Becoming an Entrepreneur & Building a Podcast Platform with Lindsay Tjepkema

from the crossroads of America in Indianapolis Indiana this is get in the show focused on the unfolding stories and most extraordinary Innovations happening in the Heartland today I'm Matt Hunker CEO and co-founder of powder keg and on the show today CEO and co-founder of casted Lindsay chepkema it's not about the podcast it's not about the podcast it's about everything it can do for the brand and for the business I believe that conversations that are being had on podcasts can be the center of the entire marketing strategy Lindsay chepkema is a marketing Maeve interned software entrepreneur she's a first-time CEO leading a company that has raised millions of dollars and serves well-known software Brands like HubSpot Salesforce PayPal and gong her company cast it is based in Indianapolis and is the first Amplified marketing platform and podcasting solution for B2B marketers Lindsay is a leader a speaker a marketer a podcaster a learner and a Founder she's also a mom to three young boys including twins which means she can really do anything in our conversation with Lindsay we will explore how creative companies are increasing the impact of their content marketing why businesses that podcast are closing sales 30 faster than other businesses and what you can expect from podcasting in the future all that is coming up on this episode of get in hey thanks for having me we're really excited obviously we love working with casted cast is what hosts our podcast here but I figured we could get a little bit of the story behind the software behind the founder and I'd like to start just by taking it back of where you grew up and that wasn't in Indiana was it it was not no tell me about it Lansing Michigan you have to be careful that say Lansing Michigan with my nasal Michigan accent but yeah Lansing Michigan yeah like Louisville Louisville you can't say Louisville that's a little can we can we get the Mitten for the for the oh yeah yeah we're on the news Lansing Michigan you have to do both peninsulas and I was like here right I have not been to Lansing Michigan what's what's it like there missing out what's it known for things that I grew up like on a lake I did not I'm sorry not even close but Lansing is I mean it's the capital so there's a lot of government things I was a GM town and I think my family was the only family that did not have anybody that worked for the state of Michigan or for GM oh wow parents do my mom was a teacher and my dad drove kind of local delivery truck type situations and yeah we grew up right by Michigan State so we bleed Green in my house I remember I woke up to vinyl of the Michigan State fight song magazine blaring during every Saturday morning during football season do you still have that record my dad does and actually we on on my Instagrams so we're going social already I was home at my parents house a few couple months ago and I reminded my dad of that and he fished it out and played it much to my mom's sugar in and um for and it did not stop it went for like two and funny nobody in my family went there but we're all kind of insane so yeah that's where I grew up what do you think um Lansing Michigan your family kind of how you grew up with a teacher and delivery driver how do you think that kind of impacted you and just overall your career Arc that's a big question I know well my husband and I both grew up in Lansing actually went to high school together High School sweethearts that's true wow what was your meat cute this is funny actually we were so he was two years ahead of me and so I was this freshman we did not start dating then it was much much later but now I met him was we were both in The Sound of Music musical fall Musical and I was a freshman he was a junior and the first time I ever saw him he was wearing Lederhosen because he was Friedrich in the sound of music classic amazing yes what were you wearing I have normal clothes I was normal I was a party attendee steal in his leader housing absolutely not he's he was like six inches shorter then so but yeah do we get a sample of Sound of Music all right all right we'll try again at the end of the podcast episode yeah but I think to answer your question when you talk about that a lot like we Michigan is very well specifically Lansing is very blue-collar we grew up extremely middle class person of great way I went to an extremely diverse racially ethically socioeconomically school and District my mom's a teacher and it was I don't know it just that's that was my normal and hard work that Midwestern work ethic is real very very real and you know very not Material very go out and get what you want that was just a given and I'm the first person in my family really did be in business so I think very grounded but at the same time there's been a lot of figuring it out as I go because I didn't have like a parent that was a CEO or so did you did your parents talk about so you see it was just expected right so did they ever was it ever outwardly spoken that you're expected to go and go to college and like they said try to say well you should go be a doctor you should go be a an attorney like did they ever like kind of push various occupations or was it just hey After High School you're expected to go to college you figure it out where you're gonna go how you're going to go what you're going to major in or any kind of push different types of careers it was definitely expected that I was gonna go to college which I I've Loved school like I was a big nerd I loved school so that was a given to me too you think that you got that from your mom possibly possibly my sister was not as big of a fan of the stuff so I don't know but so I knew I was gonna go to school to go to college it was also very like but don't get too big for your britches and think that you're gonna go to like I really want to go to Northwestern yeah that was like on what planet are you gonna go to some you know expensive school so I was like go get your scholarships go to a state school and get it done and I'm really creative I mentioned before we started