How To Publish a Book from Your Podcast with Tina Dietz

Tina Dietz How to Publish a Book from your Podcast

Traci DeForge: [00:00:00] We are always exploring business growth journeys, how they started with podcasting, and then what that journey of either being a guest on a podcast, starting a podcast, publishing a book, all of those things, how that, how that pathway leads to such bigger things that sometimes you can’t even imagine.

Yeah. Like, when you very first showed up to guest on a podcast, were you thinking to yourself, “I’m gonna run a podcast publishing empire one day”?

Tina Dietz: No. I was more like, “What the hell is this online radio stuff?”

Voice Over: This is the Growth Accelerator Podcast, where your host Tracy Deforge is your guide to transforming your company’s podcast into a dynamic lead generation and marketing powerhouse.

We

Traci DeForge: have seen really successful monetization strategies

Voice Over: Giving you the blueprint to elevate your podcast from good to exceptional.

Traci DeForge: It really opens up this whole other opportunity for you

Voice Over: And unlock its true potential to drive your [00:01:00] business growth.

Traci DeForge: I really want to make sure your foundational pillars are in place.

Voice Over: Now your host, Tracy Deforge.

Traci DeForge: Welcome back to the Growth Accelerator podcast. Today, you are in for a treat because you are gonna hear about how starting with podcast guesting led to building an podcast industry empire of podcast publishing, and book publishing, and audiobook publishing, and all of the things.

And here with me today is truly one of my most favorite people on the planet, I just need to say that first and foremost. Um, Tina Dietz is the founder and CEO of Twin Flames Studios, which you are gonna hear all about in today’s episode. But first, you just need to know she’s smart, she’s savvy, she’s fun, and she’s just also a founder circle member of the Podcast Professionals Association, recognized in the publishing industry, is just ba- basically famous.

Let’s just start, let’s just start with famous, [00:02:00] Tina.

Tina Dietz: Can I, can I do infamous? Infamous is more fun.

Traci DeForge: We can do infamous. I, I like that better myself, actually. For myself. We were talking, um, you know, we, we have multiple conversations and have throughout the years, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to have you as a guest on the Growth Accelerator podcast, because we are always exploring business growth journeys, how they started with podcasting, and then what that journey of either being a guest on a podcast, starting a podcast, publishing a book, all of those things, how that, how that pathway leads to such bigger things that sometimes you can’t even imagine.

Yeah. Like, when you very first showed up to guest on a podcast, were you thinking to yourself, “I’m gonna run a podcast publishing empire one day?”

Tina Dietz: No, I was more like, “What the hell is this online radio stuff?” I mean, it was, it was that long ago. So yeah, exactly. It was [00:03:00] not in my mind at all.

Traci DeForge: Well, and that’s another thing that we actually have in common, because we’ve been working side by side in this industry for, uh, just about a decade.

And again, your journey started as, as guesting on a podcast, and then I’m assuming that lit that fire in you, and you wanted to start a podcast. My journey started by wanting to start a podcast, and not being able to identify a full-service podcasting agency that could support me in doing that. And you and I both know for, for many r- reasons and many paths why- For sure

that’s challenging. And so tell me about that transition for you from, I guess, you know, starting out, I’m gonna get some visibility, to I’m gonna create my own thought leadership. And take us, take us down your, your journey story of that.

Tina Dietz: Podcast guesting first became a thing for me because I was a business coach and consultant, and I was working online.

I was a digital nomad, and I was doing all kinds of consulting with businesses, mostly small businesses, service businesses, and I started getting asked by colleagues to be a guest on their [00:04:00] online radio show, and then nobody called it a podcast at the time. And I had been speaking for a very long time. I have a background in theater.

I mean, I love anything involving a microphone. It’s d- it was just a no-brainer for me. I’d much rather speak than write. So rather than blogging, I started guesting on other people’s shows, and it really, it really helped with my exposure, with my networking, um, having content to kind of work with. Although at the time, we weren’t doing video and things like that, it still was good for me to have the information to be able to write blog posts about and talk about on social media.

