How To Gain A Niche Audience And Fascinate With Short Laser-Focused Episodes With Not A Momma Life Podcast Host Raphie Wagner

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all the digital noise with the Binge Factor.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard and I am really excited about today Today's podcaster. You know, I say that about so many of the podcasters because every one of them, like, they come forward and I'm like, there's something so interesting and so exciting here that is going to highlight something that you're going to learn from some amazing nugget that you're going to receive and get. But you know, we don't often get to talk about those sort of personal mission style podcasts here. A lot of times we're talking about the business style podcast. So I am so excited to have Raffi Wagner on the show. Her show is called Not a Mama Life and so it's Not a Mama Life podcast. She is a child free woman of color and an entrepreneur. She's getting sick of reading, seeing and hearing all the mompreneur stuff out there. So she did something about it. She started the Not a Mama brand ironically on Mother's Day in 2019 and she had another podcast called Not a Mama that was lost during migration. So you're going to see this here is like, you know, you're going to say, Tracy, she doesn't have enough episodes yet. But that's okay because she did. They just got lost in translation, which can happen. But she has started a new one. It started in January and it already has over 2,000 downloads. So it's doing really well. When she started her entrepreneurship journey, she wanted to find a community just like her and you know, she wasn't finding a leader of it. So she started her own child free community. She has fallen in love with all things podcasting. She is getting really passionate about it and you can hear that as we talk about it in the episode to talk about her show. But here's the thing. Got it. You want to know how I connected up with her? Well, first off, she's been following our show. She's mentioned and commented in Instagram. So there's no better way to catch an attention of host than commenting and saying something in social media, if you really want to be on a show, that's a great way. But, you know, it didn't happen from just the commenting because, you know, I had checked out her show and it really didn't have enough episodes yet. So she was on my radar, but she just wasn't all the way there yet. However, I met her in a clubhouse room, and I got her. She came up to the front, she spoke, she impressed me, and then made some comments that made me realize she had deeper experience than I had thought when I just checked out her show initially. And then one other thing happened. I made a recommendation because we were doing a clubhouse room on a sort of podcast, Shifting, or we call it Host in the Hot Seat. And so we'd host in the Hot Seat in the Potatoes Club. And I mentioned to her that her cover art, as beautiful as it is, was white background. And so it was blending in on the app, and it made the COVID art made the topic, the name of it, seem smaller. So I suggested she just make a colored strike around the outside of it. And so, sure enough, when she applied to be a guest on the show, and I saw it, I went and saw her show again, checked it out, and sure enough, she had put that strike in. So she had taken a recommendation I made and put it into practice. So there isn't someone that I want to reward more on my show than someone who already proves to me that they can engage, who already has expertise that they're sharing. And I've been given insight into it by her showing up on Clubhouse. And then when I make a recommendation that is right for her and she takes action with it, it's immediate. That's the perfect kind of person that I want to highlight here because I know that you're going to be able to take some of her tips, turn them into action yourself. You're going to be able to follow her guide. So let's talk to Raffi Wagner about Not a Mama Life podcast. Thanks so much for joining me, Raffi. I'm so excited to have you here because we got connected on Clubhouse and now we get to see each. Because I don't know about you, but I'm kind of frustrated by the audio only. And I'm a podcaster.

Right. Yeah, no, it's nice to connect the faces and just mannerisms and everything with the voice. I agree.

Yeah. Yesterday, Tom yelled at me because he could tell that I was moving my hands, that I was making the microphone vibrate, but I'm so not Used to having a microphone on my headphones. I'm used to having a microphone, like, in front of me, just like I do when I podcast. So it wasn't something I was thinking about. I'm more worried about the fact that I'll push my hands and hit the microphone.

Exactly.

Have you found the tech to be daunting?

No, not at all. I definitely prefer all audio. And I don't really have a problem with, like, the earphones. I don't like those wireless ones.

You don't like the in earbuds?

Yeah, I don't like those. I'm really just more comfortable with this or, you know, what comes with our iPhones.

I know I used to have the over the ear ones, but it got. Once I started doing video, I removed them because it was just such a. You know, they're so big on video.

Right, Exactly.

Yeah.

So.

But I do. I really dislike those AirPods or whatever they call them. I really dislike those.

I think they look funny too. Like two little white things.

