Influential Voices of Authority

CONTENT ISN'T KING It is often said that content is King. That isn't necessarily true. Content by itself won't gain you an audience. Content isn't King. Great content is King. Anybody can copy information. Your content needs to be infused with story and personality to really connect with listeners. To help you create more powerful interviews, grab my list of "17 of the most Powerful Podcast Interview Questions Ever". It is a free download you can get at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/interview. BE UNIQUE It really hit me one time when I was interviewing a musician on the air. I won't mention his name, because he called me out right there in the middle of the interview. Before our conversation, I went online and read his bio. I went through the news release they sent me about the new album and the tour. Once the interview began, I felt pretty good. We were rolling along with the standard questions and he was giving the standard answers. In what city will the tour start? When does the album come out.? What can we expect when you roll through here? Then I asked him a question about a detail in his bio. I though it was something unique. But he said, "Well, I see somebody read my bio." That's when I realized I couldn't just ask typical questions and get typical answers. To create great interviews, I needed to get my guests to tell great stories. Everything I was doing to this point was simply a derivative of someone else. I was a cliché, a poor knock off. Why would anyone listen to me when they could get the same thing by listening a variety of other interviews with the same guest? From there, I took my original content and made it great. CONTENT WITH STORIES Later in my career I was interviewing Preston Brust of the country band LOCASH. He and Chris Lucas had been working hard for years writing songs for themselves and others while also recording and touring. LOCASH had a few different record deals, but had never had that big hit they needed to break through. Other artists were recording songs the two had written, but none of those had hit either. In 2011, country superstar Keith Urban not only decided to record a song written by Preston and Chris, but he was going to release it as a single. When I was talking with Preston, I asked him what it felt like when he got the call that Keith Urban was releasing their song. Here is what he said. "Things weren't going so good. I get this phone call. I'm in the backseat of my friends car and I get this phone call and it sounded like something was wrong. And he says, 'I'm sitting next to Keith Urban and he just told me that 'You Gonna Fly' is going to be his next single, and he's releasing it next week.' And I literally had them stop the car and I got out of the car and I just let out this yell. It just felt like I'm back." They were back. That song went to number one on the country charts. Preston and Chris then wrote a hit for Tim McGraw and eventually a top 5 hit for themselves. I guarantee that question about how it felt to get that call hasn't been asked many times if ever of Preston. We created such a relationship over the years that he still texts me. They just finished their latest song called "Hometown Home" and he sent me the early version. That kind of relationship doesn't happen with typical questions and standard answers. Your audience also isn't attracted to typical interviews. Be different. BE YOURSELF Over the years, my style and content developed. I became myself. That is when my show became #1. My content was original and fresh. Nobody else was doing it. If your content isn't great, nothing else matters. The production of your podcast could be the best available. You could have all the bells and whistles available in your studio, including the best mic. The marketing of your podcast could incredibly creative and unique. However, if the content is average, no one will care. Don't simply go through the motions creating your content. Find a unique angle. Your take on the subject should be interesting. Make your content stand out using stories, creativity, and personal revelation. Content won't attract an audience unless it is great content. When your content is great, you become king. Make it happen. There are four key areas of focus when creating great content and tightening up your show. 1. BE ORIGINAL Old-timey radio would say, "Hello Everybody in Radioland!" You're not an announcer talking to a group. Be a person talking to another person. To be engaging, you need to be human. You need to be yourself. As you record your podcast, use your natural voice and your own words. Individuals who are new to broadcasting tend to want to sound like their broadcasting idols. They try to imitate those they have heard on the radio with their voice and clichés. Unfortunately, new broadcasters tend to sound as if they are using scripted drivel done in some character voice that is forced and unnatural. You don't need to sound like Wolfman Jack, Howard Cosell, Don LaFontaine or Howard Stern. In fact, you shouldn't sound like those guys. The big personalities are who they are. You should be who you are. If you are naturally over-the-top, then be over-the-top. If you are not, don't fake it. You'll sound like an amateur and people can tell. Be natural. Talk with a little energy, but always deliver it as you naturally speak. The days of "the voice for radio" are gone. You don't need a big voice to be on the radio. And you surely don't need a big voice to create a podcast. Your voice becomes unique by what you say, not how you sound saying it. Be yourself. Use your own voice instead of trying to impersonate someone else. Use your natural voice and your own words. 2. REPEATING YOURSELF That's right, of course, like I said, obviously. If you find yourself saying "obviously" or "of course", you are making two mistakes. The first error is repeating yourself. If you are saying "obviously" because you feel everyone already knows the information, you are wasting your breath. If it is obvious, there is no need to say it. To frame it in a way to indicate it is something everyone knows, I might simply make a statement. I may say, "Because the sun comes up in the East, I prefer my bedroom windows be on the West side of the house." Everyone listening to me knows the sun comes up in the East. I simply include the statement. If I use a phrase like, "Of course", it appears I didn't want it to look like I was trying to teach you about the sunrise. I didn't want you to think I just learned that. "Of course" plays it off, but it also doesn't need to be there. If it is "of course", there is no need to say it in the first place. CONFIDENCE The second error is lack of confidence, so we add filler words. You may want to sound knowledgeable to those who know the information. Yet, you know there is a segment of the audience that does not know the details. To inform those unaware, you add the "of course". In this case, you're just wasting words. I may say, "The band will be at the arena Saturday night, of course." Some may be aware of this performance. Yet, there may be people in the audience who haven't heard the news. It makes sense to add the information, but you don't need the "of course". The idea is to sound knowledgeable and credible to those that already know, while providing the information to those unaware. You simply need to restructure you sentence and eliminate the cliché. Use a sentence like, "When the band is at the arena Saturday night, parking will be at a premium." This sentence provides new information to both segments of the audience. I include the "arena Saturday night" portion for the new listeners while giving those already aware of the concert new parking information. Both receive a benefit without the filler words. When you include "that's right" or "like I said", you are repeating yourself. Your listener heard you the first time. Most people use these cliches to fill time while they think of the next thing to say. Avoid going in circles. Your listener will quickly become uninterested. Know where you're going and keep moving forward. 3. ELIMINATE CLICHES I hear so many cliches in podcasts today. They are present in business in general. A cliché is a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. It is a very predictable or unoriginal thing or person. We had a leader of our division who would use one particular cliché on every conference call we had. Every month, we would have a conference call to keep each station in sync. It would be run by our division leader. The call would then feature 4 or 5 other speakers covering various topics. The call would last about 30 minutes. After every speaker would finish their report, our division leader would say, "Really good stuff." "That was really good stuff, Ray." "Thanks, Sarah. Really good stuff." When he would talk about new resources that were available to us, he would wrap it up with "really good stuff". When he talked about new music coming out, he would call it "really good stuff". What started out as a compliment became a hollow nod that carried no weight. It was overused and lacked original thought. It was predictable. He got so predictable, as the speaker would wrap up, we would say to ourselves, "that was really good stuff" right before our leader would chime in with the same line. It kept us entertained on the call, but added nothing to the conversation. What cliches are you using? They are everywhere. Many times you don't realize it is a cliché until you start listening to your own show, or a coach points it out. The one that sounds most out of place to me on a podcast is, "To be honest with you". When somebody says "to be honest with you", I immediately think, "were you lying to me before?" What message are you trying to convey when you say, "to be honest with you"? I assume you are simply trying to add emphasis to what you are saying. In reality, the cliché has lost its power. It means nothing. It's a cliché. There are many others. We are thinking out of the box. We are pushing the envelope. We are taking it to the next level. It's Erik here to remind you something or another. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying. Listen to an older episode or two of your show. Really listen to the shows like a listener. Find the cliches and eliminate them. Be original. 4. AVOID ROUGH TRANSITIONS And now it's time for … This phrase seems harmless. It looks like a logical transition from one segment to another during your podcast. Unfortunately, this phrase gives your listener permission to leave the show. When you use "and now it's time for..." or some similar phrase, it tells the listener that one segment is over and we are moving on to something else. It also signals a natural break in the show and the perfect time to exit. The transition is a lot like a commercial break in a television show. It is time to grab the remote to see what else is available. This is why TV shows started using the cliff hangers to keep you around. Famous American showman P. T. Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits. If he could get them through the exhibit faster, he could get more people through in a day and make more money. Barnum posted signs around the exhibit indicating "This Way to the Egress". Henry would ask Barbara, "Have you ever seen an egress? No? Let's check it out." Unaware that "Egress" simply meant "Exit", people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit only to end up outside. Take down your "egress" sign. If you truly want to hold your listener from one segment to the next, don't send up the signal. Simply move to the next segment. THE TRANSITION On a coaching call the other day, I pointed out to the host that he was using "I want to keep this moving" quite often in his show. When he says "I want to keep this moving", I know we are switching to a new topic. I can punch out here if I'd like. Instead, just move on. Imagine you are at a cocktail party. You are discussing the baseball game that you saw over the weekend. After the baseball topic runs its course, do you say, "Now it's time to talk about my new car"? I doubt it. You probably just roll right into, "Hey, I bought a new car last week." It is a natural transition. Your friend doesn't think, "Hmm, that was a pretty rough transition." They have moved on right along with you. As you wrap up one segment, move right to the next. You might end the first segment with, "If you take those steps, things should be back to normal." Roll into the next with, "Jackie has a question about teamwork," and play the call. The next segment just starts. You've hooked them on the next segment without opening the door to leave. Don't flash the exit sign. Eliminate "and now it's time for" to hold your listener for the entire podcast. TIGHTER CONTENT Focus on these four areas to create great content. Avoid repeating yourself. Eliminate the cliches. Create smooth transitions in your content. Above all else, be original. When you be yourself and ask great questions, it will be difficult to copy you. The content will be original. And, people will love you for it. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

