THE POWER OF PODCASTING IS BUILDING COMMUNITY When it comes to building community, there is nothing more powerful than your podcast. We often talk that people do business with those they know, like and trust. It's all about building community and rapport. (See my next workshop at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/workshop.) BUILDING COMMUNITY I was on the radio one afternoon and suddenly developed a case of the hiccups. It happened while the mic was open and I was on the air. There was not much I could do about it at that point. I said, "If this keeps up, this is going to be a very long show." Two days later I was a hockey practice with my son. Two moms came up to me and said, "When you got the hiccups the other day on the radio... that was the funniest thing we ever heard." Being human and sharing our authentic self on the podcast is how we build friendships. When your audience listens to you episode after episode, they get to know you and really building community. WHY PODCASTING Podcasts and audio in general are a very personal medium. People are usually listening to you with headphones. When you are in their earbuds, you are having a very personal, one-on-one conversation. Only they can hear you. If you say something on your show that makes your listener laugh, people will wonder what they are laughing about because nobody else can hear you. It is that kind of personal connection that starts building community. Video doesn't have that power. What I see on video you see. Nothing left to the imagination. We also "perform" on video. It is a little more difficult to be ourselves. It simply isn't natural. With your podcast, we are in a room alone talking intimately to people we cannot see. We aren't worried about what we look like. It is just a personal conversation building relationships. YOUR FUNNEL As you're building community with your listeners, you can get them started down your funnel. Being your authentic self on your podcast build the rapport. Your audience begins to trust you. When you then offer your free resource or make a call to action, your audience is more likely to act upon that request. Your podcast is a powerful way to grow your email list when you're using the show for building community. JEANETTE SHOREY Let me show you how it works in real life. Jeanette Shorey was on my Podcast Profits Summit to share how she uses her podcast to grow her business. I want to bring you that conversation here. Jeanette Shorey is a National Board Certified music educator with over 25 years of experience. She is an Arts Integration Specialist, an instructional coach, a National presenter and a mentor. Jeanette mentors music teachers through The Happy Music Teacher Academy. She is the author of resource books and the creator of The Happy Music Teacher Podcast. She uses her podcast for building community and growing her business.   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.

Jeanette Shore on Building Community – PTC 475

If you're looking to grow your podcast audience, radio and podcast veteran Erik K. Johnson helps you transform your podcast information into entertainment that keeps your audience coming back episode after episode.

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USING PUBLICITY TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE To grow your audience, you need to consistently attract new listeners. Marketing your podcast requires publicity and public relations. YOUR PUBLICITY Publicity is defined as notice or attention given to someone or something by the media. Getting on other podcasts could be considered publicity. You're leveraging media to draw attention to you and your show. The average podcast listeners consumes around 8 different podcasts each week. To draw attention to your show, get on other podcasts. But you can also use other media as well. My client Greg Payne hosts the Cool Grandpa podcast where he helps grandfathers connect to their grandchildren in more powerful ways. Greg was featured in an article in the New York Times. His monthly downloads doubled overnight. That New York Times article led to another article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. Get outside of your insulated circle and find other media who can highlight you. THE ART OF PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations is defined as the state of the relationship between the public and a company or other organization or a famous person. Use publicity to improve your public relations. You know I'm big on relationships. The rapport you're building is the foundation of all sales. There are a variety of ways to let people get to know you and build those relationships. Getting interviewed on other podcasts is my favorite way. But you can also share your story in newspaper interviews, magazine articles, blog features, Facebook lives, YouTube video interviews, and any other opportunity you can find to get in front of your ideal target listeners. MAKE IT EASY To get others to interview you, make it easy. Post your speaker sheet on your website for easy access. You can see my speaker sheet on my website at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/speaker. When people are interested in interviewing you, direct them to your speaker sheet. This will contain how they will benefit by interviewing you. It also lists the best ways to contact you. A speaker sheet helps you appear professional and organized. It will make it easier for people to contact you for publicity. I'm always looking for opportunities to be interviewed. If you would like to have me on your show, let's see if we can find a time to make that work. Email me at coach@podcasttalentcoach.com and let's make it happen. JILL LUBLIN To help you with your publicity and public relations, I'd like to share this interview I did with Jill Lublin. Jill is an international speaker on the topics of Publicity, Networking, Kindness and Referrals. She is the host of the "Jill Lublin Show" and author of 4 Best Selling books. Her latest book, Profit of Kindness went #1 in four categories. Jill is a master strategist on how to position your business for more profitability and more visibility in the marketplace. She is CEO of a strategic consulting firm and has over 25 years experience working with over 100,000 people plus national and international media. To make an even bigger impact, Jill also leads a conscious kindness community. Enjoy my conversation with Jill Lublin. Such a great conversation with Jill Lublin. You can grab her free publicity action guide at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/jill. Grow your audience by getting in front of new listeners. Find new people you can invite into your audience. Get started this week.   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.

Jill Lublin on Guerrilla Publicity – PTC 490

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.

Is Content Really King? – PTC 489

Connecting With Your Personality – PTC 488

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.

Marc Mawhinney – The JV Partnership – PTC 487

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.

Jeanette Shore on Building Community – PTC 475

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