I see all the journalists on TV with them on, and I'm like, how is your sound? People not just cringing because the sounds bad, but, you know. Oh, I know. They drive me crazy. Anyway, well, I'm so glad to have you, like, physically across from me on the screen here so we can. We can have a chat about your show, Not a mama Life. You know what? Like, it caught my. When you first said it and you first caught it, we used to have this running joke. So my oldest daughter's 25, and there used to be this TV show about they were dinosaurs, and it was a dinosaur mommy and a dinosaur daddy. Do you remember the show? I think it was called Dinosaurs, right?

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

And the baby would constantly hit the dad on the head and say, not the mama.

Right.

And that was like the running joke in our house because, you know, when you do have a baby, they're like, you know, only want mama for a while. And so, like, that was like, not the mama. You take the baby. Like, it was my thing. I need my space. So that kind of caught my ear, is like, funny. And then I thought, wow, what a great show concept. What a great market of people who need to hear what you have to say, who need to be in a place where they know that there are other people who've made the choices. Like, it's not just. It happened to you. It's a choice that you're making, and that's really fabulous. And how did it come about that you just said I want to do a show about this.

What happened was, ironically, this whole brand was founded on Mother's Day 2019. So what happened with me is, as I was going through my entrepreneurial path, I kept on running into the mommy bloggers, the mompreneurs, you know, the influencers that are moms that are, you know, doing big things. And that's all well and good, and that's fabulous, but I could never relate to them. So I would read a book, and then that one chapter came in where the whole entire chapter was a about being a busy mom. And I kept on saying to myself, well, you know, you don't have to be a busy mom to have dishes in the sink. You don't have to be a busy mom to have time management issues or a messy car or dirty laundry. So I kept on saying to myself, but I'm not a mom. I'm not a mama. And I kept on just saying that as I was reading these blogs and articles and listening to these endless podcasts. And so I started that, and then that quickly started the Instagram community side of my brand.

So really, it started on Instagram first for you?

Yes.

I love that. Because that's really powerful when you can bring some people someplace that you know people are already interested in this topic, and now you bring them to the vehicle that you want to deliver your message in.

Exactly. So it started that way. And actually there was a previous podcast, and that podcast got Lost in Migration.

Oh, no.

Lost in Translation here. Oh, no.

What was the show that was Not a Mama. So then when I came back, I put a little spin to it. So I thought to myself a way to kind of rebrand and relaunch. Let's make it a little bit more broad. And it's very different. The previous podcast had interviews. This podcast is almost like a branch of my Instagram, or vice versa.

So this is normally, like, we do this sort of on air coaching kind of thing. So for all of you listening out there, you have to check out Not a Mama Life because it has a really interesting way that Raffi has chosen to put this kind of. I'm gonna call it like a teaser statement at the beginning of it before you really get into the whole subject, before the music plays. Right. And I love it because it is truly that, like, I'm making a statement about what today's about, and it sets the tone and it makes you go, oh, I gotta listen to this. And the episodes aren't very long. They're all under 10 minutes. And so you're like, there's no way you're not gonna listen to it, so. Because you just caught them with that statement. And so often people do that wrong. And you do it very right.

Oh, my gosh, I love that. Thank you so much. I love that.

Now, my question for you in sort of the on air coaching mode of myself here, are you using that statement piece on Instagram?

Sometimes, but not the audio clip.

Okay. So start using that. Use that as your story. Use that as your Instagram TV drop. Because we see them doing really well. We also see that you could use those, those exact kind of clips on YouTube live, LinkedIn live, or just in LinkedIn in general. There's LinkedIn stories now and you can use them there. So there's all kinds of places you can use these nice short clips. And why not think about TikTok with them?

Right, right.

Those clips that you've created are such a great marketing vehicle for the show itself because they're right there. I'm like, oh, wait, you just left me. Oh, I better go check out the show. Right. That's the perfect kind of thing to use in social media to actually get a listener.

Okay.

And you could do them with audiogram, right? Audiogram. They don't have to be visual, so.

Right. And I'm so glad you like those. Because the episodes are so small, I thought to myself, well, I certainly can't do like a three minute intro, you know, because then that's half the episode. So I'm so glad you like those because that. So it's just kind of like that question. That question and that question. That is another thing I like that's easy for me is I am my audience. So that's why this time around I decided to do the shorter episodes because that's what I enjoy. And so I just kind of used me because I am my audience. And it's working really well. And I just think it makes it easy to binge. And then it's also, I think you don't get lost, you get the message and that's it.

