Reaching Busy Executive Women with a Re-energized Podcast Content Strategy - On-Air Podcast Coaching with Elizabeth Bachman, host of Speakers Who Get Results

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 noise with the Binge Factor.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard and today we're going to do one of our on air coaching live sessions and I've got Elizabeth Baughman here and Elizabeth's been a client for over a year. She's got a fabulous show called Speakers who Get Results. She is very methodical about what she does, she's very strategic in her thinking and tactical in how she executes. And I love that about Elizabeth. She's always thinking about how to improve, how to up her game, what the strategy is, shows up on coaching calls. So she's a gift as a client. We absolutely love those clients who participate in the process because they have a higher likelihood for success. So when I reached out into our community and said I was going to feature six of our clients on these on air coaching calls, Elizabeth was one of the first to take action and to jump on and be able to come on the show with me here. What I love about Elizabeth's show is that it has a very targeted audience, it's got a very specific business purpose. So it's exactly the kind of show that many of you out there are creating. Yours might be different, it might be in health and wellness and hers is in corporate speaking and improving that. She's got a great background which I'm going to read to you in just a second. And that background leads to deep insights, great guests, great topics, and a great view on how she can help her clients. So it's not just your typical coach doing the same thing. Elizabeth has her niche, she has her uniqueness and that has come across in her show. So Elizabeth Backman is the go to person for advanced level training and speaking, presentation skills, sales and leadership. She has a lifetime spent perfecting the art of presenting. She helps high level clients master a message that brings the funding they need, the allies they want and the recognition they deserve. She's a sought after speaker and strategist in Silicon Valley, nationally and internationally. Elizabeth works with leaders and influencers who need to become concise and compelling presenters. She helps them Present as smart, down to earth, loose, friendly, and even funny and still be taken seriously. Elizabeth has directed such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo in more than 50 operas around the world, giving her a wealth of tools to help business professionals become respected presenters. She's fluent in five languages and is adept at working with presenters from many countries, bringing her global experience to her clients. Strategic speaking for results when you want to make a difference, not just a point. Love that. Catch that catchphrase. That line is so great. Elizabeth Speakers who Get Results is a really interesting podcast. You definitely want to check it out. It's got different guests than we see. So there's a lot of these speaker podcasts that are focused on the sports, the programmatic side of speaking, like how do you get more stages? How do you pitch event planners? This is not. This is focused on the. How you improve your presentation skills. And so it's internal speaking as well as external speaking. And it does. She addresses both. And we're going to talk today about her outcome and strategy of what she's looking for. And Elizabeth is really looking for a dialed in. How do I reach the right clients and use my podcast as an example for why they should work with me, how it is to work with me and compel them to come and meet me and have that conversation so that we can be on a path to becoming. They can be on a path to becoming my client. That's Elizabeth's outcome and the look of what she's trying to go with for her show. So let's talk about her challenges and see if we can shift her outcome over the next year.

Elizabeth Speakers who Get Results love talking with you because you're a pro.

Oh, thank you, Tracy. So were you. I'm just so happy to. When I was gonna be a pro, I was gonna go with the pros. So thrilled to have you guys be doing this for me.

Well, we love working with you. And some of the things here, Elizabeth, is that your show's come along in the last year, so you're over 50 episodes. You've gotten some learnings under your belt. I've listened to some of the recent episodes and compared to the early ones, that you're much more relaxed. You've got things going on. You've got great original guests who most of us have never heard of before because you' reach is so international. So you have a really interesting audience that, you know, you don't see the same guests on your show that you see on everyone else's show, and that's a great benefit.

Oh, good, thank you. Basically, I'm just asking people who are interesting.

Yeah. If you're interested in them, then they're interesting to your audience as well. Right? Yeah. So when we were talking a little bit earlier, you were talking about some of the types of things that you're trying to accomplish with this show. Let's talk about the fact that your show was built so that you could reach a specific profile of clients to attract them to become your client. Right. So talk a little bit about what that is.

