With more than 1 million shows in Apple Podcasts, how can you make sure your show stands out? 

 

On Podcasting Step by Step, I talk you through my 5S framework for creating the kind of irresistible podcast that builds your brand, increases your influence, and connects you to your community on the deepest level.

 

Use my 5S test to audit your existing podcast or as a pre-launch blueprint for creating a bingeworthy, brand-building podcast.

 

sarahmikutel.com

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

Hello, it’s the end of summer in my part of the world, and I’m in the States visiting my parents.

 

So Podcasting Step by Step will be taking a little vacation.

 

I’m also taking this time to do a little refresh of the podcast. 

 

New intro and outro. New music. New bonuses for you.

 

And I’d encourage you to take some time in the next week or two to evaluate your own podcast.

• What do you love about it?
• What feels heavy that you want to change? Is there something you can stop doing?
• Are you happy with the frequency and the length of your episodes? 
• Do you want to change your call to action on your show, or introduce one if you don’t have one yet?
• Do you want to add or subtract a segment?
• Have you asked your audience what they’d like to see included? 

 

Speaking of, are there any episode ideas that you’d like me to cover on this podcast? Something I haven’t covered before, or maybe it’s time to revisit a certain topic. 

 

Find me at sarahmikutel.com and let me know. 

 

OK, I’ve got some brilliant guests coming on in a few weeks who you’re going to love. I can’t wait to share those with you. 

 

But for now, I’m signing off and I will see you in September. 

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

After you’ve been podcasting for a few months, you’re going to start attracting a global audience.

 

How you communicate with them can make or break your relationship, and on Podcasting Step by StepI talk about the three things you need to do to nurture a show that grows beyond your borders.

***

Live Online Training: Podcast Interview Perfection 

 

Does this sound like you?

 

You started your podcast to show up as a leader, but now you worry your interviews make you look like an awkward robot. 

 

Breaking the ice with online guests you’ve never met feels forced.

 

Your conversations sound like job interviews. The kind that make people nervous.

 

If you feel sick before an interview and pray the guest cancels last-minute so you don’t have to do it, congratulations on being a totally normal human being. 

 

Most of us aren’t born with amazing interview capabilities. It’s a skill we learn.

 

And developing your interview skills is essential if you want your podcast to portray you as both an expert in your field, and as someone your listeners want to work with.

 

May I offer you a shortcut to dramatically improve your podcast interview skills?

 

You are invited to a live online training Podcast Interview Perfection. 

 

In this training, you will learn how to:

 

• show up like a leader during the interview and guide the conversation so your audience gets the most out of it
• find your ideal podcast guests and get them to say ‘yes’ to coming on your show
• set up your podcast guest booking system
• come up with great questions and outline a show that deliver the most value for your audience
• prevent podcast guest no-shows
• break the ice with your guest and begin the interview in a fun way that puts your guest at ease
• record remote interviews that sound great (all the tech simplified)
• interview with confidence even if you’re a rookie
• get your guest to promote their episode
• and more!

 

After the training, you’ll have the opportunity to ask any interview questions you want. You’ll also have the opportunity to submit questions before the training so that they can be incorporated into the workshop.

 

Grab your spot at sarahmikutel.com/podcastinterviewperfection

 

Do you feel like your podcast is taking you way too long to produce? Or maybe you haven’t even launched yet because just starting seems endless?

 

Parkinson’s Law might have something to do with it. And today, I’m going to teach you how to break the law. 

 

In this episode, you'll learn how to speed up your podcast production process by:

• Setting real deadlines
• Time blocking
• Finding ways to hold yourself accountable

 

***

Live Online Training: Podcast Interview Perfection 

 

Does this sound like you?

 

You started your podcast to show up as a leader, but now you worry your interviews make you look like an awkward robot. 

 

Breaking the ice with online guests you’ve never met feels forced.

 

Your conversations sound like job interviews. The kind that make people nervous.

 

If you feel sick before an interview and pray the guest cancels last-minute so you don’t have to do it, congratulations on being a totally normal human being. 

 

Most of us aren’t born with amazing interview capabilities. It’s a skill we learn.

 

And developing your interview skills is essential if you want your podcast to portray you as both an expert in your field, and as someone your listeners want to work with.

 

May I offer you a shortcut to dramatically improve your podcast interview skills?

 

You are invited to a live online training Podcast Interview Perfection. 

 

In this training, you will learn how to:

 

• show up like a leader during the interview and guide the conversation so your audience gets the most out of it
• find your ideal podcast guests and get them to say ‘yes’ to coming on your show
• set up your podcast guest booking system
• come up with great questions and outline a show that deliver the most value for your audience
• prevent podcast guest no-shows
• break the ice with your guest and begin the interview in a fun way that puts your guest at ease
• record remote interviews that sound great (all the tech simplified)
• interview with confidence even if you’re a rookie
• get your guest to promote their episode
• and more!

 

After the training, you’ll have the opportunity to ask any interview questions you want. You’ll also have the opportunity to submit questions before the training so that they can be incorporated into the workshop.

 

Grab your spot at the early bird rate at sarahmikutel.com/podcastinterviewperfection

 

“Some people naturally seem to be storytellers who are more expressive vocally than others, but that doesn't mean that there aren't skills and tools that you can learn to have more control over your voice and to have more fun with it, and to really use it as a tool for self-expression in a way that still feels natural and authentic,” says Andrea Klunder, my guest on Podcasting Step by Step. 

