MBA1103 Guest Teacher: Kate Erickson- How podcasting can help grow your business

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Hey O. Welcome to the $100 VA Show. Pump up the volume because we got good business vibes coming at you every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a guest teacher episode. On our guest teacher episodes we invite an expert to teach their area of expertise. Today we have Kate Erickson from Entrepreneurs on Fire and she'll be teaching you how podcasting can help grow your business. Entrepreneurs on Fire is a multi million dollar business and a hit podcast. Actually they won Best of itunes the year before we won it. And Entrepreneurs on Fire is also known for being the first daily business podcast. It's one of the top business podcasts around the world, hosted by John Lee Dumas and Kate is his better half in life and in business. John and Kate have built an incredible business with Entrepreneurs on Fire and it all started with their podcast. And in today's lesson, Kate's going to show you five ways five steps to how a podcast can help grow your business even if you don't have a business yet. As always, this one is jam packed with value. So let's get into it. Let's get down to Business. Your guest teacher today, Kate Erickson, is one of the most dynamic and knowledgeable speakers and teachers in the business and podcasting space. Nicole and I have known Kate Erickson and her partner John Lee Dumas for some time now. Six years, actually. Can't believe how fast time flies. And we've been good friends since, in fact we used to be neighbors back in the day. The their business and their website, Eofire is an explosion of value. In fact, you're gonna get access to a free podcasting course today, courtesy of Kate and John. Now, I mentioned their site is an explosion of value because they have an incredible amount of knowledge under their belt, especially when it comes to podcasting. Entrepreneurs on Fire and their community. Podcasters paradise is basically the go to place everybody goes to to learn how to podcast. Looking for you. Kate's here today to show you how podcasting can be leveraged to help grow your business. I'll be back to wrap this all up and to give my takeaways, but for now, I want to pass the mic to Kate Erickson. Take it away, Kate.

Hey guys, what's up? I'm Kate Erickson and thank you so much for joining me today. Today I'll be teaching you how podcasting can help grow your business. So let's get down to business. So check this out. When John launched Entrepreneurs on fire back in 2012, he had no idea what to expect. Within six months, he had listeners reaching out to him, asking him how he did it, how he started a podcast with zero broadcasting experience, no online presence and no existing brand. Since we've helped thousands of podcasters launched their own podcasts and we've turned Entrepreneurs on Fire into a multimillion dollar business thanks to the multiple revenue streams we've created. But it hasn't been easy. If you already have an existing business, then you're a huge step ahead of where John was back in 2012. Because you already have a foundation, a brand, and potentially a few products and services that you're offering your audience, you have a huge opportun opportunity to add podcasting to the mix for big results. And if you don't have an existing business, then podcasting can help you get started with building an audience who knows, likes and trusts you. This is key because it's your listeners who will ultimately tell you exactly what they're struggling with most. And that's when you have an opportunity to create the solution in the form of a product or a service. No matter which boat you're in, you already have an existing business or you don't have an existing business yet. I'm going to walk you through five steps that will help you grow your business with podcasting. Now you can think of podcasting as an extension of your brand, a new way to reach your ideal customers on a worldwide scale, build a stronger connection with them and and all when it's most convenient for them. Step number one if you don't already have them, set three big goals for your business or for your future business if you don't have one yet that you want to accomplish over the next six months. And make sure they're smart. That is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Just a couple quick examples. Maybe you want to increase your email list by 100 subscribers in the next two months. Or maybe you want to work on creating a brand new free course that's going to provide massive value to your subscribers and that's going to lead them to a paid course that you're creating. Your goal might be to have 300 people opt into that free course over the next two months. Step number two based on those three big goals that you've set, create a call to action for each that will drive your podcast listeners to exactly where you want them to be. You're going to rotate these calls to action at the beginning and at the end of each one of your podcast episodes. These calls to action might only be 15 to 20 seconds. They don't have to be super long, but they should tell your listener exactly what their next step is. An example might be hey guys, I just created a brand new free course all about X, Y and Z. If you claim your spot in this free course, by the end of it, you will accomplish X. Head over to my website.com to claim your spot today. You want to make sure the URL that you're using to drive people to this page is super easy for them to remember, because podcast listeners aren't always in a position to take immediate action. They might be on a run in their car, are or again, just not in the position to immediately go to that URL. So you want to make sure it's something that they can easily remember. Step number three is to track key metrics to ensure that your calls to action and the funnels that follow them are working. Now this brings us back to making sure that our goals are smart. Because whatever it is that you're measuring to make sure that you're going to hit your goal when you said you would, that is the metric that you want to be Tracking here as an example, if your call to action is asking your listeners to go to your website and opt in for a PDF download, and you go to check the stats on that to see how many people have opted in, that number of people opted in would be your key metric, and nobody's opting in. Then it's time to start doing a little re evaluation around your call to action and what it is you're offering your listeners. And this leads us right into step four, which is optimize your calls to action and funnel based on the tracking that you're doing. If you need to tweak something or even completely pivot, don't be afraid to do it. This is such a critical step because being able to look back on the behaviors on the metrics that you're tracking and recognizing whether or not something's working is going to be key to your success with accomplishing the goals that you've set. So let's say that you're tracking your key Metrics on getting 100 more email subscribers in the next two months. If you're one month into that process and you only have 20 email subscribers, then it's time to either optimize the call to action or the content that you're offering up. Maybe the way you're describing your opt in and your call to action isn't grabbing your listener's attention, or perhaps it's the content overall. Really take this time to reevaluate whether what it is you've created is actually something your audience wants and needs. And step number five is to rinse and repeat. Growing your business is a constant and podcasting is an incredible tool to help you do it. If you continue using this five step process for promoting the amazing content, products and services you have to offer to an audience who knows, likes and trusts you, then the sky's the limit. Let's go ahead and recap those five steps one more time. Step number one, if you don't already have them, set those three big goals for your business and make sure that they are smart. Step number two, Based on those three big goals, create a call to action for each that will drive your podcast listeners to where you want them to be. Step number three, make sure you're tracking those key metrics to ensure that your calls to actions and the funnels behind them are working. Step number four, Always be optimizing. If you need to tweak something or even completely pivot from where you started, don't be afraid to do it.