recording I wanted to do music and theater and design and become a graphic designer and I was kind of nudged away from that where it was like maybe you do something that's a little bit more like likely to have a paycheck and and so naturally marketing American is very creative I mean the way that I was going to pitch to me was like you know creativity and people and it can go so many different directions so that's that's how I ended up here so yeah I think I wasn't nudged into any specific career but it was like go do something yeah go go do something with entrepreneurship part of your life growing up absolutely yeah no no I think this was I my parents I still don't think fully I think nobody my dad's never had an email address so seriously he is a smart man yeah I've been thinking about doing a moratorium on eBay yeah I like that I like that he has a flip phone like he doesn't know how to use a smartphone and so and my mom doesn't know the difference between texts and emails so Tech seriously I'm not making fun of it it's a truth like so when I said I'm you know starting this podcast company they're like what's up it's amazing and so entrepreneurship it was that part of it I've talked to my parents about they're like that's not surprising at all like you going and doing something that makes total sense but like a tech company like we don't like what are you even doing so yeah I don't know it's it's interesting what are some of the things that you learned in the Performing Arts that you still apply today as a CEO as a leader in your community and on your team thinking on your feet storytelling is the foundation of everything I think quite often people think that storytelling the relationships between the air quotes characters people on your team the the vibe that you give the brand that you portray is often seen as I'm starting to see this term but has often been seen as something soft like you have the business and then sure then you have like the brand but like the brand is the business yeah storytelling is the business what we're doing right now is it that's the foundation and when you become confident in telling a story and creating a story in portraying a story confidence even just being on a stage and like doing things like this and knowing that people are pulling for you people want to see you succeed whether you're on a stage playing a character or on the news you know talking about your company I think that's that's real it's a lot more important than people think it's it's ever at least every bit as important as a spreadsheet or any other function of the business was there anything that you learned from like an early mentor on how to tell a good story or how to build that confidence when you're you know quote unquote on stage you know in high school it was literally a physical stage but now it's more digital stage you know first thing that came to my mind was I was I was the first person to and she trolled it into all of our heads like stages starting in seventh and then all the way through High School and she was really big on stage presence so like and she always said she was really hard on us and so not always a good experience but like but she was like your performance began the second you walk on stage not the start the moment you start singing not like any other part like the second anyone can see you and it goes until the moment they can't see you anymore and that I I guess that not that you asked me I said stuck with me because it's like every moment matters it's not just during the board meeting it's not just during the pitch it's not just during the sales call like it's literally every single moment and that that's absolutely true with with storytelling and and storytelling is not just stories and what you say in a podcast I mean it's board meetings you know it's it's investor calls it's it's everything it's how you show up to your customers it's how you show up with your team it's everything couldn't agree more yeah I love that I think it's interesting that you pick a story you pick a mentor or someone who had an impact that was hard on you right I love that what when you so you went to Western Michigan sure did right go Broncos and then I think Western Michigan beat Purdue once I remember being really upset about that that's right you probably knocked us out in the NCAA tournament like in round two so so you go to Western Michigan and and then are there and then we'll kind of back up I'm curious if there's like one two three four steps that are like direct linkages to you starting casted and then I want to kind of work backwards and kind of find out what happened at those steps that like were Catalyst for you to go oh maybe I want to take this turn I want to step through this door next and that door led to the next door okay yeah let's do that where'd you start your career first job I have first like you know real job I have yeah right I started as an intern my junior year of college at an organization called Southwest Michigan First which also came up before we started recording it's an Economic Development Corporation in Southwest Michigan in Kalamazoo which is a real place and I it was an intern there doing marketing Communications stuff and as internships often do that turned into stay and you know why don't you do it for instance turn into part-time and my senior year of college I was doing like two days two or three days a week there and two two or three days a week of school and then when I graduated it turned into a real job and I left there with the title associate vice president and instructor of communication so I had again a mentor that was really hard on I how so so I was when I was graduating I was engaged because again my husband had been together a thousand years at that point and we were getting married that summer and the outgo what became the outgoing CEO that had been there during my internship days and was like hey before I leave I want to get it buttoned up that you have a job here like you belong here you've done so much I want to get you a job it's very modest I was looking back it was barely barely an offer but 7.