PEOPLE STAY FOR YOUR PERSONALITY People come for your content. They stay because of your personality. We have heard it so often. People do business with those they know, like and trust. It's all about building rapport. People like you and fall in love with you because of your personality and story. On this episode, I want to share with you a session I did recently during my Audience Explosion Blueprint Workshop. This was a powerful 3-day workshop where I helped a group of podcasters build their strategy to grow their audience. This particular session will help you develop your personality and begin building powerful relationships with your audience. YOUR UNIQUE STYLE And what I want to help you do in this session is really get clear on your personality. Your personality is your unique style. A lot of people think personality means I need to be funny or I need to be over the top, I need to be this big, boisterous, iconic personality. Personality just means you're uniquely you. It it's what makes you different from everybody else. There are 4 or 5 characteristics that you possess that people love about you. Listeners may say things like I love how warm she is, or I love how inviting he is. I love how he listens. I love how attentive he is. He's always able to distill my problems down to 1 or 2 sentences. I love how he makes me laugh, or I love how she makes me smile when she walks in the room. There are plenty of characteristics that you can have that make you uniquely you and why people love you. I want to help you figure out how to bring more of that into your content. Your personality is what keeps people coming back week after week and episode after episode. Your personality is why people fall in love with you. The content gets listeners to come. Your personality gets them to stay. NOT JUST CONTENT ALONE If you rely only on content, you're a commodity. I can get content anywhere. Not only on other podcasts, but I can get content in books and blogs and websites and videos and everywhere else. However, I can't get you anywhere else other than your show. So if you think of various subjects like cooking, how many cooking shows are there? How many cooking channels are there? And politics... everybody is talking politics these days. Anybody can interview celebrities and athletes. What makes these shows different? What makes the cream of the crop rise to the top? It's all of their personality. If you think of somebody like Rachael Ray, she doesn't have a background as a culinary chef. She's just a mom that gets in the kitchen and makes up easy stuff for her family to eat. And, women love her for it. Rush Limbaugh took political talk and really brought back AM radio by adding his personality into it and adding a little humor into it. He added his sarcasm and his wit. Rush was also incredibly knowledgeable about the subject matter. So many people try to copy Rush, but they can't because they can't copy Rush's personality. OPRAH'S PERSONALITY It is the same thing with Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Phil Donahue. Every channel had one of those talk shows on it where it was sensationalism. It was tabloid sort of conversation. They were all doing the exact same thing. Oprah decided she didn't want do the exact same thing. She wanted to do a show her way and talk to people that interested her. Oprah wanted to talk about things that are meaningful, not only to her, but to her audience, to the women who were watching every day. And so she talked started talking about weight loss and started talking about the books that she loved, and she started talking about all of those things. Next thing you know, Oprah rises above all the rest, and Oprah becomes Oprah instead of Oprah Winfrey. It's how she became who she is, because she stopped trying to be like everybody else and started being herself. Oprah started being her authentic self. BOB COSTAS I watched Bob Costas. Bob is so knowledgeable about the sports, especially baseball. When you would watch Bob interview somebody, Bob's questions were often longer than the answers that his guests gave, because Bob knew so much. Unfortunately, when he tried to do his late night talk show, Bob's questions were way too long and his talk show didn't survive. But Costas was a great sportscaster and a great broadcaster, because he brought things out of the people he would interview. He knew so much about his guests and topic and had such a passion for it, and he let that come forward. And that's what makes great broadcasters. When you hear a great play-by-play guy, they're unique because they're bringing their personality into it. All these other guys that try to copy that individual and it doesn't work. The copycats aren't unique, and they don't rise to the top. There are very few great play-by-play guys because the greats are uniquely themselves, and that's what I want you to bring to your show. Bring uniquely you in there. CONTENT FILTER Once you've defined your personality, then you can put your unique spin on everything that you do. You put that unique twist on all of your content, because you use it as your content filter. Add your ideal client, that ideal target listener we've been defining. We add your personality, and we use that as the filter for all of your content. So when you need to talk about x today, how are you going to use that filter to make sure that x is unique for your show? You know exactly who you're talking to, and you know how to infuse your personality into it so it becomes uniquely your. Think about how many shows teach you how to get out of debt. There's all sorts of finance shows on the radio, but there's only one Dave Ramsey show. Right? Dave has his 8 baby steps. He's like that older brother that'll give you the swift kick in the butt when you need it. Ramsey will let you cry on his shoulder, but he's going to give you the tough love when you need it because that's Dave's personality. There are so many other people that try to do financial talk, but they only talk about the information rather than the entertainment and the human aspect of it. YOUR TOP TEN ESPN's top ten is another example. Every sportscast shows highlights on their newscast. Back when the local news ran sports, they would show highlights all night long. And, every highlight was the same as every other highlight. Well, ESPN decided to take the top highlights and create their own top ten list. And now it becomes a debate. How is that dunk better than the catch in left field? The highlights all the same. They're just packaged a different way and put through the filter of ESPN. ESPN is talking to the guys that are hanging out at the sports bar debating over which team was the team of all time. They just took that same competitive nature and put the top ten around it. Anybody can show highlights. And anybody can talk about the best play of the day. But, ESPN puts it through their filter and does the top ten list. PICK A FEW It is all about your traits and your characteristics and what makes you uniquely you. That's what brings your personality forward, because there's so many traits and characteristics that make up who we are. We can't possibly bring all of them out on the show. We want to find the 4 or 5 or 6 personality traits that we really want to wrap our arms around and help us with how we approach topics and infuse those topics with our personality. In radio, we would call it role definition. What stories are you going to tell today that define your role on the show of who you are and who you want people to perceive you to be that will help bring that forward. We infuse that into the show to let people understand what we're all about. It is often said that people do business with those we know, like, and trust. People get to know you through the stories that you tell because your personality and your authenticity come out in that. MORE THAN 3% There have been studies done. Chet Holmes talks about it a lot in his book The Ultimate Sales Machine. He says, if you look at your entire market, how many people in your market are in the market to buy today? If you consider everybody, those that are actively seeking a solution to what you have, about 3% of your target market are buying today. They're actively out searching for the solution. Three percent of your market have their credit card out, and they're ready to make a purchase. That's 3% of your entire market. The next 7% of the market could be convinced to buy today. Those are the people that are saying, "You know, I wasn't thinking about it, but now that you mentioned it, I do need one of those widgets that you're selling." These people have a problem and they need a solution. It's just not critical and not top of mind right now. But if you remind them about it, they could be in the market to buy. So that's 7%. There's there's 10% of your market right there. NOT TODAY The other 90%, they're not buying today. They're not in the market today. So the next 30% are going to need what you have. They just don't need it today. If you're selling automobiles, I'm going to need a new car. I just don't need a new car today. I'll probably need a new car maybe a year and a half, maybe 2 years from now. When my car wears out, I'm going to need a new car. But today, I'm all good. Don't need a new car. The next 30%, they don't think they need what you have today because they need more information and more education on you on what the problem and the solution happened to be. Maybe you're selling mattresses and they say, "You know what? My mattress is fine. I'm good. I sleep fine at night." And you ask, "How old is your mattress?" They respond with, "Oh, my mattress is 12 years old." You can now educate them that mattresses wear out after 7 years and sleeping on a bad mattress causes bad back and and, all sorts of pain. You can ask, "Do you wake up in the morning with a stiff back?" Now they begin to think they may have a problem. Here is where you can explain it's probably because their mattress is worn out, they don't know it. So, it takes more education. They start to think maybe they do need a new mattress. They just needed more education. That example is a little quicker process than maybe what you're going through to explain, like Larry does with doing things right with time management. It might take a little longer to educate. SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE And then the final 30%, they're probably not going to buy from you because of other reasons, like brand loyalty or things like that. Maybe you sell computers. If you sell Macs and I'm a PC user, I'm not going to buy. I'm not going to buy your Mac, because I don't use Macs. I use PCs. Yes. I'm in the computer market, but not your market. Maybe you sell Fords and my wife works for Toyota. I'm probably not gonna buy your Ford, because I get a really good deal over at Toyota. Now maybe I see the light and I realize my PC is inferior and I want to use a Mac. Now I'm all of a sudden in your world. Or maybe my wife leaves Toyota and goes to work for IBM, and now all of a sudden I'm in the market for another vehicle and Fords might be my vehicle. