Episode 153 - Deirdre Tshien On Balances Between Ai-Driven Content And A Genuine Human Connection

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, this is exciting. I have been loving my podcast. I've had it for a year and I'm sort of doing things now to up level it. In the beginning, I was pretty messy and not at all systematic with anything I was doing. Did not have a mic, really for the first hundred episodes, and have been just starting to expand into all the things that my podcast can do for me. And that's actually how I met my next guest. She created this amazing AI program to help basically give content automatically by just uploading your episode into it and it spurts it out in all these different ways. And I've been slightly obsessed with the emails she sends because I get to know her through the emails and all the things that she's going through. And I see we're shared introverts, so that's exciting. I'm sure we'll probably dive into that a little bit as well, because I think a lot of people think you can't get into podcasting if you are an introvert and what that does for you. And so anyway, I just thought we. I'd bring her on and we could talk all about how she created this amazing program that's actually so unbelievably well done to be able to just, in one single upload, you can spurt out a million different pieces of content and dive into that and then just see what else might come up from this conversation. So I am welcoming Deidre to the show. Hey, Deidre.

Hi, Stacy. Thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, I'm so excited because I don't even understand how you built this platform. It's the coolest thing to be able to just upload an episode and then all of a sudden it's everything from quotes to posts to emails, it just spurts it out.

Yeah, I. Yeah, it's been a journey for sure, let me tell you that. And I'm excited to get into it if that's where you'd like me to start. Just kind of.

I'd love to capture.

Yeah, cool. Okay. So similar journey. It's so funny when you were saying that you've been enjoying your podcast for.

A year and only now that you're.

Really thinking about uploading. I had a very, very similar story where I had no idea what I was doing when I started my podcast. So this was over close to three years ago now. And I did it because I had a coaching business and my mentor was like, you need to start publishing and he was like, so you can either go onto YouTube, you can write a blog, or you can podcast. And I'm like, well, I don't really love the thought of having to look at myself on screen. I don't, I don't love writing. I have fun with the emails that I send out because I feel like I can just talk to you, talk to one person. But it's not. Blog post writing isn't the thing that I love. But, you know, podcast, I was like, I listen to podcasts, so maybe that's a natural thing. So I started it and oh my gosh, it was, you probably know the struggle. You're trying to figure the things out. You're one week, it's like such a triumph just to get something published and out there. And then very quickly it's like, oh, this thing's not making me any money. How do I actually grow this thing? How do I actually monetize this thing? And that's what happened for me really quickly because my coaching business wasn't making any money. And I was like, I don't know how to turn this thing on. How do I actually get leads? How do I actually convert them? And so I actually went through months of trying to figure this out and I was so close to pod fading and all of that as well. But I kind of self talked. I was self talked to myself and I'm like, okay, you have to decide and you have to commit and you have to go all in on particular things and particular strategies. So the first thing is you've got to commit to the channel, the thing. And I was like, hey, well, I've already started this podcast. If it's not podcasting, what else is going to be? What else? What other better way is there to find your voice, find your message and connect with people? There's literally no other medium out there that is better than podcasting. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to commit, I'm going to go in on podcasting. And then the second thing was I go, okay, well if I'm going to do that, how in the world am I going to actually get people to find it and discover it and actually want to buy from me? And so I went on this whole journey of trying to figure out discovery and what's really interesting, because I did. And just as an aside, I've been an entrepreneur now for 10 years. And when I started it, I grew my first and second businesses off the back of Instagram because we rode that wave of like, how Instagram Grew. So my initial thing was like, social media. That's like, that's my natural. You know, I'm going to get on social media and they say, I'm going to grow my podcast. And that just wasn't happening because as we know now, social media is incredibly saturated. And in fact, it only accounts for 2% of website traffic in all of the website. World wide web, it's 2%. 64% is through search. And so I was like, oh, okay, so I need to really nerd out on this thing, which is really overwhelming, by the way, this thing called SEO. Although I don't want to do this, I don't want to. SEO seems incredibly overwhelming. But I forced myself because again, I'm like, you got to commit. You've got to go all in on figuring this stuff out. So I did. And through that process, actually, we created what we call content dripping strategy. I mean, content dripping is essentially. There's two things to it. There's you trap and we. We trap. We call them content honey traps. And that's really. In short, it's like, how do you create so much curiosity that someone is compelled to press play on your podcast episode? And then number two is we delight. So we trap and delight. And delight is through how do we give so much value to our audience that they want to spend so much time with us? And they come to. By doing that, they come to know, like, and trust us. And so six months later, I actually started. I launched my coaching offer for the third time, and I started actually getting stripe notifications coming through, which was exciting. And I'm like, what in the world? This was the first month, actually. We did over five figures. $25,000 we did in that month for our coaching business. And when I asked my new clients what made them decide to invest, they were like, well, I've been listening to a podcast. I mean, reading your emails, I've been reading your blog posts, watching your YouTube videos. You give so much value that I felt guilty for not paying you.

