128: Podcasting Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely: Join the Strategic Podcast Academy
Community is so important as a business owner and podcaster! We all need a place where we can chat with likeminded people who have the same goals and struggles we do and can cheer us on. Every time I’ve ever joined a community for my business, I’ve felt a huge, positive impact in my business growth. That’s why I decided to create the Strategic Podcast Academy (SPA).
SPA is your one stop shop for all things podcast strategy. It’s a special place for business owners to come together and talk about podcasting, talk about our businesses, and where all of the podcast advice is geared toward business owners and not just the traditional podcast marketing models.
So today, I’m sharing exactly what SPA is, how it can help you craft your podcast strategy and grow your business, and why I think you should join. There are some incredible resources already inside the membership, with more exciting content coming down the pipeline. If you’ve wanted help with using your podcast as a marketing tool for your business, keep reading!
Why community is so important for business owners
One thing that I've been thinking a lot about for myself is where can I find my people? Where can I hang out with like minded people? Where can I talk about the things that I'm struggling with as a business owner, as a podcaster? Where is that place? And this year at Wild Home Podcasting, we've been really thinking about how we want to show up in the world and how we want to help people.
Community has been so impactful for my business. Every time I’ve joined a mastermind or a membership, my business has grown. It’s being around people that are putting out the same energy as you, that are encouraging growth, that are working towards some of the things that you are working towards. Joining a community is really powerful and it can help you take steps forward and make the movement that you need to make to achieve your goals.
Why I created the Strategic Podcast Academy for podcasters and business owners like you
I want to share something I’ve created that is near and dear to my heart and the vision I have for how I want to help people moving forward. It’s my monthly membership called the Strategic Podcast Academy (SPA). It’s been this little glimmer of a thought in my brain for years, but it never really came together until this year when I had my hip surgery. There’s nothing like recovering from surgery and sitting on the couch for 6 weeks to make you look at all of your life choices and where you're going. And I would always come back to this passion that I have for sharing podcast strategy, because I think that there are so many business owners out there who either have a podcast and it's not working, or they have a podcast that's somewhat working, but it's not doing what they want it to do. And I want to change that. I want every business owner who has a podcast to be able to use it to help build their business.
How the Strategic Podcast Academy can help you with your podcast strategy
You’ll be able to hit the ground running when you become a member of SPA. When you join, you’ll immediately find our framework for creating a strategy for your podcast. You’ll also find trainings to get started on how to do a podcast audit and how to set meaningful, effective goals for your podcast. In addition, we offer a monthly masterclass on a different podcasting topic that is geared toward business owners. There are also monthly office hour Q&A calls, collateral review, podcast industry updates, and more.
The best part of joining SPA is that everyone in the group is a business owner who is launching a podcast or has a podcast that they want to build a strategy around. That strategy will include discussions on business goals, funnels, marketing in general, visibility, search engine optimization, etc. That’s the value of SPA because everything that we're doing each month, you can take and apply to your business and to your podcast and it will make an impact. Little changes, little movement over time can create big changes.
Lastly, I know it can get really lonely working on your podcast by yourself week after week. But as I’ve said many times before, podcasting is a long game, and that’s why the membership container is perfect. We can talk about where you're stuck, what you're working on, and how you can push through, make tweaks, and move forward.
Common obstacles I hear about why people can’t join a membership (and why they just don’t apply for SPA!)
I’ll give you one guess what people say when they talk about joining a membership (or not joining one). If you said time, you’re totally right. I know that podcasting can be time intensive, at least sometimes, and I don’t want to put more things on your plate. Yes, it will take a little extra time to join the masterclasses, and do some homework on your podcast, but if that extra bit of investment can turn your podcast into a lead generator machine, isn’t that a good thing? Rather than just putting out episodes, without a plan, that don’t grow your business.
Another obstacle people bring up when joining a membership is FOMO. They’ll say, “What if I can’t attend every masterclass or use every single benefit?” That's totally okay! That's why we have a variety of things for you to pick and choose from. We're all unique and we need support and help in different ways. In the membership, there are a variety of ways to get help and support, including commenting in the membership, submitting something for my review and feedback, coming to a call, messaging me in private. All of those things are available to you in SPA.