50 exactly and but it was it was a job and he wanted and I love that he that was important to him his name is Barry broom he was wonderful and great alliteration so he he he left and then the new CEO came in and he came in a week before my wedding so he started like July or two weeks my July 16th was when I got married and he came in like first of July or something and he didn't like that he inherited this you know 21 22 year old person that was running literally all of marketing and decided to test me and so he was like before I get there so this is like June he's like before I get there I want a new website oh gosh and I was like so not knowing you better I was like okay and I did it and I launched it from I launched it in a couple of days between my wedding and my honeymoon oh my God and I just by myself like we had eight people on the team the whole team so the entire company and so I was all of marketing I didn't know any better what platform would you use oh my gosh gosh it was like Drupal or something it's probably something like that it was yeah I actually used Dreamweaver to like make it that's how I built my first website you know yep macromedia exactly this is this is all over my head and so I just did the thing and you know went on my honeymoon and then came back and I was like I have a job right and he was like wow and just kept like raising the bar raising the bar and he's like we need new brand standards and I was like okay and I just like made a new brand design and I just kept meeting the bar and exceeding because I you know I just didn't know any better I didn't know that this was like borderline like it's not okay yeah and at one point he was like okay wow all right let's do this and he gave me a really big raise and I was like let's do this like I don't care that you're 22 I don't care that you're green like we will make sure it doesn't stay that way and he he brought me in like on all of these big things we had these big huge media tours and I was it was me and him and I was in you know is at Bloomberg with him I was at Wall Street Journal with him and I learned a lot because he he tested me which we could argue whether or not the way he decided to do that was okay but then after that I got brought into things that I had no business like in lots of other situations I would have had no business being in on and therefore I got the exposure I got the confidence of like okay this is Wall Street Journal but it's just Wall Street Journal like this is this is Inc magazine but it's just ink magazine and it became I think Forever After that's been attainable and like why not you know so I love it yeah so that was one what did you learn from him that you still use today in how you're leading casted I think it's both I mean a lot of what to do and what not to do like you take from everybody sure he was a very early is on time on time is late and late is an acceptable person and so I find that I carry that with me but it's also like okay then everybody's that way it's okay I kind of like as you talked about these launching a new website talked about brand standards it's kind of like and I just did it like looking back I feel like it's easy to kind of brush over that and it's just like oh it was whatever but in the moment how did that how did you feel being a recent college grad with this immense amount of work like how did that make you feel back in those days while you were going through it man I bet my husband and I remember this very differently I mean I remember being overwhelmed and excited at the same time because I think the further you get into your career the more I mean I had I had I was naive you know I didn't know what I didn't know and I knew that I could just do it you know I think you get further into your career and and you realize more of what kind of what you have to lose everything that could happen the red tape that you should probably go through as opposed to just a you know circumventing it all together and I think you you start to become bogged down by it sometimes which is one of the cool things about being an entrepreneur and about working in a startup is that there's a lot more of that let's just do it let's just you know I'm just gonna do it or you should just do it whereas a large corporation that'd be a good slogan Justice that's a great idea speaking of brand standards that's a good one write that down yeah I think that's a good mindset to have right because a lot of times you said we're compensated super well it's your first job you're getting all these opportunities and people get caught up in the well I'm doing the work of someone who's a senior vice president or director I'm doing all this work but I'm paid like I'm just out of college and I I think that the way you didn't get caught up in that and it's just like hey put your head down get this work done and like saw that as an opportunity is special it was literally why you're saying that I was thinking the word opportunity like I just we talked about Lansing Michigan we talked there it is Lansing we we talked about you know steps along the way and I honestly looking back I didn't know