Podcasting is more than a medium—it’s a tool for connection, community, and strategic storytelling. Clark Buckner shares his journey from student podcaster to leading a full-service podcast agency, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Clark Buckner is the co-founder of Relationary Marketing, a podcast production agency for B2B content marketing. The agency focuses on helping businesses and organizations leverage branded podcasting strategically.
Buckner understands the unique intimacy of podcasting—from his early days as a student at Belmont University to building a thriving community of creators in Nashville. What began as a passion project to preserve guest lectures evolved into a career dedicated to turning conversations into strategic content, proving that authenticity and consistency are the keys to meaningful connection.
Buckner’s passion for podcasting began during his time as a student at Belmont University. “I really like this interesting marketing stuff and thinking about how marketing intersects with philosophy and computer tech,” he recalls.
What started as a curiosity soon became a career, as Buckner recognized how personal podcasts can feel to the listener. “You can’t get any closer to someone than right here in their headphones,” he says. “It’s a different experience.”
Buckner’s early podcast, ETP Cast, was born out of a desire to preserve valuable insights from guest speakers at Belmont. “The idea was when we have all these great speakers who would come to Belmont and share all these great things, they would share, talk to the audience, and then boom, they leave, and then the content is poof, it’s gone,” he explains. “So the idea was, oh, let’s do an interview after your talk, do a podcast, save it.”
This project laid the foundation for what would later become Relationary Marketing, a podcast agency focused on helping businesses leverage the power of audio content.
For Buckner, podcasting is about more than just recording conversations—it’s about building relationships. “Relationary, it’s a made-up word,” he admits with a laugh. “Think of relationship.” His agency specializes in creating strategic content that connects, whether through studio recordings, live events, or on-location interviews.
“You can use podcasting for a business,” he says. “Not only is it about the podcast, but you get a blog post from that. You get all this SEO-rich content, you can use it to nurture wonderful people, highlight certain things, and it’s part of the content marketing.”
One of Relationary’s standout offerings is the ability to take podcasts on the road, transforming trade show booths into interactive experiences. “Having a podcast presence inside a booth, you just naturally want to walk up and look at it and see, oh, this is kind of neat,” Buckner explains. “You don’t feel like everyone’s watching you, you’re watching the podcast happen.” This approach flips traditional marketing on its head, creating authentic engagement.
Buckner is also a driving force behind the Nashville Podcasters Meetup, a community he helped build to support local creators. “The meetup model, I believe, is so important in Nashville,” he says. “No one owns it. No one makes money on it. One hundred percent of the funds are organized back into the meetup.”
What started as a small gathering has grown into a thriving group of over 2,000 members, proving the power of community in the podcasting world.
For aspiring podcasters, Buckner’s advice is simple: Start where you are. “You don’t need to be in some fancy environment for your voice to matter and to be received,” he emphasizes. “Even if 10 people listen, that’s OK. It grows, it has a long shelf life. You need to be in for the long run.”
From his early days as a student to his leadership of a successful agency, Buckner’s journey is a testament to the enduring power of podcasting. Tune in to this episode of Artisanal Insights to hear more about his insights on storytelling, community, and the future of the medium.
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