Beyond The Spotlight: Jess Milanes

Talk about amazing women. How did you love my interview with Frenchie Frenzy? She, right, like, I knew I promised you good people coming on. Today I have another one, my friend Jess, who is like the queen of all podcasts. If you ask me for someone who is going to help you get your podcast off the ground, this is my person. So I'm going to bring her up. I can't always see the screen. Here she comes. There she is.

Hello, hello, how are you, my dear?

I'm good, my friend, how are you?

I am doing so well on this beautiful day here in Michigan. I don't know what it's like in New Jersey, but well, good weather's coming your way.

Oh, that's good. That's good. I'm excited about that. I know you did. I don't know if you heard the top, but I was like, this is my podcast person. If you ask me who can put your podcast together for you, you know, I send you everybody.

Yes.

So I'm so happy to like dive in. So I'm calling you the podcast guru, but tell everybody about who you are and what you do. Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm Jess Milanis. I am the CEO of Smart Podcast Solutions, um, which We are a podcasting agency that helps create quality content for audio and video podcasts. My background is actually I started a podcast back in 2019 and fell in love with the content, fell in love with the medium, and I had some personal stuff get in the way. We could talk a little bit more about that if you want to. And then I put everything to the side, but I opened up my doors in 2022. And have just loved supporting female podcasters in getting their story out. And I am on a mission to democratize access to podcasting in this world. And I have a dog too, and he will probably bark as well. So we will just have a barking dog session.

I love it. I got my little clicker, so hopefully he won't bark. Um, you know, I appreciate you bringing up that you had to take a break and that was hard but okay for you. Would you mind talking a little bit more about it?

Yeah. So So my podcast originally was actually all on women's health and fertility. My husband and I struggled to get pregnant. We had been trying for about 3 years, and at that same time, I was a little unhappy with my job, my corporate job. And so I was trying to find new ways to express myself and maybe be on the online atmosphere or environment. And I got a hit, a download, whatever you want to call it, I should start a podcast. And so I started a podcast called Real Talk Women's Health and Fertility. Um, and it was really to destigmatize the conversation around women's health. And I fell in love with everything about podcasting, and it was such a healing journey for me to share my infertility stories with the world and then share other people's infertility stories and other women's health diagnoses. With the world and just built this amazing community. In fact, one of the, the people that listened to my podcast is actually a client of mine now, which is mind-boggling.

Awesome.

So then in October of 2019, we were told that we would never get pregnant naturally and IVF was not an option. So I put everything on pause. And took a little bit of time to grieve. And then 30 days later, we found out that I was pregnant naturally. And if you're doing the math, November 2019 meant that I was pregnant during the pandemic. Gave birth to my daughter at 29 weeks gestation in May of 2020. And so that was a whole nother story. Life just got really weird, really chaotic, really hard for a while. And so I just put everything to the side for 2 years. And then once she was 2 years old, I said, I am ready to come back to me and pursue my passions. And here I am.

Well, I know we're so grateful that you have that little girl. She's adorable. But I appreciate you sharing your story because I don't think we— I don't think I've ever actually publicly talked about this, but I had to take a break in 2020. My father-in-law unfortunately was taking out the garbage and was hit by by a driver. And he passed away a couple of days later. And since I live around the corner, I got a call that I had to go over— like, come quick— and to see what I saw and to watch what happened. I was traumatized for a really long time.

How could you not be? Oh my god, Beth.

You know, I just— something I don't really talk about because for no reason other than it just doesn't come up. But I think that on Instagram and on— Facebook, I looked really great, right? I look like I have this huge business, because what I did was I just kind of took all of my content and put it on auto while I laid in bed and watched TV for probably 8 months, because I just couldn't get— you know, I would like get up when the kids would go to school and come get up when they would come home, but I was like in bed for the rest of it, because I just couldn't. I just, I couldn't until, like you said, one day I was like, I think I'm ready, and I joined a mastermind, and I met some friends, and they helped me get through it, and I wrote a I wrote about it. But I kind of left it. It's something that keeps coming up for me. And that I think that talking about resilience and persistence and positivity and allowing me to be able to come back from that— because a lot of people don't come back from what you had to deal with or something like what I had to deal with. They don't. And then to not only do that, but be visible and share your story and talk about yourself every day and talk about what you do every day. It's something that I think we all need to talk about, just like we all need to talk about fertility. And we all need to talk about what's going on in Alabama right now.

