Nick Nalbach Shares His Insights on How to Start a Successful Podcast

In today’s #ChampLifeSeries, we are excited to have Nick Nalbach with us!

Nick is a host of the Nine-Five podcast that focuses on sharing the journey of different entrepreneurs and their startups so that the people who have a flair for business could get inspiration from them and get out of 9-5 dilemmas. Nick himself has gone through this phase and eventually thought that why not share the experience of others who have gone through a similar road and share their journey to give others the initial push they need to start working on their dreams.

We are very excited to interview him and share his insights with our users.

Let’s start!

Fahad: Hi Nick thanks for being a part of our #ChampsLifeSeries. Starting off with our first question, Please share your career’s journey with our readers.

Nick: After graduating college in Business Administration, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I got the typical cubicle 9-5 job, but was only there for a few months before getting myself out of that situation. I hated that setting.

I switched gears and went into the construction field as a Project Manager. Although I have been able to make considerably more money and had more freedom and responsibility, something still didn’t feel right.

After stumbling on the book, The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco, my mindset on my entire career completely changed. I realized that I could start MY OWN business and build my own life of financial and time freedom.

Since then, my goal has been to build the Nine-Five to Freedom brand to a point where I can leave my current 9-5 job. As I go through this process, I am documenting and sharing my experience, as well as what I’ve learned. The hope is that others can see, hear, and follow my journey and gain inspiration and knowledge from my experience.

Fahad: What led you to start the Nine-Five Podcast? What was your inspiration and what’s the theme of the podcasts?

Nick: I always knew that I wanted to start a podcast, but “never thought the time was right.” That, and I was terrified of putting my face and voice out there for the world.

I thought I would start with video content, build an audience, then launch my podcast. I failed miserably!

That’s when I finally decided to just start the podcast. My thought was I could interview entrepreneurs and people who have left behind their 9-5 jobs to share their stories, experiences, and knowledge they have gathered through that process. In turn, my listeners can gain inspiration, motivation, and strategies/tactics for building their own business, if they too feel like the 9-5 lifestyle doesn’t fit them.

I launched the show back in the summer of 2020, and have been interviewing AMAZING individuals ever since. The entire experience has been incredible, and the relationships that I’ve built with some of these guests have been amazing. I feel very grateful for all of it.

Fahad: I was listening to a talk by Gary Vee and he mentioned that if you want to grow your B2B business then Podcasts are one way to enhance your reach. What do you think about it?

Nick: I do agree that podcasting can be a great way to grow a B2B business. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that people want to relate to the PEOPLE behind the brand, not the logo. That goes for consumers as well as other brands.

Podcasting allows you to build trust with anyone who listens because they can hear YOUR voice speaking to them on the other side. Inherently, you feel a stronger connection with someone when you can hear or see them vs passing email back and forth.

Think about it, are you more likely to do business with someone you already know (even in a limited capacity) or someone who sends you an email out of the blue?

Fahad: How to kick off a podcast and what are the different ways to increase your podcast’s reach?

Nick: Before you launch your podcast, start a launch group.

This is something I didn’t take too seriously when I launched the Nine-Five Podcast, and wish I did. After helping several others launch their own shows, I had them build a launch group to help hype up the show and build buzz around it before releasing the first episode.

These podcasters have gotten off to an incredible start compared to where I was at.

Once your podcast is up and running, I would highly recommend being a guest on other shows to help push your message.

Podcasting as a whole allows you to reach an engaged audience who generally cares and trusts the host of the show. By appearing on other podcasts (related to your industry), you get the undivided attention of that host’s audience, and an opportunity to attract new listeners to your show.

Fahad: What would be your advice for someone who’s just starting his host/producer journey?

Nick: From my own experience, the best thing I can say is to just start!

After putting it off for so long because I thought I had to have everything figured out, needed the audience, and needed a top-tier show to get started, all I did was waste more time.

If speaking on camera or a mic is something new to you, you can’t expect to be a rockstar from day 1.