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS So when it comes to your podcast, we talked yesterday a lot about building relationships. The job with your podcast is to build the relationship with the 90% that aren't buying today so that when they're ready to buy, you're the one they think of for the solution. It really helps move along that 7% that weren't thinking about buying today but might see the opportunity. If you're only speaking to the 3% that are in the market to buy today to fix the solution today, you're missing 97% of your market. We spoke yesterday that most consumers do up to 70% of their market research before ever reaching out to a company. By the time they reach out to the company, they're 70% of the way through their research and their buying decision. So if you're only waiting until they're ready to buy, you're missing a great opportunity to build a relationship with them and be their go-to solution when they are ready to buy. And your personality and your story, that's what helps build that relationship. Those 3%, they're buying today. They're in the market to buy the solution for their problem today, but chances are they've done a whole bunch of research and homework. So if you're only if you're trying to get in the game now, they already have a relationship with 2 or 3 or 4 other companies, and now you're trying to weasel your way in to the front of that line, and you're trying to play catch up. YOUR AUTHENTIC PERSONALITY All you need to do is be your authentic self, because your authentic self is is what can't be copied. So, ideally, when you're yourself, we want to make them pick a side. We want to make them care about what it is you're talking about by having an opinion and sharing that opinion and that thought. Many times we get on our show and we don't wanna ruffle any feathers. We want to make everybody happy. We want to please everybody. But when you're pleasing everybody, you're pleasing nobody because you're just vanilla middle of the road. I could take it or leave it, and that's the death of your show. Think of all of the big personalities that you can think of, whether it's, Howard Stern or, Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen A. Smith on ESPN. You either love them or hate them. MAKE THEM PICK A SIDE They make you pick a side. If I have everybody rate your show on a 1 to 5 scale where one means I hate it and I never listen to it, and 5 means I love it and can't miss an episode. If I have to have everybody rate the show and everybody rates it a 3, you're dead in the water because 3 means I could take it or leave it. 3 means, "Yeah, you know, it's it's nice." They don't care. If they don't have anything better to listen to, they will listen to you. That's not bringing anybody to your show. As you have more fives than you have ones, you're in the game. You're doing well. LIKE THE MACARENA We would look at music research in radio to decide which songs to play and which songs to play more often. Everybody in the research pool would rate the song on a 1 to 5 scale. I always turned down songs that had great 3 scores. But if a song was polarizing, if you had a song like the Macarena or something, and people are like, "Oh my god, I can't hear that again", and other people are thinking, "Oh my god, turn it up, that's my jam", we've got a song. If a songs had scores with a lot of ones and a lot of fives, and there weren't hardly any threes, that song was absolutely monstrous. There were probably twice as many fives as there were ones, and we played the crud out of that song. And that's why you still hear it at wedding receptions today, because it's that polarizing sort of song. When you use your personality to make people pick a side, it makes people pay attention. When you make them care about your show and you make them pick a side, that's when you know you've hit. OVER THE TOP And we talk about you don't need to be over the top. One of my favorite personalities is Barbara Corcoran. Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank is phenomenal. But Barbara's not over the top. She is that very wise, kinda smart ass sorta host. Kevin gets a run for his money from her. Barbara talks a lot about being the waitress that she was when she finally got her first opportunity to get into real estate, and how she made her millions in New York real estate. She talks about the scrappiness that she went through to create that agency and become who she is. It is unique. Barbara is not over the top, but she's got that that fiery personality. There's a little something lying underneath the surface there. She's got that that scrappiness, that can-do attitude. People just love Barbara Corcoran. BARBARA CORCORAN'S PODCASTS She has two podcasts. One is called, Business Unusual where she would help people with their business questions. And then, because people love her and love who she is, she started getting questions about all sorts of other life sort of things, like their relationships or job searches or things like that, which didn't really fit Business Unusual. So she launched a second podcast called 888-Barbara. On this show, she answers all of your questions from the bedroom to the board room, and she would just answer questions about life. Things like "should I quit school and start a job", or "should I get married or move to Hawaii?" There were all sorts of questions there. I don't think she does that show anymore, because her bandwidth is limited now. But it was a great show. And it was just all about her personality. It just brought her forward on both of those shows and really made her authentic. JUST BE YOU That's what I'm talking about for your show. You don't have to necessarily be this big over the top boisterous sort of personality. On the podcast, you just need to be you and find those things that people love about you. So when you think about Barbara Corcoran on Shark Tank, not taking any lip from anybody. Barbara is nice and sweet until it's time to not be nice and sweet. The producers do a great job developing her character on that show by highlighting those little pieces. Robert might throw a jab at her or Kevin might might give her a little barb, and all of a sudden she comes back at them. She might say, "I'm talking here, pipe down." You know, nobody's gonna push her around. She's a sweet little lady until it's time to not be sweet little lady anymore. A PERSONALITY FOR EACH HOST The producers do a great job developing her character and her personality on that show by bringing those sorts of things out. That's what I love about the show. When you have multiple personalities on a show, each needs to play a different role. If you're doing a podcast that has cohosts or you consider bringing in somebody else to help you with the show, multiple hosts require multiple personalities. If you're both the same, one of you isn't necessary. When you have somebody cohost the show with you, they should complement what you do. When two guys are hosting a sports show, one guy should be the jock and the other guy should be the dork. They're opposites and complement each other. There was a show on ESPN for years called the Mike and Mike Show, and they talked sports. One of the Mikes played professional football. Huge lineman kind of guy. He grew up in the sport, and looked like a lineman. Mike looked like a football player, and he was able to speak to sports from the athlete side. The other Mike was this little nerdy journalist and probably never played a lick of sports in his life other than golf. But he was incredibly knowledgeable about everything, all sports, because he researched it all as a journalist. These two both approached the topic of sports from two different sides. They had two different personalities and two different perspectives, which made them perfect for each other. So if you're going to have multiple hosts on your show, make sure that you have multiple roles and you're bringing something a little different to your audience. DEVELOP YOUR PERSONALITY What I want to do is go into a little work time. I am going to pull up a document for you to work on. It's my personality development worksheet. It's how you can assess your personality and what characteristics you want to bring forth on your show. The personality development worksheet looks like this. So I want you to describe the persona you want to project on your show, how you want to be perceived by your audience. There should be a handful of characteristics there that you want people to feel when they interact with you. I want you to list 20 adjectives that describe that persona. That's going to push you. You'll probably be able to come up with about 8 off the top of your head. And then you're going to need to push yourself for the rest of them. PICK YOUR TOP FIVE Then I want you to select 5 words from this list below here that you'd like to highlight on your show. So one or two of these might need to be developed a bit. They might not be naturally present for you, but three or four of them should be authentically you. So here's the list of adjectives here. Not exhaustive, just something to get your mind spinning a little bit. Let's say confident is one that you would like to be perceived as. And maybe you feel you lack that confidence right now. What ways can you bring that forward in your in your podcast, in your show, and in your presentation. That can be developed. So that might be one where you go, "I'd like to be perceived as being confident." We can work on that in your content. But maybe you are detailed. Maybe you're practical, maybe you are likable. Find the adjectives in here that describe who you want to be perceived by your audience so we can work on developing that in your show. So in your in the chat is a download link for this personality development worksheet. What I'd like you to do is is click that link and download it. And we're gonna spend about 15 minutes woodshedding that document. Alright? Push yourself to get to 20. It's gonna be a challenge for you, but really define who you want your personality to be. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHEET That was a part of the presentation from my Audience Explosion Blueprint Workshop. You can download my Personality Development Worksheet at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/personality. If you'd like help developing your personality, I'd love to have a chat. Visit www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply and apply to have a strategy call with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

When it comes to growing your podcast and building your business, a joint venture partnership is a powerful way to find success. Many people view a JV partnership in a very simplistic way. The most common JV partnership is an agreement to promote a product or service in exchange for an affiliate commission. But, there are many other ways to leverage a JV partnership. Why would people want to promote you? This is a common question, especially if you have a small audience or small email list. There are various reasons, and money is only one of them. PARTNERSHIP FOR MONEY Money is surely one motivation for promotion. This is what most people think of when they hear JV partnership. In this agreement, you would provide your promotional partner an affiliate link through your system like ThriveCart. You can see the power of ThriveCart at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/ThriveCart. Your partner promotes your offer using their affiliate link. When their audience makes a purchase through your link, your partner earns a commission on the sale. You can also created a simple referral system if you're a coach. In this system, your partner would send an introductory email to you and the person they are referring to you. If that person signs up for your coaching, you can pay your referral partner a referral fee. This method requires a little more manual work, but you don't need a lot of software to help you set it up. Just track it with a spreadsheet. YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY The second reason people would promote you is because they love you. Your friends and family would be willing to promote you, because they want to see you succeed. Reach out to the people you know who also know others who could be your ideal client. Ask if they will help you spread the word. YOUR CONTENT People may want