CEO, or the executive team, who’s got something interesting to share. Maybe you’re going to have this conversation anyway, and people will benefit from it. Or you have an opportunity to chat with a client. And it would be great if prospects could hear what they have to say. But you don't have plans for 6 episodes.For all those challenges the Minimum Viable Podcast (MVP) can be a solution.The Minimum Viable PodcastThe name is inspired by The Lean Startup, an influential book by Eric Ries. I learnt from Google’s AI that it was coined by Frank Robinson. Here are a couple more key points (from Gemini):The minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product that's simple enough to sell to the market, but still has enough features to attract early customers. The MVP is a key technique used to validate a product idea and learn from customers early in the development processThe MVP's purpose is to test a business idea at a low cost, and to learn from customers so that the product can be improved. You can substitute Product for Podcast and you got the idea.I would also like to offer a different perspective, heard at The Podcast Show, from someone at BBC Sounds. The podcast arm of the almighty BBC:Podcasts never land perfect(!). That's striking because the BBC, are pretty knowledgeable about podcasts or creating shows, they have a big talent pool, experience producers, user data, etc. Yet they also tweak the podcast after the launch. NOTEBefore we get to what this MVP looks like there’s one thing you need to know: A podcast is fully editable. And that can make the approach very different from the website and/or business comparison used earlier. That means you can change all the elements, even after they’ve been published (it’s part of the beauty of the old-school RSS feed). Make the changes on your hosting platform and they will feed to Apple, Spotify and wherever you syndicate it. You can also replace an episode.To some extent websites, and businesses can also be edited or pivoted, but it’s more complex than just overwriting something new.But you can be even leaner than that. You don’t need a syndicated podcast. You can start with an audio post. It’s an option, here, on Substack. The process is identical to a podcast: you upload an audio file.You don’t need Substack. An audio file can also be posted on any website or included in an email. But if you’re starting from scratch, the value is mostly in the transcript which you can create with tools like Otter and many others - they multiply on the web. (Please do NOT transcribe manually, it’s not worth your time.) Now you have the draft of a blog post or newsletter.If you record a video, you can post the whole conversation, or create clips for social media. Even if you didn't record a video, you can create one with an animated transcript. Then use your existing email database, website, and social media, to distribute it. After you've done that a few times, you’ll be in a better position to answer the questions: Should we continue? Do we want to have regular public conversations? Can we commit to monthly episodes?And then those audio posts can be uploaded as your first podcast episodes.What does an MVP look like?You’re reading/listening/watching to my Minimum Viable Podcast. Although this episode is syndicated on podcast platforms and on YouTube. I’m still at this stage where I am thinking of tweaking the format, the branding, and I allow myself to make mistakes. At least I won’t hit my head against the wall if I do. And I sure did last week when I included a video from the Olympics on my YouTube channel. Of course, it got blocked. What was I thinking? The thumbnail was also wrong. (But no big deal. It’s fixed.) This is my minimum viable podcast. I’ve got other channels, which are no longer at this stage, like my investing podcast & YouTube channel where I know that any tweaks can have an impact because I’ve already built an audience there.Moving past the MVPThere are still some questions to ask before you cross the chasm and decide to launch episodic content. Here’s what I see as the most frequent follow-up questions * Resources: do we have what it takes to sustain the effort* Compliance: particularly in the financial space* Audience engagement: especially now that our competitors have launched their own: how do we stand out if there are X podcasts in our industry* Guests and inspiration for content: will we find them* Measurement and ROII will cover those in detail in future episodes.Right now, I would say the last is the only one that matters ultimately because it relates to all the others. If you get ROI on this, then you will find resources. Nobody said: “I had a conversation with a prospect and he later became a client. It’s a pity we can’t do more interviews because we don’t have enough resources.”If you are in that position, you’ll find resources. It's rarely that simple, but it happens, it happened to me (and it will be the topic of my next post). The most important reason to launch a podcast in the B2B/enterprise sales space is t build relationships.Once you have an established podcast. It’s easy to book guests who would never reply to your email or pick up the phone otherwise. CEO, CMOs, whatever C-suite your target market is have an incentive to participate. Just like you should participate in someone else's podcast. It's an efficient way to promote your business, but softly!My next episode/post will tackle the big question: how can a podcast unlock enterprise sales?But the main message for this one is that you can test out this medium of communicating in the leanest, simplest possible way. Record an audio post and transcribe it. Don’t call it a podcast just yet. Thanks for reading DisContent - by Orama! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

