B2B podcasting lessons from 200 episodes about LinkedIn
Today, we’re celebrating a major client milestone - 200 podcast episodes—with Michelle J. Raymond, LinkedIn expert and host of Social Media for B2B Growth.
Welcome to another episode of B2B Podcasting Insights! I'm Neal Veglio and in this special episode, I'm stepping into the interviewer’s chair on Michelle J. Raymond’s own podcast to help her share her incredible podcasting journey.
You’ll hear honest reflections on the first hundred experimental episodes, the turning points that led to lasting success, and the surprising ways podcasting has transformed Michelle J. Raymond’s business and confidence.
From redefining podcast strategy after a dramatic cease-and-desist from LinkedIn to discovering the true power of intimate audience relationships — and why podcasting creates higher-quality leads than any other channel — this episode is packed with raw insights and practical lessons that every B2B podcaster and marketer will resonate with.
If you’re curious about what it really takes to grow a B2B podcast over hundreds of episodes and the impact it can have, you won't want to miss this one.
Timestamped summary
00:00 "Sharing Diverse Podcast Experiences"
04:52 "Effort, Alignment, and Success"
06:19 "Podcasting for B2B Growth"
12:13 "Empowered Communication and Choices"
16:22 "Podcasting: Building Real Connections"
20:26 "Messages That Motivate Me"
22:21 "Podcast Success with Neal"
Transcript
In this episode, I wanted to do something a little bit different because I want
Speaker:to be able to show you that it's not just
Speaker:about you and it's not just about me. Here, we can all learn from
Speaker:each other, and my ultimate goal is for you to learn full
Speaker:stop, whether that's from me or from someone else that has
Speaker:that experience that they're willing to share with you. Now, I could
Speaker:talk until the cows come home about how I've done hundreds and
Speaker:hundreds of episodes over the last 25 years of
Speaker:various podcasts. If I were to count them all together, they would
Speaker:probably come in the thousands rather than the hundreds.
Speaker:But I think this is the important point here. When we share experience,
Speaker:we need a vast, varied array of different
Speaker:experiences that we as podcasters can
Speaker:draw from. So what better way to share experience
Speaker:of podcasting with you the than by highlighting
Speaker:this particular podcaster's experience when she had
Speaker:me interview her on her own show to
Speaker:celebrate 200 episodes. 200
Speaker:episodes later, I'm the one in the hot seat today. Michelle
Speaker:J. Raymond is a LinkedIn expert specializing in company
Speaker:pages, and she hosts the very popular podcast
Speaker:social media for B2B growth. To celebrate her
Speaker:200th episode, she asked me to do a no holds barred
Speaker:interview with her about her podcasting experience, and I
Speaker:felt it'd be well worthwhile sharing that with you now. So here it is.
Speaker:I am up to my 200th podcast
Speaker:episode and I never in a billion years
Speaker:ever imagined that I would be recording something that had that type
Speaker:of title in it. And it is just mind blowing.
Speaker:As somebody that doesn't listen to podcasts is this
Speaker:committed to showing up every single week. And I wanted
Speaker:to think about how I could make this episode interesting for you
Speaker:rather than just talk about, yay, I did 200 episodes. Aren't
Speaker:I cool? That's not helpful to anybody that's listening.
Speaker:So I had this idea. I wanted to go
Speaker:to the one and only podmaster, Neil
Speaker:Velio, who is a dear friend of mine, my podcast coach,
Speaker:mentor, and probably counselor in the background most of the
Speaker:time because I wanted to be a guest
Speaker:on my own show. Neil, thank you for agreeing to this
Speaker:craziness. It's an absolute honor and I can't wait
Speaker:to get started. Congratulations. First of all, that is, I can tell you now, as
Speaker:someone that works with lots of podcasters and has done for many years, that's an
Speaker:incredible achievement. The amount of podcasts that get to that landmark,
Speaker:probably fewer than I could count on one hand. Certainly when I Got a pint
Speaker:in the other. But my question for you is,
Speaker:when did you first realize? Because I know you had a bit of a checkered
Speaker:past with your podcast. When I first met you, you weren't really that in love
Speaker:with it, let's be honest about it. But, you know, that's the truth, is the
Speaker:podcast wasn't really getting you the results that you wanted. You were thinking, oh,
Speaker:why am I doing this? I'm not really into it. When was the moment that
Speaker:you actually realized, you know what, this could change my life?