Well, I am a presentation skills trainer and I'm a former opera director. So I'm using the opera skills to help high level women in tech and law, basically women who are hitting a glass ceiling to use presentation skills to help them be heard. So a lot of my podcast is information. How do you do this?

How do you get out there?

How do you talk to people?

But I have no idea if I'm actually reaching the high level corporate women that I'm looking for. So that's the thing I would like to solve is I think I've got fabulous content. How can I get them to find me interesting?

Okay, so let's take that on as a challenge. So when we first started your show, you know, there was the two levels of it. So one is that you wanted to also service the existing clients that you have, which you've been doing. You've got solo shows, you're serving your existing client base, you're giving them topics, you've got some things going on. And you indicated to me earlier that that's working. So tell me why that's working and how that works in your show.

Really what it is, it's another way of setting up my content. So the sorts of things that I say all the time, and I'll be talking to a client and they say, well, you know, we're having this and this and this issue. And I say, well, go back to April 14, there's a really good podcast episode about it. And here it is. And actually the other thing that I've done relatively recently is I've set up a resources page on my website right next to the podcast page. And that's where I'm posting a lot of the resources that are either solo shows talking about how do you make a data heavy speech interesting, or men and women not communicating some gender communication issues, or particular guests who are really helpful. So in fundamentally, it's putting an online course out there. I'm just doing it in the form of podcast Episodes.

Wonderful. So maybe one strategy as you start to get more shows here is to have a special feed on that page as well so that they could just sit there and listen to all those selected episodes. I call it a favorites list, but you could call it whatever you want. And we can create a spin off feed that is really just your, what you consider to be the best one on one episodes for someone who's new to you, who's just finding it out. And you can just go there and they go to the page, it looks exactly like your other podcast page as a private feed to it, so that they have to listen in your website because you want them to go to the quiz, you want to be able to serve them up all the other things. You don't want them listening in Apple and other places, you want them listening on your page, but they can go there and they can get the short list of the ones that they should start from if they're getting their feet wet trying to understand why this is important and what they can do with it. You can also have a private page eventually for clients behind a portal if you've got a course and you've got other things. So you can also create shows that are behind that pay gate essentially. So that's a future for you option for you as well with your client base in terms of how you're servicing them. But I think we could better shift the two things together. So you've got great shows that are supposed to attract executive women and helping them get results from speaking, maybe not on stages though, but speaking to audiences, making presentation to boards of directors, that type of model. And that's the new client base or the new clients you'd like to attract. And then your existing clients are looking to you to get continued success. So they may have hired you, you did a project with them, but they've got also keep themselves up and they've got to brush up and improve over time as well. So you're serving that existing client base. So new clients and existing clients, we want to maybe balance out what you're doing to get both at the same time. Is that correct? That's what we're looking for from a strategy.

Yeah.

Okay, good. So let's think about what those shows are structured like. So you mentioned to me in the notes you wrote here that your new clients and your existing clients, but the new ones especially are really, really busy.

That's right.

So it's hard to get their attention.

So what are you doing today besides the podcast from a marketing perspective? To get attention in that world, in that realm of the target demographic.

The best way I get attention is by doing speeches. So speaking is a lead generation thing for me. And if I knew the right podcasts that these women listen to, I would then apply to be a guest there because that's another way of doing my thing and telling my story. That is my best lead generator.

What about LinkedIn? Are you successful using LinkedIn?

I am working on doing more on LinkedIn. Yes. LinkedIn is helpful. It's still a backup I'm not getting. Every once in a while I get someone out of the blue on LinkedIn, but mostly it's just someone has heard from me, mostly through referrals. People say, oh, yes, you know about Elizabeth, you should know about her. Every once in a while there's someone who's heard me on a podcast, but most of the time it's someone I know who's referred them.

