Can podcasts still build business? Amanda Nizzere.

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I met Amanda Nizzere when she was the data-driven CMO of one of the world’s leading branding and growth consultancies, Prophet. So, I was a bit surprised to learn that, as part of promoting her own new strategic advisory and fractional CMO firm, she was launching a podcast –– Female Fractionals – in spite of data that suggested saturation for the format. (According to one recent report, there were over 14,400 business podcasts in English-speaking countries as of early 2025, with an expected annual growth in the U.S. of 34%). So, I asked to chat.

If you’re interested in how to

• Build your business presence
• Grow your network
• Establish yourself as a category leader
• Create new relationships that lead can to more business

I encourage you to take a few minutes to eavesdrop on our conversation. You’ll hear a seasoned marketer describe why (and how) she’s investing in the “conversation leadership” of a podcast.

Chuck Kent:  Hi Amanda. Before we jump in, would you give us the elevator pitch overview your career?

Amanda Nizzere:  I am a career B2B marketer, with almost 25 years in the industry, primarily marketing professional services firms. I started my career at Arthur Anderson – until they were literally selling the furniture out from under us after the Enron scandal. After that I went to a small, woman-owned consulting firm, and then to Prophet, where I spent nearly two decades.

In April of 2024 I started AN Strategy which is my own strategic marketing advisory and fractional CMO business. My focus is around aligning brand, demand and go to market strategies for B2B companies.

Chuck Kent: In addition to launching a business, you’ve launched yourself into the center of the fractional discussion by starting a podcast, “Female Fractionals.” My first question is… why?”

Amanda Nizzere: You’re not the only one to ask that. In fact, about three days before I was going to launch my podcast I saw a post on LinkedIn, from someone I respected, that said “For the love of God, please no one else launch another podcast!”

No topic is saturated as long as you have a strong and unique POV.

My first reaction was, “Oh, great…” Then I realized that, yes, maybe we don’t need another news podcast at this point –– but really no topic is saturated as long as you have a strong and unique POV. You simply need to be super clear about your why, and not treat a podcast like a checkbox on your marketing or content list.

Chuck Kent: In your first episode you state that the aim of the podcast is to provide inspiring interviews with fractional leaders and practical insights to help others in their entrepreneurial journey. Those are the goals for delivering listener value. But what are your goals, your business goals, in launching this podcast, which is a considerable effort?

Amanda Nizzere: The podcast serves two goals. First, I wanted to create something for the growing number of women that are exploring how fractional works; something honest and tactical and not just another highlight reel. And I wanted to do that across two areas.

First, I wanted to interview men and women who are in the trenches, really doing the work of building fractional businesses. And then, second, I wanted to interview subject matter experts on topics that seem to impact women when they are building and scaling businesses. Things like imposter syndrome, change and burnout.

Podcasting…helps me connect with peers and leaders I respect.

But yes, it is also about credibility and visibility for my own business. I think that podcasting helps me show up with a clear point of view. It definitely helps me connect with peers and leaders that I respect, and who I’m selfishly looking to learn from. Plus, it helps me reinforce my expertise as a strategic marketer and a fractional executive. So, I am learning and growing my skill set every day on the podcast, thanks to the people that I’m talking to. And then I’m transferring that wisdom to my clients.

More tactically, I’m leveraging the content on LinkedIn. I’m leveraging the podcast to meet new people and build and grow my network. And then I have some future plans for the podcast and the community that I’m starting to grow around it that are still on paper, but which I’m hoping to activate soon. So, a little bit of a TBD there. But I do have a longer term plan for the podcast and its growing community.

Chuck Kent: Well, I think that’s one of the nice things about doing a podcast; you end up not just with valuable content, but also an array of assets –– text, audio, video –– which you can redeploy. But a podcast is a good bit of work. What was your biggest challenge in getting started?

Amanda Nizzere: Technology, for sure. There are so many different options out there for editing and recording and building a website, and as a naturally curious person I was doing way too much research and testing. I was absolutely stuck. Finally, I took the advice of a great friend of mine who has a very successful podcast, advice that applies across anything you’re doing in business: whatever you don’t want to do or aren’t good at, outsource.

For me, that was editing. Even with all that AI has enabled from an editing perspective, I knew I was not going to be able to take the time to sit and edit each of my episodes, especially because I have both audio and video. Once I outsourced editing I started moving forward.

Getting started with something was better than waiting on perfection.

I was very vulnerable with my first few guests, telling them, “I’m proceeding with a blindfold on here.”  People were responsive to that vulnerability. As for myself, it was important to recognize that getting started with something was better than waiting on perfection. You can always continue to learn and grow. But technology was definitely my challenge.

Chuck Kent: It sounds like you’re doing a hybrid of DIY and some outsourcing.

Amanda Nizzere:  Editing is the only thing I outsource, so it’s mostly DIY. I source and vet the guests. I write the questions. I prep the guests. I manage the promotion. I built and update the website.

My editor does the initial editing and then I do a couple of rounds of approval, after which they handle uploading it to all of the different channels. They help me keep things running at my regular, bi-weekly clip, holding me accountable through the editing process to make sure I’m staying on my timeline.