So, I really do want to encourage you, if you're at all interested in this material, to join because this is the only way you're going to get this information. I don't share it anywhere else. Once you join, you’ll see every resource we’ve ever created there and it will remain there forever.
What you’ll see in SPA right now and what’s coming in the future
Here are some of the resources you’ll find inside the Strategic Podcast Academy right now:
Understanding the Customer Path
Creating strategic content without being salesy
SEO categories and rankings
Masterclasses that are easy to understand with clear action items/takeaways
Here’s what’s coming up inside the membership:
Why having a visibility strategy is important and how to create one
How to create connection with your podcast listeners
Email marketing and social media for your podcast
Guest experts
So, here’s my “I’m not only the president, I’m also a member” moment and my pitch to you. Everything that I teach inside SPA is exactly what I use in my own business and podcast, so I know it works. SPA is an authentic place to come together and talk about podcast strategy and talk about how we are going to grow our businesses and hit those business goals using our podcasts. And so if this is something that you want to be a part of, I would love to have you. The doors are open. Join us today!
If you’re looking for a community that will help you with your podcast strategy and grow your business, the Strategic Podcast Academy is the place for you.
Links:
Check out our services to Launch, Uplevel or Grow your Podcast
Download the FREE Podcast Self-Audit Checklist
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:
128: Podcasting Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely: Join the Strategic Podcast Academy
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull Finding community when you are a business owner is so, so, so important. Every time I have joined a membership or community where I'm getting that face to face interaction and I'm putting in the time and the effort, right, and I'm showing up, my business has grown. And so today I want to talk about something that I've created, a special community that I really hope can help business owners not only grow their business, but grow their podcast and align them together so they can help them reach their goals.
[00:00:47] 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 Hull, podcast manager, strategist and consultant, and I've seen the power a podcast can have for your business. Let's get started.
[00:01:16] Welcome back to Podcast Your Business. I can't believe it is back to school time already. It feels like August has creeped up on this. If you're listening in the future, it is August of 2023. I have been super busy getting my kids started back at school. We homeschool and they're starting all their activities and their enrichment programs and just trying to figure out what that new normal looks like, especially as they are getting older. So if you are a back to school mom and you're listening to this, we are in the same boat right now.
[00:01:54] But I love this time of year because it really is like a new beginning in a way, even though it's not technically the beginning of the year a lot of us measure our time by school years, right? And we measure it by the fall and starting all these new things and then going into winter. And it's interesting because that is the cycle that we see with human beings in the United States especially. We see a little bit of that cycle with podcasts as well, I think because during the summer everybody is on vacation mode. They're going, they're doing, they're with people, There isn't a ton of podcast listening go on. We usually see a dip in downloads during the summer and then in August they start to slowly tick up again and then September, it's just like explosion, right?
[00:02:51] And so I love this time because it is such a great time to take a look at everything you're doing. We're going into Q4, which is, you know, panic season for a lot of business owners. But I really like to look at this time as what can I do to move forward, right? What can I work on? What can I achieve that's going to take me into Q4 and Q1 and beyond? And one thing that I've been thinking a lot about for myself is where can I find my people? Where can I hang out with like minded people? Where can I talk about the things that I'm struggling with as a business owner, as a podcaster? Where is that place? And this year we've been really thinking about it at Wild Home Podcasting, how we want to show up in the world and how we want to help people, our capacity, all of these things. Right, that are so important as you start to scale and build your business. And there is one thing in particular that I have always wanted to do. I've been thinking about it and dreaming about it for years, and this year we finally brought it to fruition.
[00:04:10] I mentioned community and how impactful that's been for my business, how every time I have joined a mastermind or a membership, my business has grown and I do think like, you know, the thing with it is, is being around people that are putting out the same energy as you, that are encouraging growth, that are working towards some of the things that you are working towards is really powerful and it can really help you take steps forward and make the movement that you need to make to achieve your goals. I have always wanted to create a place that existed just like this, but for business owners like you and me who are using podcasting as part of their marketing, because there's not a lot of space where I can have these conversations. I am in a couple of podcasting Facebook groups so I can stay on top of trends and what's happening in the Facebook groups. But honestly, you know, those groups are not as specific as someone like me who's working on podcast strategy for marketing, for getting leads, for generating content. Usually it's more general podcasting stuff, right? And that can get really confusing when you're trying to do what we are doing with our podcast, which is using it as the main piece of our marketing and using it to drive leads to our business. And so I always wanted to create something like that, a special place for business owners to come where we could talk about podcasting, we could talk about our business, and where all of the podcast advice was geared toward business owners and not just the traditional podcast marketing models.