You know what's really interesting too, though, about it is that it's a really concerted choice. And I want to make sure that the listeners out there are really seeing you're making a concerted choice about making short episodes. It can hurt your monetization long term. And so think about in contrast to what Raffi is creating with like 10 minutes or under, to Joe Rogan with 90 minutes or more. And when you create the longer shows, you create more ad spot opportunity. So unless her model is, and it could be in the future, advertisement she's really hurt the profitability of the ad spot because you don't have enough places to put it in. By choosing a shorter show, however, she's created a more binge able show in her particular case that is going to attract more people to build up a higher listener base. So it may weigh out in the end. It's hard to tell at this stage. What I would recommend for you, Rafi, and for anyone out there making that choice is that if you want to attract the audience and you really believe the short form is the right thing for both you and them, go for it. And then every so often drop in a long episode once every couple of months or so and see what the reaction is. And if you get the reaction back that I want more of that, then now you can add them into the mix, do them once a month so it's not so labor intensive. And you'll then have the ability, you'll have the best of both worlds, the nice long listener base and a great place for ad spots in the future.

That's wonderful. And I thought about that and I took that advice from the last time that you and Tom did a clubhouse where we talked about having series, like doing a series and introducing something a little longer. So I definitely have that on my Idealist.

So there are two shows that I recommended to Raffi when I talked to her. There's the second one that came to my mind, but there's two shows that are great models. And whenever you're building your show up, which you know you've got a great start to it, like there's some really brilliant things and we're gonna talk about them as we go forward, that choices that you've made. And so now it makes more sense that you did have a previous show to me because you don't have enough episodes here for me to like go, she's just so good. Which you probably are. But that's kind of how it came. I was like, you've had a few experiments before you got here, so it makes sense now. But six vulnerable conversations. Robert Kandel, he did them within his regular series and then he then spun them off into their own little feed of them. So it's six vulnerable conversations between two women. Six vulnerable conversations between a man and a woman, between a white man and a black man. And like, so they have these conversations where he's generating that kind of edge to them. And first off, I thought it would be a really Interesting one for you to check out because there might be a moment at which you want a mama and not a mama together and have that conversation because you talk about the frustration of the languaging and there may be a perspective interest of each side seeing each other's perspective. That could be really valuable. That would make a great longer episode and a purposeful place to do it.

Right, right, Absolutely.

Yeah. So sometime that could be a really good play for you. And so that's why I brought it up. Because sometimes when you see a model like that out there, you go, that one would work for me. I never want to see you like a Joe Rogan. Right. It doesn't fit you. It's not your audience. Like, it's not going to be you. But to see you do maybe something like that, that might be really ideal. The other one is solo. This is a show that got also was kind of like he just really wanted to do it as really personal. It's about the choice of being single. And he's built a tremendous community. And the reason I want you to take a look at that one and I want people to hear about that One is because Dr. Peter McGraw really has ended up building that into a great monetization tool that he didn't anticipate it was going to take that on. It was a very personal thing that then turned into wow, advertisers, affiliates, people who wanted access to the great audience he built of single people. And so that's where I see the great audience you're going to build here. There's going to be someone who's going to want access to that. So it's going to be on you to choose who gets that access and how they do that. And so making sure that you continue to grow the vehicle to do that, whether it's over your website side of things, you know, whether you have courses, book offerings, whatever you decide to do over there, or in the show itself with Advertisement. This is the brilliance of where your show is going, Raffi. It has an audience that isn't being served, but is a valuable, interested, active audience.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I followed Dr. Peter McGraw and Dr. Kim Marsh after the episode.

Oh, good. So Robert Kandel is the other one that I just suggested. Yeah. So follow him, too.

And I think Robert, he's not a doctor, but I think he has a psychology degree or something like that. So anyway. But yeah, so interesting that we're following this model of those with that background. But now, so tell me about the audience. So as you started this on Instagram. And as you've been doing the podcast, have people reached out to you and what have you been learning?

And that is one thing that just blows me away and keeps me going because I have the most engaged audience ever. I get direct messages almost every day.

Wow. And this is early. Like I can tell you, most people don't see it till they're way over 25 episodes.