When was the last time you picked up something completely new and were the best at it? I can’t think of a single time that has happened to me. To be brutally honest, you’ll likely hate your first couple of episodes. I still cringe listening to my first couple of episodes, but eventually, you become comfortable, understand where you can improve, and start having fun with it. But progress will never happen until you take that first step to simply start.

Go into knowing that you won’t have 1 million listeners on day 1. By the time you do become comfortable and you are enjoying the process, you’ll be trying every strategy and tactic you can just to get more listeners to your show.

Fahad: We all have inspiration in our life so who inspires you the most?

Nick: I get inspired by all the guests that I bring on my show. Everyone’s story is so unique and everyone goes through their own series of events that shape their current path. From getting let go from their job and having to make ends meet, to be squeezed out of a position at their current job, to simply realizing they can’t have the life they truly want without leaving behind their current 9-5 job, all the stories are special and amazing in my eyes.

Hearing the stories, what got them started, and how they are continuing to grow their businesses is so cool to me and personally gives me the inspiration to keep pushing forward with my own dreams and goals.

Fahad: How essential are marketing automation tools for any business? What tools do you use to streamline your processes?

Nick: Like anything, time is your most valuable commodity. When you are the only person working in your business and handling every minute detail, your time becomes limited.

Refining processes and finding ways to free up your time becomes essential to growing your own show or business. Automation tools can be one way to do that.

I personally use a lot of different tools to help me produce my show:

Notion – tracking podcast processes, episode outlines, guest and episode details, etc. I’ve used Trello, AirTable, Google Sheets, and several others, but after I got over the learning curve, Notion has become one of my favorites.

Riverside.fm – this is what I use to record all my podcast episodes. Similar to Zoom, Riverside allows you to see your guest (and even perform live streams if you want), but their video composer tools have saved me a ton of time putting together social media clips from the episode without the need of heavy-duty software.

Fahad: Stepping aside from work, how do you enjoy your free time? Any particular activity that might fascinate our readers.

Nick: My wife and I really enjoy traveling and visiting new places. With that, we are huge beer snobs and try to hit as many new and different breweries that we can to try all the different craft beer that is out there. – we usually end up planning our lodging based on the location of breweries lol.

The past year we also started dabbling in brewing our own beer. We’ve brewed a couple of really great-tasting small-batches, but taking part in the process really helps you respect the work these master brewers do.

Other than that, we like to work out, spend a lot of time outdoors, and relax at home with our two Shina Inus (Tulah and Kaya).

Fahad: Now it’s time for our rapid-fire round.

Rapid Fire Round 

Fahad: Please share some pro-tips for our readers.

Nick: Take time to manually learn the process, optimize the process, then find ways to automate the process. As I spent more time recording, editing, and promoting my own shows, I continue to find ways to create a more enjoyable show, reduce the amount of time spent, and ultimately create a more enjoyable episode. Like anything else, the only way to get better is to practice, so don’t rush. Enjoy the process and have fun with it.

As you try to grow your show, appear on more podcasts as a guest. Use free platforms like PodMatch and WildCast to find other podcasts to reach out to. If you haven’t started your own show yet, this may also be a great way to get yourself comfortable with the idea of how to structure your show and speak with people in a podcast setting.

Think hard about the goals of your podcast. WHY are you doing the show, and WHAT does your audience stand to gain from listening to the show. Most podcasters will quit before reaching episode #10 of their shows, and this is typical because the goals and expectations just aren’t there.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The podcasting community is incredibly friendly for the most part. Even if you have a show in someone else’s niche, you’d be surprised how helpful people can be. If you have questions, join Facebook Groups, reach out on social media, and ask the questions.

Reach out, I’d be more than happy to help! – If you have any questions about starting your own show, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be more than happy to hop on a call to help you get started (@NineFiveFree on all social media platforms). And if you want some additional resources to help you get started, I have free videos and a free Podcast Quickstart Guide that you can download from this link.

I am thankful to Nick Nalbach for sparing us the time to discuss the hidden potential of Podcasting. We are sure that our followers loved hearing from you!