How a Podcast Can Save You 10 Hours a Week on Marketing

Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm your host Nikita Williams, and this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative Thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey, and on this podcast you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. Hey guys, welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. Um, this is another solo cast that I will be doing for you guys today. Um, I always feel weird starting off with a solo cast, like my introductions, if you guys can't tell, they're awkward and weird for me. So anyway, um, this episode is going to be about 3 questions you should be asking yourself should you decide to start a podcast. Before I get into that topic, I just wanted to share a little bit about my week. Um, I was in the hospital a couple days ago because I, um, had some kind of virus, but it threw like all my chronic illness stuff into like crisis mode. I feel like everything is usually at a 4 or 6 for me pretty much, I feel like, every day, but this past weekend. I was like over the scale, like there's no measure for it. And I had a fever, which is completely out of the ordinary for me. So I've been, you know, just trying to recoup and rest and do what I can and rest. I mean, that's the best thing, the best medicine you can do or can have, on top of some of my hefty-duffy essential oils that are amazing. But really, it's just a matter of time. And so I'm I'm sorry this episode is probably coming to you late on Friday afternoon because I recorded it Friday morning. I haven't gotten to the point of batch recording yet, so I know that is something I'm working on, so bear with me. But I don't want to disappoint and not show up on Fridays like I promised that I would, so here I am. So I did a live about this topic, not really like specifically these 3 things, but I just I was thinking about my journey with this podcast. I cannot believe it's been almost a year since I started the podcast. And in the last 6 months, really, have I really just dug in and started reaching out to amazing guests. I have so many amazing guests coming up, you guys. I'm super excited for you guys to hear them. So I wanted to share a little bit of the things that I've learned along the way. And I figure a lot of people are thinking about podcasts. They have become even more popular than blogging, I think, to an extent. Blogging will always, I believe, have a place online, but if you're a creative business and especially if you are a spoonie, which by the way, that is a new term for me. It was a new term that I discovered while doing some hashtag research for my business, and if you're like, what is a spoonie? You definitely need to check out Mrs. Kristin Christine Messerandino. I'm sure I'm saying her last name wrong. She is a blogger and she talks about her lupus journey and things like that, and she coined this, this, this, this name for women who deal with chronic illness, just trying to figure out how we have to manage our energy and what that means and what that looks like by using spoons. So you definitely check out the blog post on this. I'll put it in the show notes so you guys can take a look. But yeah, so as a spoonie or chronic endo warrior, I have found podcasting to be a really great way for me to create content. And to be consistent. And so I'm going to talk about 3 questions before I get into that, that'll kind of COVID some of the stuff that I'm, I'm starting to talk about right now. So here we go. The first thing is you need to decide whether or not your audience is on podcasts. And I know that sounds weird, it's kind of like social media, you need to decide where your people are. And the question is, are your people on podcasts? Are they listening to podcasts? Are they on Spotify? Are they on iTunes searching for their next, you know, listen that they can listen to while they're multitasking, working, working out, going, dropping the kids off at school, etc., etc. Um, that's one thing I had to decide, um, for me was, were creative women online? Now, to be honest, podcasts were not really a thing for me. Like, I was— I didn't know really much about it. My husband is the one who encouraged me to kind of take a look at it after I explained to him, like, I do not want to blog because I'm not a writer. And he said that I should definitely check it out. So, um, and then another client of mine— not even a client, she's like really just a great cheerleader— she was telling me that, yeah, you definitely need to get in podcasts. And the more women I started talking to in my business when I was doing like all the hands-on digital marketing pieces were telling me, yeah, I listen to podcasts all the time. And I was like, really? I thought that was like a dude's thing. I did not know that that was a woman's thing. But of course, that was my mistake. It is a huge industry and there are lots of people listening to podcasts. And if you go to Medium or if you go to Buzzsprout or any podcast things, if you just Google this information, you'll see that it's one of the top trending ways people are engaging with their audience, it's through podcasting. So definitely check out to see whether or not your people that you serve and that you want to connect with are actually listening to podcasts. Now, before I go into step number 2, you know, something else might be in your mind, and this is just, just have to deal with, you know, kind of sort of like for me when I first started this journey of the podcast, I was thinking, should I be doing this? Like, can I you know, what am I doing? Like, I don't know anything about podcasts, and it