Yeah, no, I just got one on Facebook actually. And he's a married man and him and his wife are not having children. And he just told me that he listened to one of the entrepreneur type episodes and he said, great episode. I'm listening to more. I rated and I reviewed and I thought to myself, my goodness, like one episode and he's already rating and reviewing and like listening to more. And so what I do, I actually put all the comments I get in the DMs. I actually put them in my stories on Instagram.

Oh, nice. Good use of them.

Yep. And always thanking people.

Add it to your website too.

Yeah. So sometimes they're long messages. So I actually take a screenshot and.

Then you can always do like I've done it before, where you do a screenshot behind and then you highlight just the quoted part, like bring it up forward.

Okay.

Yes. Cause, you know, just a great show or whatever it is, you know, like. But that's, that's so great that you're getting that feedback because it makes it worth doing, doesn't it?

It does and just makes me gush. Sometimes I think to myself, like, I send them to my sister because I'm like, look at what's happening here. And also what's happening too is I'm seeing a broader range in age. So when I first started this, it was kind of someone my age, so Gen X. But as I've been doing this, I realized and I recognize there's a lot of younger listeners and if I look at my analytics, there's a lot of younger listeners and I think I might have gotten a few of them just based on recognizing why those younger women and men might be choosing to be child free. So I sometimes do something along climate or something along what's going on in the world, because those are the two reasons they might want to have.

That's such a good point. Yes, absolutely. So this giffrant, you know, this is something that I noticed that you do. And I don't know if you're very conscious about it or if it just is something that you're naturally doing well, but I noticed that you have a Noticeable tone change on certain episodes, I'm going to say it's not just a tone, but it's in a speed of how you pace that tone as well. And the most I'm going to say the. I don't want to say extreme because it's actually. It's really good. Right. Like it's. So sometimes extreme gets that bad. But the broad edge of it, like the wide edge of it is where you really slow down and talk about it on the episode where you talk about like, mindedness, Friends. And that tone change is brilliant. So did you do this on purpose or is this just sort of naturally your approach?

It's a couple things. I do it with intention and believe it or not, I do it because of the message, but I also do it because I don't edit my show.

So you're being methodical about the word choices, right?

Yes, because. And the pauses. Because I don't edit. I use a program that doesn't require me to edit and I don't use a script.

That was gonna be my next question.

So thank you for saying my pauses are very intentional as I pick a topic and I just speak about it. So I. It's as if I'm speaking to my friend that's sitting in front of me.

Wow. So this is what I wanna point out to you. When you hear this, go check out that like Minded Friends episode. It's kind of, I don't know, about 10 or something, like somewhere right in the middle there. And first off, I think it's a really good message for just anyone, whether you're choosing to be childless or not.

Right.

It's good message. But secondly, just the way that you put that out there, knowing that it's not scripted, this is a talent that you have. And to me, Raffi, this is your binge able factor. Your binge factor is that you understand your audience so well and when you deliver the messaging to them, you are being crafted and cultivated and targeted about it. And that episode expresses it in a great way. And that in and of itself is a huge, huge skill that it's hard to teach people. They think, I can run away with my mouth here. I can say whatever I want. You're actually editing yourself on the fly. Brilliant. Brilliant. So what prepared you to do that before becoming a podcaster here?

So I don't think I really had any preparation, to be honest with you. I have always been able to talk to people and I never had a problem doing that. But podcasting has made me slow down and be More intentional and take those pauses. Now, I have listened to a lot of podcasts about podcasts, so I've learned from them as far as how to do those pauses. And knowing that I have no skills of editing, I knew that I needed to be spot on on pre production and the actual podcast itself. So that lends to that pausing and the, you know, the different tones and stuff like that. But no, I've never, you know, done, like, speaking. I mean, I've done virtual events. So in 2020, the brand Not a Mama did two virtual summits. So I had a lot of practice there. But that's also very different.

That's very different. A lot of people are finding that out now, right?

Yeah, so that's very different. But I think it's also just because I'm talking to them, you know, like, I don't really consider myself when I sit to do it at home. I really don't even. I just click the button that I need to click to record, but I'm just talking to them.

I want to start into my five things that I do when I ask you the five things. And because you don't have guests, I'm not going to ask you the first question. I'm going to flip it around. And right now is the perfect time for me to ask you that question. And so we're going to talk about topic choice. Right. So how do you pick great topics? Is really sort of this area of what I'm talking about where I normally would say, how do you get great guests? So how do you pick great topics? But in this case, I want to. Do you have some kind of mission or have you sort of defined that to help yourself say this is the right topic to choose? Because this is the mission of my overall podcast and my messaging that I'm trying to get across.