Got it. Okay. Well, I'm going to suggest maybe repurposing because what I like to do is make sure that we're using the assets you already have. Right. What you're already doing. Let's use them in a different way and see if we can get better results. Right. Let's make incremental improvements here because we don't need to throw everything out and start all over again. I'm not a fan of that. You're doing some things that are really working and are really right here. There's no reason to mess with that. Let's see if now we can maximize that to get a more targeted or a better result with the right audience. So LinkedIn is much more executively driven. Right. Than the other social media platforms. So chances are that your high profile women have to have a presence there whether they want to or not. Right. So they have to participate there. So they do. They check it out. They're probably inundated with horrendous private messages that tell them that everyone should have virtual coffee with them. I don't know about you, but I get them probably like on the. Every five minutes, right?

Yes, exactly.

They're not going to respond to that. They're too busy for that. That's just, you know, violates every rule of relationship building that we've all learned. But they still, someone out there still thinks it works and does it. So that's not what we're going to go here. We're going to go and do what you do when you're on stage and they see you, which is you're just going to Be you, right? And you're going to show how great you are. So having a LinkedIn posting strategy is extremely important. So if you've already got curating a community, right, you're friending the right people, you're connecting with the right people. People are referring you to others who connect with you via LinkedIn. You invite all your audience to connect with you as well, right? When you give a speech, whether it's virtual or live, right? When you do that, you're inviting that audience to connect with you. Now those right people, because you were in front of the right audience, their community starts to become your community, right? So now we're really cultivating it within the right community of people and being very careful about that, being careful of who you let in. So I have it where I get a lot of vendors in the podcast industry reach out to me, people who want to, you know, on Fiverr and other stuff. And I'm actually really careful not to allow them into my LinkedIn network that I refuse them. Not because I care about, because I don't care about the number of connections I have. I care about the quality of that connection. It's putting me in the right community. That's our strategy right now. If we've got those right people in our community, someone's bound to see what we're doing and share it with others. That will then be more of the right community. So how can we get them to share little bits and pieces of our podcasts, of our shows, of our tips, of our great ideas? So one of the strategies that I found that works for myself, it works for many other clients. There's actually a couple of, I'm going to call them co op groups that go and do this together as a team and like each other's stuff and comment on each other's, because that's important to create engagement, right? So they put out a post that usually poses a question, and the video that you attach to it is the answer to the question, or feeding that, what you're pondering and what you're thinking about in some way, shape or form. It's usually one to two minutes long. It's not a very long video. It can be a clip from anywhere. In any of your podcasts, it's easy to take a clip. You can use a, I think it's a free tool like Headliner and create an audiogram. If you don't have video from your show, you can also create a clip in places like Repurpose, IO or other tools, Restream and All of those other places where you can create clips or you can just come, Elizabeth, and ask for clips. Right? So like, these are things that can be done, but you want to. This is the hard part. For those of us who are busy, carefully curate the section yourself because it needs to be what you believe is the most valuable point of what you said for the community that you're trying to reach.

So if I'm at a podcast, I've got an interview of somebody, or if there's a solo show and I say, here's the best part, then I could go to you and say, could you make me a one minute clip of from here to here?

Cut this. Yep, exactly. Oh, good.

I hate editing. That's why I worked with you. I want you to do it for me.

For those of you out there doing it yourself, you can use one of those tools that just clip it right at the moments that you need it. So, like, yeah, whether you work with a team or not, there's a way to get that right and just to get that piece out so you don't have to learn any editing skills. I can tell you that right now. Go to Headliner, go to Repurpose IO or come to us and we'll take care of it for you. Right. That's why we're here. But doing those things and getting that short clip, it doesn't need bumpers on it, it doesn't need pretty graphics on it. Its point is to look like you just went on air and did it. LinkedIn Live is new and upcoming. You have to be invited to be able to do LinkedIn Live. And I would love to see you get to do that. Elizabeth.

I'm waiting for them to answer me.