And so when I went to create a podcast, much like you, Tracy, I was looking for a full-service podcast agency, and at the time, there were, there were more. I, you know, I was, I was even an early member of John Lee Dumas’ Podcast Paradise. It was one of the big- Paradise … big membership organizations and things like that at the time.

Mm. And this was around the, the big zeitgeist of podcasting that was happening 2014, [00:05:00] 2015, 2016. And so that period of time, podcasting really just started to break through and rise like crazy. And so in the process of starting the show and working with a producer, I fell in love with the process, and I did not fall in love with the new business venture that I had created.

And so much so- Um- So much so, I was so disappointed in how I felt about this new business venture, and it just wasn’t… It wasn’t resonating with me, that I went to the company that I worked with, and if you were alive in the ’80s, we used to have this, uh, commercial called the Hair Club for Men, and the spokesman would come on, and he was like…

It was for guys who were balding to get their hair back, and he’d like, “I love the Hair Club for Men so much, I bought the company.” And I didn’t buy the company, but I went to my podcast producer and said, “I love this so much, I wanna work together.” And turns out he didn’t like people very [00:06:00] much, but he’s a fantastic podcaster.

So I ended up being his coach for all of his incoming clients, and working with people to shape shows and work with the production team to launch some just beautiful, beautiful podcasts. And that was where the love started, and it then snowballed. We worked together for quite a while as I was developing yet another venture, uh, in nonfiction audiobooks, which developed into the company I have today, Twin Flame Studios.

And so we had a audiobook production division and a podcast production division for many years until the audiobook world and the publishing world was really pulling my time and my energy and my focus, and I decided it was time to let podcast production go to folks who could really do it better than we could.

And it’s hard to be really, really good at, at more than one thing at a time, and our [00:07:00] relationship was already beautiful and strong, and I had such a, as a fan girl of your work, literally at conferences and stuff like that. So you and I as, as colleagues, we handed off our clients to you, and we’ve been fantastic, uh, referral partners ever since.

So it’s definitely been a twisty journ- journey, but I find that most things are when it comes to developing any kind of venture. You almost never end up where you thought you were going to

Traci DeForge: I mean, I think that sums entrepreneurship up in one sentence, right? Yeah. And as long as I’ve known you, this is the first time I’ve actually heard that part of your story, which is so, again, synergistic because of two things.

One is when I started my podcast back in 2016, it was to really at that point in time to market and, and help me grow my consulting business that I had been doing for the 10 years, uh, prior to that. But what’s so interesting is that as soon as I launched my first [00:08:00] show, I was like you. I was like, “I love this.”

It took me back to my radio days. I was like, this, radio was my first love, so it was no shock to me that once I got into podcasting, I was like, “This is fantastic.” But what I also love about your story is about the guest booking piece, ’cause I really wanna highlight that synergy, because I didn’t really… I always valued the power of guest booking, but last year, in w- in 20…

Depending on when you’re watching or listening to this, in 2024, that’s when I really just dug my heels into podcast guesting, worked with a company that I loved, and then, oh by the way, loved it so much I bought the company. So, I mean, it, I’m continually fascinated by the synergies that we’ve had as, as pioneer women in the podcast industry.

I mean, I’m just gonna say it. We’re gonna claim it. Oh, yeah. It’s so true. I mean, the last 10 years we’ve [00:09:00] together, i- it’s, uh, collaborating and independently as we’ve grown our, our separate businesses, have seen so many developments and changes in the podcasting space, which is one of the reasons why you became a founder circle member of the Podcast Professionals Association, which I founded- Totally

because we wanted to still ensure that podcasting was protected in this space and that women had a seat at the table in this space. And so I’m just really so thrilled at everything that we’ve worked on together up until this point, and I’d just love to get your insights, especially in terms of podcasting to publishing.

Tina Dietz: Ah, yes.

Traci DeForge: As a, as a business owner or someone who is trying to grow their business, who has done the podcast guesting, they’ve leveraged their thought leadership and their visibility through creating content for their podcasting, it feels like to me in this moment that what could be next for them would be- [00:10:00] Taking that investment and all those resources and all that experience, and funneling it into the publishing pathway.