can be really scary, but you really can do it. It's something that— it's actually one of the best decisions I've made. It's really helped me in my business to clarify who and what I want to talk about, who I want to serve. Which leads me to number 2: do you want to do it? Like, that's the question you need to ask yourself. Do you want to do a podcast? It's kind of like the reason why I had to ask my question— ask myself the question whether or not I wanted to start a blog. I started a blog mostly because I needed to create content, and it's true, I still think blogs are useful, especially for SEO purposes, but I'm learning more and more about that. But I'm just not a bloggy person, and I don't like to write. I like to read. I love— I used to love to write. You know, it's so funny, as a kid I used to love to write, to write poems, and I write in my journal. I do love writing in my journal, and I love writing to-do lists. But I don't necessarily like to write about like marketing. I feel like there are tons of marketing blogs, there's tons of how to do this and how to do that things. I just felt like I didn't have anything more special to say because I don't like to write like that. So first of all, you need to decide, is this something you want to do? And for me, podcast was a great way that one, I could serve my audience with information and pieces of me, even when I'm interviewing people. And then if I wanted to, I could repurpose that content and create a blog post about it or use that in my show notes. So there were so many different reasons that I thought podcasting could work. Plus, I could connect with women. And I was super excited about that. There was no strings attached. It was multifaceted in the fact that it would serve both, both my audience and the other person's audience because we were creating value for everyone that would listen. And so that was one of the things I had to decide, do I want to do this? Now, believe it or not, there's some other things you need to consider. This is a very time-consuming thing. Like, it's not an easy thing to do. To be honest, it's work. And it doesn't have to be as much work as I make it because I do all of my production stuff myself. I record, I edit, I create my sound clips, I create my graphics, I do the show notes, I do everything really. And for me, it was more of a cost-effective way for me to do it. And also, I really like to know what goes behind something. So the day that I decide to offload this to someone, I know what I'm looking for, I know what to expect. And I kind of have an idea, you know. I don't like giving things to people to do and not have a clue what's happening. So for me, that was something to consider. It's very time-consuming, but for me, I'm at home, you know. I'm at home. I'm, you know, usually in my little corner of my room, and I'm doing this work, or I'm in bed with my heating pad. You guys know I love my heating pad. So, um, there's always— there's a lot of things to do. But if you want to offshore this to someone you definitely can offshore— not offshore, outsource this to someone else. You definitely can because there's lots of people that are out to do it with varying budgets. You can have some people do your editing, or you can have some people do your show notes or everything. You know, it's a whole production type of line of things to do. And if you want more details on that, let me know, you guys, because I can definitely do more podcasts about, you know, starting a podcast, what I do to get my guests, what I do for my editing, what kind of tools I use, or maybe I'll just do like a free guide or something for you guys one day. But I'd love to hear what you guys think if you want to hear more about this subject of podcasting. So that's something to consider. And also, if you're like, I just don't really know if I want to do it, it kind of seems interesting, kind of seems cool, I think you should try it. Just try it a couple times and see if you like, you know, the results of it. Do you like the, you know, recording and talking with someone and like having someone edit it for you? Or if you're going to edit it yourself, go ahead and try it and see if that's kind of something you want to do. And the reason why I'm saying why you should decide if this is what you want to do— consistency is the biggest thing in podcasting. Um, it's been said that most podcasts start and end at the 10th episode. 75% of them don't go beyond 10 episodes, and I think it's because one, they realize how much work it is, and they feel like, oh man, I didn't get like thousands of followers like we're wanting to have, or so many listeners. This is a slow burn, you guys. Um, this is like a very much go slow to go fast in the sense that it takes time to build an audience. What's beautiful though about building the audience is that over time they become more loyal and they start to share and reach out to you, and you know that they're listening based on the feedback you get. Um, it's a beautiful thing. I, I've only been doing this for almost a year, and honestly, in the last 6 months I've been the most consistent because I, I am launching something or dropping an episode every Friday, and I've gotten emails, I've gotten Instagram messages. It's so cool to have people reach out to me and they're not like, I don't know how they're, you know, I asked them, how did you find me? Oh, I was looking on a podcast or somebody shared something with me and I looked you up. And it's just super cool that way. But it didn't happen after like 5 episodes. And thank goodness, because my first 5 episodes, they were amazing content and amazing value, but I edited them. And