200 monthly downloads

Launched in February, 2018

1 episode a week

Hello! What’s your background, and what’s your podcast about?

My name is Danny Coleman and I’m a Small Business Consultant located in Middle Tennessee. My background is in small business management and operations. I’ve worked with and for landscapers, coffee roasters, hair salons, plant nurseries, painting contractors, real estate teams and more. For over ten years I’ve observed the various problems that plague small businesses – poor communication, lack of organization, lack of documented systems, and little to no attention given to cultivating culture. Many business owners and managers will write off these issues as simply “par for the course.”

The Organizing Chaos Podcast is all about dispelling that notion and providing small practical strategies that small businesses and their owners can implement immediately. My topics range from discussing tech tools that are free or cheap and how to get your team to adopt them to developing hiring processes and other systems to create more predictable outcomes. Episodes run anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes so that they’re digestible and can fit into a small business owner’s busy schedule.

I like to point out how these little changes can impact the development of your team because when you care about the personal growth aspirations of your staff members, you create a culture of self-improvement where going above and beyond is the norm and the burden of entrepreneurship is shared amongst your whole team.

What was the motivation behind starting the podcast?

The name of the podcast came from the job ad for the last “9-5” job I worked as an employee. One of the bullet points was “must enjoy organizing chaos.” It struck a cord with me and this was the point in my life where I was really starting to understand what my calling was. After 4 years of working with that business, I started out on my own.

Most of what I preach about was inspired by “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber and “Rocket Fuel” by Gino Wickman (author of “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business”) and Mark C. Winters. After reading these books, it was like the wool was pulled from over my eyes and I could suddenly clearly see the patterns that created the chaos plaguing most small businesses – no matter their industry.

Everything starts with leadership and how the owner sees themselves and their relationship with the business. By understanding the difference between being an owner and acting as an “employee” within your business, owners can better understand where their strengths are and remove themselves from the functions they don’t enjoy.

By surrounding themselves with a staff that complements their business and installing a general manager to manage the day to day operations of the business, owners can maintain a healthier relationship with their business while allowing people, systems, processes, and culture to handle the fulfillment of the business’ goods and services whilst also promoting healthy growth.

Time and time again, the businesses I work with exhibit this pattern of the owner being overly involved in the business, even in areas that they have no real interest in being in. Without fail, once the owner can trust the systems and people to deliver the goods and services, the business begins to grow and employee satisfaction and loyalty begin to rise.

What went into launching the initial podcast?

Starting the podcast was fairly simple. It’s not the most polished production but simply starting is all you really need to do whenever you’re moving outside of your comfort zone. I used Auphonic to improve sound quality, Libsyn for hosting/distribution and worked with a freelancer on Fiverr to get the podcast art for relatively cheap. All in all, getting started probably cost less than $60. It took about 30 days to go from assembling the pieces to actually launching the show. I continue to improve the format and quality of the show, but the most important part for me is the message. The rest comes in time.

My topics come from the many conversations I have with business owners, managers, and staff. I’d originally created a mind map of 50 topics that I wanted to cover, but almost immediately abandoned that because I felt like the issues I was encountering in the “real world” were the issues that needed addressed the most. Most importantly, I wanted there to be practical takeaways from all or most of the episodes. I know how precious a business owner’s time is and I didn’t want to fill their head with more theory – I wanted to give precise steps they can take today.

My goal is to record at least one episode per week, but when I’m able to find the time, I batch record so that I’m never pressed for time. I also find that people enjoy interviews and so I’ve begun doing a lot more of those. People love real life stories of entrepreneurs and how they run their business.

How have you attracted listeners and grown podcast?

To be honest, I’ve not been putting a lot of focused attention behind audience growth. I have a video version of the podcast on YouTube and some people have found me through that channel. Besides the people I add to my email list, my audience has grown slowly but organically by being found on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and the like. Each Thursday when the episode goes live in the morning, I blast my email list.

I know that it will take focused efforts to acquire new listeners. I have a consulting business, a real estate investing business, and manage an online real estate education business currently. In addition to those, I engage in a lot of community and volunteer work where I live in Middle Tennessee. The Organizing Chaos podcast is more of a passion project of mine where I’m able to document what I know and provide free advice to whomever can find it. I do intend to take more deliberate action later this year towards growing my audience.

What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue with having the podcast?

Currently, the only way the podcast has helped me from a financial standpoint is that it demonstrates my passion and knowledge on the topics I talk about. I consult with businesses about these topics and so it has brought me new leads and has even closed a few clients without my direct efforts.

In the future, I plan to create more partnerships with the tools and resources that I promote in order to make affiliate income as well as get sponsorships with companies who share my audience.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced and obstacles you’ve overcome when it comes to running the podcast? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

Luckily, I learned a lot from the first podcast I was involved with called “Unleash Your Blog” where I was a co-host and represented the audience and their questions. Additionally, I produced another podcast for my business partner called “The Virtual Real Estate Investing Podcast.” When starting my own podcast, I certainly had a leg up and was able to avoid a lot of problems right off the bat. I knew which tools to use, what to expect when recording, and what to expect when publishing.

If I had more time and more money, I’d certainly have better mics, better lighting (for the video component), and would reach out to more podcasters in order to co-promote and interview each other.

Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I keep a whiteboard in my office where I write down ideas for episodes. I’m able to capture that inspiration by fleshing out the idea a bit so that when I’m ready to record, I’m able to pull from those ideas and start recording quickly. Always be adding to your queue of episodes.

I also have a recording set up in my office ready to go that it’s not too much of a chore to get ready to record. Blocking out time on my schedule is the only way to maintain a podcast with regular release dates.

I’d say the best thing you can do is to batch record regularly so that you never miss a publish date and can have time to adjust when technical problems come up.

What’s your advice for podcasters who are just starting out?

Don’t worry about making it perfect. No one is going to listen to your very first episodes unless you already have an email list or respectable online following. And once you have an audience that loves your stuff and is going back to listen to episode 1, they’re not going to stop listening just because you had terrible sound quality or rambled too much back when you started.

Where can we go to learn more?

On my website, you can see all my episodes (both video and audio) as well as download my free hiring guide. It’s my end to end process for finding, on-boarding, and retaining quality employees. You’ll find templates for job ads, interview questions and more.