Speaker:Yeah. And it is a confession. The first, I would
Speaker:say, hundred episodes. I have thought about going
Speaker:back and deleting those. I know I'm not allowed to, and I
Speaker:know that they're part of the journey, and I know that some people would have
Speaker:been around. We're talking years ago now. But when I first
Speaker:started, it was because my friend Michelle Griffin, she said, michelle, you need a
Speaker:podcast. And I was like, why do I need a podcast? She's like, it's good
Speaker:for your personal brand. I was like, oh, okay, whatever. So I figure out the
Speaker:tech so that I can record it. And I'm not going to say I figured
Speaker:out the tick well, but enough to get it recorded and uploaded.
Speaker:Yeah. Until I learned better. If I could go back to my younger self
Speaker:podcasting days, just go and speak to Neil, get him to do it properly for
Speaker:you the first time, you can save yourself 100 episodes. But
Speaker:what happened was I did it
Speaker:because I wanted to have conversations with people. I. I almost wanted
Speaker:them to become my friends. And there was no rhyme or reason to
Speaker:it. There was no strategy. There was no
Speaker:person that was a listener in mind. It was all about me
Speaker:and what I needed and wanted, and that was fine. And having
Speaker:guests was always good to help keep me accountable, like, because
Speaker:I can't be trusted, you know, back then to show up every
Speaker:week and do that consistently. I literally just
Speaker:did whatever. And the downloads were, you know, when you see numbers like
Speaker:30 or 20 and you're thinking, talking to 20 people,
Speaker:like, what the heck is this microphone even on? Like, is
Speaker:anyone out there listening? Like, that's what it was thinking. God, this is
Speaker:a lot of work. By the time you record and edit and, you know,
Speaker:organize all the guests, it's what, six, eight hours for the
Speaker:level and standard that I was doing when someone like you is doing. And
Speaker:sure, you're an expert, so you could probably speed some of those processes up, but.
Speaker:But it's not a half an hour show. Half an hour is the amount of
Speaker:time I invested into it. So there was a moment
Speaker:when I started to see that the messages that
Speaker:I started to get when I tightened things up were from people that
Speaker:I really wanted to work with, and they were my
Speaker:favorite clients. When they became clients, we were aligned in values.
Speaker:They knew exactly who I was, how I would show up
Speaker:my approach to LinkedIn. So, you know, in the early days,
Speaker:before I got this sorted, like people in engagement pods, and I'd
Speaker:want to punch them through the screen, I was like, no, we're not going down
Speaker:engagement pod routes. Like, we can't do that. But now,
Speaker:like, the people I work with from the podcast are just amazing.
Speaker:And as you know, I think it was like January
Speaker:2023, I got a cease and
Speaker:desist letter from. From LinkedIn asking me
Speaker:to basically change the name of the podcast. That was putting
Speaker:it nicely. If I didn't do it, I would lose my whole LinkedIn account.
Speaker:I had to change the name, which meant changing the
Speaker:website, removing LinkedIn's logo from every YouTube
Speaker:banner that I'd ever created. There was a long list of things and
Speaker:then a huge amount of work that I needed to do. And by taking.
Speaker:It was called LinkedIn for B2B growth, which is a great title for this
Speaker:podcast. It's. And that I had to take it out, and my numbers kept
Speaker:sliding in a way that I couldn't stop it. And
Speaker:you and I worked together, I think it was July 2023,
Speaker:the first time, because I knew at that point I either
Speaker:needed to have expert help that would turn this
Speaker:around, or flick the switch, say
Speaker:goodbye, and say no more podcasting. For me,
Speaker:that moment, I think, was the moment that I went, actually,
Speaker:no, this is important to me. I realized the loyalty
Speaker:that podcast listeners come with. I realized that it's a really
Speaker:close and intimate relationship with podcast listeners,
Speaker:even though I don't know who they are like. And so
Speaker:it's weird, and I know you and I have had this conversation. You're nodding
Speaker:your head for those people that will be listening to this on the audio. Neil's
Speaker:like, nodding his head fiercely in agreement. And it's
Speaker:just weird, but I love it. For someone that doesn't listen to
Speaker:podcasts, I finally think I get it.