yeah, I probably should have used a professional. So But I'm still learning. I do not know everything there is to know about podcasting, but I'm definitely, definitely learning over time. So just want to, you know, try it out. Ask yourself, do you want to do this? Think about the reasons. You know, for me, I'm a very list person, so go ahead and write out a list of pros and cons on whether or not you really want to do this. And lastly is number 3, and I think this is huge because I've listened to a few podcasts and in the beginning I didn't, I didn't listen to really much of any because I didn't want to copy anyone else. I wanted to be me. I wanted to be authentically me. I didn't want to be skewed by anyone else's approach to podcasting, especially because I had no idea what I was doing. So I didn't want to kind of start being like other people and start asking questions and all that kind of stuff. And now I listen to podcasts occasionally because I feel like I keep learning more and more things about myself when I do podcasts in general. So I feel like I know who I am when I'm on here, um, and in general just how to, you know, share my story and everything like that. But I didn't want in the beginning to kind of lose that before I even began. So I definitely think that number 3 is very important. Number 3 is to be ready to be able to be open. Like, you need to ask yourself, am I ready to be honest and share, you know, a little bit more about what I'm going through? Like, seriously, am I really ready to share my authentic self? Like, are you ready to do that? Because I have listened to a few podcasts where I feel like, I feel like they're not really telling all the facts, you know what I'm saying? Like, they're really not I feel like sometimes it's a little bit of fluff, it's a little bit of, um, I don't know, it's not everything, but it's like it kind of feels staged, um, scripted. You know, some people do a lot of scripted podcasts. I don't know how they do that. Um, to me that seems like way more time and work that there needs to be, um, especially for business stuff. Um, I get it for like shows that are doing like, um there's like crime ones and like story ones and all that other stuff. But when it comes to business and life and coaching, I find that just really sharing it raw really connects the best to your audience. So anyway, question is, are you ready to be able to share? Are you ready to share, you know, parts of your journey, parts of your story? And guys, I'm not saying share everything. Share what you're comfortable with and make sure it's real, you know, make sure it's actually are part of who you are. And when you're getting ready to share something, ask yourself, am I okay with this being out on air? Am I okay with other people listening to this? Because honestly, people are gonna judge you whether you do it or not, um, whether you say what you're gonna say. It's pretty much like anything you put out there, especially if you have a blog or if you do social media. You have to be willing to be real, and because nobody wants fluff anymore, no You know what I'm saying? Like, you have to be real when it comes to sharing your story, especially on a podcast. And sorry about my voice, you guys. I don't understand what's going on with it today, so it sounds a little husky. Anyway, so that's the 3 questions. So, um, let me go back to what they are. The first question is, is your audience on podcasting, right? Like, are they listening to podcasts? Is your audience listening to podcasts. The second question is, do you want to do this? Like, really? And then the third question is, are you willing to share and be open? And your guests, by the way, need to be the same way. You need to ask them that question before they even get on there. I know I asked my guests that question, you know, is there anything that I shouldn't ask you? And that's fine. Like, I don't have any problems with that. There's some things I'm not going to tell you guys, to be honest. I'm just being real. But a lot of things I share a lot, especially when it comes to my endo journey and my endo story, it's just therapeutic for me. And I feel like it could be therapeutic for other people. And I have actually seen that where I've had women reach out to me to say that, thank you for sharing that part of your journey and your story, because I thought I was alone, or I thought that this was just me. I didn't know anybody had felt that way, were saying those words to themselves. And you said it out loud on air, and it really touched me. So you have to be ready to share whatever it is that you're willing to share, but to be honest about doing it. So tell me, you guys, you know, if you want to hear more about this subject about podcasting, like I said earlier, do you want to know, you know, what tools I use? Do you want to know how do I find my guests? What kind of questions do I ask them? What kind of things do I do to get started? My setup, all that jazz, you know, let me know if you guys want to hear more about that. Thank you for tuning in. As always, you guys are amazing as my She is Crafted to Thrive tribe. If you haven't joined the email list, you should. You definitely should join the email list. So go on over to sheescrafted.com and join that email list so that you guys know when the next episode is coming up and, um, who's the next guest going to be and all that jazz. And I'm also working on some freebies and resources and deals for you guys. So you definitely want to join that list because they'll only be brought out to you guys that way if you're on my email list. So thank you so much for listening, and yes, you are crafted to thrive.