But help me understand how that works and why that’s such- Sure … a benefit for people.

Tina Dietz: It’s, it’s really interesting because podcasting and publishing, in this case book publishing, go together. It’s not chocolate and peanut butter. It’s like a Möbius strip. It’s like an Ouroboros, like a snake eating its tail, and that’s what gets me so excited because every time we can go through this cycle of podcasting and publishing I’m gonna share about, it gets bigger, and it gets bigger, and it expands.

And that’s what we always want as subject matter experts, small business owners, um, in- influential people of any kind, is you want to expand that platform and that circle. And we’re always looking for ways to kind of s- feel seamless about it and not have to reinvent the wheel or add thousands of percent of our brain and time energy into creating something new, [00:11:00] even though we always wanna create something new, right?

So there, there is that. Shiny

Traci DeForge: object syndrome. Shiny object- Shiny object syndrome. Well,

Tina Dietz: you know, we

Traci DeForge: don’t- Which is not always a bad thing. It’s not. It just isn’t always a bad thing.

Tina Dietz: It is definitely not. As I had this business for years around, um, audiobooks and podcasting, I had… I still have, and you’re a member of something I lovingly call the Publishing Tea, and it is for industry professionals.

It’s… I gather people together once a month. There’s about 180, um, publishing professionals who, um, are part of this group, and we get together and have every, every month and have networking and conversations about the industry. And something that came up for me in this synergy of podcasting and, and books that I was swimming in was- Why in God’s name aren’t we using podcast content as the basis for ghost writing books?

And much like the inspiration that I felt when I, years [00:12:00] ago when I was starting the audiobook company, and ’cause that was a very similar moment, why aren’t my colleagues, my clients, all of that, why aren’t they doing audiobook versions of their book? The self-publishing industry is huge. And so th- this, it had a very similar feel, this particular idea, so I decided to follow it.

And it’s funny, because I got told by so many people in the publishing industry it wasn’t a good idea because there was too much content, it was gonna be too hard to organize, it was too much to kind of wade through. Because podcasting is really a body of work. You get to 50, 60, 70, 100, 200 episodes, that’s a massive body of work.

That’s a lot of words. So going through all that can feel really intimidating. Well, I kind of sat on this idea, and I’ve been looking at it and looking at it for years, and we came to a place last year where we realized that the technology, the know-how, like everything is kind of lined up to be able to [00:13:00] do this and do it well, and that’s really the key.

There’s lots of places out there where you can like, “We’ll clean up your transcripts into a book.” That’s not a book. That’s, those are blog posts.

Traci DeForge: That’s just repurposed content- It’s repurposing, and you do need to repurpose … in its absolute essence of a definition, right? Like- Right … taking content, cleaning up transcripts- Yeah

repurposing it. I think that’s really important for the audience to take in and, and really pause and rec- a- and receive that differentiation between yes, repurposed content is one of the best and most efficient benefits that you can have- Mm-hmm. Yes … from creating a podcast. That is not publishing a book.

There’s a big difference.

Tina Dietz: Big difference. So we’re basically taking the, the best of the ghost writing process, and we’re taking m- the podcast as a body of work, and we’re able to organize it and pull out- themes. We’re able to pull out strengths. We’re able to pull out threads. We’re [00:14:00] able to pull out all of this kind of information that normally a, a somebody who was ghostwriting would be doing as an interview process.

But now we’re able to expand that out and have a much larger body of work to draw from than a typical interview process, and then the author gets their work reflected back to them in ways that many times they couldn’t even, even have seen before. You can’t see the label of the jar you’re in, right? It’s an old saying.

And it, so it’s very exciting. So we, uh, this year piloted this, um, this new venture, and we have five books, um, that are being published through the, the, the fall and into, and into next year, but mostly through this fall. And then we’re opening up another cohort of authors, um, into t- into 2026. But it’s just been a beautiful process, and we’re able to create books that have never been done, uh, and serve audiences in ways that have never been served before.