Speaker:Neil, there you go. There's your sound grab. I think I
Speaker:finally get the power of
Speaker:podcasting and it grown my business. Like,
Speaker:absolutely. Most of my new clients
Speaker:typically come from a lead from my podcast now, like 6, 7
Speaker:out of 10 easily. Which for someone that spends so much time on LinkedIn,
Speaker:you know, like, it makes you question things some days.
Speaker:So let me understand that you're basically saying that the moment you
Speaker:realized this podcast was changing your life was
Speaker:after the drama with LinkedIn, after you
Speaker:felt that show was being taken away from you and that everything you built
Speaker:with it was under threat. That was the. It took that
Speaker:for you to realize, you know what? This podcast is amazing, and it is absolutely
Speaker:changing my life. Yeah. Because I had to realize at that moment
Speaker:that I wasn't doing it for me and me
Speaker:only. Like, I love showing up and being in service of
Speaker:my audience and my listeners. And this had become
Speaker:such an amazing way for me to do that. And if you remember
Speaker:when we first spoke, like, I used to always have guests, and I
Speaker:was far too scared and doubted myself
Speaker:severely that I could never record an episode by
Speaker:myself. And remember, like, I'm sure that there's DMs between you and I.
Speaker:In fact, I know that there are. Where I was going, oh, my
Speaker:God, when I try and record one by myself. This thing's taken me like
Speaker:an hour to do. It's all too hard. It gets stuck in my own head.
Speaker:And the only way I got out of it again was, I'm not doing it
Speaker:for me. I'm doing it for the people that listen. Cause
Speaker:I genuinely am in service of that audience. And then when I
Speaker:finally got out of my own head again, had a strategy where I would
Speaker:show up and create something that would be useful for other
Speaker:people, that they could go away and immediately put into
Speaker:practice easily, and it was easy to understand
Speaker:for everyone, no matter what level that they were at. I started
Speaker:enjoying it even more, and I wanted to show up. And I have
Speaker:guests infrequently now because I'm like, no, this is my moment
Speaker:and my microphone. And I've. I worked so hard to build
Speaker:this. And I built it completely organically
Speaker:over that time, as you know. And it's just been
Speaker:from getting better and better at this craft. Like, how can I be
Speaker:a better speaker? I think the best compliment I've got is
Speaker:people keep questioning if I'm one of those AI
Speaker:generated videos, and I'm like, no, I just talk like this and
Speaker:thanks. Is my skin routine working? You think I'm like, that perfect?
Speaker:But, you know, like, that's what practice and
Speaker:commitment and dedication to this. Because there are days
Speaker:when I think, God, is this thing working? Why should I?
Speaker:Is it all worth it? And, you know, then I have a podcast
Speaker:listener reach out and say, you told me in the ads that you wanted people
Speaker:to reach out and connect, here I am and I'm like, yes, I genuinely
Speaker:do. And I get super excited about it then. Brilliant.
Speaker:It really does. Who would have thought? I'm pretty sure that came out of our
Speaker:strategy session, like when we were setting up those little
Speaker:sound bites and just getting better at little bits of
Speaker:podcasting because it's not just, as you would say,
Speaker:show up, turn on the mic, record and then go away. Like, like,
Speaker:honestly, that just feels like someone's sliming.
Speaker:It's like no one needs any more talking apps. And again,
Speaker:it's still, for me, I want to say, hard
Speaker:to do something which I'm so passionate about and the people on
Speaker:the other side and not know who you are. So if you are listening to
Speaker:this and you hear the messages where I say, please reach out and connect with
Speaker:me, like it's genuine, please reach out and let me know you listen.
Speaker:What do you think the biggest shift
Speaker:your audience will have experienced with you
Speaker:since episode 100 to now is
Speaker:my. Confidence in, in speaking my
Speaker:views and not just relying on expert
Speaker:guests who I look up to. And I used to think
Speaker:that only my listeners would show up just because I had these
Speaker:well known guests. And I have had some pretty amazing guests
Speaker:on the show who I love. These people, they've taught me, inspired me, are
Speaker:super cool. But you know, as you said to me,
Speaker:Michelle, they show up week after week for me, not for the guests. And
Speaker:that was like, you know, smacked me straight between the eyes. Like, what the.