[00:05:58] And I really want to share that with you. I want to share this thing that I've created that is near and dear to my heart and the vision I have for how I want to help people moving forward. And that is my monthly membership called the Strategic Podcast Academy. So SPA, Strategic Podcast Academy, SPA for short, has been like this little glimmer of a thought in my brain for years. And we've always, like, talked about some kind of iteration of it, but it just never really gelled until this year when I had my hip surgery. So I had major hip surgery at the end of February. It's my second surgery on this hip. I'm a former ballet dancer. If you ever want to hear the whole story, feel free to DM me on Instagram and I'll tell you what happened to me. But when I was recovering from the surgery, we really you know, there's nothing like time on a couch for six weeks to make you look at all of your life choices and where you're going. And my office manager, Alyssa, and I started having a lot of conversations about what we wanted our days or weeks or months, our years to look like. And whenever we would talk about that, we would always come back to this passion that we have and I especially have, which is sharing podcast strategy, because I think that there are so many business owners out there who either have a podcast and it's not working, or they have a podcast that's somewhat working, but it's not doing what they want it to do. And like, I want to change that. I want every business owner who has a podcast to be able to use it to help build their business. And we have restructured all of our offers that Wild Home Podcasting to be around this concept, this idea.
[00:07:50] And so when we kept talking about it, we kept talking about the membership and coming back to it because this was just a little baby idea that we had written on a Google doc for things we might want to work on. And it just felt like it was the right time to really pull the trigger on it and start the membership. And so that's what we did. And so this year we launched the Strategic Podcast Academy. I was really excited about it, but I did not realize how much I would love this space and how important it's become to me. It is literally my favorite thing that I do every month. And it's just such a great, wonderful container for me to just pour all of the information and knowledge and research that I've done.
[00:08:39] And so how we help people through the SPA membership is we basically you come into the membership and every month we have a masterclass of sorts that's going to be on a podcasting topic. But like I mentioned before, it's going to be geared towards business owners. But when you come in to the membership, you're going to immediately find our framework, which is literally written down nowhere else like it is in the academy. But it's our framework for creating a strategy for your podcast. And then you'll also find some trainings to get you started on how to do an audit and how to set goals for your podcast that are actually meaningful and are going to work. And this is kind of like the foundation of what we do. And then from there you have the opportunity to attend the monthly masterclasses, the monthly office hour Q&A calls. You also have the opportunity to submit anything to me to review that month. So we call it like a collateral review because you're working on things and the whole idea is that you have this podcast strategy framework that you're going to be building out during your time in the membership. And so what I always tell the members is to put in there what you're working on, what you're struggling with, tag me in and I will review it. And there is a lot of other benefits to being in the membership, including industry updates and being in a community. And now I'm right back to that important piece, which is community. The cool thing about being in this group is everyone that is in there is a business owner who is launching a podcast or has a podcast and they want to build a strategy around it.
[00:10:32] When we talk about podcast strategy inevitably we are talking about a lot of other things. We're talking about business goals, we're talking about funnels, we are talking about marketing in general, we're talking about visibility, we're talking about search engine optimization. All of these pieces that you think maybe just apply to podcasting actually apply to your business. And that really is where the value comes from because everything that we're doing each month, you can take and apply to your business and to your podcast and it will make an impact. Little changes, little movement over time can create big change.
[00:11:16] And I've mentioned before that podcasting is a long game and that's another reason why I really like the membership container, because it can get really lonely when you're doing this by yourself and you're working week after week on your podcast. And you feel like you're not making any movement. And so come to the membership. Let's talk about where you're stuck. Let's talk about what you're working on and how you can push through that and make a little tweak, a little change to move forward. I mean, sometimes there are big changes that you definitely need to make. And we talk about this, too, but I really want to emphasize the importance of these little micro baby things that we do that can have such a big impact over time.