That's pretty cool, right? So then when I figured out that this content dripping strategy is what is so powerful, is what works to get you discovered, but then also nurtures someone into a sale, I was like, but it takes so much time. It was burning me and my team out to do this. And I was like, I don't know, how do we make this sustainable? And so that's how capture came about. Because I honestly was like, I need to create something for myself. And, you know, as generally as you want to solve a problem for yourself. And then I was like, well, so many people can actually get so much out of this as well. Yeah.

So just for the listeners, I want to make sure they're hearing it. So, pretty much, you started your podcast, it wasn't producing any money, but at the same time, you're doing a coaching business, which also wasn't producing any money. And then all of a sudden you started doing this content dripping strategy. And between the combination of just being a coach, having a podcast and doing the content dripping was when you started getting coaching clients. And that's when you started making five figures a year. Because they're hearing it on the podcast, they're seeing the emails from the content dripping, and then they're saying yes to you because of the value you're providing.

Yeah, it was five figures a month, actually. So in that first year, I did over $223,000 in my coaching business. So multiple six figures. Yeah.

And then for the listeners too, for Captcho, because I sort of explained it in the intro, but I'd love you to explain what it is and what it does, for sure.

Yeah. So in short, Captcho, you upload your audio or video file and in under 10 minutes, it creates your title description, your podcast website content. It gives you a full transcript, social media captions, social media posts, and thereby it's promotional engagement and educational social media posts that you get a full blog post, LinkedIn article, YouTube description. It pulls out quotes for you all in under 10 minutes. It does that for you.

And that's what I think is so incredible, because by you spending, whether it's 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, however long your episode is, maybe even two hours, who knows? Whatever your episode is, you just upload it and then in 10 minutes you have spurts of all the different ways you can repurpose everything. And then it's just figuring out, how do I put it on these channels. But you have it for whenever you need it.

Yes. Now we are very intentional. Say it's. It's a first draft. It creates a first draft for you because it is AI. It was written by AI. And the thing that we know definitely from a search perspective or really any perspective, is that you have to bring a humanness to it. There's no other way around it. So I get really. I cringe a little bit whenever I read something that I know capture created and someone literally just copied and pasted, didn't even need it, and they've just published it. And I'm like, no, it'll get you 70, 80% of the way there. As the human, as a creator, we are so intentional to say you still have to play a role in making it yours.

Yeah. And I love that you say that. I think that's so great because I think that the more you can leverage your time to be able to do something, but just know it's getting you close enough to just have a little tweaks and edits to be able to use it in the way that you want and still get the message that you want to get across.

Yes. Yeah. Thank you for saying that because we had a lot of people being like, oh, this sounds like it's written by AI and it's because it was the.

Thing to me that I thought was crazy. And that's where it sold me immediately, where I was like, oh my gosh, I have to do this. Was the quotes get pulled off all the quotes from the episode. I thought that was the most insane thing. I don't even know, number one, how you even got the idea to do that, because I think that is so unique and different. And then number two, how it even does that.