Speaker:Like what? Like. And I still, some days, and now I've
Speaker:got the confidence to say what I want to say in my
Speaker:own way and call out the things that I want to call out
Speaker:and give people both sides to the story. And I think that's what
Speaker:my listeners appreciate, is that I will give you both
Speaker:sides. I'm not here to tell you exactly how to do LinkedIn,
Speaker:but, but I will tell you, look, this is the upside, this is the
Speaker:downside. You choose, right? Like, I will give you pros
Speaker:and cons, but it's ultimately coming back to you to
Speaker:figure out what works best for you. So as we go forward, I, you
Speaker:know, I think there's some of the beliefs that I have around, you
Speaker:know, AI is probably the thing that's impacting
Speaker:LinkedIn and, you know, the world in general so much right
Speaker:now, but I feel like we're moving
Speaker:away and using that as the decoy that's
Speaker:distracting us from doing the real work that matters.
Speaker:I. E Having conversations with people. And it feels like if
Speaker:I use a tool, I won't have to talk to my customer. I won't have
Speaker:to use empathy to understand what it's like for them.
Speaker:And so going against the grain, I would be more popular,
Speaker:I think, if I just went, Yay, AI, here's your 20 prompts. And I will
Speaker:do some of that. But in my heart of hearts, what's right
Speaker:for me is to say, no, you need to go back and
Speaker:build relationships. And that is the
Speaker:core of success on LinkedIn. Finding those
Speaker:right people, connecting with those right people, nurturing them,
Speaker:being patient over time is going to get people
Speaker:further than the latest AI tool that can mimic your voice
Speaker:and pretend that the content was written by you, when we all can
Speaker:feel that it's not. Just wholeheartedly believe that and
Speaker:use the tools to save you time elsewhere. Like, go for, I'm not
Speaker:an anti AI person, but I just, I think I have to be a
Speaker:stand that it just can't be a part of relationships. And
Speaker:that's going to go against what a lot of people out there are going to
Speaker:tell you. And I'm going to have to be okay with that. Just like I
Speaker:was when I was telling people that company pages should be part of a business
Speaker:strategy on LinkedIn. And people like, no, that's rubbish. Like, you're
Speaker:wrong. Blah, blah, blah. I'm okay with that. And I hope that
Speaker:my listeners appreciate that. They may or may not agree with me. That's totally
Speaker:fine. Like, I hope that, you know, a group of them don't
Speaker:agree with me. That's what I love about LinkedIn is
Speaker:that we can have different voices out there. And
Speaker:the biggest fear that I have is we end up clones of each other.
Speaker:Like, that would be the thing that would make me most
Speaker:sad about LinkedIn is if it just became clones of
Speaker:clones of clones.
Speaker:If LinkedIn disappeared.
