Snapshot Summary
Craig Picken, a specialist recruiter in the aerospace industry, needed to compete with the massive brand recognition of a publicly traded recruiting firm. MicroFamous launched The Aerospace Executive Podcast, leveraging Craig’s expertise as a former fighter pilot, aircraft sales professional, and recruiter to showcase his unique executive placement approach.
Seven years later, the podcast gets 1,000s of views and downloads each month, secures high-profile guests from CEOs to private equity partners, and drives referrals and speaking gigs.
“I have PR people pitching me C-suite executives to be guests on my podcasts. So I have potential clients literally paying a PR agency to get on MY calendar.” – Craig Picken
Timely content, like a viral video on India’s aerospace rise (15k video views), expands Craig’s audience and sets him up for new opportunities. Overall, the podcast destroys any credibility gap with his competitors, allowing him to raise fees, enforce favorable retainer terms, and turn away poor-fit clients.
The Problem: Competing with a Brand-Name Giant
Craig came to us after losing yet another client to a publicly traded recruiting firm, mostly based on name recognition and inertia. The client would then get poor service from that firm, and he’d hear things like, “We should have hired you.” To compete, Craig needed to position himself as an equal to the industry’s biggest player.
Many podcast agencies would have pushed Craig to launch a generic leadership podcast, going after big view numbers. That podcast would probably have been drowned out by similar podcasts and ignored by his industry, the exact people he was trying to reach.
Instead we recommended Craig double down on the aerospace niche. He already stood out for his strengths – bold industry opinions and a unique ability to match candidates to the client’s business strategy. We wanted to build the podcast around those strengths, and create the podcast his industry would rave about.
I have people coming up to me at industry events telling me how much they love the podcast, and those are directly turning into sales conversations. – Craig Picken
The Solution: A Niche Podcast with Strategic, Timely Content
We designed the content strategy following our Weekly Podcast Formula, a combination of high-level conversations with fellow experts, solo episodes, and success story episodes featuring clients. We also encouraged Craig to pull inspiration from questions and situations that came up in his work, along with trending topics to maximize impact.
Key elements included:
- Solo Episodes: We recommended at least one solo episode a month, where he could share his most controversial opinions without tempering them for guests.
- Conversations, NOT Interviews – For any brand who wants to sell professional services on the back of their podcast, we’ve found that calling guest episodes “interviews” is poor framing. When we frame guest episodes as a “mastermind” – two experts sharing their insights and bold opinions – this puts the host on equal footing with the guest. It requires some coaching with all of our clients, because it goes so against the grain of podcasting for hosts to inject their opinions, but it’s absolutely critical for ROI.
- Trendjacking – We also encouraged Craig to capitalize on industry trends and macro-economic and political trends that had implications for his industry (lots of defense industry connections in aerospace). Episodes like India’s aerospace growth (16k video views) and economic tariffs (1.6k views) both drew new people to Craig’s YouTube channel and make his brand bigger and more credible. We also pulled out key clips and turned them into YouTube Shorts to amplify reach.
- Promotion Plan: MicroFamous launched the podcast to Craig’s email list and LinkedIn connections. We don’t recommend that clients set up separate social channels for their podcast, as any profile other than a personal profile is severely downgraded in the algorithms. We also provide every client a personal DM script they can use to get early reviews from their network on Launch Day.
- Guest Booking: Our team researched and secured high-profile guests, including executives, insiders, and private equity partners, providing access to hard-to-reach contacts. We put each guest on a short Prep Call to ensure they were fully prepared, comfortable and excited for the conversation with Craig. Over time, Craig found that he could integrate guest booking into his routine work, and we reserve our guest booking for strategic bursts when he wants to reach someone high-profile, unique or outside the industry.
- Cross-Platform Integration: Craig amplified his reach on LinkedIn, using podcast episodes as springboards for posts and articles, and vice versa. We love this kind of tight integration between the podcast and social media. We especially love it when the client has ONE primary channel where they are truly engaged, from DMs and comments on industry posts, to responding to comments on their own posts. We’ve found that without true engagement from the client, most podcast promotion on social media is a waste of time.
“The CEO of a publicly traded aerospace company came up to me at an event, said he loves the podcast and makes his entire executive team listen and discuss what they’ve learned.” – Craig Picken
The Results: A Thriving Brand and Expanded Opportunities
Seven years after launching The Aerospace Executive Podcast, Craig Picken has transformed his personal brand and business, with trending content amplifying his reach.
Key outcomes include:
- Audience Growth: The podcast consistently achieves over 5,000 monthly views and downloads in a VERY small community of aerospace executives. Trending content, like a video on India’s aerospace rise (16,000+ views) and an episode on economic tariffs (5x times normal YouTube views), expanded Craig’s audience beyond his email list and LinkedIn network.
- Network Expansion: Guest appearances built a network driving referrals, candidate introductions, and speaking opportunities. Craig once booked the CEO of the world’s largest helicopter manufacturing company on his podcast with a single email.
- Business Impact: The podcast’s authority enables Craig to raise fees, enforce favorable retainer terms, and turn away poor-fit clients due to abundant business. [Placeholder Metric: “Increased revenue by X% annually” – replace with actual data if available.]
- New Opportunities: Trending content raised Craig’s profile, creating opportunities for speaking gigs and coaching in the aerospace industry.
- Content Leverage: One of Craig’s aspirations is to turn his expertise into a book. For most experts, it feels insurmountable to carve out the writing time needed. But with 7 years of solo episodes full of his expertise and bold opinions, he has all the raw material he needs. Craig is now perfectly positioned to polish that material into a finished product (or hire a book ghostwriting firm to do it.)
“It’s a leap of faith, but it’s a snowball that keeps picking up steam.” – Craig Picken
Why It Worked: Niche Expertise Meets Timely Content
The success of The Aerospace Executive Podcast reflects MicroFamous’ strategic approach:
- Niche Focus: The podcast delivered sought-after content for aerospace executives, unavailable elsewhere.
- Trending Topics: Episodes on India’s aerospace growth and economic tariffs attracted new audiences, boosting visibility and credibility
- Consistency: Seven years of regular episodes built trust and authority.
- Relationship Building: Guest bookings and trending content opened doors to valuable connections and opportunities.
“The podcast is doing exactly what I wanted it to do!
Amps up my presence in my industry and my credibility.
It’s been one of the overall best investments I’ve ever made…
It’s basically Rent, Phone, Computer and PODCAST!” – Craig Picken
This case study showcases how MicroFamous helps clients dominate niches in mature industries, building authority and seizing new opportunities through podcasting.
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