to promote you, because they love what you do. Your superfans love to be part of a winning team. When Alex Hormozi launched his new book "$100M Leads", he had thousands of people promoting him. These people received a bonus chapter of the book when they hit a threshold. Alex's partners weren't in it for the money. They just loved what Alex teaches and wanted to be part of something exciting. He simply empowered his superfans to spread the word. PARTNERSHIP SWAPS The next reason people might promote you is for exchange of promotions. Partners will often promote you in exchange for promoting them. Sometimes, your list isn't big enough to match your partner's list. How can you give equal exchange? My tech guy wanted to be part of an AI summit. Unfortunately, he didn't have an email list largest enough to qualify. My tech guy came to me and offered some services in exchange for using my list. I will email about the summit to fulfill his obligation to the summit. In exchange, I will receive some tech work. He will promote the summit. In exchange, he will get exposure to the summit audience to promote his services. Get creative with your partnerships. ASSOCIATION PARTNERSHIP That other reason people might promote you is for association. These people may want to gain the credibility just by being associated with you. I volunteered as the Dean of Podcasting in Dan Miller's 48 Days Eagles community. I happily offered value in the community and promoted it whenever I could. The biggest benefit I received was being associated with Dan. He was a great man, and I was honored to be part of his world. Find people who want to be in your world. WAYS TO PROMOTE There are a variety of ways people can promote you and you can promote others when you create a partnership. The easiest way is to feature them on your podcast and get on their show. This is the best way to grow your audience. Podcast listeners listen to podcasts. Get on other shows. Cross promotion is the second way to promote each other. This can be in exchange for money as described before. It could also be simple exposure. In a cross-promotion, I could mail your lead magnet offer to my email list. In exchange, you could email my offer to your list. No money exchanges hands. It's a simple promotion. Next, you could use gift giveaways in your partnership. A giveaway is a collection of gifts contributed by a group of experts. Each expert emails their list a link to the giveaway for the free gifts. As people visit the giveaway page, the giveaway host grows her list by people opting in for the giveaway. Contributors grow their email lists by people opting in for their gift. Many times there is a fee to participate in a giveaway. It is nominal, but usually worth it to grow your email list. I love using summits as a way to create partnerships. This is like a series of webinars centered around a theme, but each expert doesn't sell anything. They simply offer free gifts to build their email lists. Live events can also be used in a partnership. This is similar to a summit. It's just live. You can appear on my stage in exchange for a fee or promoting the event. UNIQUE JV PARTNERSHIP At my Podcast Profits Summit, Marc Mawhinney laid out the power of joint venture partnerships. Marc Mawhinney is a lifelong entrepreneur who helps coaches get more clients without paid advertising. He achieves this with his coaching programs, his podcast Natural Born Coaches, his Facebook group The Coaching Jungle, and his Secret Coach Club. Marc has been a speaker at events like Social Media Marketing World, frequently makes media appearances and contributes for Entrepreneur.com, and is a master at the joint venture partnership. I want to share this interview to help you see how you can implement JV partnerships in your podcast and business. Enjoy. Marc's May 2023 issue of his Secret Coach Club newsletter was dedicated to the topic of flat fee JVs. You can get a copy of that newsletter, which sells for $97, at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com.flatfeejv. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

Your great content will only get you so far. You need to master marketing in order to succeed. It's not just marketing your business. You also need to grow your podcast with powerful marketing. It all works as a system. I recently spoke with a few podcasters on the verge of throwing in the towel and ending their podcast. However, I've had a few conversations with other podcasters who are doubling down and going all in. The difference between the two groups is marketing. To build a successful podcast, lean into your marketing. THE ROI The first podcaster, let's call her Anne to protect her identity. She is frustrated by the perceived lack of return on investment. Ann told me, "Although I love podcasting, I am not sure I can justify the investment of time and money for the ROI that I am receiving right now in leads and revenue. I am just not seeing that things will shift soon enough and I know it's a long game. I haven't decided yet if I am pausing the show or going to do seasons or how I am moving forward but I know I need to step back from everything and reevaluate." This is common in all podcasting. There is an old saying in the advertising world. It is to marketing pioneer John Wanamaker. He is quoted as saying, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don't know which half." Marketing is cumulative. Each piece add to the next. Business owners want to believe if they run an ad on Facebook, it immediately generates a sale. That isn't how marketing works. THE SUM OF THE PARTS Here is an example of how your marketing might work. Your ideal client will hear you mentioned on another podcast. Awareness has begun. She hears you interviewed on another podcast. Now she might think hmm, that brand sounds familiar. When she next sees you on a summit, familiarity starts to set in. She might download your lead magnet. Next she might see your logo as a sponsor of an event. That triggers memory of the lead magnet that she digs up to review. Your lead magnet gets her to check out your podcast. She listens to a few episodes and starts to understand what you do. Finally, she comes across your Facebook ad. She clicks the ad and takes action to schedule a call with you. So, let me ask you this... Which piece of your marketing worked? The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It all builds on each other. Each part serves a purpose. Your podcast allows you to build the relationship with your audience over time. When she is ready for your solution, you are top of mind. It truly is a long game. You don't become best friend with anyone overnight. MARKETING FOR REVENUE The next podcaster needed to focus on revenue. Let's call him Bill. Bill was a couple dozen episodes into his show. He was getting frustrated with the lack of growth. When we talked, Bill told me, "I'm pausing everything right now to get other pieces in place. I need to focus on things that generate revenue. Right now, I have so many things swirling around that I'm not getting clear. I'm getting derailed and distracted." What Bill needs is a strategy. How does the podcast fit into the overall revenue generating strategy for his business? "Build it and they will come" sounds great when Kevin Costner's character hears it in the movie Field of Dreams. But the real world isn't like that. Growing your audience takes marketing. Not advertising, but marketing. The Oxford Dictionary definition of marketing is, "the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising." Advertising is part of marketing. But all marketing isn't necessarily advertising. Everything you do to make people aware of your product, service, podcast, or anything else is marketing. When you mention your podcast from the stage, you are marketing. Mentioning the show in your newsletter is marketing. If you're getting interviewed on another podcast and you mention your show, you're marketing. MARKETING FOR AWARENESS To get your show to grow, start making people aware your podcast exists. This doesn't need to take a ton of time. Tie it in with everything you already do. If you speak, mention it. When you email, mention it. As you're being interviewed, mention it. If you participate in a giveaway, mention it in your lead magnet. Be intentional. When you say, "I need to focus on things that generate revenue", marketing is a big part of that. Get in front of new prospects. Give those people something for free in exchange for their name and email address and get them on your email list. Send emails to your list, and invite those people to listen to the podcast. Create great content on your show that shows people what you do. Invite them to a sales conversation with you, such as a discovery call, webinar, or video sales letter. Give great value in the sales conversation, and ask for the sale. Rinse and repeat. It's a system that grows over time. Business is not a get rich quick game. Build relationships over time and get the flywheel turning. Once you begin creating success stories for clients, highlight those success stories on your podcast as part of the system. UNCERTAINTY The third podcaster isn't sure where he is going. Let's call him Chris. When he emailed me, he simply said, "I think it may be time to wrap up this project, but I'm not sure." This is natural. There are ebbs and flows in our journey. When I begin working with a client, we spend time on their purpose. If you don't have a strong "why", it is difficult to get through these periods of self-doubt. A strong purpose will help get you through the dark times when you're not sure it's all worth it. It will also help to document your successes. When you receive positive email from your listeners, print them and put them in a folder. You can review them when you need that pick me up. When great things happen or you help a client achieve big things, write it down. Add it to the folder. Revisit those successes when you need some motivation. We all encounter times when we wonder if it is worth it and if it is time to pack it all up and call it a day. The great things you accomplish and the people you help will remind you how valuable you are. GOOD ENOUGH Now, let me show you a few examples of podcasters who pushed through the doubt wall. I recently sent an email with the message of good is good enough when it's done. When you are working on your next big thing, perfection is your enemy. You don't have to get it perfect. You just have to get it going. Take action, and get started. Edwin sent me an email. Here is a bit of it. "I will cross the threshold with the podcast. I wanted to have eight of them completed before launching. That was my perfectionist point of view. I want to record podcast number seven. And the next week after that I'll follow up yet number eight. And I will have finally crossed the dreaded podfade threshold. Perfection is an illusion; things only get perfected as we put them out there and keep making small changes and improvements. And that's what I'm doing with my podcast. Looking for those improvements to keep making it better and better." Edwin understands the value of pushing through. He understands the long game. I love the way he sees his perfectionism getting in the way, and pushes through anyway. That seven episode benchmark is important. Many podcasters fade away at that mile marker. The honeymoon is over. The shine has worn off. It is now time to produce the podcast for a bigger, more powerful reason than it's fun. This is the point where your purpose kicks in. Define your why and revisit it often. Then, get to work marketing your podcast. Get it to grow. THE MARKETING PHASE That's where Charlie found himself when he reached out to me. Charlie says, "I'm an expert producer but not expert podcaster. We do consistently 300 to 500 downloads per episode. Now is time to market it." Charlie gets it. He has done a great job building the foundation and creating the show. So far he has created about 36 episodes. The party is right. The tables are set and the food is out. It is now time to invite the guests. When your podcast is brand new, it is good that your audience is small. You only get one chance at a first impression. A small audience allows