Yeah, well, it's a trade secret, but, but we have quite a few competitors in the space and I was actually just talking to my co founders this morning about we don't, to be honest, pay too much attention to competitors because I'm a firm, firm believer of you have to run your own race.

Right.

Like if you start to worry about what competitors are doing and you end up looking backwards rather than looking forwards. And that's key. So I was actually talking about, because we've been having a lot of people joining capture and being like, oh my gosh, I've tried 15 other AI content things and yours is by far the best. And the reason why is because a, it was built by marketers at our core, the co founding team, we're all marketers. And because of that, we are so intentional with how all those pieces of content get built. So even when you talk about quotes, no other platform thinks about quotes the way that we do. We think about quotes to be like, what is it that we want our audience to feel? As in when I say ow, you know, that podcast this audience to feel. And so when we pick out an epiphany style quote, for example, we want them to feel motivated or inspired. When we pick out a topic based quote, we want them to feel like they've just gained all of this knowledge, even if it's just from one quote, they've gained value. When we pick out A story quote. We're so intentional with all of that. And I think that's really the core of what makes us different in how we do what we do.

I love that question. You gave me an idea for the podcast challenge to do these dares that they do every day, and then that's how they do it. And I just wrote it down because I'm like, what do I want someone to feel when they listen to my podcast? I think that really kind of gets you out of all that limiting self talk that we can have about ourselves when we're able to focus on who could be listening to your message at the perfect time, at the moment that they need it the most.

Yes, a hundred percent. That's what we always want to be thinking about. I mean, we think about a lot of things and we're trying to juggle the art of things with the science of it. Because there's so much. Anyone who's tried doing marketing, which should be all of us as entrepreneurs or as podcasters, we should all be marketing and marketers. But when you do, sometimes you get so bogged down in the science of things that you do lose sight of the art of it, which is fundamentally how are you going to create connection with your audience? And I get asked all the time, or I. And I see all the time people who are doing, they're going to get an AI, say ChatGPT to write a script. And then there are AIs now that can basically really do a whole podcast just using AI. And I'm like, the problem with that is that you lose the art, which is the connection fundamentally in the same way that our audience connects with us because our voice, that, the modulations, the way that we get excited about talking about things and even all the. And odds. And that's connection, right? That's human connection. And that's the same way in our writing. And that's why I always say it'll get you 80% of the way there. But that 20% is how is it that you're going to put your flavor into it so you can connect with your audience. And that's sometimes the part that we lose sight of because we're just so in our heads about we just. I was told that I have to post every single day or have to post five times a day. So let me just post forgetting that there's actually another person on the other side of that that you want to be.

Yeah, I love that you said that because from someone who's created an AI platform to help People really help with their time to be able to leverage all these tools. You're also really intentional about wanting that connection to be there, which I think is a really cool blend of what you're doing. That different probably than most other platforms out there.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Yeah.

I would love to hear your thoughts. So I just started the podcast challenge yesterday, and we had the kickoff. We had 1200 people that have joined at our starting podcast, and it's really exciting. And I'm really encouraging them, honestly, to start with their phone and then just to do voice notes on their phone and do the recordings that way. There are people already in there that have been in the coaching space a while, so they're doing the full on video and the whole thing. But I'm just saying, in the very beginning, just start with your phone. That's how I started. My first episode was on my phone, actually. My first two episodes were just my voice notes. And then I even did my hundredth episode on my phone because I got bottlenecked. And it just felt so right to do it on my phone. And so it's funny because I'm seeing in the group, people are like, what mic should I get? And all these things. And you mentioned it earlier, where you, like, a lot of people have to figure out every step that they need to go before they start, and I think that's kind of what's happening. And I just love to hear if you have any advice for them with where they are now when they have those questions of the mic and the technology and all these things.