any better like I just knew without knowing it in so many words like this is an opportunity like this is not a test and yeah it's crap and maybe I probably complained about it and I felt like I was working a lot I was I was working around the clock but like this is an opportunity if I do this I'm going to you know win this guy over and I did and if I do this next thing I'm going to get this next opportunity and I think that's always been my mentality and I think today as we are in this you know recession downturn whatever we're calling it there is so much of that and we can get frustrated about the way things should be we can get frustrated about the way things are we can get frustrated about what's not happening and about what's not available to us as individuals or as Leaders or as companies or we can just see the opportunity and just do it and and take whatever comes out of it before the solution right not the problem yeah I love it so you're gonna you're in a leadership role there wait I am oh you don't mean now no well no no but you left is like an associate vice president yeah when you up there were you managing people at that point did you have a team I had I had one one person who was like a year younger than me who she and I both felt really weird about her reporting to me so kind of not really well can you talk about that for like being young and in a leadership position and how do you be a good leader but also like you know like own up to the fact that hey I am only a year older than you and I don't have that much more professional experience but I was selected to be the leader and how did you manage that relationship I mean there was that situation I don't I don't know that we did there but other situations since then I think um just trying to be authentic and trying to be like what I'm doing this is weird you know this is a weird thing how can I serve you how can I help you how do you want to divvy up responsibilities what can I do to like break down barriers still today I mean like that's how I do with my team now it's like you know this is nobody has has been on day whatever we are I've casted before this is the first time yeah so so you know what do we how do we want to do this how can I break down walls how can I how can I best support you and help you get done what you need to do and make you feel supported and I don't know if that's right but that's worked so far how did you end up in Chicago Lindsay we wanted to be there yeah yeah what was it about Chicago that kind of Drew you in I have always wanted to live in Chicago I remember I went there um I don't know when I was 10 or 11 or something and the entire time I was there I was like I'm gonna move here someday this is my home that's awesome yeah wow yeah I love Chicago I am the biggest anti-chicago guy unfortunately well do you like do you like New York I mean I'm I'm I mean from a town of 1200 people in rural Northern Indiana I'm just like well I have this theory that like if you you like one or the other like you either like New York or Chicago because they're so different yeah Nate's a region rat no I wouldn't go that far I would like Chicago if I was from the region I like New York to go see a Broadway show or maybe a little Christmas shopping but I feel like I suffocate if I stay longer it's like Vegas it's good for a couple nights yep it's too much that's how I am I love that Chicago you can you literally can walk from like one end to the other like it's you can get your arms around it yep so no I've just I loved it forever yeah so I always get ticked off as soon as I get a drive up there and it's like oh now I gotta find parking I'm angry from the second I get out of my car when I finally find a spot and then I get back in my car and there's traffic trying to get out of there and it's just like it's a journey is like a bad experience but the middle time is fun so so you made it to Chicago the promised land oh man from Lansing you made the pilgrimage to Chicago oh yeah how did you end up in Indiana so we lived in Chicago for seven years something like that and we were in Chicago when we were you know young married no kids and then we had a kiddo and then we had more and when we thought one was on the way turned out to be two were on the way oh wow yeah no longer sustainable because we're just not going anywhere or doing anything and very expensive and so we we look to try to get back to Michigan to family and I was working remotely and my husband was working in sales and asked about Michigan territory and they were like not Michigan but how about Indiana and here we are we didn't know anyone we didn't have any family or friends or I remember we found a realtor online and she was my friend whether she liked it or not saying yeah she unloaded me a little she was like you're cleaning people but that's how I ended up here make sure to mark your calendars for August 29th through 31st for rally the world's largest cross-sector Innovation conference featuring pitch competitions demo Arena interactive experiences and a whole lot more join us on August 29th through the 31st in Indianapolis and visit rallyinnovation.