Oh my God. Don't even get me started.

Do not even get me started. I know. I shared an infertility expert this morning talking about it. So if anyone didn't see it, please go back and see it and see what's going on in Alabama and how we have to support other women that are in other states that aren't getting the same things. Rights that we get. So that's a whole different conversation. But, you know, podcasting has become a healing place for a lot of people. I actually did do some podcasts in 2020 where I was talking about it. And I was, you know, I was being open about it. And it sounds like your podcast really helped heal you as well.

It really did. I mean, it was almost like a verbal diary in a way. I mean, there were, there were a lot of vulnerable moments in there where I very I processed the, the painful moments that we all go through as women that struggle with infertility. There's these invasive, awkward procedures and, you know, you can make light of it, but that's also people who are maybe like a little bit further away from the moment that it happened. Usually what would happen is I would go have this procedure done and I would come home and I would sit in front of my mic and I would record and say, hey, this is what's going on. This is how I'm processing. Let me know if you felt this way too.

I got the chills when you said that. I did, because I can imagine the distraught feelings that you were having and being able to put it out there. And I know millions of other women, because what is there, 100,000 new podcasts every month? Millions of other people, you know, are creating podcasts. But like, what do you think someone actually needs to know before they start a podcast?

Oh my God, this is such a great question. So I really think that you need to understand two, two core points. First, you need to understand what is your podcast for, for you? Why are you doing this? What is the mission? Why are you showing up? Is this going to be connected to your business in some way? Is this going to be a funnel to bring leads in, or are you using this as a hobby, a creative expression, a way to build community. There's so many different ways that you can frame podcasts these days. So that's question one that you need to get really clear on. The second thing that you really need to get clear on before you even think about starting a podcast is what is my audience going to get out of this? Because you can just, you know, sit in front of a mic and read the ABCs, but like, people do.

Maybe somebody will listen to that.

I don't know. But what are they going to get out of it? Are they going to learn the ABCs? Are they going to learn your unique cadence? Are they going to learn your accent? Like maybe you have a very unique accent that is a voice coach and they need to learn how to say certain things.

I don't know.

There's so many different ways that you can look at podcasting, but you need to understand what you're going to get out of the podcast and what your audience is going to get out of the podcast. And through that, you then create the content that keeps you and them showing up.

That's really interesting because I actually went to a podcast meetup last night.

Really?

Yeah, in New Jersey. Otherwise I would have invited you. But it was, it was interesting the amount of, um, knowledge people didn't have. And a primary question was like, how am I going to make money out of this? And I was like, well, it's not really a moneymaker until you are really into the process of it. It's really how you fit it into your business model. Can you talk a little bit about how you see successful people fit it into their business model?

Yeah. So it's really a marketing arm to your business. I like to think of podcasts as that top of funnel marketing. It's another way to build in that brand awareness, that thought leadership, but it's so much more intimate than a blog post, than a 90-second reel on Instagram, than a LinkedIn blurb. Is you in, in somebody's ears that they consistently choose you weekly, biweekly, daily, whatever cadence you choose to post on. It's, it's this intimate way of them choosing you and you getting to learn, or them getting to learn more about you and your skill set and your expertise. So with that being said, I It's that top of funnel marketing. It's a way to bring people into your sphere, and then you want to call them in from that top of funnel into that middle of funnel. So your call to action should actually be, get onto my email list, or follow me on Instagram, or something else that's a really juicy nurture to get them down to that conversion point. And that's really how you make money. And The other thing that I want to say, because I've run a few webinars on this, um, podcasting advertisements are like bonkers. They are so, so successful. Um, and I really, really advise all my clients to do advertisements from day one for your own stuff.

Oh, right. So run your own ads.

Run your own ads for a freebie. Run your own ads for a digital product. Run your own ads for a course. It's so easy to just insert that in and make sure that everything's trackable so you know where the traffic is coming from. But there's something like, I think it was 95% of United States podcast listeners take action on a podcast advertisement. Really? 95%.

You never have 95% of anything happening in the digital space. 95%. So is this something that you really hone in on, on your VIP day of product launching? Because I know you have a whole day to product launch. Wait, I think I remember you telling me that it doesn't take that long to post a podcast or to launch a podcast. Is that something you're doing in the VIP day?