Yeah, so many of that. And by the way, everything that I say is because I. I am guilty of it. So it's going to sound maybe harsh, but it's because I have to be harsh on myself as well. But so many of those things are just excuses, right? We put so many roadblocks in our own way to get things done because we're afraid. We're afraid of something. We're afraid of maybe having a voice put out there. We're afraid of launching this thing and not having any listeners and feeling obviously bad about that. There's so much fear and in so many things that we do that we constantly are putting roadblocks in our own way. And that's what I find happens a lot with podcasting. By the way, I say this not from a place of judgment because this is my own experience. Right. I was like, I was the same thing. Oh. Oh, my gosh. I have to get a microphone, and then I Spend all of this time researching. And by the way, at that time, I didn't have any money, so it's not like I could buy the fancy schmant 200, you know, whatever, microphone. And in the end, I just bought this $53 one off Amazon. But I think a lot of us at the bottom of all of that, we know that the reason why is because we're afraid of something, and we just have to break through that. There is no better power than progress. As, again, as entrepreneurs. And I'm assuming your audience are entrepreneurs, some experts in their field.

Progress is our lifeblood. We need to feel progress. Otherwise we fail as entrepreneurs. That's how we feel, right?

Yeah.

And just by doing all this little thing, because at the end of the day, there's something holding you back from wanting to get something out there. So it's a fear part of it. But you also want to feel like you're making progress. So you do all this research and you spend all this time doing these other things to make you feel like you're getting an outcome when you're not.

Man, Deidre, that is amazing.

That's so good.

Yeah. This is like my. My mini therapy session. I think for myself, I know realizing something seems to be about. No, that's true. That's what happened for me. Yeah.

Yeah. It's almost like if you want to look up a mic, record your voice note first and then look up your mic after. But don't not do the thing before you research.

Don't let anything hold you back. Yeah, nothing needs to hold you back. Literally, whatever you want, you can do anything today, tomorrow, right now, anything. So, yeah, I think to your point, just get started. That's the most important to get started.

That's the thing that I love about podcasting, even compared to my book. I'm writing a book, and it's coming out next year, and it feels so constrictive because I was picking the subtitle and I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's going to be on here forever. What am I going to do? But with podcasting, I could change the name tomorrow if I wanted to. I could change the picture, I could change whatever I want, and it doesn't matter. I can delete an episode, I can add an episode, I can edit it, I could republish it. And that's what I love about podcasting, is you get to be just messy and you get to just move without even having to think, because you can figure it out as you go. And it Evolves in such a beautiful way.

Totally. And the great thing too is for anyone who is afraid of the fact that they don't have any listeners, that's good because you can make these mistakes and you can sound crap and you can um and ah all you want and that's fine because no one's listening to it anyway, at least to begin with. And then when you do get more listeners and actually I really like to keep the really imperfect, messy episodes because people want to follow your journey, that's ultimately the end of the day. And so when you can be like, hey, did you listen to my first episode where I made all of these mistakes? You know, when I was just recording on my phone, it's like, you know the fact that you did your hundredth and it was on your phone, I bet that you were like, this is how I started. This is my journey from there in a hundred episodes. Isn't that so special? It's special to you and special to your audience because they've been journey with you. And so the messier it's almost the better.

What was so special about it too? And you totally hit it. It was that because it was the hundredth. I was so in my head because I had this picture of what I wanted my hundredth episode to be because I built it up and this whole thing. And then I have a few groups that I'm in and they're like, oh, do this and do that. And so. Which I haven't been doing with the podcast. I've been very in flow state and been able to come up with everything for myself. But for the hundredth I was asking people their advice and then I kept dripping my episode so that it wouldn't get to the hundredth because I wasn't ready to publish it yet. And then my daughter was doing a. She was doing a photo shoot with me where we were going to take a picture outside and saying that I hit the hundredth episode and it was raining that day and we still decided to do it. So it's hysterical because I have the hundred the 100 balloon and you can't even see it because the wind is blowing and it's hilarious. And then I just recorded it in that moment in my car. You could still hear the rain in the background. And you know what I realized in that moment is I didn't even care. And no offense to the people listening, cuz I love the people that are listening and I love hearing from them. It wasn't for them, it was for me because I got stuck and it helped me push through. And now it's not even what are we in April? I've already got 150 episodes on the podcast, so I'm even moving faster than I did last year because I finally was able to push through that block.