Right. So the messaging is that it's kind of like it's from two sides. The messaging to my audience is that I hear you and I see you and I am you. But then the other side of the message is we are here proud and loud and to get our message across. So every time I do an episode, that's kind of why I talk to them. But I also make it to the point where they could share that episode with a family member or they could share that episode with a co worker that may not understand them.

Yeah. So in a way, you know, this is where you're carefully choosing these. Cultivating, like the word I used before, cultivating these topics to provoke conversation in our own heads. Which is actually helping your engagement. Right. And you're doing that as a concerted choice against, I'm going to say pontificating, right. Where you, you're on your soapbox just saying, this is my position. You know, you're doing it in a very different way. You're doing it in a thought provoking way. That's a topic choice, the topics that you're choosing. So how do you go about choosing them? Do you just. You make a list for yourself or you just. It comes up this week and you're like, this feels right.

A little bit of both. And one thing I did differently for this podcast, although the previous one was interviews, so that was completely different. Before I launched this one, I literally, in a 18 hour day, sat down and just brain dumped every idea, every comment I've ever gotten on Twitter, every comment I've even and ever gotten from friends. Just everything I could think of that made me feel like, well, less than because I chose not to have children or everything I've seen on media, like TV episodes and, you know, everything. So I just did a brain dump. So I have like hundreds of one word topic ideas and I had that done before coming into this. But then I do keep myself up to date. If there is something that's very topical that needs to be done, then I can insert that very easily and have it more timely.

So you can also go down the list and go, ah, this one needs to be done now.

Right?

That's really great. That's one of my techniques that I teach people is to like not do it in an eight hours. I love the amount of commitment you spent on this, so that's kudos to you again. But you know, to just sit down for 30 minutes to an hour. I try to get my clients to sit down and do that and brainstorm their topic list because they get worried that they won't be able to generate enough. And then they're like, at the end of the day, they're like, oh my gosh, I have a hundred topics. I'm like, yeah, way more than you can do in a year of show. So you're good. I wanted to prove that to you. You've got that right.

And sometimes too, when you look at the one topic or the. For me, I really do, probably one or two words. I don't even do like a sentence or anything most of the time triggers more. I felt like I needed to have this before I launched because I knew it was gonna be short form and I wanted to just have literally Just ideas flowing and just go in my database that I use and just click and just, you know, go from there. So. And I keep track of the date of that episode so I'm not repeating something too soon after something else.

Good move. So wonderful. So how are you increasing listeners? What are you doing? How are you out there? Trying to make sure that people are listening to the show, finding out about the show.

Yes. So I just started hosting a weekly room on Clubhouse. So the podcast is hosting a weekly room. And I do Twitter, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, Very little on Facebook. I do have a Facebook group for the podcast, and that's just for the women listeners of the podcast. And I do events. So I have the podcast sponsor events. So currently we're about to start a book club. So it's the Not a Mama Life podcast presents the book club.

Awesome. Yeah. Actually, I wrote down the book title that was on it that was coming up. I was like, that sounds really interesting. I totally want to check out that book.

It is really interesting.

It is Mama or Not a Mama. I still want to check out that book.

And I definitely recommend that. Absolutely.

You know, in a sense, you already tapped into the idea that you're not just having people who are just. This is also a problem. A lot of people think, oh, they're just listeners. They're not readers. They're not, you know, they're not viewers. Right. And you've really tapped in and said, no, no, no, no. My people are readers as well. And so we've got. We're going to have some tips, tools, other things that are going to go for them, some book ideas, and. Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. And we kind of took a break from the virtual events because I had so many in 2020, and then towards the end, I really felt that fatigue. So instead of pushing and doing an event and having, you know, just not a good turnout, I just decided to just. Okay, that's it for this year. But I do want to bring back. There's one event that I did last year that I want to bring back on a yearly basis, but I really want to feel it out and see if there's still too much zoom fatigue or not.

It's happening. Yeah.

Or maybe do that same event in podcast episodes.

Nice.

You know, maybe use it that way instead.

And that is a good use. If you're going to do an event and then you actually use pieces from the event in podcasts themselves, that's a great use. At least you've gotten double duty for the time and effort you put into it. So that's a great idea. Well, okay, so we're really working on sort of that organic, social kind of increasing our listener base. What about producing it? You mentioned and teased to people that you use that you're not editing, but what else do you do to produce it?

