114: The Magic of a Strategically Aligned Podcast
Today I am talking, unscripted and wholly authentic, about how I changed my own strategy in my business and podcast. When I did this, I made less mistakes and felt more passionate about what I was talking about on the podcast and to my clients. Have you ever felt like you’re in a fog? You’re trying to figure out what you want to do and what you want to be known for, but where is the spark?
In this episode, I am embracing what helped me find the spark to feel the passion and joy again that keeps me happier and the podcast growing. It comes down to mapping out a strategy that makes sense for you, your podcast, and your business together. Today, we’ll talk about creating a strategy for your podcast, not just as a podcaster, but as a business owner.
We quickly realized as a company that we really needed to move from just talking about management and launching into strategy. So, when we did we started talking about strategy more, it became a place of finding clarity.
Clarity and Purpose in Podcasting
For myself, I don't think any of that clarity would have come if I had not done the work on my podcast and then, really dove into strategy. I wanted to know if my podcast was supporting my business in the way it needs to; and how do you recognize that? A few ways:
- Content Improves
- Making Less Mistakes
- Having More Topics I Enjoy Sharing
- Talking Feeling Easier (even for an introvert)
- A natural re-brand of my business
- Gaining confidence
- Having an authority on certain subjects
All of these things were possible when I took a step back and re-evaluated what I wanted to be seen as in my field, as well as taking my own interests into account. Your business and podcast cannot be all things for all people. Finding your spark means seeking your passions.
How To Show up in Other Places
Another way my content improved is because I got clear on my customer path and how that relates to my zone of genius. It’s helped me show up in other places as well. As many of you know, Instagram (I’m at @wildhomepodcasting!) is where I like to hang out and where I like to talk a lot. (Even though I am an introvert, and talking a lot makes me tired after a while.) I think my content on Instagram has only gotten better as my strategies for my short and long-term goals have gotten clearer. At present, my team and I are working on email marketing, and it's been really cool to see us talk about topics in email, then also talk about it on Instagram. As we’re on this path, topics and opportunities open up the conversations to happen in other places.
Find Your Spark
Since we re-branded Wild Home Podcasting, I feel that my confidence in myself and my work has only improved. I know that we're on the right track and that's been showing in other places as well because our downloads and our incomes are up; there's a lot of other things that are tied to my business that just show improvement because I'm showing up in the world in a very clear and confident way.
If you’re listening to Podcast Your Business and thinking, but what is my spark? How can I find it? Do I even have one?
The answer is always YES! Yes, you have one and you can find it and it can work for you in the same way. It starts with stepping back and really acknowledging what makes your brain tick and what fuels your desire to run your business and podcast. And most importantly - having clarity of how those two work together, and for each other. That is the magic of strategy, which propels the spark of enjoyment and success together.
Ready to make your podcast more strategic, your marketing easier to produce, and your business more profitable? The doors are open for the Strategic Podcast Academy!
The Strategic Podcast Academy is here to help your podcast and your business work together to make your business more profitable and to free up more time for yourself. This monthly membership will cover topics such as Customer Path Planning, Content Planning for Sales, Podcast SEO, Creating Connection with Your Listeners, Social Media, Email Marketing for Your Podcast, PR for Podcasters and so much more! The doors are open now! Join here!
Links:
Ep. 107: How to Audit – And then Refresh – Your Podcast
Ep. 096: How to Set Goals for Your Podcast
Ep. 094: How a Podcast Strategy Elevates Your Business
Join the Strategic Podcast Academy!
Are you ready to start strategizing your podcast and simplifying your marketing? Download our free guide to do your Podcast Audit!