Yes, I know, so many of us. But the trick that I heard that can get you doing this is if you post consistently every single day at the same time of day, a video clip, or at least every, every three days or something like that, whatever is as long as it's consistent and it's at the same exact time every day. If you do that, they're more likely to reward you with an invitation to LinkedIn Live. So this is a trick to get them to show you this is what you're going to do when you do LinkedIn Live. And when they see the engagement and the value of it, that's going to get your invitation sent to you. So I think that that's a good strategy for you. So in the posting portion, you're going to pose the question of. Or something you want to get engagement on in the comments area. So that's where you want to pick your clip. Just right. So if you really did want to know where women are getting their information, just do an episode about where you get your information, how you stay up on your industry, that. Something like that. Take a clip from that and then ask the question. Where do you improve your speaking game? Where do you, or how do you, you know, asking an open ended question, not a yes or no one, obviously.

Right, exactly.

So trying to put a question in there or something that spurs engagement. Do you believe in this? You know, and why Those are things that you can do. What tactics have you used?

Well, yeah, I do. I post questions and I reach out and I share and I comment. So there are a couple of groups that I'm part of where we comment. But I'm afraid I do it when people pop up in my feed.

So rather than saying, okay, today I'm going to be promoting Tracy Hazard and tomorrow I'm going to be promoting somebody else. So I'm not consistent about it. I just do it when they pop up in my feed.

Well, let's have a strategy, let's have a plan and let's think about that. That's a way to go about this. So if you're thinking and you're saying, look, I have an episode that comes out every single week, there's got to be two or three clips from each episode. I could post on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, post my episode on a Tuesday, you know, whatever day it goes live. And on a Thursday, I will share something of my guest. So I will share their video, their podcast, if they're a host, their article, if they're a writer, a speech they gave, a YouTube video, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be. If you can get it from within, LinkedIn better off. But if you can't get it from outside and bring it in, that's okay too. So now you have five days. You just created five days, five posts that you can plan ahead because you record your episodes ahead.

So and I can plan that ahead and then once it posts, because then people, once the podcast publishes them, I would do this after it publishes. Right. So people can click on it right away. Yeah.

So yes, after it publishes, absolutely. So but you can tease up to it, are likely to have your clips ahead of time if you've recorded enough ahead. So you're likely to have your little clip you can play and the podcast is coming up on Thursday or whatever day of the week you launch yours. Right. And so you can tease up to that as well in the post. And as soon as the episode airs in the comments of that old post, that was two days earlier, not that old. Right. You can add the link and say, hey, this episode is live now in its entirety. Here's the link. Sending them to the blog post for the website. Right. Of course, with the episode there and not to Apple. And so now you're actually able to take what was the short post and give them the long place, the longer place to go. And everyone who commented within that, who has their notification sets on, gets the notification that your episode is live. So now you're increasing your listenership as well. So it's a very simplified strategy. Now you can use a tool like buffer, like hootsuite, we used Meet Edgar here. And so you can create that system for setting that up. You can hire a virtual assistant. You can have someone who handles the scheduling of these posts. So what I do personally is my team, my social team receives my host notification email that comes from Poditize. So they receive that because it has all the asset links in it, and they plan out the daily episodes based on my strategy of what I've given them. I want a video post on day one, I want a quote post on day two. Like, I have the plan laid out for what goes where and what those look like. And they do a lot of the writing and a lot of the posting, and I do all the proving right. That's how we do it in the system. I just will go over and prove it before it's allowed to post live a week to two weeks ahead of time. Now, occasionally they don't have the full link until, you know, a couple of days before they'll go back in and edit it. But I've already proved everything else, and so it makes it very simple for it to flow through. I actually never think about it. In LinkedIn, I have my notification turned on. So the minute someone comments, though, I see the comments and I'm able to go in there and start engaging with them live, because I can see that flash on my phone. So there isn't any missed opportunity in the engagement side of them. You must turn those notifications on, even if you turn off all the other ones. Turn those ones on. When people comment on your post, engage. Right. So. Mm. So, yeah. So this might be a great strategy for you because what's gonna happen is, is you're showing them. You're not telling them, come work with me, you're showing them the tips, the Kinds of things. What it's like to work with you, what it's like to hear the great advice and deep experience you have, Elizabeth, because you have tremendous experience here. And I think that you also may want to shift some of the content to be talking about not just speaking on stage, but speaking in different situations. So creating a variety.