you to mess up without hurting your downloads. You can try things without much consequence. Over the first year, you can refine your content and find your voice. You have the chance to get the show right. Then, the marketing can kick in. Charlie is ready for the next step. He has a solid foundation and has found his voice. He has tried a few things to get the podcast to grow. It is now time to create an effective marketing system to grow the audience. Your show doesn't grow on it's own. It will take some effort on your part. Marketing doesn't take a lot of time and money. When you have a marketing system, you can do it in about 15 to 30 minutes a day without spending money. THE RELAUNCH The last podcaster has gone through both sides of the journey. Dan has relaunched his podcast. It's called Narrowing the Divide with Dan Woerheide. When he emailed me, he said, "I paused a lot over the last 18 months. Much was self-inflicted. I'm now getting back on track and getting motivated. My purpose is to encourage and inspire others. I'm getting back into coaching. I feel connected in that space. My podcast will be one of the outreach efforts." Dan understands his purpose. After the evaluation of his situation, he understands how the podcast fits into the system. Your podcast isn't your system. It is part of the marketing system. If we go back to our example at the beginning, we can understand the journey. Your ideal client will hear you mentioned on another podcast. Awareness has begun. She hears you interviewed on another podcast. Now she might think hmm, that brand sounds familiar. When she next sees you on a summit, familiarity starts to set in. She might download your lead magnet. Next she might see your logo as a sponsor of an event. That triggers memory of the lead magnet that she digs up to review. Your lead magnet gets her to check out your podcast. She listens to a few episodes and starts to understand what you do. Finally, she comes across your Facebook ad. She clicks the ad and takes action to schedule a call with you. Which piece of your marketing worked? THE LONG GAME I was recently on Dan's show. We talked a bit about that next step. Define your why and your purpose. Create your long journey. Understand how your podcast fits into your marketing system. Your podcast doesn't stand alone. It is part of the machine. What are your goals? How are you measuring success? When you can define the measurable benchmarks, it is much easier to understand if you're succeeding. More downloads is a good benchmark. It isn't great. More discovery calls or more registrations for your webinar or increased email list would be better data. This will tell you if your marketing system is working. All of the parts work together to grow your business. There isn't one piece that can stand on its own. Your podcast is designed to build relationships with your listeners. It builds the know, like and trust. And your podcast works hand in hand with all of the other pieces in your marketing system. But none of it will work until you overcome the perfectionism, get started, and push through the valleys. If you would like my help defining the process, let's talk. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

CREATING PODCAST MONEY Many podcasters want to create a profit from their podcast. However, most lack a strategy to generate revenue and grow their business. NO PROFIT FROM MY COURSE When I created my first product for Podcast Talent Coach, it was a complete flop. Nobody wanted it. I started a mastermind in 2013 with 8 of my entrepreneurial friends. We all had aspirations to create successful businesses. Podcast Talent Coach was just getting off the ground. I had also purchased Brendon Burchard's Total Product Blueprint. As I went through the program, I created my plan. The mastermind helped me refine it. My first product was a course. It was the Podcast Talent Coach system. This program was designed to help podcasters transform their information into entertainment and turn their podcast into powerful, profitable relationships. The course was a 7-disc set that covered everything you need to know to create a successful podcast. It had everything I learned over my decades of radio experience being on the air, coaching talent, and programming radio stations. It started with the magic of audio and using theater of the mind. We talked about content creation, storytelling, and getting results for listeners. Disc 2 was about the structure and strategy for your podcast. We then got into content consistency and the power of one-on-one communication. The course included how to prepare for each show to ensure you reach your goals and lead your listeners to your call to action. It covered how to review your show for constant improvement. We then got into generating revenue and using your podcast to grow your business. Finally, the course laid out how to get started and put it all into action. It even had an accompanying workbook to walk you through all of the steps. As you can see, it covered everything. Unfortunately, nobody wanted everything. WHAT TO SELL People just want the solution to their most pressing problem. The more I talked with my listeners, the more I discovered they had two big problems. First, they wanted to grow their show and increase their downloads. Next, they wanted to profit from their podcast. These podcasters needs to master storytelling and content creation. They needed to build an effective structure for their show. However, they didn't WANT it. Sell what your listeners want. Give them what they need. Sell the outcome, the benefit, and the transformation. They don't care about the process to get there. That's when I changed my strategy. I created my Audience Explosion Blueprint program. You can see that at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/audience. I also created my Podcast Profits Accelerator membership. You can see that at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/accelerator. When I started to focus, my business began to grow. YOUR IDEAL CLIENT Begin by talking with your listeners and ideal clients. Ask about their challenges and struggles. Then, create a solution to help them overcome those problems. When you create the solution to their most pressing problems, it becomes much easier to generate a profit with your podcast. Sell the outcome and the benefit. They won't care about the calls or videos or templates. Your potential clients only want the outcome. My clients only want to grow their audience and profit from their show. They don't really care how we get there. The membership and coaching calls and resource library aren't important until they buy into the transformation. Start by having conversations. PROFIT FROM YOUR PODCAST Dave Jackson is the host of the School of Podcasting podcast. He is also author of the best seller Profit From Your Podcast: Proven Strategies To Turn Listeners Into a Livelihood. He launched the School of Podcasting in 2005 and was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame in 2018. Dave joined me on the Podcast Profits Summit to talk about overcoming your challenges without spending thousands of dollars. I want to share that session with you today. To get access to the first chapter of Dave's best seller Profit From Your Podcast: Proven Strategies To Turn Listeners Into a Livelihood, you can find it at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/jackson. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

Have you had little success finding new listeners and growing your podcast downloads? You aren't alone. THE CHALLENGE WITH DOWNLOADS I recently sent an email to my tribe asking about the biggest challenge most podcasters face. Podcasters like you mentioned things like these as their biggest challenges... Finding more subscribers interested in my content I need perfect people listening to my podcast I'm trying all things to increase downloads Learning to build an interactive community What else can I do to grow my downloads I have no email list I need a strategy Have you had similar struggles? You've tried many things. Empty promises is all you get from the webinars you've attended. It is time you get a growth strategy that works. That's why I've turned my Audience Explosion Blueprint program into a powerful 3-day workshop. I shot a video all about it. You can see it at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/audience. During the Audience Explosion Blueprint workshop, you'll develop a REAL strategy to consistently and easily grow your podcast audience. This event will help you quickly and easily explode your audience without the frustration, hard work and guessing. To overcome your growth struggles, join us. You can see all the details and get registered at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/audience. PODCASTS FADE AWAY Podcasts fade away for 3 reasons. Podcasters give up because podcasting is more work than they thought it was going to be. They don't have a system in place to produce their show easily and consistently. Podcasters give up because downloads of their show doesn't grow as fast as they thought it would. They don't have a strategy in place to help them grow consistently. And finally, podcasters give up because the show doesn't make money as fast as they thought it would. They don't have a process in place to grow a business with their podcast. DOWNLOADS WITH SPRAY AND PRAY Let's talk about growing your downloads. Many podcasters approach growing their downloads with a spray and pray approach. They try a million things and wonder why nothing works. Imagine you were trying to lose weight. Today, you try cutting out all carbs. Yesterday, you tried riding the stationary bike for 30 minutes. The day before that you didn't do anything, because you got busy. You tried the Atkins diet the day before that. It was walking around the neighborhood the day before that. You only ate Lean Cuisine meals the day before that. Unfortunately, you missed two days, because you were out of town. But you ate nothing but vegetables the day before you left town. You hit the gym for the first time in 3 months the day before that. This has been going on for 3 weeks and you wonder why you haven't lost any weight. When you dabble in a variety of tactics, nothing seems to work. But when you focus on a few select tactics and work consistently, you have a better chance of experiencing results. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can talk tactics, we need to talk fundamentals. YOUR POWERFUL WHY Why do you want to grow your downloads? A powerful "why" can be inspirational to you and your tribe. Podcasters give me many reasons they want to grow their downloads. It could be to spread your message. Maybe you want to build your authority. Growing your downloads can help you grow your business or market your goods and services. Maybe you want to grow your downloads so you can be a thought leader. Or you're creating a home base for your tribe to find you. Growing your downloads could help you have more impact in the world. Maybe you want to generate more revenue or have a bigger and better reputation. There are many reasons you might want to grow your podcast downloads. And all of these reasons are valuable and worthy. But you can't choose all of them. You need to select a reason that is meaningful to you. The reason must stir the fire inside of you and inspire you. Your why can't be for anyone other than you. When you have a why that stirs you in a special way, it will be much easier to execute your growth plan consistently and effectively. REASONS YOU DON'T Once you have your why, you need to understand the reasons podcasts don't grow. Your downloads may not be growing, because you are not getting in front of new listeners. Find people who are not aware of you and invite them into your world. Greg Payne hosts the Cool Grandpa podcast. His show was featured in an article on grandparents in the New York times. His downloads nearly doubled overnight. When you find pools of your ideal listeners who aren't aware of your podcast, you can tap into that community to really help your downloads grow. The next reason you may not be growing is because you are not keeping current listeners coming back. If you are bringing in new listeners but not keeping them coming back, it's like putting water in a bucket with holes. The bucket never fills. Give people on your email list and your social media followers a benefit of listening to the show this week. Effectively tease next week's episode. Your downloads may not be growing because there is nothing unique about your show in your niche. Share your story and personality to stand out from the rest. Finally, your podcast downloads may not be growing because you are not getting people to actually listen. Downloads are not enough. If people don't actually push play, the podcast will stop downloading for them. HOW MANY DOWNLOADS? What does growing your downloads look like? How many do you actually want? I recommend you focus on quality over quantity. Having an audience of 100 who want everything you offer is much more valuable than having an audience of 1,000 who are only superficially interested. Imagine if you could get on stage in front of 100 people every week and make offers to them. How valuable would that be? That is the power of your podcast. Quality over quantity. Each month, Libsyn shares data about downloads on their podcast The Feed. Last fall, Libsyn said median downloads for shows that have been available for between 30 and 60 days was 139 for shows hosted on Libsyn. That median if you stack all the podcasts largest to smallest, the one right in the middle is the median. 