A business podcast that tells it like it is
A business podcast that tells it like it is
There are plenty of podcasts about small businesses out there. But members of the Entrepreneur Advisory Board (EAB), a group that originated from winners of the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest, knew there was something missing.
“There are a lot of shows that provide great success stories on how a business got to be big, but at the end of the story, there’s not much you can take from it and apply to your business,” Kelli Martin explains. A Digital Marketing Advisor at FedEx Services, she helps run the annual Grant Contest and the EAB. In 2019, working with EAB members, FedEx created a podcast to fill the gap.
Making It Work gathers entrepreneurs’ insights based on real-world experience. Each episode focuses on an issue or question that small business owners face, from when to start paying yourself to how to deal with stress.
“Season 1 was co-created with the entrepreneurs featured on it,” Kelli says. “They helped design the format and come up with the topics because they knew what they’d find valuable in a podcast. Making It Work gives you straight talk about subjects, with ideas you can immediately apply to your business.”
A special “ask the expert” episode in season 2, for instance, features Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, a fourth-generation retail industry expert. He talks about how the pandemic accelerated some retail trends and how small and medium-size businesses can adapt and even find new opportunities as a result.
Coming soon
Kelli’s team is working on a series of “bite-size” episodes that feature key moments from the most popular topics of the first two seasons. They’re also starting to record season 3, slated to launch in early summer.
“I can’t tell you the exact topics yet,” Kelli says. “We interview each business owner on 10–12 different topics and pull the best answers into an episode.” This ensures the podcast focuses on what’s currently pressing to entrepreneurs and what they have the most valuable insights about.
Meanwhile, you can check out the first two seasons — and a COVID special — at the FedEx Small Business Center or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And the podcast can be another tool in your marketing plan — share information about Making It Work as a bonus piece of content in communications with your small business customers!