Yeah, so the VIP day is just podcast launching. Um, I'm not talking about, you know, monetization or, um, or growth or anything like that, but that is stuff that I can help you with on the back end. Um, the VIP day podcast launch is really where we're going to take— it's a system where I take you from idea podcast idea to earbuds in 24 hours. So I just like download all the information from your brain on what you want your podcast to be. I write out scripts for you, your intro, your outro, your trailer. I will write up a beautiful keyword-rich show description. I'll find music that fits the vibe. And then we meet for about 2 hours. We record, you go on with your day, and then I do all the editing and I get everything set up on Apple and Spotify. And typically we see the, the podcast appear that same day.

Wow. So if you have an idea about having a podcast and you don't want to wait and you're like me, like, let's go, then that's the VIP day for you. So that makes me curious because how do you know, or how do you gauge really a good podcast idea?

Ooh, oh my gosh.

Well, I mean, the reason I ask that is because most people stop their podcast, right, 10 episodes in, they're like, this isn't working. So yeah, I wonder how you are like, this is what you should be going with, or this is what is a good idea.

Well, I mean, I think it's, it goes back to your mission, right? Why are you doing it? And why is your audience going to continue to show up? So when you answer those two questions, that's what's going to keep you going. The other thing that's going to keep you going is the support because because podcasting is just such a, it's a content engine. You just constantly are churning out content. So you need somebody to come in and really support you in doing audio editing, maybe some show notes or social media stuff, all that stuff. And so that's what Smart Podcast Solutions is great for, or there are other podcasting agencies out there. But I would say most people give up too soon because they don't know what their actual mission is. They think it's gonna be fun, they think, which it is, don't get me wrong, but they just think it, like they'll throw something up and everybody's gonna come and it is a long game. It is not something that, you know, the first 2 episodes people are going to come flocking.

No, I did about 45 episodes and then I was done. Yeah, yeah, I did weekly episodes, which probably for me was not the best idea. Um, and, but you know, I wasn't getting the downloads that my online digital marketing piece of it was getting. And instead of, right, instead of continuing with the podcast, I continued with other things to build and grow. But now I'm feeling like I'm going to take all of this, these interviews that I'm doing and rip the audio and make these my new podcast. It's the same name. It's— I can put it back on Lisbon. But, but what you're talking about is like, I have to think about what the mission and the vision is differently and how, right? Because people are learning, talking, listening to what you're saying, because now they're like, oh, I can make a podcast in a day and I have to have an idea with a mission and vision. But what do you think it actually is makes a successful podcast? Meaning getting those downloads, growing that audience versus something that's not so— that's like mine didn't do that well in the framework of I didn't have a lot of downloads.

Gosh, I mean, I would actually assert that downloads are great, right? We love downloads. But did you impact some lives? Like, did people reach out to you and say, hey, Beth, I loved this this episode, like, hey, this really made a difference, or like you created some sort of community, right?

Not, you know, I was getting more feedback from other podcasts that I was on versus my own, and that's really why I think I stopped doing it. And like, I, you know, I started in 2022, 2021, and I think I had like 5,000 downloads over the last 3 years, you know. Well, not great numbers, but I also, I don't think I had the influx But I love doing it and I actually would really love to go back doing it, but understanding a better way to make it happen. And that's why I need to get into your calendar.

Yes, yes, we definitely need to talk. And there's some stuff that I have coming up later this year that I think will be a great fit for you.

Tease it, tease it, tease it. Tell us a little bit.

Oh gosh, okay, well, so there is Adam Shobley of the Podcasting Business School. He was at Podfest. I don't know if you're familiar with him. No. Well, he is an amazing podcast growth marketer, and hopefully he doesn't shoot me for revealing this publicly, but he is opening up a certification program for podcast service providers. And there's going to be a small beta group of us that are going to be going through this. And I am going to be one of those people starting on April 2nd. So I am going to be basically learning from the master that has taught so many people how to significantly grow their show and take their shows from just hobbies to money-making machines.

That's what we all want, right? We wanna put love into something that's actually gonna get us somewhere. So before I let you go, I would love to hear some mistakes because whenever I do these calls, people, people love to hear the highlights, but they also want to hear the things they're doing wrong. What are the top 3 mistakes that you see people making in this space?