The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
114: The Magic of a Strategically Aligned Podcast
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull: It's not something that necessarily happens overnight, but sometimes it kind of sparks something, right? Like there's a little spark of this is what I want to do. This is what I want to be known for. And as you dive into it more, it starts to inform a lot of other things. Are you ready to start a strategic podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? This is the place. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week I share the strategy behind having a podcast that helps grow your business. I'm Caroline Hall, podcast manager, strategist and consultant, and I've seen the power of podcasts can have for your business. Let's get started. Today's episode is completely unscripted. I just really want to talk about this topic, and it is in complete alignment with everything we've been talking about on the podcast. And so I felt like I'm just going to hit record and see what happens. I did an Instagram post this week all about and will link to it in the show notes if you want to go watch it. But I talk about how when you have a strategically aligned podcast, there's something really magical that happens. And so I wanted to share exactly what this means and what I'm talking about. And maybe this is something that you need and something that can help you as well. So this magical thing that I'm talking about is clarity. I talk about this sometimes of being a byproduct of having a strategically aligned podcast, but I've never really explained what I mean by that. You know, and I say it in passing because it is definitely one of those benefits that you get when you work on this strategy for your podcast. Because when you work on podcast strategy, there's a couple of things that we really focus on. We focus on the customer path, the journey that they're taking through your business. So like we, we think about, okay, what's next steps? What happens after that? What happens after that, what happens after that? And we talk about creating aligned content, right? So content that not only meets our listeners where they're at, but also is aligned with what's going on in our business. And all of these things, right, when we start to kind of work on these two things. I kind of have this vision in my head of like when you're in the fog, right, and you're building your business and you're trying to figure out exactly what you want to do, what you want to be known for, what you're doing. I would say that for a large majority of my business life, I've been in some sort of fog and not as a bad thing, but just trying to figure out, okay, what exactly is the thing I want to be known for? And for a long time, we really focused on podcast management and podcast launching. Those were kind of the two things that we focused on. But whenever I would talk about these things with people, inevitably we would end up somewhere around podcast strategy, right? Because launching and management is no good if you don't have a really great podcast strategy. And as we kind of drove into like, okay, what exactly do we want the podcast to do for our business? Wild Home Podcast for my business Wild Home Podcast thing, what do we want it to do for me in particular? Like, what do I want to be known for? What do I want customers to do? All of these questions that I was asking so I could ensure that my podcast was working better for my business kind of cleared away some of the fog, right, and started to make clearer what I needed to be doing in my business. It is amazing the clarity that can occur from taking a look at something strategically and really asking yourself some of the questions that we ask in strategy sessions and things like that. And it's not something that necessarily happens overnight, but sometimes it kind of sparks something, right? Like there's a little spark of this is what I want to do. This is what I want to be known for. And as you dive into it more, it starts to inform a lot of other things. When you really start to focus on your customer path and how you want people to interact with you and relate with you and work with you. And, you know, I think about those things when I'm in calls every day when I wake up and I'm working on something for a client, you know, I think to myself, Is this the thing that I want to be doing? Is this where my zone of genius is? Are we in our zone of genius? You know, as we've built our packages and develop them? We thought about that. And a lot of this information has come from working on the podcast and what's been happening on the podcast and what we share on the podcast. How did we share it? You know, what kind of episode did I record? Did I show up in that episode the way I needed to? Was I confident? Was I passionate about what I was talking about? And what we quickly realized as a company. And what I realized too, is that we really needed to move from just talking about, like I said, management and launch into talking about strategy. And so then we did we started talking about strategy more, which I think has been great. And I hope everyone who's listening has learned a lot about podcast strategy and having a podcast for your business because it is really the thing that I love talking about. And from there and informed me that I needed to create a service where I could just talk about strategy. And from there I did that service, and that service was amazing and so much fun. And I realized that, like, this is the thing that I want to be doing. [00:06:15][375.2]
[00:06:16] Caroline Hull: Did you know that your podcast can be so much more than a hobby? It can be a way for you to attract your ideal client and establish yourself as an authority in your field. But you need a strategy. And that's why we've created the Strategic Podcast Academy, a monthly membership designed to help you build a strategy for your podcast. You can grow your business and get off the content creation hamster wheel with support from myself and a community of like minded podcasters. You will create a strategic plan for your podcast and start implementing impactful changes during our time in the monthly membership. We're going to cover topics such as customer path planning, content planning for sales, podcast SEO, creating connection with your listeners, email marketing for your podcast, and so much more. So if you are an online business owner, coach, consultant or service provider, and you're ready to have a podcast that supports your business, then this strategic podcast academy is for you. Head to Wild Home Podcasting dot com slash membership to join today. [00:07:20][64.3]