But back to your point about podcasting and publishing, the podcast results in a [00:15:00] book, and then the book results in the expansion of your platform to be able to draw new people in, and also the process of creating a book inevitably spins off more and new ideas. It allows you to query your entire body of work so that you can go, “Okay, how can my podcast be even better?”

So then your podcast gets better and continues to expand, and then guess what? You can write another book, and so on and so forth. And so the thought leadership expands naturally and organically on its own with this intention behind it, building on the strengths of the body of work you already have. So it’s

I don’t know. I obviously am very passionate about it because I love seeing it expand. Well,

Traci DeForge: right. It is the, it is the platform to build the content to be a revenue-generating machine. And that I think if you’re even on the fence about, well, is it too late to start a podcast? Is … I have a podcast. Should I keep continuing to put [00:16:00] all these time, energy, and resources towards it?

So I think as a podcaster and a business owner, you have only so much time to allocate and to focus on, but it’s more and more important on so many different layers right now to have that leadership. And I, I think industry expert, thought leader, all of these visibility terms are getting used very heavily right now.

But I wanna say, yes, they may sound like they’re being overused or even almost getting to a place of being cliche, but there’s not, but they’re not, and here’s why. Because our big Big, big beast of a buddy AI is coming in, and one of the things that we know for sure that will get you discovered in AI overviews, that will increase your, uh, your Google search presence, that will increase your [00:17:00] credibility is this thought leadership and this industry expert presence everywhere, right?

So how does the publishing piece align with that as a strategy to essentially not only just claim, but claim and maintain your status as an industry expert?

Tina Dietz: Sure. Uh, well, it’s long been held that when you publish a book, it puts you in a certain echelon of credibility. That’s why, largely why the self-publishing industry has grown the way it has in nonfiction.

And it’s really important when you do have a, a body of work that you’re able to access it, that you’re able to articulate it to an audience. But most of us who are experts have been so deep in being an expert and learning over the course of years, it’s often very hard to track what you know, what you understand, like what is the [00:18:00] body of work that you’ve created, ’cause it’s just so much data.

So the benefit of having a book is that we actually have to organize all of this information and data in a way that we can say, there’s four different books that we can actually write out of this podcast content. Let’s create a pathway that actually meets your goals, that actually fits with the platform, and it might be this book now That book a year from now, another book, you know, two years from now.

We, we actually have an author who started with one book. She’s been podcasting for, I think, a year and a half, had about 70, 80 episodes, and now she has five books planned because she has realized where she wants to take her podcast because of the po- process of creating the book. She can see the pathway now.

Because books create a lot of structure, and even though there’s not… The, the books that we’re creating aren’t what we call framework or prescriptive books. They’re not necessarily like a how-to, and they’re not a big, thick tome. [00:19:00] These are books that people want to read. They’re things that you can finish on an airplane.

They’re things that you can open to any page and get wisdom out of. You know, like The War of Art, or The Alchemist, or even Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, books that feel modular. They feel like oracles. Uh, The Creative Act by Rick Rubin would be another example. There’s all kinds of these very, very successful bestselling books that are reflective, that draw you in, and they trust the audience to have basically a conversation with you as the author through the process of the book, just like the experience of listening to a podcast.

But even more so, even more distilled and even more intimate in many ways. So it’s, the synergy of it is just incredible. And then, of course, like I said, the book is going to open doors that a podcast might not and then feed back on the podcast itself. So we want to have this ever-expanding cycle of growth [00:20:00] and leadership, and I will say the word influence, but I don’t mean like social media influence, I mean real influence, um, to be able to, to draw upon.

And if there’s anything that I’ve learned in more than, than 20 years of business, it’s that relationships are the foundation of everything And if you don’t have solid relationships in how you’re growing, it will bite you in the ass eventually. So podcasting is very relationship based. Books, book marketing, very, very relationship based.