com to secure your tickets today so you landed in Indiana with your husband sounds like you had an amazing realtor I mean what's her name do you remember Jennifer Wolfe Jennifer Wolfe you were out there yeah you made a big impression we'll see my wife is a realtor so I hear these names all the time you know oh I was talking to so-and-so on the phone the other day like I've seen their name on a sign or a bench lovely amazing what were your first impressions of Indiana well okay honestly yeah when I think this is this is good because of like how it started how it's going and what year is this by the way 2013. okay 2013. almost exactly 10 years ago that's wow because it was like January 2013. so that's why we asked you here today um that's that's why it's almost exactly gosh really strange really do our research here what else is going to come up who's gonna walk through that door this is gonna be very oh did you hear about that it's Jennifer you're like I didn't even remember you oh my goodness okay so first impressions I mean First Impressions when we were looking for like we we did it was like the HGTV like we came here one day amazing and it was fine it was great it was this is gonna work and then I remember I came for the inspection I had more flexibility than my husband so he stayed in Chicago with our kiddo and like I came here to do the house inspection and it's no longer in the middle of a cornfield but it was literally literally the neighborhood was like a cut out in the middle of a cornfield oh yeah and it's how the best neighborhoods are made in the Midwest and so coming from it's very efficient yes from downtown in different downtown Chicago to a cornfield and I was like what are we doing what are we doing but you know the the way that both that area has evolved and like what and then then I got to know Indianapolis right and so I was so I'm amazed with everything that was already here I mean this was right around the time that the exact Target sales force yeah whole situation happened almost 10 years ago as well yeah and just walking into that was honestly kind of pleasantly surprised we didn't come here for my work we came here for my husband's and so being able to pick a place that worked for our family and for his his job and then be like oh there's a huge martek scene here this is gonna be okay this is gonna be just fine so yeah it was I feel like we took I feel like we it's like coming to a party where you come in the back door and you're like I think but then like you walk in you're like oh yeah this is great that's a great analogy yeah so you said you didn't came here not knowing anyone except Jennifer literally no one how did you meet people um well well I was working like I said I was working remotely so it's not like I met people at work until I actually started working at relevance a couple a couple years later but at first her neighbors church and daycare honestly became a really happen in place because you're seeing the same parents at drop off and pick up and for a while I was the largely hugely pregnant with twins lady walking around with a two-year-old and so I had a lot of nice people holding doors for me and then I'd be like do you want to be my friend so yeah some of our some of our dear friends we met basically that way yeah so well I do think there's a lesson there that like you could have very easily stayed isolated yeah I noticed myself even doing this after several years in isolation you know it's it's really easy to kind of Fade Into the background and just like kind of let things go but there is something about just saying hey you want to be friends hey do you want to grab a cup of coffee you want to grab a beer yep is that something you've always done naturally no well so my mother would tell you that when I was little at restaurants I would like be the kid sitting backwards in the booth to the people behind me hi my name's Lindsay do you want to be my friend but as I got older I don't know I just I I think I speaking out and like like saying a thing has always been easier than like do you want to like be my friend we were talking about vulnerability it takes a lot of vulnerability so so now I think when you when you don't know anyone and you're in a place where it feels like everyone knows everyone it can be tough but I found and then you realize that people don't all those people talking they don't know each other either no well and I was actually gonna say something that I noticed about Indiana is that people are really nice like shockingly I don't know if it was coming from Chicago or what but like in the the grocery line like I had people being like I really like your shoes like do you want to grab lunch sometimes yes I do and like hey we've been standing next to each other and all these kids birthday parties so long like do you want to grab coffee sometime yeah I really do but yeah and I think also just I try to do that now too because I know how how alone I was and how how much it meant to me when people reach out do you think you're an introvert or an extrovert I am definitely an introvert it just has breakout moments as an extrovert I'm a I'm a very social introvert like I the difference yeah the difference to me somebody told me a long time ago that introvert versus extrovert is where you get your energy so like after this and then I have an in-person meeting after this I'm exhausted yeah like I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna put on my sweats and I'm gonna like snuggle up with my kids and like for a minute yeah you know and I love this like this is so great but it's it it's gonna drain me whereas an extrovert would be like no I'm gonna be ready to go out to dinner and then I'm gonna do three more yeah that's exactly where my head is oh my gosh yeah I can run these back to back to back made the generator yeah yeah I love it well clearly what you did and getting to know yourself and how you are someone who recharges outside of the microphones being on outside of the in person has really worked for you because it led you to the journey that you're on now that casted can you tell us a little bit about how that came to be like how cast it started yeah it's over three years ago now right yeah almost four oh my god wow can we actually before we go to the casted conception because I'm excited about that but I think even from what I saw how did you get into podcasting okay start because there's a I think there's a snippet between how you got into podcasts yeah and then how you got into a podcasting company truth okay so I was working at a company called amarsus and before I started there as I mentioned I was working at relevance previously slingshots which a lot of people here in in Indy know both and when they close I started working at Marcis and through that whole thing the reason I bring that up is that I speaking of getting to know yourself like I really really came into my own as like not just marketing but like there's a thing in content marketing and like that's okay and that's that's where I want to live and be and when that happened this role opened up like Global head of content at this company that I'd never heard of called the marsis and they were like yeah we want to change the fact that people haven't heard of us here come on over here and lead content brand and so I did that and and because of kind of the getting to know myself that I did prior to that I was really excited to come in and not do what other people expected of like a head of content but like I really believed should happen and so I kind of walked in and I was like cool we can do those things but we're gonna do these things and I'm gonna interview all these thought leaders and I'm going to talk to everybody in the company and I'm just like give me access to customers give me access to product people I want to learn I want to record and as I did that this was 20 late 2015.

I was like I'm gonna do a podcast and so I had to kind of work up to that but I just I knew that that was something that I wanted to do and I was like if you want me to be here this is what I'm doing and I had a lot of support so it sounds like I had pushback but I mean a little bit of pushback because it was like a podcast are you serious I was like yes we're doing this and so I launched that I think early 2017. and um fell in love with it personally because having conversations and quickly saw both the possibilities and the and the potential in what literally exactly what we're doing right now yeah and also the challenges because I was this marketer I know you feel this like and I was like okay can't wait to see what it's gonna do like what was it gonna generate for us and what's what's the ROI and what are the metrics and it was like crickets like nothing the the ROI is nothing because the metrics is nothing and that's it and so you know I was sitting across from our CEO who was actually a big fan like I would see him in the hallways and he'd be like I love the podcast I love it listen this morning on my run and he was a big fan and he was like like I can't wait to see what he's doing for the business like how much business has it generated and I was like well ten thousand dollars I mean you know the last episode generated like 50 listens on the first day and she's like that doesn't mean anything I was like no he's like Lindsay if we don't if we don't if that doesn't change like you can't like you're spending too much time on this and we're spending too much money like this can't be a thing if it's not a thing and I was like give me more time and let me do some videos in London for two weeks too and he was like what I was like just so sometimes it's nice working at a big company Owen captured more content and just did more things and right around that time Scott Dorsey reached out to me which again if we go back in this conversation you'll know that I was one of the few people who was not here during the exact target acquisite acquisition by Salesforce I never worked at Salesforce or exact target but I of course knew who Scott Dorsey was and he was shot and was like Hey we're thinking about doing something like we're hearing more buzz and B2B podcasting I hear you have one of those I was like yes would you like to be on it please like And subscribe so anyway he was like I'd love to talk to you about it and so of course Scott Dorsey I'll come talk to you about my podcast so we of course had this great conversation and I was like listen it's and I I've been beating this drum ever since of it's not about the podcast it's not about the podcast he was like tell me more it's like well it's about everything it can do for the brand and for the business like I believe and this was back you know four years ago I believe that conversations that are being had on podcasts can be the center of the entire marketing strategy here's how here's why and like no company needs a podcast tool