Absolutely right.

But you're just choosing the clips that make it clear. And when you post, you're talking about like, this is a great boardroom strategy.

Got it.

So that you're putting it in context. So I know as a reader, as a listener, as a viewer, I know when I might be able to use this. If this applies to me, it becomes clearer.

Yes, exactly. Yeah.

So I like your solo shows, Elizabeth. They have a lot of strength to them. They have a lot of great stories in them and deep experience. And I do love that you reference other interviews and other shows that you do from within your solo shows. So you're creating a dynamic cross feeding of the different episodes, which is really great.

It's on purpose. Yes. Yeah.

You're planning that in. I love it, Elizabeth. You're doing your. So what we really want to just start to drive then is a really what's in it for me? How can I really improve? How can I get better results? That's the name of your show. That's what you're about. How can I get better results for what I want to achieve as an executive, a high value executive woman. And whether it's, I need it to convince my board, I've got to convince investors, whatever that model is, that's what's in it for me. Right?

Yeah.

So being always thinking about that in how you're messaging things when you're putting it out there, that's the crux of everything. A good example of this is that your quiz offer at the end. So your quiz offer, which I can see the quiz URL right there on your virtual background, for those of you who are listening, you can't see that. And so when we have that quiz offer, the way you make the offer is nice. It's an invitation to come to do that. But you're forgetting to tell the audience what the outcome for them might be by taking the quiz. So we're getting very attuned to having a lot of quizzes and having a lot of self assessments going on in the virtual world. Right. Everyone has one on their website, like it's becoming prevalent, but for the most part we realize that they're lead generators, not necessarily evaluators. Yours is an evaluator. Right. It's helping me evaluate where I am, where I might need work, where I have strength. Right. So it's helping in that evaluation process. It's helping you evaluate them too, but it's helping with a self evaluation view. So making it clear that I'm going to get a lot of insight from taking your quiz. The what's in it for me again. Right. That could get you more traction into that process. And now then, you've not only met and been in front of executive women that you wanted to, but you got them to take action.

Yes, exactly. I do always invite people. So if you'd like to see how your presentation skills are going, go to my Facebook 4 Minute Quiz, speakforresultsquiz.com and that's where you can see where you're strong and where you might need a little bit of support.

Right. And so strengthening what you're saying there, Elizabeth, is probably more important. You're not saying anything wrong. It's just not compelling enough to demonstrate to me why I need this. Right. So how can we strengthen the part that says, you know, the most common problems we see is that you're not as influential or you're not as persuasive as you could be in your speaking process. Why don't you see where you fall on the spectrum of persuasiveness? I'm making this up because I haven't taken your quiz, to be honest with you, since like over a year ago.

Come take my quiz in only four minutes. Yes.

Yeah, it was over a year ago that I took it for you. And so, you know, I don't remember what all the questions are. So if you do that, if you have a section or you know that this is the most common area that is weak for the executive women you want to reach, you want to push them into that nagging doubt that I may already have that I'm weak here. And pick two or three and switch them up when you do the invitation and see which one starts to get more play. So if you use one in a given week and then you see a boost in your quiz, you're like that one, hit a hot button.

Okay, that's good. I can give that a try. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because if you get the women to then take the action now, you know you have a really good potential client. Right. They're already self screening through that process. By taking action, you know that they're going to become a good client because they'll show up on the coaching calls. They'll do what you say you're going to.

Are supposed to do.

Right. Like, they'll participate in the process. So we want those active people, but if we're not getting them to take it because we're not compelling them enough to make them realize I need this, then we're not helping them get out of their own way.

Okay. Yes.

That's one of the things that I would. In general, I think that that's part of what it is for you, is that your client base, your potential client base, doesn't understand the value of not doing it. Right.

I think I know what I need to add, actually.

Yeah. Yeah. So what's the cost to me? I'm not playing at a top game, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

That's an interesting view of it. Rather than, well, the cost is paying you and then an unknown gain and improvement. But if it costs me something that I'm gonna lose. People don't want to lose out on something. And if it means I'm gonna lose a deal or I'm gonna lose my position on a board or, you know, I'll lose the next promotion that has a high value to me. Right. I don't want to lose something.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. That's brilliant, Tracy. Thanks. Tell me just exactly where I need to change things. So great.