50% have more downloads and 50% have fewer. The adjusted mean (or average) is 1,346. It is adjusted because they throw out top half percent and any show that has 3 downloads or fewer.Only 6.9% of all podcasts on Libsyn had more than 5,000 downloads in the month. Keep your downloads in perspective. Find the right listeners and serve them well. WHERE TO START There is a process to growing your downloads. When you follow this strategy consistently, you can grow your show. First, start growing your downloads by identifying your ideal target listener. Know everything you can about that single individual. Next, determine where those people hang out online. Who already has the attention of those people? You can't attract them if you can't find them. This is the reason you can't attract everyone. It is incredibly difficult to find everyone online or determine who has the attention of everyone. Once you've found them, get in front of those people. Engage those people with your story and personality. Build rapport. When you are in front of them, provide those people a reason to get on your email list. I know it sounds odd. Why don't we invite them to listen to the show? If they listen and don't come back, you can't reach them again. When they are on the list, you can contact them again and again until they unsubscribe. Now that they are on the list, nurture your list and encourage those people to listen to your show. Give them a real reason and benefit. Spend 30 minutes a day following this strategy and growing your downloads. HOW TO GET IN FRONT OF THEM As you implement this strategy, there are a variety of way to get in front of new listeners. You can get interviewed on other podcasts. Swapping email mentions with other podcasters can be effective. I like appearing on summits. You can create a crowdsourced episode full of other experts who can share the episode with their followers. Speak at events to get in front of your ideal listeners. Providing value to masterminds has been effective for me as well. As we talked about earlier, don't try everything. Select two or three and focus with consistency. Give the strategy time to take effect. BUILD YOUR STRATEGY FOR YOUR DOWNLOADS Are you ready to put this into action and build your strategy? I've turned my Audience Explosion Blueprint program into a powerful 3-day workshop. You can see the details at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/audience. Let's work together to build your strategy to grow your downloads. During the Audience Explosion Blueprint workshop, you'll develop a REAL strategy to consistently and easily grow your podcast audience. This event will help you quickly and easily explode your audience without the frustration, hard work and guessing. To overcome your growth struggles, join us. You can see all the details and get registered at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/audience. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

OVERCOMING YOUR CHALLENGE What is your biggest challenge? I asked that recently to podcasters on my email list. On this episode, I'll help you through a few of them. DO THE WORK Whatever your challenge, do the little work daily to build your foundation. Country artist Chris Young is a great example. The first time Chris Young came to town was around 2009. He played in the radio station conference room to about 20 people. This was shortly after he was the winner of the 4th season of the TV show "Nashville Star" in 2006. The next time here in town, he played to a small club with a few other artists for a few hundred people. Over the next few years, Chris returned to town as the opening act for a variety of other artists. Each time he played to a few more people than the last. Finally in 2019, Chris came to town to headline his own show for about 5,000 people. He has done that a few other times since then. Here is a guy that got great exposure on a television singing competition with a big audience. He has put in the consistent and methodical work over time to get where he is today. Other artists on the singing shows don't make it, because they haven't put in the work to create the relationship over time. Just look at the winners of American Idol, like Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks. They didn't put in the work. Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson have been working for years to get where they are today even after their American Idol start. You can't create a relationship in 20 weeks of a tv season. It takes years. Do the work. Get rich slowly. Whatever your challenge, give it time. Let's look at a few of these questions. THE DOWNLOADS CHALLENGE I'm trying all the things to increase downloads. I send out a weekly email and post on social media. I also mention my podcast when it's applicable on music teacher Facebook groups. I've been a guest on a few podcasts. I guess my biggest challenge is not knowing what else I can do to grow downloads. They are increasing but very slowly. Maybe that's normal? Thanks, - Jeanette Yes, Jeanette, that is normal. I know we don't like to hear that it takes time. But, it takes time. Rarely will you see your downloads grow at a huge rate unless you get in front of a large pool of your ideal clients. Greg Payne is one of my clients. He hosts the Cool Grandpa podcast. As he was growing his podcast, he was able to get mentioned in an article in the New York Times. Who reads the New York Times? Typically a lot of people who are grandparents. Greg doubled his downloads overnight. Getting into the New York Times isn't something we can do everyday. However, you can find other influencers who speak to your ideal clients. Those influencers make great partners. To find the influencers who have the attention of your ideal target listener, begin by defining your listener. You can do that quickly and easily by downloading my Ideal Target Listener Worksheet here: www.podcasttalentcoach.com/listener. Keep working both sides of the growth equation. First, keep your current listeners coming back. Your email and social media tactics will help remind your fans to listen. Then, find those new ideal clients and invite them into your world. Get them on your email list, so you can email them as well. The podcast interviews you are doing should help. Let's find other areas to ramp it up. Above all else, create great content, share yourself, and be consistent. THE GUEST CHALLENGE My biggest challenge is getting the guests to share the episode. - Kate This is another common challenge, Kate. We can't expect our guest to share, but it is always great when they do. There are two things you can do. First, select better guests. Next, make it incredibly easy for them. Let's talk about better guests. Dave Jackson at the School of Podcasting is a great guest. When he is interviewed on a podcast, he will play a clip of that interview on his own show. Dave will give a shout out to the host of the show. He will also tell people where to find it. He is a great guest. If you want guests to share your episode, find guests that share episodes. If you see someone mentioning they were interviewed on a podcast, get those people as guests. They know how to share. When you book your guests, let them know up front before the interview that you would appreciate if they would share the assets you send them. Make the expectations clear from the start. MAKE IT EASY Next, make it easy for your guest to share. I was on a call with a client this week. She was telling me her guests weren't sharing the episodes as much as she would like. She told me that when the episode is published, her team sends the guest a link to a folder containing all the graphics and assets along with a link to the show. They then ask the guest to share. The guest has to do too much work in this scenario. As a guest, I need to sift through the graphics, write an email, craft a social post, determine which asset to post, and link to the episode. To make it easier for the guest, write the email for them. Craft the social post for them. Make is as easy as possible with as few steps as possible. Tag your guest in your social posts and ask them to repost it. You are much more likely to get your guest to share if you make it super easy. But at the end of the day, not every guest will share. These steps should help you get a few more to spread the word. THE COURAGE CHALLENGE My biggest barrier is lack of courage to put myself out there. - Leah Impostor Syndrome is real, Leah. We all struggle with it a bit. Regardless of what we are doing, we want people to like us. It's natural. When we understand that there will always be someone who doesn't like what we do, it makes it much easier to do it anyway. We were discussing this the other day with my coach. He was talking about the importance of celebrating our wins. When we review and celebrate our wins, it puts our minds in the right space to do what needs to be done. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the assessment that something else is more important than fear." Nelson Mandela said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." Having the courage to do anything is recognizing the fear is there and then taking action anyway. I find it most helpful to have a written list of successes and feedback from others. Many people have sent me great reviews and testimonials. But like many people, one negative comment can derail everything. That list of positive feedback can help me get and stay in the right frame of mind regardless of what others say. People want what you have, Leah. Take action in spite of the fear. BUILDING A COMMUNITY Learning to build an interactive community around the podcast is my biggest challenge. - Dot Community comes from relationships. Are you sharing yourself on the podcast to build those friendships? Make real connections. When you share yourself, you will find other will tend to share themselves with you. Over time, you community will grow. Next, give listeners a reason to engage along with a benefit of engagement. What's in it for them? Finally, make it easy for them to engage. Tell them exactly what you want your listener to do. On a recent coaching call, my client told me their podcast was not generating any feedback or response. I listened to the podcast to review it. When I got to the end, the host said, "You can email me at the email address, and follow me on social media." Why would I email you? Remember the last time you ran into an old friend? You caught up and had a good chat. When it ended, one of you said, "I'll give you a call sometime." Has "sometime" ever come? I doubt it. You have no reason to call, so the call never happens. We all tell ourselves we need to do a better job staying in touch with our friends. Then we realize a year has passed since we last