B2B doesn't need a podcast solution they need a way to harness these authentic conversations to fuel literally every single channel that they're already doing and then to measure it and to prove its value to the business and to drive sales and CX and he was like well that sounds cool and I was like yeah it does and by the way like now I'm interested and to chance you were talking about like did you see entrepreneurship as a thing and I I didn't it's just that once I saw this I couldn't unsee it yeah and was it in that conversation at that moment where you're like I'm describing my future business yeah and he remember he he as we were wrapping up that conversation he said well this was great this was really helpful like you know what can I do for you and I was like well if you build this thing yeah I was like well if you're interested you're gonna build this thing like I didn't go into this like thinking this was going to be a thing but like if you build this I want to be a part of it he's like well that would be great maybe maybe you can be one of the first customers if it's the thing I was like no no no I I want to do this and he was like oh well let's have that conversation and so we went and we you know casted was born as part of the ielta studio so that's that's how that started what do you think the biggest lesson was that you learned in that first year of being a CEO startup CEO oh man that it was a hundred percent about being comfortable with being uncomfortable still is and the second you learn anything it'll change right I mean right yep and I think that's still the case and yeah it's it's it's truly being comfortable with that because it's it's constantly unknown and constantly this apparent my first year but it's much more much more obvious to me now it's this constant push-pull with having to do things you're not good at and also still desperately trying to find the time to do the things you are good at because your business needs both your business needs you to do both which is really hard was there a moment that you realized like okay we have product Market fit like this is working I think you think you have it a lot and then it's like wait wait yeah yep yep yep wait oh yeah I know we definitely wait hang on we had it where'd it go just a second hang on yep there it is I found it guys don't worry I found it found incredible yeah I think last three years the market shifted just a little bit you know just a few couple things I think for us it and for me it's always about the customer I mean we have been just so I mean lucky I guess but fortunate enough to to work with some incredible incredible Brands and it's it to me it's all about what what they're saying and how they're using the product and how they're fueling us to fuel them and I think that's that's where it's this constant cycle to me of yeah we have it okay we need to continue to keep trying to have it yeah what are you most excited about now at cast in we you know here we are at the beginning of the year today is our first day of our fiscal year and we have this whole without going too much down like podcast industry Lane we have this whole Vision around what a company goes through as they adopt and mature through the process of adopting podcasts and that is really coming to fruition this year about not only what it is but about how it works and about how cast it is uniquely positioned to drive that and so in many ways this Vision that I and we have had for the last four years is like oh it's it's just it's kicking in and it's becoming real and it's it's exciting that's really interesting so you're drawing a direct parallel or analogy between essence you start a company you have different needs on day one day two three four five right and so you're drawing that that direct connection between a podcast which totally makes sense right because you're your needs when you're you first start doing recordings that changes rapidly and you just deploy those you learn you make mistakes yeah for sure I mean again without going too far down like podcast Lane you you start with an idea much like with the company and then you turn it into a thing it's something tangible again much like with the company and then that's stages one and two and stage three it's all about okay this show I need to grow an audience and that's where a lot of people and Brands stop they're like it's all about growing the audience it's growing the audience but there's to us there's especially for Brands there's two more stages it's this flipping that happens of it's not about using all of your channels to grow the show it's about using your show to grow all the channels and you can't do that until you reach this certain level of maturity and once you do though you are just head and shoulders above anybody else that could possibly try to be your competition and I'm really excited about that this year yeah can you give some advice right to all the listeners out there that might be director of remarketing that that has a podcast that might be in that 50 50 lessons a week what what can they say to like paint that picture to their CEO who's like why are we putting resources into this thing that gets 50 lessons that doesn't have an audience how do they paint that picture and tell that story yeah you've got to know who it's funny that they rhyme but you've got to know your audience before you can grow your audience and you can keep throwing things out there to try to say