Like a pro, I batch record, but I don't batch record crazy. So I know a lot of different people out there do different techniques, and I choose to do probably about a week or two in advance and nothing more. And I also really pick what's going on. You know, I look at my idea bank, but if I have an Instagram post that's getting a lot of engagement, I might just switch to that topic. And then sometimes I go back to that post and update it and put in the comments that there's a top. There's a current podcast episode about that. So I think producing is really just kind of like, again, what my community wants.

So you're being a lot more timely about what you're doing by not going farther out than two weeks, which is a choice. I mean, I have some clients that are out, like, a year, and what I keep telling them is, I think this is a mistake for you because your guests, it's been so long since you interviewed them that they don't have the energy of it. And by the time you air it, they may not have the same business. And so it's dangerous to go that far out. And then those that go shorter, there's the risk of you getting behind. And if you get behind, you pod fade. So, like, so there's a happy medium in there, but because you have a responsive community, which is my next one for you. But because of that, I think that you're sitting on that edge of feeling the pressure from your community and still keeping on, but not so far ahead that you're not timely with the information or things that could help them at this moment.

Exactly.

That's a great way to look at it from a professional perspective.

And I also added a little pressure to myself because I did not want to go through the pod fade. I went up to two episodes a week.

Yes, you did. I saw that.

Yes. So I went from one. And then this week, I actually did a bonus episode. And so I think I like that flexibility, too. I like that I can throw out a bonus one, but the two kind of keeps me on my toes as well. And I'm getting great feedback on, you know, the two. And, you know, some of there are some women in My community on Instagram that have been with me since day one. So that's May of 2019. Wow.

So.

So, I mean, it's just amazing. And I just mentioned on Instagram Live that I was gonna bring back the shout outs. Cause I used to do shout outs. So I'm gonna bring those back because those are also really good.

Well, especially if you were like, today's episode is inspired by. Yes.

And I just did one. The pet episode.

Yeah, that's right.

The Loving the Pets. So I told her the day that it was gonna come out. And then, of course, I tagged her dog because he has his own Instagram.

Of course he does. Right.

And so that went over really well. And she shared that, like, days after.

That's gonna help you get some more listeners right there.

Exactly.

So that's actually tying into the encouraging engagement. So how do you encourage engagement? It sounds like like you're forcing an engagement, which is really. Because you're going the other direction with it. That's really great. So what else do you do to encourage engagement in that community? Because it sounds like not only are they loyal to you, but they've stayed loyal and they're engaging with you sooner than normally we hear on podcasts.

Yeah, I'm very intentional, and I know that's like a buzzword, and people say that all the time. I am very intentional because, for example, if I have somebody DM me and say, I love this episode. Thank you. You know, I'm having a hard time with my mom, then I might turn around and say, welcome them. But I might even say, well, here's a link to this episode, and you might like this one. Or here's a link to this episode. You might be able to send this to your mom or to your sister. So I'm really focused on my DMs because I get quite a few. So I do that. But I also return. So if I see someone that's commenting a lot on mine or if they've DMed me, I go and return that and I go and check out when I can interact with them and engage with them. So I have a listener who fosters kittens, and so I went and asked her about one of the kittens, you know, so, like, you have to really be involved with your community. It can't be just the listeners. And because you'll never hear from them, you'll never know what's going on with them if you don't engage.

That's a challenge, though, as you grow your community, because you're like, you want to be in touch with them, but your community's growing so much that it's hard. I have the thing right now where with over 500 clients, I confuse some of their shows or their name because we have like seven Jennifers or three. We have four Elizabeths, right? I'm like, which one are we talking about? Which Christine? So it happens to me all the time that I get confused by that, even though I want to be that intimate, personal about it. But it gets harder as you grow. So maintaining that is at least the dming gives you a chain. So you've got the help of, like, you'll refresh my memory.

And you know what else I use too, is Instagram. On a business account, Instagram has the quick replies. So if I already have cued, like, certain episodes and I have cued the website and the website that goes directly to the episodes, so I have things queued so I can start engagement. But if it's time to throw a link, it's a one quick thing. I don't have to type out the www and all that. So I use that. And there's quite a bit of options in Instagram, so I use that. But I'm also, again, I kind of take the time. I kind of set time aside and say to myself, okay, in the morning I'll check, and then I may not check until the following morning. So it's not like I'm doing it like minute by minute, but I am definitely focused on engagement and really knowing what's going on with my community, knowing if someone's suffering something or, you know.