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P.com podcast and step number five rinse and repeat. Alright guys, thank you so much again for joining me today. I'm Kate Erickson and this was a lesson on how podcasting can help you grow your business. And if you want to learn more about podcasting, check out our completely free podcast course. It's over@freepodcastcourse.com and now back to Omar.

What a great, great lesson by Kate Erickson. I love how she emphasizes the that podcasting is like a marketing channel. It's like a branch of your business. And that's how we see our podcast. Another way to look at it is seeing your podcast as a product, as one of the products that you sell. And instead of selling your product for money, you're giving people your podcast or delivering podcast episodes for attention, trust and loyalty. Podcasting is a very intimate kind of medium. When people listen to your podcast, you're in their ears. You have a personal connection. If you listen to a podcast for some time, you feel like you know the host. And when you go back to the podcast, it's like you're visiting an old friend. It's hard. You can't buy that kind of connection. You got to grow that connection. And this is where you're building so much trust. So that when you do make a call to action, you ask them to sign up for your newsletter or for your ebook, or for your latest launch. They're happy to check out your website, they're happy to check out your latest products, they're happy to to get on your mailing list because you've earned that. You've earned that trust with them. Again, it's like a transaction. You want trust, you want an audience. You're going to get that in exchange for great, valuable content through your podcast. This podcast, our podcast 100 All NBA show, has opened so many doors for us in our business. Ones that you really can't quantify. Opportunities, introductions, connections, opportunities to speak on stage. I can go on and on, but you get the point. Podcasting is a lot of work. It needs dedication and patience. But like anything in life, anything worth any value is going to cost you something. You're going to have to pay some sort of price. And in this case, it's effort and perseverance. And when you put that kind of investment into a podcast, it's going to come back in your business. And I love how Kate formulated a nice step by step system on how to get started with that. Now, don't forget, they're giving away a free course on getting started with podcasting. It's freepodcastcourse. Com. Now, when I say free, I mean free. There's no opt in even. You don't have to even give your email address. The course is right there on the page. A course created by John Lee Dumas and Kate Erickson, the people that have created a incredibly successful podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire. Over a million listeners a month that has allowed them to build a business that generates over a quarter of a million dollars a month. So take up that opportunity. And of course, don't forget to check out their podcast and subscribe. Entrepreneurs on Fire. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show and thanks to Kate Erickson for that dynamite lesson. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're excited about starting a podcast that is great, you're joining a very fun and elite club, welcome. But the people that make it in podcasting are those that grind it out, that keep trying, that keep going, that keep trying to improve. Every time you step up to that mic, think to yourself, I want to be better than last time. It's a long road. Those who are successful are the ones that persevere. So keep that in mind. Jonli Dumas and Kate Erickson, you know from Entrepreneurs on Fire, that podcast started in 2012, and they didn't have tremendous success at the start, but they kept at it and they were able to grow the show and therefore grow their business. So be patient and be a little stubborn. You know, don't give up so quickly. All right, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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