So anybody who is in these heavily service-oriented industries can really… Your- If you’re a podcaster, you’re already interested most of the time in relationships. Let’s continue on with that and build upon that strength, rather than necessarily having to go with every trend and every fad that might not fit in with that deep core that is really gonna get you where you want to be as an industry leader, and that’s, that’s the terminology we’re really going for here, is [00:21:00] an industry leader.

‘Cause there’s lots of people out there, I can name several of our authors, who are working in areas that are, there are almost no published books about, but a deep need for. We have two of those books coming out this fall. And it’s, it’s category creators, and it makes a huge difference to be that expert in that industry, to be known for something that everybody wants to know about, but nobody has a book on.

Traci DeForge: Well, and if you are a business owner with a podcast, and you’re time-starved, I mean, who can’t connect to those three things right now, right? For real. Business owner with a podcast, time-starved. This strategy is such a key for you to optimize for a business growth tool, because you’ve already done the hard part.

That’s what I’m hearing you say- Yeah … Tina, is that you’ve already done the hard part in terms of showing up to create this content for your podcast over this course of time, and choosing and building a relationship with [00:22:00] the right partner, which, uh, is what I’m also hearing you say, is critically important.

Because I think one of the things that I could imagine could easily get overlooked is the strategy around, okay, I’ve created this content, now I’m gonna do a book. Thank you very much, have a nice day. But I really want to drive home what you were saying, which is your content library could be one book, could be two book, could be the next Chicken Soup of the Soul series.

Um, you know, and you may be sitting on it, and you may have no idea until you align with an expert who can dive into that content and really help you structure that in a way that’s gonna be a major catalyst for visibility, lead generation, increasing your bottom line of the sales of your business. I mean, all of those things.

Tina Dietz: Completely. Completely. And, and when you come out with a book, now you have something to additionally talk about on the podcast. You can talk about the podcast [00:23:00] in your book. You’re, you’re bringing together different parts of different industries, different audiences, and you can cross, uh, pollinate those, those lines.

And when you have a book, it is often easier to get on other stages. You’re a podcaster, now you want to become a professional speaker. Maybe you already are a professional speaker, but you haven’t had a book yet ’cause it’s too much time to create it. It’s too much money to create it. It’s too hard to think about what book to write.

We can show you, well, these are actually the books you basically have already written. They just need to be organized. The content needs to be organized, and this is what people don’t know about the publishing industry. It is horrifyingly messy to write a book. You don’t sit down- I believe you … some people sit down- I believe you

and just, like, channel a book in a weekend. You hear about people like that, but that’s not how the vast majority of books get created. I have 500 audiobook authors that we’ve worked with, more than 500 now. That’s a lot of authors, [00:24:00] and they, you know, the audiobook process for them, we regularly get told, like, “This is the best part of the process,” because the actual book creation part is generally a disaster for authors.

And so we’re taking that disaster part out of it because the thinking has already been done. We’re now curating that thinking into something that is cohesive, that makes a difference. So just to give you an example, uh, and I have several, but we’re, uh, about to launch a book in, um, uh, t- this month, in September, that is the world’s first guide for mental health practitioners to help them work with first responders

Traci DeForge: Uh, wow.

Tina Dietz: That’s a big freaking deal, and I’m gonna get emotional about it because I f- I’m a former therapist, and I feel very strongly that we’ve got all these people, our military, our EMTs, our fire people, our, our police, you know, all of that. There’s so much [00:25:00] trauma, and there’s so much stigma around trauma, and the three co-hosts of this podcast, which is called Responder Resilience, have been so diligent over almost 300 episodes in bringing these stories to light, in bringing the industry together, in highlighting stories, in talking about what’s important.

Two are mental health professionals, one is a retired fire lieutenant. And so that book that we pulled from their podcast, we could have… We looked at telling the stories and making it more of a inspirational guide for people who are first responders to create more awareness around the first responder experience.

We also looked at another book pathway, which was going to be about leadership, and specifically for leaders in the first responder space, so for, for managers, for captains, for people in leadership who are leading groups of other first responders. We could have written that book.

Voice Over: We still might.

Tina Dietz: Uh, but what we settled on was this third option of this mental health [00:26:00] practitioner’s guide to cr- because that’s where we th- they felt that they could make the biggest impact.