A side question I want to ask before we get to our last one of the five things. I noticed a listener survey on your site. You had a good amount of people go through it. Have you gotten some good feedback from that?

I just added that so there will be an Instagram post to remind them that that's there. And that's another thing I think I do well, and I think some people may be kind of falling off is that you can't do something once. I mean, I did a igt. Oh, nada. I did a reels to show people how to look for a podcast. Like, you can't assume that people know how to even find you.

Yeah, that's so true.

You have to do things like that. So I did a reel about how to use Apple podcast and goodpod's app and how to find me. I did a reel about supporting the show other ways and how you could support any podcast and just little Things like that.

We do little videos, not in reels because we do mostly for people's websites, but we do them for how to rate and review because it's not easy. Like if you've never done it before, finding where the rating and reviewing is confusing.

So you have to tell people like what to do and if that means how to find you or how to support you or how to rate and review and how to share and all.

The different things with all the people who've DMed you, even if some who haven't done it in a while, but they're there in your list. If you had a quick little message that was like one of your quick links that you could drop in about the listener survey, inviting them to it because they've been in contact with you, they're more receptive to that and will more likely take action.

Absolutely.

To being able to mine your past DMs is really great. They love that. Not stock messaging. Like, you know those ones, I get them all the time in LinkedIn. I'm so sick of the robo ones. Right. But when we do it in a way of which we're just saying, like, hey, you contacted me about my podcast before and I'm doing a listener survey. I would love your feedback, you know, that I think is valuable and most people will respond to that because it doesn't feel stock message. And they already had an interaction with you, so they invited the conversation.

Absolutely. And that's great idea. And I need to do that. I have done that before with the voicemail, the link to the speak pipe. I have done that before saying, I hope you enjoyed the episodes. If there's anything you want to let me know about any feedback, here's the link for my voicemail. So I've done that. So I need to do that for the listener survey.

Nice. Okay, well, the last of our five things is about your monetization. So how are you gonna monetize your show? And it doesn't necessarily mean the show itself, but monetizing the not a mom, a life movement. Right. So what are your plans for that? What's your vision?

Actually, I have a very big vision and my vision is to help other child free women launch a podcast.

Awesome.

So use their voice and launch a podcast. One thing I've realized is there's enough of us out there, like we don't have to compete for people. We don't have to. There's so many things out there. Like my voice may not be what Amy down the street is looking for. But yours could be so it's so powerful and podcasting has changed my life between the people I've met, the communities I'm in now and what I've learned. So I am actually starting a business for podcast management and podcast strategy and helping people launch. And so that's going to be my audience. So it's still going to be my listeners, would be my clients. So it's still within my child free world.

I love that, I love that for you. I think that's really great. We get more voices out there in diverse ways right about, you know, we're going to do a lot better out there. So that's really great.

My day job, I'm an occupational therapist so I definitely want to also kind of gear to towards the medical professionals. So it would be child free women that are in the medical profession. Wow.

You know, the biggest thing for them, I can hear it coming up is time management.

Right.

Like how busy they are and how little time they have. Give us your advice. How do you handle all this? Entrepreneurial ventures, all these different moving pieces, the Instagrams, the engagement, the podcast piece, the growing and achieving your vision, how do you handle that?

I handle it with as much automation as possible. So Inbox automation, automation for Instagram, anything that you can automate, automate, anything that you can get rid of. Before going into this, I, you know, unsubscribed to a lot of things. I finished courses that I hadn't finished in years. I did a lot of things because I knew I needed that time that I would normally be spending with all those shiny objects. I needed to put that in my podcast. So I was very clear about, you know, like I said, unsubscribing, canceling. I honestly about a month ago, so I was already into the podcast. I canceled five memberships because I was like, okay, I'm not getting stuff out of it. And right now I need to put my bandwidth somewhere else. So it saved me money and it saved me time to dedicate to my podcast.

Wow. Good decisions and decision means to cut away. So you definitely made those smart choices for yourself because I believe it's paying off already. You have all the good indicators, a really great binge able show that is going to turn into something much bigger. So I see all the great signs here. Normally I would say, you know, a lot of people, they're like, yeah, I think I got a good show here. I can see comparatively you have a good show here. You have a great show in the making and so keep doing what you're doing. It's absolutely amazing. And so what is going to be your biggest piece of advice that you're going to give to your future clients, to those that you're giving podcast business strategies to? What is it that you are going to be your number one piece of advice?