Chuck Kent: What’s the range of tools you use, and which do you find most productive?

Keep it simple.

Amanda Nizzere:  I try to keep it simple. I use Zoom to record all of my episodes. That filters through both to the audio podcast and then through to the YouTube videos. My editor is Wayfair Recording ––they’re amazing, and I highly recommend them. I use Buzzsprout for distribution; they make it really easy, and I get good metrics through them. For promotion I use LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

I built a SquareSpace website –– that was the easiest I heard about from the fractional community. Then, of course, I use ChatGPT to help me with social posts and refine show notes and update the transcript so that they’re not so messy when I go to put them up on the website.

Chuck Kent: You mentioned social posting. What are you finding to be the most productive platform?

The LinkedIn algorithm rewards good, augmented posts that have video.

Amanda Nizzere:  LinkedIn, primarily because mine is a business-focused podcast. In trying to reach more fractionals, and more prospects, LinkedIn, so far, has been the strongest channel.

I promote every post via my personal page, and then I also provide language for each of my guests to post on their LinkedIn pages. I provide video snippets for them, too, because the LinkedIn algorithm rewards good, augmented posts that have video.

Chuck Kent:  How do you do your interview prep, including finding interviewees?

Amanda Nizzere:  I’m a member of several really great fractional specific communities. There’s Fractionals United, and a fractional group through Chief, plus I’m also a member of a fractional-specific group through a really great community, CMO Coffee Talk.

Originally I reached out to people in those networks through the conversations that I was having in our community meetings. I found people in those groups who spoke up during meetings, offered nuggets of value, and had services that I thought would be of real interest to the audience. So, those are the people that I reached out to first.  Then people started reaching out to me to be on the podcast ––  I haven’t had to do any further outreach as of yet to  source people.

Chuck Kent:  Well, that’s not a bad early proof point as to the value of what you’re doing, if the industry is reaching out to you already. I believe that one of the powers of doing a podcast is that you become the nexus of a conversation within the industry. Is that how you’re starting to feel about it?

There was a white space opportunity.

Amanda Nizzere:  That’s what I was hoping, feeling that there was a white space opportunity to bring the conversations I was having on my own learning journey to others.

Chuck Kent:  You mentioned that your distribution platform provides some analytics. Are they giving you an insight into what kind of content is resonating? Career resilience is a pretty frequent topic, but you’ve also covered AI and other productivity tools. What do you see people responding to most at this point?

Amanda Nizzere:  Yeah, it’s funny that you mentioned those two, because in prepping for our talk I did take a look at the data. I mean, I am a marketer, so I am a tad obsessed with themetrics and data!

But those two topics are the ones that rise to the top with the most downloads and listens. One is an interview with Crys Black, who talks about the AI toolkit that every fractional should have. The other is with Brooke Skinner Ricketts, who talks about women in business, entrepreneurship in general, and having confidence in making a career pivot.

Chuck Kent: Are you finding that the podcast is helping you with new business development yet?

It has deepened relationships for me, which is very valuable.

Amanda Nizzere:  It’s still fairly new, so I don’t know if it has driven any business directly yet.  But I definitely think that it has helped to build my credibility, and I know that it has expanded my network and my presence on LinkedIn. And it has deepened relationships for me, which is very valuable. At this point in my business, about 8 months in, I have a great line-up of clients I love working with and a robust pipeline. I would like to credit some of that to Female Fractionals and the wonderful connections I’ve made.

I’m hopeful that when a client or a potential client hears me speak on the show it’s an additional credibility builder in addition to the tenure and the industry expertise I bring. It’s a softer, gentler form of thought leadership. Another added benefit is that I’ve had clients take some of the content from the episodes and share it internally as a way to spark conversations. That’s been a completely unexpected bonus.

Chuck Kent: One more thing before I let you go: what question haven’t I asked that I should have, in terms of what you want people to know about undertaking a podcast and the business good it can do for them?

Make sure you have a unique perspective, approach and POV.

Amanda Nizzere: The biggest thing is to be clear about why you’re doing it. Make sure that you have a unique perspective, a unique approach, and a unique point of view –– and that you’re providing value across the topic that you’re covering.

Then be realistic about what it takes, and have a plan. A podcast is a mixture of short term things that have to happen –– you have to conduct the interview and get it up and get it up consistently –– but you also have to think about what your long term plan is in terms of building your audience and nurturing it. How are you going to keep consistent? What’s your contingency plan if all of a sudden you start to get too busy to do it?

Chuck Kent:  The voice of experience. Amanda, I know you’re just eight episodes into it at this writing, so perhaps we should rendezvous in a year and see how this has all developed.

Amanda Nizzere:  That would be great.

SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READING
Brand stories as strategic assets: David Aaker
The power of interviews for thought leadership

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About the Author
Chuck Kent, the Chief Conversation Officer at Lead the Conversation,  uses a video-first content creation method to help busy executives more easily create authentic, compelling thought leadership content for articles, blog posts, podcasts and videos. He is also a contributor to CEO World, Sustainable Brands, Convince and Convert and Branding Magazine, for which he created and moderated the monthly Branding Roundtable.