 

“It just comes with knowing what to play with and giving yourself permission to go there and experiment and see what feels good for you.”

 

In addition to being a pod expert, Andrea is classically trained in voice. In our episode together, she teaches us how to

* warm up our voice

* improve our posture

* speak with more energy and clarity

* take care of our bodies

* and more

 

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

“I hate hate my voice.” 

 

So many aspiring podcasters say this. But do they really hate their voice? Or is something else going on here?

 

On this episode, I dig into how to become more comfortable with your podcast voice.

 

Don't miss next week's episode, which will be a deep-dive vocal training on how to enhance your natural voice (which sounds great, by the way).

 

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

Today is podcasting 101 for new and aspiring podcasters. If that is you, then welcome to the podcasting family. 

 

I’m sure you have a ton of questions, which is why today I’m speaking with Buzzsprout’s Priscilla Brooke.

 

Buzzsprout is a podcast media host and Pricilla is part of their customer support/customer happiness team, which means she spends all day answering podcast questions.

 

I asked her to join me on Podcasting Step by Step to discuss the most frequent questions that new podcasters ask. 

 

We cover:

• Why you need a podcast media host
• What an RSS feed is 
• How to get into Apple Podcasts
• Why, when hit publish, you’re not seeing your latest podcast episode in Apple Podcasts and other directories right away
• How to improve your audio quality 
• What you should podcast about 
• How to get paid via affiliate marketing
• And how to switch podcast media hosts

 

I’ve gotten to know the team at Buzzsprout over the last year and I love their customer support and how easy and innovative their podcast hosting platform is.

 

I moved one of my podcasts over there and have been incredibly happy with their service.

 

If you are trying to decide which podcast host to choose, I recommend going with Buzzsprout and you’ll hear more about why in this episode.

 

If you want to try out Buzzsprout for free visit sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout 

 

And as a listener to this show, you will get a $20 Amazon gift card if you sign up for a paid Buzzsprout plan. Joining through my link helps support Podcasting Step by Step.

sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Today’s interview with Jasmine Star will blow your socks off. There is just so much meaty goodness that I can’t wait to share with you.

 

I originally wanted to talk to Jasmine because she is the queen of Instagram — literally every business owner I know follows her — and I knew she’d share really good strategic and tactical advice to make Instagram work better for you. We do talk about this, but...

 

I’m even more excited to share how Jasmine used her podcast to make her latest launch of Social Curator such a smashing success.

 

In case you don’t know, Social Curator, which I’m a member of, helps small business owners elevate their social media presence and overall strategy for doing business on social.

 

In this episode, you will learn:

• how Jasmine used her podcast to prime people to buy during her latest launch of Social Curator;
• her podcast strategy, including who her ideal listener is and the kind of content Jasmine’s creating to help and empower her — and how this content is evolving;
• the difference between Jasmine’s free and paid content;
• The importance of having an email list to nurture your audience, and more.

 

And, we talk about Instagram, of course, and Jasmine shares a strategy to help us stay consistent on social media and tells us how to talk about our business without hard selling people all the time.

 

Are you a business owner who wants to use your podcast to make your next launch even more successful?

Download my Business Pre-Launch Podcast Strategy Cheatsheet.

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout

Do you ever feel like the rest of the world knows a secret that you don't about growing an audience?

Like when you're in a Facebook Group and someone humble brags that they just started their podcast and already have 100,000,000 downloads (this statement is usually followed by the online equivalent of Bambi blinking his eyes all innocent-like and saying, "I don't know, is that good?")

And then you start to feel crummy. “What am I doing wrong?” 

 

You’re not doing anything wrong. It takes time to build your audience, but some podcasters start out with a larger following because they’ve built one up on their blog or social media or maybe they are a celebrity of some kind. 

 

Also, some podcast categories will always have a bigger audience than others. True crime and comedy will always have more downloads than an obscure hobby podcast.

 

Having said all that, we all want to grow our audience, and in this episode, I break down the three ways to do that. 

 

But let’s jump to the spoiler: The most effective way to grow your show is to guest on other people’s podcasts. 

 

The bad news? Lots of people are pitching pods. The good news? Most of these pitches aren’t good. 

 

Would you like to cut through the noise and learn how to get podcast hosts to say yes to featuring you?

 

Check out my new online course Podcast Pitch Perfection (I’ve got a special offer waiting for you).

 

My guest today is Danielle Desir, host of The Thought Card travel podcast and founder of WOC Podcasters — that’s Women of Color Podcasters.

 

Danielle actually started her podcasting community before she started her podcast, and she shares that brilliant story in today’s episode.

 

WOC Podcasters now has 3,000 people in its Facebook Group, and you’ll learn how Danielle is nurturing and growing this community.

 

Danielle’s mission with this group is to amplify the voices of women of color podcasters, and we talk about how you can get involved in this mission.

 

P.S. Did you know that getting on other people's podcasts is the best way to grow your own show? If you'd like my fluff-free success plan for getting on podcasts, I have a special offer for you at sarahmikutel.com/podcastpitchperfection 

 

***

Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together.

Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there. sarahmikutel.com/buzzsprout