[00:07:22] Caroline Hull: I don't think any of that clarity would have come if I had not done the work on my podcast and really dove into this strategy and wanted to know if it was supporting my business in the way it needs to. Because there's a couple of things that happened, right? So my content improved, right? My episodes improved vastly. Let me tell you, I make less mistakes talking about these topics than I did talking about like podcast management and launches and things like that back in the day. And when I say back in the day, I'm like really going back to before we rebranded the podcast because I am so passionate about this topic. It has become easier for me to talk about. I've really honed in on my thoughts and feelings about it, right? And I've been able to gain a lot of confidence to share those thoughts and feelings that I am creating around the things I like to talk about. And so when we talk about building authority, this is where it's happening. It's happening here. And the content which is improving because I got clear on my customer path and how that relates to my zone of genius, right? I think it's also really helped me show up in other places. You know, Instagram is where I like to hang out and where I like to talk a lot. And I think my content on Instagram has only gotten better as this stuff has gotten clearer. And then now we've been working on email marketing, and so it's been really cool to see like, okay, like we can talk about this in email, just like we talk about this on Instagram. And so it's translating to other places. I don't know if I've mentioned this and I say that with a little sarcasm because I know I have, but I'm an introvert and I don't enjoy talking. I really don't. I mean, I love to talk, but I get tired. I don't want any kind of confrontation. You know, I'm not confrontational. And so when. I started podcasting, I really was not confident in my voice and that definitely improved. But over the last year or so of working on the podcast, especially since we rebranded that confidence has only like improved even more because I know that we're on the right track and that's been showing in other places as well because our downloads are up, our incomes up, like there's a lot of other things that are tied to that that just show that because I'm showing up in the world in a very clear and confident way that it's helping other places. Right. So when we talk about creating a strategy for your podcast, it really is about creating clarity for you, not just as a podcaster, but as a business owner. And I didn't really realize that that's what was happening in those sessions. But the thing is, is that what you do on your podcast is related to everything that you do in your business. And if it's not, then you don't have a podcast that's working for your business, right? Then you just have a podcast over here and a business over here. But if you connect them so that they work together in a strategic way. Now suddenly we have to start looking at everything, not just the podcast. Now we have to start thinking about, okay, what is my often look like? What is my email sequence look like? What is my sales page look like? Are all of these things reflecting the goals that I have for myself, for my business? Do they reflect my zone of genius? You know, I realized the other day I was working on something on my website and I was like, Oh, I need to change this wording because this doesn't reflect where we are building authority. And now this doesn't reflect the things that I am passionate about. And I don't know that I necessarily would have noticed that if I hadn't been working on like everything else as it relates to my podcast. And again, like our downloads are up by about 50 per episode, if not more right now, and I only see that increasing. And that is because we have put in the work. We've created a plan, I've been executing that plan, I've been working on how we share the podcast, how we show up, the content, all of these pieces that literally just came from me looking at my podcast and creating a strategic plan for it. And so as we share more about this and help more podcasters, I'm so excited because podcast strategy is about so much more and there are so many benefits that come from diving in. And definitely for me it has been clarity, clarity about what I want to do with my business, clarity about what I want to talk about, and just a direction, a direction that I'm so excited about. And I wanted to share this with you all because I think it's really important and it's, you know, the other thing that is so great about something like this is that you have people behind you to help you. You know, for me, it's my team. And because we do podcast strategy, we talk all the time about podcast strategy and how are these things working. And if I can't see something clearly, I will go to them and they will ask and see. And that's what we do in our strategy calls. You know, we kind of look at the path and the big picture and is it all working together and what things are you missing? What things are you not seeing? And how can we help come up with a plan for that? And it's my favorite thing in the world to do now. So I wanted to share that with you because I know that I talk a lot about having a podcast strategy and why it's important for your business and your podcast, but I really wanted to share that. One of the other things that can come from creating a plan for your podcast is so much clarity for yourself and your business and how it's all going to work together. And so if that is something that you are wanting to dive into, we have so many ways of helping you with that and you can just head to Wild Home Podcasting and join our newsletter. And that's the best place to start. And I hope that resonated with some of you. And if you have any questions about any of this and what it looks like, be sure to head over to Instagram and talk to me there. Or you can email me and we will be back next week with a new episode. [00:13:47][385.1]
[00:13:48] Caroline Hull: Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram at Wild Home Podcasting. If you're ready to launch up level or grow your podcast, head to WildHomePodcasting.com to get started today. [00:13:48]