yeah but we're reaching more people but we as marketers know that that's for what who what are they gonna do right like why are you doing this who's it for and why are you doing it and so the more you can understand who not just how many but who are you reaching are you reaching them with the right things how do you know that and then then and only then once you start to understand that then you can start to say okay how can I again use use the show that I'm creating to drive other channels and then how can I start to fuel sales with it so before you can start to jump jump the line and say okay I'm only reaching 50 people a week and I need to start generating Revenue it's like nope one step at a time and if you're there and you're doing a show consistently start to ask yourself like what can I do to better understand who is consuming my content and Cass is not the only way but there's the best way it's probably the best way absolutely to do that let's go let's go to The Landing round ready for the lightning thank you so much for the additional teammates so I'm gonna start off with a few from if I don't like these questions I'm gonna pull a telephone I'm just gonna leave yes that's perfect perfect absolutely perfect so background and Performing Arts what was your favorite role oh ugly step sister and Cinderella oh that's okay what was the first podcast you listened to I listened to the oh gosh coffee with CMO with Dave Gerhart and Dave cancel nice okay what's your currently what's your favorite podcast a little bit of optimism with Simon sinek oh another great one all right so outside of the amazing entrepreneurs what is Indiana known for I I'm gonna sound like such a like Tech founder but I added the talent I mean the people here there's such a concentration of people that that get it that get it with startups and specifically martech all right what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana [Music] as I have my place but as a sickly vegan person there's a lot of really good vegan or close to vegan food here which was surprising and it keeps getting better like a pork tenderloin sandwich exactly that's exactly the official sandwich of Indiana asked voted into law this year yum and I think the friendly the friendly in Zionsville has the best tenderloin in the entire style I might disagree but we can talk about that there's some good say tenderloin sandwiches and Lindsay's like you stop talking about this on my vomit all right eggplant sandwiches our our final question of the lightning round who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who's doing big things oh gosh I mean other than casted person an individual person oh man those first person can I say two people two people we'll allow it okay Melanie Allen Greenleaf marketing marketing um she's just like we've barely even met each other in real life a couple times but like I just watch what she does I'm just in awe with how much she's doing for business for marketing and for just Indiana and Indianapolis she's just awesome and then over at Indie Maiden Leslie Bailey she's fan freaking tastic and we've had her on the show yeah and I I I I got to talk to her about the idea of Indie Maven like I just she just shared it with me before she started it and it's just so cool to like I had nothing to do with it that's not me claiming anything I had nothing to do with it I just she told me about it like then just being able to like sit on the sidelines and watch it all come to fruition for her it's she's just a badass she's great totally agree I'm throwing in a bonus question here favorite podcasters in Indiana or favorite podcasts that hail from Indiana other than this one of course obviously well front page or bust is a good one over here yep and this one obviously live has a great podcast bolster is something coming up with something I'm probably spilling the beans there let's see this is the place to do that has a great one Stephanie Cox has a really cool one with lumavate she's she's done a few different things over the years Fabian Rodriguez everything that he is working on both I mean drink culture is you can still listen to it and all the things that he's working on with ibj and others I mean there's there's so many there's a there's a lot here a lot of the businesses and a lot of people have great shows I listened to your show with Tiffany on her pie and that was yes scared confident yeah I mean shout out to share your Genius which is another one of our partners they they're here and they produce a lot of shows here too like innovate map as a show and formsack has a show and there's there's a I mean we could talk you could do an entire show about Indianapolis podcasts well sounds like we've got our next next episode we'll have to have you back okay all right cool let's do it Lindsay thank you so much for being on the show thanks for letting me come Babble at you for a while this is great way to crush it Lindsay this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkick.

com newsletter and to apply for membership to the powder cake executive Community Check out powdercake. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at cassid have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast and video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at Powder Keg and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 percent off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted casted. us slash powder keg