Like everybody else, I've been watching the Paris Olympics. As I like swimming, I didn't miss the 50m sprint (the equivalent of the iconic 100m sprint in track & field). The atmosphere was particularly joyous, and I was pleased that all “my” countries got a medal (🥇🇦🇺 🥈🇬🇧 🥉🇫🇷 - My kids are Australian, British, French).It was a great race, finished in 21 seconds, but it will have a long-lasting effect on the sport, because a relative outsider, Australia's Cameron McEvoy, won with a very unusual approach. It also made coaches and athletes rethink their training.Even journalists were puzzled and kept asking McEvoy (you can hear/see the questions in the audio/video version):How did you come up with the idea of winning an Olympic gold medal in swimming by swimming not very much? (laughs)This struck me because that's what this podcast is about. How B2B/complex industries, such as enterprise fintech, can create content which generates revenues (= gold), or other measurable results (medals!). And how by escaping the norm, you can achieve better results.Training long distances in swimming will make you fit, but McEvoy showed there are better ways to train for gold.Content for B2B has many benefits, but if revenues are your gold medal, there are better ways than the traditional approach to content.Culture matters in sport and businessI'm a mediocre, veteran swimmer, but I know enough to witness something that every swimmer can confirm: it's very much about the volume of training, many sessions in the pool with extensive mileage.Swimmers train harder than most other sports. My neighbour is a Premier League football coach and told me how a new manager shocked the team when he asked for more than an hour of training per day. The typical elite swimmer would have two gruelling swimming sessions, six times a week and cover huge distances, 10 kilometres a day is not unusual (multiply by four or five to estimate the running equivalent.). And you have to add gym sessions.NB: I don’t mention the financial difference between pro footballers and elite swimmers who depend on state subsidies.The “distance culture” also prevails for sprinters, despite some differences.That's also what external commentators assume, like this lady you can hear/see in the audio/video:And when it’s part of your culture, you don’t ask questions about it.The parallel with B2B brands is that they have embraced the idea of creating content, so much that they don’t ask the ultimate question: how does it link to revenues, or move the needles in other ways?McEvoy went on a journey of exploration and drew from other disciplines to design a different training program with his coach. But ultimately the mileage question comes naturally to a casual observer with a “beginner’s mind” in the swimming world.I need to insist that swimming, is not a new sport, it has been data-driven and scientific for years, but still, people woke up to something new.When it comes to B2B content, there’s also an unwritten playbook. We need to attract eyeballs, to show some thought leadership. Some activities can feel compulsory: whitepapers, webinars, events, and articles. They are all good. But if you have limited resources, they can be exhausting and there may be better ways to achieve what matters, create relationships and convince potential buyers.Punching above your weightHere’s a picture of the podium, as they stand together on the same march. You may notice that McEvoy is a bit shorter than the other two.Sprint swimming used to be dominated by larger athletes, the difference with McEvoy and the other guys is even more striking with their shirts off. If you were to design a 50m swimmer, you’d probably pick the giant Manaudou as a model.McEvoy is punching above his weight. And that’s the opportunity for startups and challenger brands. Content allows you to punch above your weight.The parallel with B2B brands is that the content is not about looking big or being popular. It should be about delivering the right type of results. My audience, clients, and business, we all try to punch above their weight.Data-driven vs. end-result drivenAnother important aspect of this race and the personality of the Australian swimmers that the media love is he's called ‘the Professor’. He graduated with a science degree, majoring in physics and mathematics. So yes, he’s data-driven and that’s how his unique training regime was built.I think being data-driven is something that the majority of people on this list already appreciate. For content, you want to measure, iterate, and improve based on whatever data you have.Yet a challenge with this approach for brands is that it makes it easy to lose sight of the end result.If you launch a new content initiative, and you want to show it works, you will measure the reach, and how many people click. Maybe how many people like and interact with your content. It's still data-driven and important. But you never want to lose sight of the end result.It doesn’t have to be sales. It can be softer data such as:* Contribute to Account-Based marketing (ABM) efforts* Improve the relationship with one decision-maker or influencer in the process* Networking benefits (someone who can introduce you to someone)* Inspire people internally* Insights that improve our productWhat I often observe with fintech startups, that launch successfully, raise funding rounds which allows them to have a marketing budget and then try to tick the boxes of the financial marketing playbook, which include some or all of those: webinars, events, whitepapers, articles, podcast, social media, etc.Swimming long distances will make you fitter.And ticking all the boxes will all have benefits.But you may not get you a medal, and you may exhaust yourself in the process. This brings me back to the conversation about BOFU content.The focus is typically on brand building or brand awareness, which is fine, which is important, but content can do a lot more than that. Content can also generate leads, can also bring in customers.So it's important to keep a distance from the conventional marketing playbook and measures for “data-driven content” and stay closer to the end result.See you next week.PS: yes next week, which is unusual as it’s normally monthly and I’m busy, but…Maybe I feel bad for criticizing traditional swim training and the culture of mileage. I am doing something that’s very much inspired by old-school swim coaching. After a break, comes “hell week”, an extra intensive week where you swim even more than usual. It has a physical impact, but also a mental one. It’s hard but the rest of the year will be easier. So I'm doing my own little sprint as I return after my Summer break. It’s to regain my ‘podcast muscle’, and to share some recent research and conversations that I can’t wait to share.The next episode will be about the challenges to launching a podcast, and the idea of a “Minimum Viable Podcast”, or MVP inspired by  the “Lean Startup” book.(Hint: The MVP doesn’t need to be called a Podcast. TBC) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com