Podcast Town can help businesses launch their own podcasts
Elzie Flenard always knew he wanted to run his own business.
He started to plan for it at age 16. But he also knew he wanted to get married and start a family first.
“I figured that in order to do that, I should probably have some income,” Flenard said.
So he decided he needed to go to college, get a job, have children, start working on his idea and then finally transition over to owning his own business.
That was always the plan. Now, at age 39, he’s known as “the mayor” of Podcast Town, a full-service podcast agency that teaches others how to start and grow their podcast brand.
Flenard began Enterprise NOW!, a radio show turned podcast, in 2016. He’s helping others do the same with Podcast Town, which he began in Wauwatosa in June 2020.
His podcast has been downloaded in more than 20 countries. And he’s helping hundreds of people get off the ground with their own.
“You can be like myself, a little boy from a small, small, small town, and your voice can be heard literally all over the world,”said Flenard, who grew up in Mounds, Illinois. He said there’s one grocery store and gas station. No stoplights.
Then to now
Flenard went to school for engineering at Southern Illinois University. After graduation, he moved to the Milwaukee area for an engineering job in 2006.
In the past few years, Flenard called himself a “night entrepreneur.” He’d go to his day job, then come home and focus on starting his own business, beginning with an audio marketing agency Enterprise NOW! in 2016.
Flenard, who’s an accredited small business consultant, would coach and train business owners and entrepreneurs on how to use podcasts for their business.
He also produced and edited his own podcast, which went by the same name, and put it out online. In his podcast, he’d talk to business owners and entrepreneurs whom he wanted to learn from.
“I figured the best way to do that would be to start a show and call them
up, and ask them if they’d want to be on the show, and basically pick their brains,” he said.
He’s produced more than 150 episodes so far.
His original goal was to get as many business-oriented talk shows on one online station as he could.
But then he discovered podcasts. “I fell in love with them because I can listen to what I want to listen to, how I want to listen to it, when I want to listen to it? I’m in love,” he said.
In November 2019, he quit his six-figure full-time job and started to focus all of his efforts on the podcast company.
Flenard said his wife and he both had the day off work when he decided to tell her the news.
They sat down at the table for breakfast.
“I said, ‘there’s something I want to talk to you about,’” he said.
His wife knows him well.
“She just said, ‘show me the plan,’” he said.
In June 2020, he started Podcast Town.
The plan
Podcast Town is based out of Serendipity Labs at the Mayfair Collection in Wauwatosa. Flenard helps his customers and members in a variety of ways.
Flenard said many people don’t know how to get off the ground with their podcasts. So Flenard has made it his goal to help with their launches, and ultimately to help them turn listeners into paying customers.
There are about 130 members of the Podcast Town community. Members are accepted into the community at no charge and can post videos, ask questions and make polls. They also have discounted access to state-of-the-art recording studios, both in person and virtual.
Flenard coaches podcasters on targeting and reaching an audience. He also hosts weekly meetings focused on best practices in the field.
Almost all of the podcasts Flenard helps with are business related, as most of his clients are business owners.
Flenard said a podcast is often a supplement to their business.
“They’re running their business, and the podcast is a marketing tool to help drive sales and build relationships,” he said.
Flenard does it all, and every day is different. Some days he focuses on sales. Other days it’s marketing. Sometime it’s finance.
So why does he do it?
“The opportunity to have a message heard by people at a low dollar amount is a fantastic opportunity,” he said. “And to be able to help business owners have that same power to get their passion out there and to communicate their message is really inspiring.”
And why is he called “the mayor?” He didn’t give the name to himself. He said others started to call himself this, because of the way he presented himself.
“It just kind of stuck,” he said.
Virtual summit
In November, Podcast Town hosted a virtual summit for people of color, specifically to present podcasters of color and to teach others how to grow their brand.
Flenard said many podcast listeners tend to be white males.
“As more and more people get into podcasting, it becomes more difficult to stand out,” he said.
But he said many podcasts are hosted by people of color.
“I thought (that) hearing from people who are doing that would be impactful,” he said.
Flenard and others discussed how to use social media to grow a podcast, how to create content, hosting and how to promote and market podcasts after production.
Flenard is planning another summit in 2021.
To learn more about Podcast Town, visit podcasttown.net.