Speaker:Tomorrow, in this weird world where Microsoft just go,
Speaker:do you know what we're selling? And we're going to sell it to some company
Speaker:that aren't interested in social media anymore. What are you doing?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm going to say podcasting. Like, and I'm not saying that just because it's
Speaker:you, but it is something that I've realized. So
Speaker:I'm active on. I have two, like, three main platforms right now. So
Speaker:I have LinkedIn as my primary. I have two podcasts that I do social
Speaker:media for. B2B growth podcast is my main one. The LinkedIn branding show
Speaker:is also a podcast that's coming up to 200 episodes as well, which
Speaker:is kind of crazy when I think about it. Now what I've
Speaker:discovered is that my highest quality clients that I can work with
Speaker:are come from my podcast, hands down, every single
Speaker:time. And you can use that for your sound bites that, you know, my
Speaker:client Michelle J. Raymond says, uh, yeah, you can absolutely use
Speaker:that. Because I've done the maths, I've seen it. And
Speaker:the clients that reach out from YouTube from those videos,
Speaker:they're different. They're often looking for free advice and, you
Speaker:know, price points end up a bit out of skew, you know, like, because they
Speaker:come in with a different. They're looking for a solution or an answer
Speaker:to a question. They find that via YouTube, whereas the
Speaker:relationship building happens on podcasting. So I'd be on the
Speaker:blower straight to you going, we need to find me lots more podcast
Speaker:listener. Think I'd love to help businesses create
Speaker:podcasts as well, so that they have
Speaker:this opportunity to build relationships with people
Speaker:and not just hide behind content. Because
Speaker:I feel like content on LinkedIn for
Speaker:businesses is handed down to the
Speaker:person with the least experience that they don't want to pay for someone
Speaker:senior, and they don't set that person up for success,
Speaker:whoever it is, and they just throw them in the deep end and push them
Speaker:under the bus and say, yeah, you'll be right. Like, you know, just, you can
Speaker:write a post, you can do it. Like, it's fine. And so
Speaker:with podcasting, you will find out very quickly that
Speaker:doesn't work. Yeah. And if you don't think about
Speaker:who you're doing it for and why you're doing it, and what will they get
Speaker:out of it, and stop talking about yourself,
Speaker:then podcasting doesn't work. I've got a hundred episodes. I can
Speaker:prove to you I didn't get any business out of those episodes. Like, that was
Speaker:just me doing it because I thought I needed to do it to build my
Speaker:personal brands. And now that I realize that's
Speaker:not why I'm doing it, yes, it does help me build my personal brand, but
Speaker:that's not why I do it anymore. And, yeah, the impact
Speaker:on my business has just been pretty amazing. And
Speaker:again, I still can't believe that I'm having this
Speaker:conversation about podcasting as someone that
Speaker:just didn't get it and you just didn't. As I've said to
Speaker:you, I just read the transcripts of podcast episodes. I could never understand why
Speaker:someone would want to listen to them. And, you know, I have a few
Speaker:podcasts that I listen to. I now listen to yours. Listen to
Speaker:Jay Shreddelson's I've Got Three. I've Got
Speaker:three now I've got three, you know, like, and it's crazy to
Speaker:think that I've got three podcasts that I listen to now,
Speaker:which, you know, again, for someone who can't learn via
Speaker:listening, that's a big deal. But I have to be on the bike, at the
Speaker:gym, I can't be anywhere else. I have to be stuck in the one spot.
Speaker:You have taught a lot of people, let's be honest about it with your show.
Speaker:You know, you're not just your podcast, which obviously has
Speaker:given immense value over, you'd say a hundred episodes,
Speaker:but I mean you were starting the journey. I'm sure there was some valuable stuff
Speaker:in the first 100 as well. So that's a lot of people that you've taught
Speaker:to grow on LinkedIn in that time. But what's something.
Speaker:And I guess there's going to be a harder one to identify from your podcast
Speaker:audience because you predominantly don't know who many of those are. But
Speaker:those that have fed back to you and those that have fed back to you
Speaker:through the LinkedIn platform as well, what's something
Speaker:that they've taught you about yourself? Self belief.
Speaker:And that might sound like a cringe
Speaker:kind of comments, but the honesty of that
Speaker:is that I'm one of those people that is a
Speaker:high performer in most of the things that I do that never thinks I'm doing
Speaker:good enough is the story of my life. You have been on the
Speaker:end of my self doubt kind of conversations where I'm like, is
Speaker:this enough? How are my numbers? Where am I at? Especially when I was questioning
Speaker:whether I should keep going with the podcast, should I go by myself? Shouldn't
Speaker:I? And those messages that I receive from people, especially when
Speaker:they say things like it's easy to understand,
Speaker:I'm not going on like a lot of the other rubbish that's out there.
Speaker:They know that they can apply it, they can relate to it. Those
Speaker:kind of things really give me the encouragement to
Speaker:keep going and shut the noise up in my head,
Speaker:which is pretty non stop. And it's not imposter
Speaker:syndrome. Like, it's not that I know that I know
Speaker:my stuff, but I often doubt whether the
Speaker:people out there will love it as much as I want them to love it.