talked. If you want your listeners to engage, give them a real reason to engage. I have a free resource that will help you. It is called "75 Ways To Drive Engagement With Your Podcast". You can download it for free at http://www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/engage. THE STRATEGY CHALLENGE I'd love to have a strategy in place before I launch, then I know what I'm aiming for! - Ruth Don't let perfection prevent you from starting. If you wait for all the lights to turn green before you step on the gas, you'll never move. On the other hand, having a strategy is wise decision. Start with the end in mind. What do you hope to accomplish with your podcast? Be specific. Let's say you want to grow your coaching business with the podcast. How do people become clients? That might be your discovery call. How do people get to the discovery call? That could be through your lead magnet. Maybe you're a life coach and your free resource is "6 Steps to a Successful Life". When people download your lead magnet, they discover the six steps. You then invite them on a call to see how to implement the six steps. Next, we need to determine how people get your lead magnet. We promote the lead magnet on the podcast. But, we must also create content that drives demand for the lead magnet. Create great content that shows your listeners what is possible when they take the six steps. You might interview people who have done it. You could take a deep dive into one of the steps. The content should demonstrate why people need to take the six steps. Get listeners to envision the transformation. Finally, you need to block out time on your calendar each week to record the show. Treat that block of time with respect. Be consistent. Now you have a strategy. So, let's get started. You can refine the strategy as you go along. But you can't refine anything until you start. THE PODCAST NAME How do you choose a podcast name? How can you verify that that name is not already in use? Is it necessary to trademark your podcast name? Sincerely, - Gordon This is a really gray area, Gordon. Let's take each part separately. The purpose of the podcast name is to get people to think the show looks interesting and might be for them. The Gordon Show doesn't tell me anything about the content or make me think the show might be for me. It would take a lot of marketing and explanation to get that across. You also don't want to be too cool for the room with a show nobody understands. Shows like More Perfect and The Drive really tell us nothing. More Perfect is an NPR podcast about stories from the Supreme Court of the United States. Could you have guessed that? The Drive is about maximizing longevity, including physical, cognitive and emotional health. I was thinking football. On the other hand, it is pretty clear what Your Money Briefing and Secrets of Wealthy Women are all about. The name of your show should make people think the show is for them. ALREADY IN USE Is your name already in use? Google is the easiest way to determine that. There are many podcasts that use the same name. I searched for the Money Magic podcast. Here is the list I found. The Money Magic Podcast with Vangile Makwakwa Money Magic with Patrick von Finanzzauber The Money Magic Podcast with Brady Wade The Magic, Money and Marketing Podcast with Jennifer Donovan Practical Money Magic with Audrey Heesch Magic Internet Money with Brad Mills Mindset, Money, & Magic with Nadeen Martinez Money & Magic with the Witchy Bookkeeper Love Money Magic with Christy Teloh Those are just 9 that are close. There are a ton of other varieties. When choosing a name, be unique to help you get discovered in search. See if your show name is available for purchase as a website URL. That's a good place to start. TRADEMARK WITH FIREMARK Finally, is it necessary to trademark your podcast name? No, it's not necessary. Yes, it is beneficial. A trademark can help you protect your intellectual property. It can also save you from someone else suing you for using their intellectual property if they were to obtain the trademark. There are plenty of benefits to getting the trademark. But it isn't required. Keep in mind that having a trademark and defending a trademark are two different things. Once you have the trademark, you must prevent others from using it. That may sometimes include legal fees. If you don't defend the trademark consistently, it can be difficult to defend if the time comes. That's why many big businesses go after little guys infringing on a trademark. You need to defend it against every use or put an agreement in place that allows for the use by others. I am no legal expert. Consult an attorney before making any decisions. If you want solid podcast legal advice, see my buddy Gordon Firemark. He is the Podcast Lawyer™. You can find Gordon at http://www.gordonfiremark.com. Tell him I sent you over. QUESTIONS Great questions this week. If you have a question, you can always email me at coach@podcasttalentcoach.com. If you would like a little more personal and powerful guidance, and you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, apply for my free strategy call. Go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. There is no charge. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

CREATING A POWERFUL PODCAST MESSAGE Your message can be powerful when you clearly understand whom you're targeting. A message designed for everyone reaches no one. MIXED MESSAGE I was on a podcast strategy call with two nurses the other day. They help healthcare practitioners decrease anxiety and stress, calm down their inner voice and enjoy life. Their goal is to bring resilience to humanity. Part of their curriculum is continuing education for healthcare providers. As we talked, we realized most of their clients are nurses. Though doctors and other healthcare providers can benefit from their content, nurses make up the majority of the revenue. We often get scared of losing a client. People tell me, "Yeah, but I can help them, too." I understand you can help everyone. However, you don't have enough time to help everyone. You also don't have enough time and money to market to everyone. The biggest problem with trying to help everyone is the clarity of your message. CLEAR RESULT If these two try to create content for everyone, how can they possibly frame the content for nurses and doctors? They have different needs and pain points. A surgeon comes in for about an hour. They are in a very high pressure situation for a short burst. Then they move on. Nurses have a little less pressure, but it is consistent. The pressure lasts for their entire eight or ten or twelve hour shift. When these two hosts try to speak to both doctors and nurses, the examples are mixed and the solutions are blurry. The content can be much more powerful when they focus on nurses alone. By focusing on nurses, the listener understands exactly what we are offering. She can see it is exactly what she needs. And, she has clarity on how it fits into her life. The listener can envision the results, because the examples are clear. She says, "I can relate – that sounds just like me." MISSING OUT By focusing on nurses, the hosts might miss out on a few doctors enrolling in their program. But, they will make it up by increasing the number of nurses that enroll. Let's say 80% of the clients are nurses and 20% are doctors. Let's also assume we have 100 clients. That would give us 80 nurses and 20 doctors. Now, let's say focusing only on nurses changes both sides by 20%. We lose 20% of our doctors and gain 20% more nurses, because we are now perfect for nurses. We would now have 96 nurses and 16 doctors. Our total number of clients just increased from 100 to 112 or 12%. They don't have enough doctors to lose. There are many more nurses to gain. When you narrow your message and focus, you will provide more clarity. You will gain more listeners and have more clients. Download your Ideal Listener Development Worksheet for free online at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/listener. YOUR MESSAGE Today, Janelle Anderson joins us to help us ensure our message isn't just heard, but felt. Stir emotion with your message. Janelle Anderson is known as the Speaking Confidence Coach for coaches. She is a Certified Professional Coach, author, and renowned speaker. Janelle is on a mission to empower coaches to launch on a strong foundation of clear messaging aimed at the audience most aligned with their passions and strengths. She helps coaches grow their business through masterful speaking and storytelling with her business, Emerging Life Coaching. I recently shared my message on Janelle's summit. She was recently a guest on my Podcast Profits Summit. This is that conversation. Be yourself. Your authentic message builds trust. You can download Janelle's Niche Discovery for Coaches for free at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/message. https://bit.ly/nichediscoveryvideos If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO GROW YOUR PODCAST? If you're like most podcasters, one of your biggest challenges you want to overcome is how to grow your podcast. I hear it often. Today, I want to help you dive deep into audience growth. IMPORTANT LINKS Here are links to those resources mentioned in this episode: Libsyn – Audio host for podcasters – https://libsyn.com The Feed – the official podcast of Libsyn – https://thefeed.libsyn.com Alex Hormozi – https://www.acquisition.com/bio-alex Dan Kennedy – Magnetic Marketing – https://magneticmarketing.com Taylor Swift – https://www.taylorswift.com Big Machine Records – https://www.bigmachinelabelgroup.com Podcast Strategy Call – https://podcasttalentcoach.com/podcast-review-questionaire/ Send me an email at coach@podcasttalentcoach.com. MAKE THEM CARE In this episode, we dive deep into the challenges faced by many podcasters when it comes to growing their listenership. You receive invaluable insights into why some podcasts stagnate and what you can do to overcome these hurdles. We start with the critical importance of making your audience care. Provide unique value in your episodes. Infuse each episode with authenticity and stay true to yourself. We discuss strategies to build a relationship with your listeners, such as cleverly weaving your episodes together and harnessing specific tactics designed to not only attract but also retain a dedicated audience. TWO SIDES There are two sides to the audience growth equation. To grow, you must spend time attracting new listeners. Then, invest time keeping your current listeners coming back episode after episode. Maintain regular contact with your existing listeners to keep them invested in your podcast. Reach out frequently. While many podcasters dream of reaching a staggering 5,000 downloads per episode to successfully sell ads, the sobering statistic is that only 7% of podcasts hit those numbers. That is according to Rob Walch at Libsyn. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY The quality of your audience is more significant than sheer numbers. Therefore, it starts by identifying your ideal client. Identifying your ideal target listener and developing content specifically tailored to their interests and needs is key to cultivating a meaningful connection. I share a few stories from my radio career, illustrating the importance of forging a genuine bond with listeners. It starts by being your authentic self, as mimicking others won't create the same loyal following. Being relevant, interesting, and true to your identity are the cornerstones of developing a consistent audience that returns each episode. You can't please everyone - it's better to focus on resonating deeply with the right people. STRATEGY VS. TACTICS You need a strategic approach to audience growth. There is a big difference between having a strategy – an overarching plan – and the tactics – the individual actions within that plan. I'm creating a workshop to help you grow your audience. I want to ensure it is extremely powerful for you. When it comes to increasing your downloads, what is your biggest challenge? Send me an email and let me know at coach@podcasttalentcoach.com. Let's grow your show the right way and for the right reasons.