I love the idea for you of taking a more leadership role with this women that you want to reach both your existing client base. And that's one of the things it's like you can encourage them via LinkedIn through the tagging in the comments field. You can link a client, so you're recognizing a client. So you might say, juliet Clark, I know you do this brilliantly, you know, and you're just typing in the comment, share the story about this or share a tip about this. So you're actually inviting your clients to participate in the engagement of.

Oh, I love that. Yes. That's great.

But you didn't tag them all at the top of the post because that's really tacky. You know those posts that then put at all these people's names. Do it in the comments field and just do it with a targeted amount. And don't do more than one client per post, so it's not overwhelming and spammy.

Okay, great. One client per post. Okay, I'm running out of space for all my notes here.

Well, that's why we have a video and an audio for you to refer to.

Right? Yeah.

Hallelujah. Yeah, exactly. So this strategy is going to help you keep engaging your existing client base and helping them improve over time, which then when you're in front of them and you're giving them both acknowledgement, right, you acknowledge them as an expert because you asked them for a tip, because they've gone through your program, you've asked them for a tip, you've acknowledged them. And then on the other side of that, it compels them to return the favor to the law of reciprocity kicks in. And so they also say, thank you, Elizabeth. Right. And they thank you in that process, which now creates an association of value that they received. Whether they give you a testimonial in that process or not doesn't matter. It's just the fact that they thanked you. And so all of that provides continual growth and support and community so that the potential new clients out there are looking at that, going, this isn't someone who's putting out some spammy posts, got some social media strategists working for them, some virtual assistants phoning it in for them. This is a person who's participating in the process. This is authentic. This is an expert. And look, she has real clients too. So all of that removes barriers of the process of hiring you.

Great, great. I love it. Thank you so much. That's why I really wanted to be on this show. I'll get you to help me on the great things. Now that I'm up and running now, how do I make it better?

Now? Let's just tweak, right? We're not making giant moves because you're doing a lot right, and you got to give it the time, but these tiny little tweaks are just going to shift us into the right audience and that's where we really want to go with that.

Okay, well, I'll just have to come back in six months or so and tell you how it goes.

That's right, absolutely. And so speakers who get results. Elizabeth, great show. There's lots of us out there who could use improvements in it. You've got some really interesting guests that have really different views on the world. And I personally love your view as an artist because you have an opera background. And I have a love for the arts more on the visual side than the performing side. But I still absolutely love the idea of combining art and business. And you do that really well, Elizabeth. And I can see why your tech clients love you because that's a product based view, right? An outcome based view of the world, not a sales view of the world. Not just persuasion for persuasion's purpose. It has power and story in it as well. Thank you.

You know, one of the things that I've often thought about my 30 years in opera is that if you put it in a business context, my job was to take a group of a team of very smart, very talented, very opinionated people and get them all pointed in the same direction, pull the best out of each person as we went and then deliver results by deadline. Because 8 o' clock Saturday night is going to roll around and there'll be people who paid a lot of money for those tickets.

That's right. Under great pressure. So, you know, that's exactly the definition, though, of those of us leading teams, leading companies. Right. It's the same. We have to do the same thing. It's just a different model of deliverable.

It's just a different vocabulary, basically. Yeah.

Right. Well, wonderful. Well, Elizabeth, we look forward to more shows from you. I look forward to seeing the shift. I look forward to seeing your posts on LinkedIn. So glad we're already friends over there. And everyone can check out speakers who get results anywhere you listen to podcasts. But also don't forget to go to the blog post for this episode@thebingefactor.com to connect up to Elizabeth's website. Check out her quiz so that you can see what a true self assessment quiz is as well. So thanks everyone for listening and thank you, Elizabeth, for being here today and being so willing to be an on air coaching guinea pig.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to the Binge Factor. 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.