And with two out of the three co-hosts being mental health professionals themselves, from a business standpoint, they have a nonprofit that they’ve started. Now they have a book from which they’re going to be building their presence in an industry in a new way. They already have conference appearances lined up.

They already have s- speaking experiences lined up. They have endorsements from some of the biggest names in the industry, who, by the way, were their podcast guests. They’re having a massive launch party because of their podcast guests and the relationships that they have with them. So they have this beautiful podcast platform with all these relationships, and now the book is gonna fly like crazy because all of those people are in their corner.

Traci DeForge: Right. Right. They’ve already built this network all-

Tina Dietz: And they’re giving 30-week courses. They’re applying for grants, all this other stuff, and it’s just, it’s so beautiful and so [00:27:00] gratifying to watch because this is doing more good in the world, and-

Traci DeForge: Yes …

Tina Dietz: it’s providing an income, and it’s helping people. It’s just, it’s the full package.

Traci DeForge: Typically, if we have a, a podcast host or someone, or business owner who’s leveraging their podcast, I do a little on-the-spot workshop strategy to fill a gap between- Mm-hmm … where they are and where they wanna go, uh, with their business growth. Today, because we’re both industry experts, we can co-workshop this, and you set us up perfectly for that with you were kind of walking through those multiple benefits that the, the, that the author that you’re working with, which I think is just an amazing…

It’s going to be an amazing contribution to the planet. Um, but let’s take an opportunity in these last few minutes that we have together to really dig in and, and help the business owner who is, is really loving this strategy and like, “I’m [00:28:00] all in. I wanna get started,” why, what is the ROI, and what can they expect, and what are the diversified revenue streams that can be created or the visibility opportunities that can be created from taking their podcast content library, engaging and, and working with a strategist?

What, what can they s- expect to see from that or aspire to build from that?

Tina Dietz: Sure. Um, so several areas of ROI are going to be, first of all, it’s an additional income stream just to have the book That’s, that’s gonna be one right there. It’s very easy also to spin that book off into several book-related products.

So workbook, journal, oracle cards, if you want to go that far. But the workbook and the journal are relatively easy and comparatively lower cost options to be able to produce. So you can release those together. You can spread out launches and have additional products. They make fantastic entry [00:29:00] level ways for people to work with you.

You know, I know that for myself, even as a business coach for many years, the whole notion of bringing people through a funnel can feel false, can feel weird, can feel inauthentic, or what the hell am I gonna produce that people actually want? Um, a book or several chapters of a book is an easy way to get people in deeper relationship with you off of your podcast, through your website, from online.

It just brings everybody together. It’s very… It feels very legitimate for people to just go, “Oh, I’m interested in reading a couple of chapters of that book.” Or if you have an audiobook version of it, and while podcasters love have, of course, having an audiobook version of their book, the audio can also be used in that way as well.

So bringing people to you, getting them on your email list, being able to nurture and develop a deeper relationship with them, that is the primary ROI that every book author, every podcaster should be making their number one priority, [00:30:00] even more so than the book sales, because the relationship will turn into business.

That’s the bottom line of it. Now, in terms of the book content itself, much like the podcast, you’re going to be able to parse that in a number of different ways back into your marketing reel. You’re gonna be able to create additional articles and blog posts. You’re going to be able to create your s- you know, social media campaigns.

But you’re also going to be able to cr- take that body of work and ideate additional topics, ideate additional strategy that’s then gonna feed back into your podcast topics, and be able to sustain your podcast in an even more tight, strategic, effective way. And I know that’s something that you and I have talked a lot about because we’re such big believers in making sure that this content and, you know, is good.

It’s really good. It’s really interesting. It’s really engaging. Um, we’re seeing our authors fall back in love with their own work [00:31:00] again, being having it reflected back to them. So other income streams that can open up for this, professional speaking is certainly one of them. Almost all professional speaker, um, when you, when you work with, um, speaking organizations, they look for you having a book.