That's crazy. And you know that. Even crazy, this is almost like Inception, where it's like layer in layer and layer. But what you said is true. It's like it was for you, but by it being for you, it's actually also for them. Because the best way that any of us learn are through the stories and experiences. Which is why I fundamentally also believe that as much that we can keep our creativity and be creative and. Or use our time for creativity and that humanness part of it, and then use AI for the rest of the. I'm a big believer in that. But because that's the beauty of it, is because people can connect with your story, with your particular. That thing that you were going through in that moment. People connect with that and they're like, oh my gosh, I am going through that right now myself. And if Stacy was able to do it and get through it and teach me how she was able to break through her own mindsets and et cetera, I can too. And so the great thing is, even though it was for you, it was actually for them.

Yeah, it's true. It's really true. And it's something I talk about a lot with. The part of whatever you think you're not good at or you're struggling with is the thing people really do love about you. And I kind of mentioned this last night because I'm still not really completely comfortable in my space as a speaker. I'm really working on it, and I'm not polished or charismatic or any of these things. And this isn't in a negative self talk way. This is in an observation of what I think people relate to about me. It's actually the beautiful thing about me that's able to get them to connect, to be able to do the thing, because they're like, oh, she's doing it and she's not perfect or whatever. I think some speakers you see and they come off very charismatic in this whole thing. And it might be a little bit unapproachable. And I think with the way that I'm able to deliver it, it just makes them think that you can do it too.

Yeah. I have a friend. I was so funny. We were literally just talking essay. So she actually helps aspiring actors walk the red Carpet. She has this whole strategy of doing that and stuff. But she was like, oh, I need to. She said, I need to do my next thing, which is she wants to record 12 short films in a year, so basically one a month. And she's like, I keep putting it off and putting off. And you can see how much I was weighing on her because she has this goal of doing this thing for whatever reason. And actually. And I asked her, well, why, but why? Why do you need to do this thing? And she's like, because, you know, I need to walk the talk. I need to be the one who's doing it. And I was like, why are you even thinking about troll? Just do what? Just start with one. And I think that's the thing. And so many times we get in our head about we have to have. Again, to your question before, about we have to have the perfect setup with the microphone, and we don't. None of that is true. We just need to do the one next thing, which is recording your phone or just do one short film. It doesn't matter, because everything else is going to change after that. It's 100 guaranteed. That journey, that part, that linear path we set up for ourselves, is not going to be the one that any of us walk.