My number one piece of advice is that that topic, that brain dump, that have a mission, have values, and just have as many ideas as possible before even thinking about this. Because you have to be on that wheel, whether it's, you know, doing a brain dump once a year or once every three months. But you have to be in that habit of doing that because you don't want to be pod fade. You don't want to be, oh, next week I have an episode. What should I do? You need to be able to have somewhere to go to, to take that. And also don't be afraid of feeling like you have to have it all scripted. I don't script anything.

Oh, please don't script anything. Like, it's my one number one thing I bet people not to do.

Right? So. Because I feel like you're focused so much on that. So I generally go into an episode with a topic and that's it. And that's all I do. And that allows me to do that deep dive, although it's brief, but a deep dive of that one particular topic. But that idea bank, I think would help everybody as far as pod fade, as far as burnout, because then you can even start to be creative and start to plan your graphics months in advance because you know you have that topic coming up. So it just allows you to be more flexible with all the other stuff.

Nice. Well, Raffi, I can tell you you are on your way. You are a show to listen to and one to watch. So thank you for coming on and sharing that with us here on the Binge Factor.

Thank you so much, Tracy, for having me. It's been such an amazing experience. Thank you.

I told you that was going to be fun and interesting. And she's got such a great perspective on podcasting and on how things, how she wants her show. But, you know, the thing that I really hope that you took away from today is how she was able to take a sort of mission driven, very personal podcast with short episodes, mind you, because you know that I don't always say that that's a great idea here, but she's been able to turn that into a movement because she's been so careful with the execution of each of those episodes. So if you're going to do small episodes and you then do them brilliantly like she's doing, then you're going to be able to create that engagement, that community that build. And so she's creating a not a mom, a life movement. And it's a really interesting watch to see the growth of that happening for her. And so many of you may be out there where you may even have a business show, it's not a personal mission show, but you want it to become a movement as well. You feel that your message is that powerful and needs to be supporting a community out there, there that hasn't heard this yet, just like Raffi. So this is a model show. Go check out Not a Mama Life, even if you are a mama. I got a lot out of it. And so that's okay too, right? We don't have to listen to things. And although that's something that we talked about is right. We don't have to listen to things that are only just like we like it sometimes we really grow by listening to things that are not a fit for our show, are not a fit for our model because we're going to learn something about how to brilliantly do something. I learned from Raffi. I learned about the power of that tease that she puts on at the beginning, and I saw the power of how it could be used on social media, how it could be done out from a tactic standpoint, too. So I learned something just by checking out her show for my research here for this guesting opportunity. So, you know, looking at those things, these are some things that you shouldn't miss out just because you heard it and you're like, I got what it is. I highly recommend you take any one of our guests and at least go spot check their show and then do them a favor. Do them the favor, because they come here to share with you and let you learn from them. Do them the favor of at least sharing with one or more people, at least one person who could benefit from their show, who would be energized by listening to it, whose life could be better, who belong in her movement. So share it with one other person, even if you're not going to be the one to subscribe to it. And also if it does fit you, subscribe, rate and review. Help her out. Help a sister podcaster out. Right? Please do that as well. So you'll be able to find all the connections to Not a Mama Life podcast to Raffi Wagner. You'll be able to find that in the blog post for this episode atthebingefactor.com I hope that more of you will join us on the Clubhouse rooms and check it out. We're going to do more hosts in the hot seats. I'd love to put you in the hot seat and strategize with you about your show, give you some tactics, give you some small things that can shift your show and make it more successful. And then maybe you'll just catch my attention and I'll invite you right here on the Binge Factor as well so you can find out all about that at Potaties Club. That's going to send you right to the Potitize Clubhouse page and it'll give you all the information about how to join us and how to find us on Clubhouse, what times we run our different clubs, our different rooms as they call them there and, you know, check out and find out whether or not Clubhouse is worthy of your time and attention. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you. I look forward to hearing you in this particular case, hearing you. I look forward to seeing you on Social, I look forward to hearing you on Clubhouse and I look forward to bringing you another great episode with another interesting podcaster who's a model for something you might want to try out next.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.

Sam.