It is basically a checkbox you need to have if you’re gonna be a professional speaker out in that market today, or you’re doing any kind of consulting work. And remember, when you’re doing consulting or you’re doing speaking, you can sell that book in bulk. It’s one of the best ways for speakers to make money.

Instead of having a high speaking fee, you have a moderate speaking fee, and then you include a package of the books for everybody in the audience. Very, very common to do, makes complete sense. Also, in the case of, uh, for example, Responder Resilience, but if you are a, a coach, a teacher, a trainer, creating cont- It’s because you’re organizing your work in a, in a way that is a little bit more, uh, many times in a way is more of a narrative or, you know, you pull out, you’re [00:32:00] working with this content, we’re working with this content.

You can see the courses that can result from this work, and then use the combination of the podcast content and the book content to create entry-level courses. Now, Responder Resilience, they’re able to apply for grants, for scholarships to educate mental health professionals and working with first responders.

That’s an absolute no-brainer for them to do. But if you wanted to create a course and it’s too much time or too much energy, I promise you, your book content in combination with your podcast content is going to give you what you need to be able to create simple, accessible, entry-level coursework to, again, nurture that relationship, get people used to working with you, buying from you, creating that trust and that relationship and that community, and then you can continue to do deeper work with them over time.

Um, loyalty is something you cannot buy But you can nurture it, and that, again, the relationships at the end of the day are what are [00:33:00] going to serve you and are what are going to write your checks.

Traci DeForge: Yes, and those are all- Yeah … such fantastic, just ex- extremely powerful benefits of thinking through that process of podcast to publishing.

And if you’re curious how to engage the podcasting process as you’re working alongside Tina in the publishing process, you’ll definitely wanna check out episode one of the Growth Accelerator podcast where we interview Jenn Trepeck, who is host of Salad with a Side of Fries, and is in the process of getting ready to release a fantastic book that she- A novel

worked with you and your team on. Yes. And she talks about it in episode one, and we do some gap strategy with her about how to bring in the process of engaging your audience to start building the momentum for when the book releases. So you’ll wanna check that out. And before we let you go, we have a question from the audience who, um, we put out there, and they knew we were gonna be having this [00:34:00] conversation with you today.

And the question, and we actually got it more than once, so I wanna make sure we cover this before we go, and that is, okay, I’m ready to, to create or investigate or learn more about this process of, of getting my podcast published into a book. Yeah. How many episodes do I need to have released in order to be able to have enough content to then start this process with a company like yours?

Tina Dietz: Absolutely. Um, we tend to look for folks who have been podcasting for, uh, at least a year, and ideally we’re working with a minimum of 50 episodes. Now, I will say there’s a little bit of it depends because it depends on the length of the episodes, the depth of the episodes, and the format of the episodes.

So if you are creating really in-depth solo content, like you are going really deep, and you’ve got 20 or 30 episodes, we probably wanna look at that and see what, where you’re at, and we [00:35:00] might be able to make recommendations. You know, if, for example, Tracy, if we’re working with one of your hosts, we’re gonna probably get you, and me, and, and the host in the room and triangulate a strategy to either fill in the gaps for that book that might be make sense to go forward in the next bunch of episodes that they have, or we’re going to, you know, basically say, “Okay.

Well, now we’re gonna create this snake that eats its own tail,” so that as we’re creating the book, they’re still continuing to do episodes that either are gonna follow on to the book later or actually create another book. Because we’re generally looking at 30,000 to 40,000 words for a book, um, which by the way, if you listen to, uh, audiobooks, that’s about three and a half, four, four and a half hours, so just to give you an idea.

And they’re not doorstops. They’re not tomes. So we don’t need a huge amount of data, but it ne- needs to be good. It needs to be, you know, quality, thoughtful content. So [00:36:00] we don’t tend to work with shows that are very chat-based, just… And I don’t mean ChatGPT. I mean like chatty, kind of off-the-cuff, kind of morning radio types of shows.