I was also wanting to talk about. I'm glad you brought up the money part earlier, because there's a lot of people that are asking that questions about monetizing their podcast. And I know there's so many different ways, but I'm also telling them not to worry about that right now because you're just starting. There are plenty of ways that you can monetize your podcast, but you're just starting, so don't worry about it now. But I'm just curious what you think about that. Both from a way of, like, where they're at now, but then also just advice on that when they are ready. Just so they kind of have the dream of what can happen with the podcast.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so this monetization can happen in a few different ways. And there's no one right or wrong. There's just what's hard and what's not hard. And monetization really comes down to mindset. I believe you get that from what I've been saying through the rest of this interview. But okay, so we'll talk very tactically first about what monetization opportunities there are. So obviously, as we know, there's like, sponsorship, which a lot of people who aren't probably aren't starting from an entrepreneurial place flock to. That's really, really hard. It's really, really hard to get to that point. A, because it takes a lot of time to grow a listenership unless you're already famous. And two, even when you do the money in it is actually not really as lucrative as we all think it is. It's actually, yeah, ridiculously low. Let's pack that to the side because again, I'm assuming that you have entrepreneurs in your and they want to monetize by way of selling an offer off the back of their podcast. So whether it's a coaching program or some kind of service, there's an offer that they want to sell. So the best way that I found, and this is where I say it's a mindset thing, is by two things. One is sponsoring your own podcast, which means that actually you using a podcast to actually talk about what it is that you do in the way that you might have sponsorships on there already. And I don't mean in the conversation that you're either that you haven't guest or that you have a solo episode about. Obviously you can weave what you do into it because hey, that's you, you can't hide from that. But actually a dedicated 15 second, 30 second AD where you're sponsoring the thing that you do in your podcast. So that's one way. And then the second way is thinking about monetization a little bit differently. So what I found was so effective with the content dripping strategy and how we were able to monetize our podcast so effectively is because I changed my mindset around what it was that I was focusing on. Because to me, and I think we all want this, right? It's like, oh, okay, how do I track a listener listening to our podcast and then signing up for my. My thing? That's like the ideal state. We all want that, right? New lead, they come on, they spend 30 minutes with us and then they sign up for our thing. Unfortunately, that's not how humans work like the way that we work, and I read about this in a book by Daniel Priestley called Oversubscribed is that we need to spend at least seven hours in order to create enough know like and trust to buy into something. So and when we do, that's when it becomes a no brainer for us to open up our wallets. And so that's how I started thinking about my podcast and about my whole content tripping strategy. My focus became how do I have someone spend seven hours with me, at least seven hours with me because then that is when I can actually monetize. That is when I can actually hop on a sales call with them. And it becomes a no brainer because in their words, they're like, you give so much value, I felt guilty for not paying you. Right. So that's how I think about monetization for podcasts now and then.

I'd love to hear what you think about marketing for people because that's the other question I have. People are saying, and I know you have the content dripping strategy, which, that sounds amazing. But for people that are like, how do I grow this thing? What would be a way that you would keep in mind if you guys are listening and if you just started your podcast right now, I'm just having Deidre, who's an expert in this field and that helps people with podcasting. I'm taking this opportunity to at least plant the seed, to show you the vision of what's possible. You don't need to do any of this right now. You just need to record on your phone. But I'm taking this opportunity since we're talking, because she is an expert.

Yeah. So I have another strategy I call the Traffic Pyramid. I actually developed that for in my last coaching business because we were helping e commerce coaching businesses with their digital marketing, with their marketing, essentially. But literally this strategy applies for anything that you're trying to market and grow. It's the same thing for podcast. And so how the traffic pyramid works is there's essentially four tiers to it. So the first is what I call passive organic marketing. And this is kind of the stuff that we do. We put content out there and then we kind of sit back and we passively wait for things to happen. Right. Which is great to a certain point, because you again, it's progress. It's a whole progress thing. Right. You feel like you're doing things, but at the end of the day, is it actually working? So that's where the second tier comes in, which is the active organic marketing. And this is when you're actually being active about the marketing things that you're putting out there. So how do we actually optimize the content that we're creating for things like SEO? How do we optimize engagement for social media, which means actually not posting as much on social media potentially? How do we actually even think active by way of, hey, are there actual particular potential clients or people that we should be reaching out to to tell them about a podcast? To tell them about the fact that we have a podcast. Right. That's actually being active in our marketing. And the third tier is leveraging other people's audiences. Now, it's a quick and easy way just to get guests onto our podcast. I mean, that's a easy way to. But then we still have to think about how do we actually have them promote, because we know that a lot of times we guess on our podcast and they do not promote the thing. And so I actually just did a podcast episode on this, which is what are the factors that go into why our guests aren't sharing and what it is that we can do, what's in our control, where we can again, break down as many of those roadblocks as possible and actually incentivize, slash, entice them to share. So leveraging other people's audiences is the 30. And then fourth is paid ads, which I would almost always tell people not to worry about. Things like Facebook ads and stuff do not work for your podcast. I'm really good friends with Mike Whiston, who's the CEO and founder of Mopar. So that's the service that actually gets web ads for your podcast. And we have this discussion all the time. Even he's like, do not go into paid ads until you've figured organic marketing out. And so I would say focus on passive organic and active organic marketing as the bulk of your effort, with getting guests and leveraging other people's audiences as just something that you do as good practice to even just have a podcast.