Speaker:I am that person that's like, do you love me? Do you love me? Do
Speaker:you love me? Like, it's non stop question in my head. So when I get
Speaker:those messages, it's that moment where
Speaker:the self doubt stops just, you know,
Speaker:briefly for me to actually enjoy this and remember
Speaker:that I actually genuinely love doing it now,
Speaker:you know, and I hope that they feel that and I hope that people
Speaker:understand that I show up every time and you think I've got it
Speaker:all together and it's easy for me and Michelle can speak really good and all
Speaker:that kind of other stuff, but the fact is I have
Speaker:to show up week after week and get past
Speaker:my own stuff, that I have my own version of it in my own head
Speaker:just like everybody else. But I choose
Speaker:to do this for other people and get
Speaker:myself out of the way. But yeah, when I get those
Speaker:messages, you know, the, you know, podcast
Speaker:reviews, they're like hen's teeth. So when they actually happen, when they're someone's
Speaker:written one, I'm, you know, high fiving myself behind the scenes and it
Speaker:just gives me that little pep in my step to keep going. And
Speaker:who knows how many episodes that this podcast will end up like,
Speaker:it's just crazy to think about. But, yeah, I have a lot of talking to
Speaker:do. But thank you to anyone that does leave those messages
Speaker:and send them to me. They genuinely mean the world
Speaker:to me. And yeah, I appreciate anyone that's ever done that.
Speaker:Yeah, look,
Speaker:and I have to say thank you again so much for everything that
Speaker:you've done to get me to this point, because you know
Speaker:full well that those doubts that I have when I send you texts and
Speaker:go, where am I? Am I? Where's my ranking? What's going on like? Or I
Speaker:can't make my download move or nothing's happening, or should I do this? Or can
Speaker:we change my intro? Or you have a while, to be fair,
Speaker:you haven't done that for at least six months. So we're all good. Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, like, I've been busy. Like, you've been lucky, though. It's just one of those
Speaker:things. But I, you know, I want to say to people, people like you,
Speaker:Neil, how I've become so
Speaker:successful at what I do and, you know, you take the
Speaker:podcasting piece of what I do, and it has leveled up
Speaker:significantly since you and I became friends and have worked together.
Speaker:So, you know, we're going to make sure that people have all the details to
Speaker:get in contact with you. And if you have a podcast, for God's
Speaker:sake, go and do one of Neil's podcast audits so that you don't
Speaker:put in all the work like I was and get no results. Because I can
Speaker:tell you it was immediate. And we've got the screenshots
Speaker:of his fixes all of a sudden meant that my podcast is
Speaker:being heard by the right people and more people, and
Speaker:it was just a godsend. So I appreciate your friendship.
Speaker:I appreciate that you are always there when, you know, it all hits the
Speaker:fan, especially around the podcast. And I'm like, oh my God, LinkedIn's gonna steal my
Speaker:podcast help. And you just jumped in. Just want to say I'm
Speaker:completely grateful for everything that you've done. And yeah, to
Speaker:anyone out there that has a podcast or wants a podcast,
Speaker:Neil's the only person that I ever recommend. So thank you kindly. Appreciate
Speaker:it. Thank you so. And thank you so much for asking me to do this
Speaker:has been a real honor and an absol last as well. And lovely to hear
Speaker:some really nice, honest, genuine, vulnerable answers as well.
Speaker:So well done for wearing your heart, your sleeve. As we said, Feelings for
Speaker:2026. Stories for 2026. Like, it's not
Speaker:just something that I tell my clients to do. I have to show up and
Speaker:do it myself. So thank you for bringing those out. I couldn't have
Speaker:done them talking to myself. So this episode has delivered
Speaker:everything I hoped. And thank you to all of the listeners, all of
Speaker:those people that subscribe and download. So there we are. As the
Speaker:lady says, if you too want to see exponential
Speaker:growth on your podcast, if you already have one in existence,
Speaker:the best way to do that is to work with me on an audit. These
Speaker:are comprehensive, written and videoed reports where I go
Speaker:through every aspect of your podcast, from the audio to the
Speaker:structure to the value offering to the way it's presented.
Speaker:You know it's time. When you're ready, make sure you book your
Speaker:spot@podnos.co.uk
Speaker:audits. That's P O D K
Speaker:N O W s.co.uk
Speaker:audits. And I look forward to working with you on your podcast
Speaker:very soon.