But shows that are based around teaching people something, um, featuring people’s stories in a certain area. S- like Jenn Trepeck’s show, you know, talking to people about wellness, and fitness, and nutrition, and busting myths, and all of that. It’s phenomenal content. She had over 500 episodes. And so we were able to parse out, and this is the, the biggest challenge for, um, our team, was to make sure that the, what was being pulled out of her episodes wasn’t gonna cannibalize the future books that she wants to write because now she wants to write more books.

Of course she does. So continuing on like that- And of course she should … we have to make, be very mindful. She definitely should. Um, so all of those things I think really need to, to come into play, and, uh, it just occurred to me that we didn’t even talk about how a book is a way to potentially attract [00:37:00] sponsors for your podcast, but that’s a whole other topic

Traci DeForge: Yes, which more to be revealed, but yes.

And I think actually we do talk about that in the episode one with Jenn about how she’s leveraging live events- Oh, perfect … sponsors, and all of those things. And I think the big takeaway from what you were saying for our audience that had that question is, it’s actually never too soon to start thinking about the strategy.

So even as you’re launching a podcast and you’re building out the monetization strategy that’s, that coincides with your podcast, as you’re building out your content strategy, as you’re executing on your content strategy, it’s never too soon to start thinking through the lens of, how can I leverage this as an additional business development tool for my business, and what type of content do I wanna create that’s gonna ultimately be a great resource for the book?

And then when you’re ready, you come to us, and we s- put it out into the world and change the conversation that you’re having with your [00:38:00] industry.

Tina Dietz: Exactly, and I think that that’s one of the things that, you know- people working with you, considering working with you as a, as a podcast company, an agency, a producer, is you’ve spent so much time and energy in making sure that there is a solid strategy behind the content, and so many folks wanna just talk into a microphone and skip past that.

That’s not a show that people are gonna wanna listen to long term. It’s so worth it to take the time. And, and make mistakes, and it’s messy, and you redo things, and you get better, and that’s the beautiful thing about podcasting. It allows for all of that way more than other formats do, I might add. Right.

And so, but working with a solid company that has your back like yours, like Produce Your Podcast, I think is really … And I know I’m just, I’m absolutely shilling for you right now. I’m, I’m unabashedly- We’ll let you

Traci DeForge: do that. …

Tina Dietz: unabashedly shilling for you right now because, you know, we’ve worked together for so long.

We have s- we have such a great relationship, and because of this bond that we have around quality content and around [00:39:00] people actually making a difference in the world, not just listening to the sound of your own voice, although I personally do like the sound of my own voice, so yeah.

Traci DeForge: Well, I know that there are people who are gonna want to hear more of your voice and more of your insights, and really, um, h- take that next step of creating this next level of content.

What is the best way for our audience to connect with you to continue this conversation with you, Tina?

Tina Dietz: Yeah, super simple. It’s podcastalchemypress.com, and that’s gonna take you right to the Twin Flames Studios website because it is part of, uh, my, um, my media empire, so to speak. But yeah, podcastalchemypress.com, uh, which is part of twinflamesstudios.com.

It’s, uh, you can find out a whole bunch of information there, and we, you know, also, uh, see some writing samples from our, uh, books, so you can get a feel and a sense of it. And if you’re compelled, you can just reach out for a conversation, and we’re happy to talk.

Traci DeForge: [00:40:00] Well, I just wanna say that I am so looking forward to our next chapter of content collaboration, industry collaboration, and everything that’s next.

So thank you for taking the time out of what I know is an extremely busy schedule to have this profound conversation, and I just really super appreciate you as a woman in the, in the trenches with me in the podcast- Woo-hoo … industry space, as, as a phenomenal woman entrepreneur, and as a true and dear friend.

Thank you so much.

Tina Dietz: Thank you, Tracy. This is such a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on.

Traci DeForge: Absolutely.

Voice Over: Congratulations. You’re on your way to turning your business or company’s podcast into a thriving lead generation and marketing force. Connect with us and schedule a meeting with our team at produceyourpodcast.com.

Launch or grow your podcast and start generating more visibility, leads, and sales for your business today.

Traci DeForge: Let’s get [00:41:00] started