So, yeah, yeah, I'd love to talk about that, because I think leveraging other people's audiences is such the easy way to start, because you're already going to be interviewing people on your podcast. So what are your suggestions on that?

Yes, so I actually, I spoke to Kelly Mossa, so she is actually a podcast guest expert and coach herself, and she actually surveyed her audience. So she has hundreds of podcast guests in her community. Because I was like, hey, Kelly, do this thing with me. I'm trying to figure out, I want to help capture avians, work out, why is it that guests aren't promoting? So can you do this favor? So she surveyed her audience, and the number one reason why guests don't share their episode is because the conversation went down a path that they didn't really think highlighted them and their expertise or their story or whatever in the best way possible. And so that's actually something that we can control. A. I know that it's a lot of work, and so we have to be really. But again, I try to do everything with so much intention. So for me, It's a no brainer, but I know for a lot of people it's like I don't want to hop on a pre interview call or even have a conversation by email about what is it that we're actually going to talk about. But that's actually really important because you want to make sure that you're aligned with the guest to be like, hey, this is the main topic that I want you to talk about. But we're still going to leave it open because we still want to have a flowing conversation, which is fine. But asking them what is the main outcome that they want? What is the 1, 2, 3, not questions that they want you to ask them. I mean you can ask that, but that's also a lot of pressure. But what is the main result if they were to share just one thing with the audience, what would that be? And you want to make sure that that happens. You want to make sure that they're highlighted in the best way possible. Because if they can be really proud of that episode, then I mean, we're human, right? Like everyone's human. When you're really proud of something you want to share, yeah, you want to talk about it. So that's the number one thing is just doing a little bit of prep beforehand. I actually was also speaking to Michael Unbroken. So he has a podcast called Think Unbroken and he's interviewed top, you know, like Tom Bilyeu and Amy Porterfield, really top people in the industry. And his advice around this is you've got to do a lot of research. And I kind of scale that back because again, I know all the time poor. So let's not say a lot of research, let's just say some research. And what that looks like is how do you actually listen to other interviews that your guest has done and find the questions or questions that you wish the interviewer had asked. So what are things that they haven't spoken about before that you can draw this out of them and actually incorporate in to get them to the end outcome that they still want to, to get to. Because sometimes the most memorable conversations that we have or that we guessed on are the ones where we've shared something that we've never shared before. It's like, wow, how did you get that out of me? No one's actually asked me that before. So anyway, those are a couple of tips.

Yeah, I just had that happen. One of the people in my community started a podcast before the challenge started. We did a pre challenge zoom and she pulled stuff out of me that I had not had come out of me. And what was cool about it was then it opened up that portal to this new thing, and I was able to put more in my book about it. So for anyone listening, it was Deb Linds from Opening Doors podcast. So it was really great. Yeah. So for the people that just listened to your amazing advice about researching the guests and really being able to listen to interviews, and maybe they're the ones that have not started their podcast yet, have not started interviewing. Let's give those people advice, because now they're going to get lost in the research. So do you mind just speaking to them for a minute as well?

Yeah, I would. I would actually just say do solo episodes. I don't know if this is counter to your advice, but when I started my podcast, I only did solo episodes. And the reason why is because you get to find your voice and you get to find your message and who it is that you're speaking to and what it is that you're speaking to them about. Once I did that, once I was able to really hone in on, okay, this is who I'm speaking to, and this is what I'm going to speak to them about. And I know that I. Because I come from a place of expertise so I can share about these things, then I started getting guests on in order to expose my audience to things that I wasn't an expert in, but I know that they care about at the end of the day. Again, my view is that your podcast needs to be the lead magnet and nurturing tool to get someone to opt into whatever it is that you're selling. And so you need to feature as part of that. Yes, you can be a really great interviewer and you can be a really great. But is that really showcasing you and what you do in the best way possible? Maybe not. So I actually now. So I started a solo episode. Now I actually alternate. So I do a guest one and I do a solo one every other week. And even with the guest one, I actually do narrations for that. So I will interview and then I'll actually cut up that interview and I'll do narrations throughout so that I can actually, in a way, draw out that journey that I want my audience to go through by listening to that podcast episode. So, okay, you can do two things. If you're a bit daunted by reaching out to guests and getting guests on, do show the episodes first. Or the second thing is use a platform like podmatch. I love Pod Match Good friends with Alex as well he's made it so easy for you to find guests and people who want to be on podcasts and very easily reach out to them to invite them onto a podcast. So figure out what's holding you back from doing that, and just as I said, just break it. But at the end of the day, I do like people just doing solo episodes because A, it's their stage, and B, it is the best way to find your voice.

