Podcast Host Interview
Our guest today is podcast host Joe Canfield who describes himself as "a food industry executive, entrepreneur, and host of Salty Ginger Talk - a podcast on mindset, discipline, and leadership." With over 30 years leading multibillion-dollar retail operations, Joe combines practical business experience with personal growth insights to help his podcast audiences lead with purpose.
Q: When did you get the idea to launch your own podcast?
A: I decided to start my podcast in August of 2024. My wife and I raised 3 sons, and I see the youth of today looking for leadership, especially young men looking for men to act as mentors, role models, and leaders. I have decades of experience with this through raising 3 sons of my own and mentoring hundreds of people in my career as a business leader. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to share what I have learned with others in the hopes it can help them pursue a life of meaning and purpose.
Q: I love that you are so motivated to have a positive impact in the world. What were the beginnings of the food business and how you came to your current position in it?
A: We purchased already existing grocery stores from a corporate entity who wanted to focus on the wholesale part of the business. I connected with a few people in my network who shared a similar interest in both owning a business and doing good things in communities. Our stores are typically in underserved areas, so our customers count on us for fresh, affordable, healthy groceries.
Q: Thank you for sharing that side of your life with us. Being an entrepreneur isn't easy that is for sure. - Could you share some of the early growing pains, research and preparation it took to get the podcast ready for your audience?
A: When we started the podcast, no one knew who we were. We had not audience, no following, and no experience. We had to learn how to do everything from scratch. Write and produce content, edit and publish content, set up the website, find guests we could interview, and develop the brand.
For the first 6 months, almost no one knew we existed. We tried different methods of content creation and marketing until we found something that resonated with our audience that we also believed in.
I have always been in leadership roles throughout my life. Because I have so much life experience and am able to communicate the lessons I learned in a way that resonates with people, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to share what I have learned so it can help others build the lives they want.
Q: What is your favourite task involved with hosting this podcast?
A: I learn so much from the people I interview and interact with. It's easily my favorite part of the podcast.
I have not in any way perfected my daily work life. I have a ton of stuff flying at me daily, so I try to stay focused, productive, and willing to reprioritize my day based on what becomes necessary throughout the day. I try to hit the most impactful/serious stuff first, and save the less important and impactful stuff when there is time to get to it.
Q: What kind of theme do you use on for this platform? & Why you chose this theme, imagery, colours?
A: I use my dog as our logo. My wife picked our color scheme. I had nothing to do with it.
Q: That is so cool that your wife is supporting the podcast behind the scenes! How much time do you dedicate to your show?
A: We create content in bunches on nights and weekends so we can focus and be uninterrupted. Our production team publishes content 5 days per week.
Collectively we spend 60-80 hours per week on the podcast. My time is spent researching and reading to be prepared for our interviews and content creation. Our production team does the lion's share of the work behind the scenes -They are outstanding.
Q: What do you do to promote your podcast?
A: We do a postcard on social media, publish short clips from each interview before we air the full interview, and run a Google Ad campaign for each episode.
Q: Do you collaborate or network with others?
A: We regularly collaborate with other hosts, with guests, with PR firms, and a variety of people who are interested in the same things we are interested in. Our collaborations have all been great!
We focus on genuine connections. If we just meet and you try to sell me something or get something from me, there's a good chance we won't interact going forward. Be genuine and be interested in developing a relationship. The benefits will come.
I like people that think critically and use those observations to make good choices and decisions. I am not a fan of the "gotcha" or "he got owned" content. I don't see a lot of value in those. I like Andrew Huberman, Elephants in Rooms, Ayush Prakash among others.
Networking is simply speaking with people and getting to know them. I network everywhere I go. You never know who you are next to or what types of connections you may have unless you ask questions and listen to their responses.
Q: I'll have to look up those people you mentioned online ! What encouraging advice or problem-solving advice could you offer to other hosts ?
A: Persevere and listen to the feedback you get from the marketplace. If you make what you think is good content but no one watches it, you either need to be OK with no one watching or change your approach. You also need to actively market your content.
The marketplace is competitive, and compete is a verb. It means you need to take action. We want our content in front of as many people as possible.
We use basic webcams, basic microphones, public platforms and Zoom. We are intentionally not a complicated operation.
We have found that YouTube and Rumble are the best platforms for our audience to find us. I am not well versed in SEO. I outsource that to our SEO guy, who does a great job.
Q: What do you look for when it comes to guest queries?
A: I look for people who are authentic and genuine. I am not interested in people's highlight reels. I want to hear about all the things that went wrong and what they learned from them. I don't care at all if people agree with me or not. As long as we can disagree while being cordial to each other, I find a ton of value in hearing and considering alternative viewpoints. If someone is authentic, willing to talk about the bad stuff as well as the good stuff, and respectful, we want to talk to them.
Q: What, in your opinion, should every podcast host know?
A: Be yourself. Don't try to act a certain way because you think it will get you views and likes. People can quickly tell when you are being phoney, so don't be phoney. Be yourself and do things you find interesting and the right audience will find you.
Doing things they are not interested in to try and get attention. Authenticity is always the best approach.
Q: How do you go about prioritizing tasks?
A: I think about things in a 2 x 2 matrix: Low effort/high reward, low effort/low reward, high effort/high reward, high effort/low reward. I try to prioritize things in that order. There will always be things that are urgent but not important. You will have to make time to deal with those in your schedule.
Q: How do you go about improving your skills?
A: I try to be a little bit better than I was yesterday. I read, I watch videos, I have conversations, I try new things, I try old things in a different way. I don't want to get too routine, or you wind up getting stagnant and not growing. Even if you are not shrinking but not growing, others are growing and they are catching you, passing you, or getting further ahead of you. Growth and improvement are a big focus for me.
Awesome interview with our guest today, hey?
Please feel free to leave a comment here or reach out to our guest
via the links we shared in the introduction. :)
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