HOW DO I GROW MY PODCAST? When it comes to growing our podcast, I get many questions about podcast promotion. How do we get in front of new listeners and invite them into our show? On this episode, we'll answer a variety of questions about podcast promotion. PODCAST GROWTH EQUATION There are two sides to the podcast growth equation. A larger audience involves keeping your current listeners coming back week after week while you are attracting new listeners to your show. If you are only promoting your show on social media and to your email list, you are only speaking to people who already know you. This does very little to grow your audience. However, podcast promotion on social media and to your list is important to keep your current listeners coming back every episode. So, keep it up. To grow, you also need to get in front of new listeners who are unaware of you. Invite those people into your world, so you can increase the number of listeners. As we go through these questions around podcast promotion, we'll start with some fundamentals around structure and process. We'll then talk about visibility. Finally, we'll get to when and what to promote. Let's jump in. PUBLISHING DAY What day of the week and what time do you release your podcast episodes? I'm about to launch my new podcast and I want a set date and time for when I release my weekly episode. -Craig The great thing about podcasting is that it is on-demand entertainment. People can consume it whenever they would like. The day and time your publish your show isn't nearly as important as your consistency. Be there when they are ready to listen. People are creatures of habit. Get them in the habit of listening to your podcast. I listen to my favorite podcast on Saturdays when I am working around the house. I believe he publishes sometime on Friday morning. In fact, he records the show on Wednesdays. Unless your podcast is dealing with current events that would be dated in a few days, timing isn't critical. It really doesn't matter to me when my favorite podcast publishes. I only care that he is there consistently when I'm ready to listen. That consistency builds trust with your audience as well. Pick a day and time. Then, stick with it. SHOW NOTES Does anyone read show notes? I personally don't read them on podcasts I listen to. I write a simple episode description for ours but don't really add anything else. Should I be putting more detail in? -Tim Yes, you should probably add more detail. Your show notes really serve three purposes. First, your show notes should provide the important info from your episode that your listeners might be seeking. This info could be links that you mentioned in the show. It might be the lead magnet you were offering or a book you referenced. Your show notes could offer a bulleted list of points you made during the episode. Maybe you were talking about the top 7 tools you currently use. Listeners might come to your show notes to find that list. The next purpose of your show notes is Google juice. When you create SEO-rich show notes, you make it easy for Google to find you. Spending a little more time adding detail to your show notes will improve your SEO. Use strong keywords and optimize your notes as much as possible. The final purpose of your show notes is accessibility for those with disabilities. It is important to make your podcast content available for those with hearing and vision impairments. The best way to do this is with a full transcript. Changes in iOS 17.4 include support for auto-generated transcripts in the Apple Podcasts app. However, transcripts will only be available for English, French, German, and Spanish-language podcasts. Adding more detail to your podcast will make it easier for those with disabilities to consume your content. There are many benefits to putting in a little more time and effort into your notes. INCREASE VISIBILITY FOR PODCAST PROMOTION How can I increase my visibility? How can I leverage my podcast into other platforms for podcast promotion? -Edwin Visibility is key to podcast promotion. There are a variety of ways to gain visibility. The method you choose show fit two criteria. First, the method should be something you enjoy. Next, it should be a method that moves the needle and effectively grows your audience. Start by determining who already has the attention of your audience and where your audience congregates. If you help coaches, you might consider being on summits where coaches come to learn. For business-to-business companies, consider getting involved with trade shows in your industry or networking events. Joint venture partnerships are great for reaching online businesses. For simple podcast promotion, I like getting interviewed on other podcasts. In fact if you have room on your show, I'd love to be a guest. Shoot me an email at coach@podcasttalentcoach.com. If your niche has conferences and conventions, work to get on stage as a speaker. When you determine who has the attention of your ideal listener or client, you can partner with those experts to get in front of their tribe. In his book The Power of Cult Branding, author BJ Bueno says people like to be different together. Harley Davidson riders like to gather at Sturgis. Star Trek fans get together at Trekkie conventions. Figure out where your ideal clients congregate. When it comes to repurposing your content, YouTube is a fantastic search engine. Record the show on video. Use the audio as the podcast. Repurpose the video on YouTube to get discovered. YouTube helps you get discovered. Your podcast helps you build relationships with your listener. Opus.pro is a fantastic tool to create captioned videos for a variety of platforms. WHEN TO PROMOTE For podcast promotion, is it best to promote it instantly, or is it okay if the the promos spread over 4 days? For instance, Monday I release the podcast. On Wednesday I would do social media posts. Then Friday I would send an email promoting podcast. Or, does the email need to go out on the same day the episode is published? Will this even affect the success of the podcast? -Nakita Most downloads come in the first 48 hours the podcast is released. That is simply because the podcast is downloaded to their phone. Just because it is downloaded doesn't mean they actually listen. I like to spread the podcast promotion over the course of the week to remind people to listen to the episode. When I publish my episode on Saturday, I also post on social media to let everyone know it is available. On Sunday, I send an email to my list notifying them the episode is live. Then, I share other assets on social media throughout the week. This includes quote cards, caption video and audiograms. In my Podcast Profits Concierge program, you get a full week's worth of social media assets to use throughout the week to promote the episode. You can see those details at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/editing. Play the long game, and don't try to game the system by artificially inflating your numbers. Consistently work to grow the audience while reminding your current audience to listen to your latest episode. SHARE YOUR LINK WITH PODCAST PROMOTION Which link do you share on social media and in your email newsletters? The YouTube link or the audio-only link? -Wendy I share the audio-only link. My goal is to get people to subscribe to the podcast. As we discussed, YouTube is great for discovery. When they find you on YouTube, get them to subscribe to your audio-only podcast. This is where you will build powerful relationships with your audience. When you publish a new video on YouTube, I might get a push notification if I am subscribed to your channel. If I don't listen, that video gets lost in the mix. When you publish a new podcast, it is on my phone until I listen, you publish another episode, or I don't listen to your show for more than a few episodes. In that last case, the podcast simply stops downloading until I start it again. Ideally, you will get your listeners on your email list. This will allow you to nurture the relationship. You can also email your list each time you release an episode. People are listening to your podcast for companionship. They typically listen with earbuds or headphones and most often alone. They don't want to be alone doing whatever they are doing. You are there right along side of them. This is how relationships are formed. Video simply doesn't have that power. There is something magical that happens when you stir visions in their theater of the mind. When you activate the imagination, it becomes personal. Your relationships get stronger. You build that know, like and trust. When it comes to podcast promotion, promote the audio-only link. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.