What's the best way you do the solo episodes? How do you get started in that?

Yeah, so I do have a loose script, so I'll actually script out, because I call it perfectionism or whatever. But you can probably tell that I can go on rants and tangents quite easily. And so for the sake of my audience's time, I do need to almost provide and have it my own outline and know what it is that I want to hit. But I always start with a story. I always start with an experience that I had or something I've been struggling with. And because that. And you do this really well as well, Stacy, where you talk about your own journey and what it is that you're going through right now. You want to let your audience in. Okay. When we talk about connection, this is the thing that creates that connection. But I also know that my audience wants tangible things. Right? So I'll tell my story, and then I'll generally three steps, because three is just. And I guess the reason why three is so cliched or so popular is because it's been proven that that's the amount of information that we can actually retain as humans. So then I'll go into three steps and try to break down really tactically what it is that people can do off the back of my own experience or learning or whatever it is that I'm sharing with them. So that's pretty much my outline. And then I just hit record, and I just fill it in.

I'd love to hear what your number one piece of advice for the listeners is on doing the thing.

Oh, okay. I'm doing the thing. So just getting started, just like, you just got to imperfectly get it done. I mean, I think the awesome thing is, and people taking a challenge are already taking action. A, they have the intention, but it's like, just do it. So whoever you are following or being coached by, being mentored by, just do what they say. We've all done this, right? Where we're like, I did this before as well, where I was speaking to a coach, and he's like, this is what you have to do. I'm like, no, you don't understand. I'm different. We all have that thing that comes up. None of us are really that different.

In terms of situation. We all have a business or we're all. It's proven strategies that work and there's a reason why. So if, for example, Stacy, for people doing your challenge, just do what Stacy is telling you to do, just do it at the time that she tells you to do it. So if she's telling you to do it right now or today, just do it. Because that is the best way to learn. Make mistakes, learn again, and then keep doing. And you'll get. We all start from that place where we suck at anything. You're gonna suck. It's a fact. But the more that you do it, the less you're gonna suck until you get pretty good. And then when you're pretty good, you always feel like you've been doing this the whole time when you haven't, you haven't done anything for the whole time.

Please share with everyone where they can learn about CapShow and you as well.

Yeah, so CapShow.com that's C A P-H-O.com is the best place to go to find out more about CapShow. I'm on social media under Didri Shen, so generally it's my full name, generally mostly on LinkedIn or Facebook. So that's where you'll. You'll find me.

Thank you so much. And when should they be ready to reach out to you to use CapShow for their podcast?

Pretty much when you're ready to publish any episode. So we have a tier called it's the starter tier and that's basically just it gives you a title description and your podcast website content. I am also actually creating a quick start guide to get started with how to optimize title description and podcast website content for search. And so that's quickstart guide to getting your podcast discovered. So I'm actually in the midst of doing that. So yeah, if you want to reach out to me and I email a lot, as Stacy knows, so even if you hit reply and email me back, I get those. And so if you let me know that you want the quickstart guide or if you need any help or support, I can help you out or I'll point you back to Stacy today, like, yes, Stacy can help you too.

Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on, Deidre. It was amazing getting the chance to talk to you and I appreciate all the advice you've given everyone for starting their podcast.

Yeah, hopefully that was helpful. Thank you so much for having me on. It's been a privilege.

And for the listeners, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity, create it.