Oh gosh. OK, so the first one, you're always talking too far away from the mic. Everybody thinks that I am right now. And I am like, you're so far away from me. But the microphone actually should be like right here. It should not be all the way over here. It should be very close. Um, that's mistake number one. Mistake number two, I would say, uh, come up with a content plan, understand what you're launching and when throughout the year, and create content that builds up to those launches. So that you can really build this energy. And I mean, you know, you know this. So like, I've seen a lot of people who just turn things on and they're like, hey, I'm gonna launch this thing next week. And then all of a sudden they're like, oh shit, like I forgot to mention this in this week's podcast episode. Can you go back and fix it? And like, yeah, we can, but you also just missed out on like 75% of your downloads are not gonna hear it. So having a plan, Knowing your content plan going in, like, that's just, just have a plan. Makes everybody's life better. What are some of the other mistakes that I often have to deal with?

But I like that one you mentioned about not having a plan, because I'm a launch squad kind of girl. You know, that's what I tell my clients no matter what they're doing, because people come to me, they're like, well, my book comes out next month. What should I be doing? And I was like, you should have called me 6 months ago. And she started teasing it out, telling people. Like, I don't understand why people want to keep these things a secret where it's about bringing people along for the ride. So maybe that's, that's another mistake is that they think they're surprising everyone versus— I always say to my clients, make coffee. Let your people see you make coffee. So why aren't you letting them see you create this podcast or tell them, hey, I'm working with Jen. There's a podcast coming out in 3 weeks or whatever, you know, whatever it is on their side.

Well, the other thing too, like that brings up another thing, is let people see you make the mistakes. Let people see you fumble. I am also going to be launching my own podcast this year, and my whole thing is actually going to be watch me build it and watch me make the mistakes. So like, people want to see that stuff. They want to see the behind the scenes. They want to see the nitty-gritty. So show them your nitty-gritty. Be authentic.

Yeah, I'm fully with that. OK, but now I want to know what kind of press we're going to get you so that you can make sure that— because I think podcasters— and one of the reasons I was at Podfest is because podcasters don't think they can get media.

Yeah.

Or if they do think they can get media, they try to make it a commercial for their podcast instead of whatever their podcast is about and using that as the messaging to get out there.

Yeah.

So I'm with you on that. I think it's really— And podcasters are such a lovely group of people, right?

We don't want to distract. Yeah, we're great.

I love you.

This has been so much fun. We definitely need to talk about what sort of press that my podcast is going to get out because there's going to be a whole new rebrand this year. Smart Podcast Solutions is going away.

Okay.

Something new is coming. And it's going to be messy. It's going to be fun. It's going to be me.

Well, you know, I love messy and fun and I love you. But I think it's so important. And because I think that what's happening in this whole digital marketing space and what we are in is about let's see the messy. Let's like tell you I burnt dinner. Let's be on this vacation together. It's not that like the, you know, everyone hates the bro marketing, but does it? Yeah, it's not— it's right. It's not about the hooks and about that stuff anymore. I was actually talking this morning on another interview with Frenchie, like, I've stopped scrolling. I literally go to my friend list and I'll look at your stories and I'll look at your post, but I can't be scrolling anymore because it gets in my brain and it gets in my heart and it's too much. But I— everyone— not everybody— a lot of people are having this conversation about, like, it's not about the rinse and repeat. It's not about the step-by-step. It's by small experts who have small programs who are actually going to get into your business and actually help you like you do. Like if I come to you with a bad idea, you're going to help me make it a good idea instead of being like, oh, here's the system, go do it.

Yes. Yeah. And I have the perfect limited series podcast idea for you that could be a great lead magnet for your business.

Oh, okay. I'm excited.

So we'll have to talk offline.

We will definitely talk offline. So Those that are listening, I know you have fallen in love with my friend Jen. If you are thinking about a podcast or even have an inkling of an idea, DM her, send her an email, get on her list. She can actually help you because if you ask me who to help you, she's the one I'm sending it to. Jen, thank you so much. All your information will be in the show notes so that they can come find you. And yes, let's talk offline.

Yes, thank you, Bethany. It's been so great chatting.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming to the Behind the Spotlight. Don't forget to download my newest opt-in, which is the 5 Proven Subject Lines to Get You Booked on Any Podcast. It's the formulas you need to get those emails open. Thanks so much. Bye, Jen.

Bye.