Defining Success Means You Know What You're Working Towards

The Situation

When Wayne Pratt and Bernie Franzgrote joined me on the Business Podcast Spotlight, they were three years and more than 400 episodes into Knack 4 Business – a show that started over breakfast and grew into a powerful platform for connection, visibility, and real business growth. With a steady 6,000 downloads a week and new opportunities on the horizon, they were thinking through what comes next: how to grow the audience, streamline production, and start turning all that momentum into meaningful revenue.

Listen to the episode right here, or read on for the case study!

About Wayne Pratt and Bernie Franzgrote

Wayne Pratt is a life and business coach who specializes in helping professionals and entrepreneurs overcome roadblocks, clarify their goals, and take actionable steps to achieve success. Through personalized coaching, he empowers his clients to break through challenges and unlock their full potential. If you’re looking for guidance to move your business forward with purpose and confidence, Wayne is the person to connect with!

Bernie Franzgrote, a synergy architect with a robust entrepreneurial networking capacity and 35 years of institutional healthcare experience, has the insight, skills, and operational background to manage and deploy complex projects. A co-founder of Kreative Insight Consultants, and the Knack 4 Business podcast. Also engaged with Phoenix Business Exchange, East Trade Winds, and The Indus Entrepreneurs. He helps businesses starting afresh or launching new products, or services get creatively connected to other companies globally.

What’s Happened So Far

Wayne and Bernie have built something pretty special with Knack 4 Business. What started as a casual Friday podcast experiment has grown into a well-oiled machine with consistent production, great guests, and thousands of downloads every single week. The show has become a real business asset – helping them build community, make new connections, and open doors to projects and opportunities they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

They’ve kept the workflow lean: Bernie handles the editing and production himself using tools like Descript and ChatGPT, and they’ve stuck to a format that lets conversations flow naturally while still giving listeners plenty of value. Between the two of them, they’re managing the full pipeline, from guest outreach to publishing to promotion, and it’s working. But it’s also getting harder to manage as the show grows and new ideas keep coming up.

They’ve already seen that the podcast drives results. It sparks conversations that lead to client work, keeps them visible in their networks, and gives them a steady rhythm of content that supports their other ventures. But with growth comes pressure: more listeners means more expectations, and more opportunities mean more decisions to make.

Now, they’re asking: how do we take this to the next level without breaking what’s already working?

And under that question are a bunch of smaller ones:

Should we start monetizing more intentionally?

Is it time to bring in help with editing?

How do we turn the archive into something searchable and valuable?

And what will finally get us to that 100,000-download milestone – and maybe even that t-shirt cannon?

The New Plan

As you’ll have heard in the episode, Wayne and Bernie have a strong foundation and a lot of good stuff already in motion – so the next steps don’t need to be a total overhaul. It’s more about tightening things up, reclaiming some time, and setting the stage for long-term growth.

The first part of the plan is to get some help with editing, just a first pass to clean up the audio, tighten the pacing, and handle the technical bits so Bernie can stay focused on content and strategy. This small shift frees up hours that can go into building relationships, growing their audience, or even launching new offers.

They’re also going to create a searchable episode directory right on the website. With more than 400 episodes already out there, that archive is incredibly valuable – but only if people can find what they need. A simple plugin can make it easy for listeners to search by topic or guest, and it doubles as a tool Wayne and Bernie can use to support their coaching and consulting work.

For monetization, the next move is formalizing some of the referrals and connections they’re already making. Creating short, natural-sounding ad spots for partners or affiliate links gives them useful data they can show to future sponsors and adds a new revenue stream without changing the feel of the show.

And because they’re already thinking creatively about engagement, a listener contest is also on the table. Something small and fun – like a reward for tuning into multiple episodes or sharing their favorite takeaways – can boost interaction and help deepen those community ties they care so much about.

Business Podcast Blueprints Analysis

Knack 4 Business is a classic Relationship Building podcast. The main driver of the show is connection – with potential clients, referral partners, collaborators, and peers across different industries. Wayne and Bernie are using the podcast to meet people they’d love to work with, start real conversations, and open doors to business opportunities they might not have found otherwise.

It’s working too. Most guests come in through word of mouth or mutual connections, and those pre-interview chats often lead to collaborations or referrals, whether or not someone ends up on the mic. The show is also helping them stay visible and relevant in their space, and it’s creating an easy entry point for new people to get to know them and what they do.

As they start looking at monetization and audience growth, keeping the Relationship Building blueprint front and center is going to help them make smart choices – whether that’s in how they design their guest outreach, how they organize their archive to support client conversations, or how they use the show to drive future business development.

This is exactly the kind of podcast that leads to bigger projects, more referrals, and stronger networks and that’s what the next 100,000 downloads are really about.

How to Use This Strategy

So if you want to use a relationship-building strategy like Wayne and Bernie, here are a few things to think through:

• Who are the kinds of people that would really move your business forward if you had a stronger connection with them?

• Are there existing relationships you could deepen by inviting someone onto your show?

• What kinds of conversations would be helpful and interesting – for you, your guest, and your audience?

That’s the starting point. Once you know who you want to be talking to, you can build your guest list around that. Think of it like creating your own networking event but you get to control the questions, and everyone walks away with something valuable.

To make it easier on yourself, keep your production process simple at first. Use a tool like Descript or Riverside (or a podcast production company if you want the experience to be hassle free), have a consistent format that makes prep quick, and create a short follow-up workflow that helps you stay in touch with guests after the episode goes live.

And if you’re already referring people to great resources or service providers on the regular, think about adding affiliate links or partnerships to your workflow – nothing complicated, just a way to make sure the value you’re creating comes back to you in a measurable way.

Relationship-building podcasts work best when they feel natural and are driven by real curiosity. The key is staying focused on connection first, the business that comes out of it is just a really nice bonus.

If you’re looking for a partner to help you figure out and deploy a strategy that will work for your business, we can help! Book a call, and let’s talk!

How to Track Success

Here are the stats you should track for a relationship-building podcast that’s designed to grow your network and open doors to new opportunities:

1. How many new people you invite onto the show, and how many of them you stay in touch with after the episode airs.

2. How many guests (or people they refer) turn into clients, collaborators, or project leads – even if it’s months later.

3. How many introductions or referrals happen because of a podcast connection.

4. And if you want to keep it super simple, just track how many episodes lead to meaningful follow-up conversations. That’s where the magic tends to happen.

The best metric for this kind of podcast is whether you’re building the kinds of relationships that lead to real results. Keep an eye on that, and you’ll know you’re on the right track.

Connect with Wayne and Bernie

Wayne and Bernie are exploring new ways to grow Knack 4 Business, and we’ll be checking in with them down the road to see how it’s going – especially once that searchable archive and listener contest roll out. In the meantime, if you’re looking for real talk and smart conversations about business, you can catch their latest episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast player.

You can also connect with Wayne on LinkedIn and check out his coaching work at Motive8U, or reach out to Bernie at Kreativ Insight and follow his updates on LinkedIn.

And of course don’t miss the show at Knack4Business.com!

Do you have a podcast for your business? Then I want to talk to you! Check our more episodes of the Business Podcast Spotlight right here, and apply to be a guest!