This post is to celebrate the 400th episode of the BACON Podcast. That's right, 400 episodes. The Bacon Podcast was started back on November 2nd, 2014 right after the release of my first book, “It's Not About You, It's About BACON! Relationship Marketing in a Social Media World!” But this Podcast was not always called the BACON Podcast. You probably didn't know that, but I'll explain.

I was born a geek… No question about it. As a little kid, I would make my own toys out of cardboard and wood and other stuff. I've always been one of those geeky, hands-on kind of kids. As a matter of fact, I was the guy walking the cart with the film projectors; remember film projectors? Also, slide projectors and all that geeky stuff in high school.

Then I went to college and I studied electronics, which is what my degree is in. I'm an electronic technician and I've used it all my life. From there, I learned how to become a video producer, I opened multiple recording studios, and since 1998 (which was 20 years ago), I've been producing websites and working on the web. So when I finished my book, I said, “Hey, you know what's next?”

The Birth Of A Podcast

Then, in 2014 I was at a conference and there was a guy named Scott Smith giving a presentation on podcasting and who happens to run a very successful podcast called the Daily Boost. I watched it and I just walked up to him, handed him my credit card and said take my money. So I joined his coaching group and learned the ins and outs about doing podcasting. Now I know audio production but I didn't understand the technology behind getting the podcast out there, getting it on iTunes, all that kind of fun stuff, but I've learned and grown for the longest time with this Podcast.

When I started out, I said, well nobody's going to understand the whole bacon thing in the podcast world, so I named it My Marketing Magnet. For the first three months of this podcast, almost nobody listened to it. Now most people would give up, right? You know, you're not getting any listeners, you're spending time doing these interviews and doing all this stuff and you're not getting any results from it.

So finally, Scott and a bunch of people in the group said, “Dude, you need to change the name of the Podcast. You are the BACON guy, it needs to be the BACON Podcast.” I said, “Okay.” So I changed the name and I changed the brand. I went back to all of the previous episodes and redid the intros and the outros and the whole nine yards, and boom! It started to take off, and now it gets thousands of downloads a month, thanks to you.

The Purpose Of The Podcast

That's kind of the history and the story behind this podcast, but again, it's not about me, it's about BACON: Building Authentic Connections Online Networking. That's what the acronym BACON stands for. So through the years, this has been able to grow. Although it's not going to be one of the top 10 in downloads, I have been ranked in the top 50 in influencing marketing people about doing online marketing and doing the kind of things that we've been talking about.

I was also ranked number 30 by INC. Magazine in their top 35 business podcasts. It's really about the audience. Does it speak to you? Does it speak to people? Is it worth the time to sit here and listen to me rant for 10 minute segments, or longer ones when I do interviews? The answer to that has been an overwhelming yes.

I want to thank you, my listeners. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening, for sharing, for sending in your comments, your feedback and for letting other people know about this podcast. This podcast is for and about you.

The Passion Of The Podcast

Now, this podcast is actually comprised of two different parts. On Mondays I do what is called my monocast, which is where I talk about things that are important to me that I can teach you, or maybe some story that's going to help inspire you. Maybe starting your own podcast, start blogging, do something with your story. That's what it's about.

The second part is that on Wednesdays I do expert interviews. Now, out of 400 episodes, almost 200 of them have been guest experts. The thing I love most about doing the guest expert interviews is that this is not me coming in trying to help them sell their stuff. This is me interviewing them as if we're sitting in a coffee shop. I want to learn from them. I want to learn their secrets, I want to figure out what makes them tick, what makes their techniques tick, and then share that with you guys.

So I've combined my years of running recording studios and doing all kinds of production into having great interviewing skills. I try to get as much content out of these people, and a lot of the time, my favorite answer to a question is, that's a great question or that's a difficult question. I'm not asking them for a formula, I'm literally listening to them and asking them questions based on what I want to learn, and hopefully you do too.

Some Of My Favorite Episodes

Let me tell you about some of the things that I love about this podcast. First and foremost, the interviews are by far my favorite.

Online Tools I Love

Now, I love a whole bunch of tools, I use a bunch of tools in my business and it's been my pleasure to interview a lot of the owners or marketing managers from some of the best companies out there. Here's a handful of episodes I'd love for you guys to listen to. In episode 327 I talked about Acuity Scheduling with Gavin Zuchlinski. That's where you can schedule your time in your calendar and actually get paid for it. In episode 335, we spoke about AWeber with Erik Harbison. In episode 345, we spoke about Evernote with Andrew Malc Malcomb. In episode 349, we spoke about CoSchedule and their headline analyzer with Garrett Moon. In my most recent one, which I absolutely love, is episode 399, about Animoto Video Software with Jason Hsiao.

Creating Great Content

Some of the other ones that I really, really like are at places where it helps you get your story across better, to help you write great content. Those episodes include episode 235, Copywriting Secrets with David Garfinkel, episode 267, about Storytelling with Michael Hauge, and episode 353 and episode 355 with Brian Kinghorn about the psychology of social media and how to make your stuff go viral.

Creating Influence

Speaking of going viral, I got the opportunity to interview some incredible influencers, including episode 175 with John Lee Dumas, episode 217 with Bob Burg, episode 333 with Warren Whitlock, episode 339 with Chris Brogan, and episode 345 with Chris Voss, one of the biggest influencers online.

Final Thoughts

I want to leave you with five tips on how to be successful and how to stick with it in doing whatever it is that you do. Number one, know your purpose, why are you doing this? My why… is you. Number two, make a plan and be consistent. Consistency is what keeps people listening. Number three, learn from other experts. Number four, create compelling and interesting content that people actually want to consume and listen to. The final tip is, number five, have fun.

Thanks again for your time and attention and your feedback. I look forward to episode number 500 coming soon.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?

To learn more about this and other topics on Internet Marketing, visit our podcast website at http://www.baconpodcast.com/podcasts/