[00:12:04] One of the biggest things I hear whenever I'm talking about podcast strategy or working on your business, joining a membership is time and I really want to talk about time and how it relates to podcasting because podcasting is a little bit time intensive sometimes. Sometimes it feels like it takes up a lot of time and sometimes it doesn't. And one thing that we never want to do is put more on people's plates. What we want to do instead is figure out the things that you can do now to be intentional on the systems you can set up so that way things are automated, things are systematized, things are running smoothly. And you're not putting a ton more time. So this is never, ever about adding more time to your schedule. Yes, it will take time to come to the master classes and then maybe a little homework afterwards. But I will also say this like if investing in the time will help you to turn your podcast into a lead generator faster, wouldn't that be a good return on investment? Instead of constantly recording episodes and putting them out and hoping that somebody will click something and come to your website and purchase something like wouldn't it be better to have a strategy and to have spent that time on it instead of wasting time on a podcast that isn't working for your business? And so I think about that a lot when people mention time.
[00:13:37] I think the other thing that people worry about when they join memberships is like, what if I'm not able to make all the calls or all the things that you have going on? And that's totally okay. And that's why we have a variety of things for you to kind of pick and choose from. You know, I am not interested in like a cookie cutter model for everybody, that doesn't work. We're all unique and we all uniquely need support and help in different ways. And so that's why in the membership, there are a variety of ways to get help and support, including commenting in the membership, submitting something for my review and feedback, coming to a call, messaging me in private. All of those things are available to you and the membership. And so like really finding, okay, what works for me? What do I enjoy? I am not one who can make a ton of live calls. I have a very busy schedule. I have a very busy home life. It's very difficult for me to make calls. And one thing that I love is knowing that I can pop back into a membership that I'm in and watch a recording in my own time. I can speed it up, I can take notes. You know, all of those are really great for me. And so I really do want to encourage you, if you're at all interested in this material, to go ahead and join me, because this is the only way you're going to get it. I don't share any of this stuff anywhere else. It just goes in the membership. So it's there for you if you need it. And if you join the membership and you come into the resources, you will see that everything that we've ever done is in there and will be in there forever.
[00:15:20] So what's coming down the pipeline for the Strategic Podcast Academy? We have covered so far this year the customer path, which I think is really, really important to understanding how your customers are getting from point A to point B and what they need from you through the podcast and what they need from you after you listen to the podcast. We've also talked about strategic content that sells without being salesy, and we have dived into SEO and categories and rankings. And I always giggle when I talk about these technical masterclasses that we do, because a lot of times when people come in to them, they're like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be a lot. And I always try to make it as easy to understand as possible and give you one action item so you can walk away and be able to do what you need to do without feeling overwhelmed.
[00:16:19] Coming up, we're going to be talking about why having a visibility strategy is important and how to do that. We're going to be talking about ways to create connection with your listeners, which is a really huge thing this year. All the trends reports put out that listeners want more connection with their hosts. And I'm going to give you a hint. It's a lot easier for us than it is other podcasts. So I'm excited about that. We're going to be talking about email marketing for your podcasts. Social media, there's so much coming down the pipeline, including having guest experts. In fact, I'm actually planning a masterclass right now on the types of social media graphics you need for your podcasts and what works and what doesn't. And we'll even be giving like a real world example of pulling something from the shownotes and creating something savable that you can post on social media. Love that.
[00:17:17] So it is really all about action. It's about following the strategy, the framework for our strategy, and like I said, making these steps so you can move forward, so you can create a podcast that's going to help you grow your business. And the cool part about all of this is like, I'm not just teaching podcast strategy, obviously I am teaching podcast strategy, but these are the same things that I do and use every day in my own business. I use this exact framework that's in the membership for my clients when we do one on one, intensives refreshes and launches. And these are things that I know work, I've seen work, I've seen them work for me and I've seen them work for our clients and I've just packaged them up differently and put them in a space where you can come in and not feel like you have to implement it all in one day, right? Like that is my goal is to make podcasting easier for you and more impactful. And so I wanted to share that on this episode today because I love the Strategic Podcast Academy so much. I have a dream that is just filled with podcasters and that we are changing the face of podcast strategy and really creating and carving out a space, especially for female business owners, to come and talk about podcasting in a way that doesn't feel like a lot of marketing, a lot of empty promises, like a very genuine, authentic place to come together and talk about podcast strategy and talk about how we are going to grow our businesses and hit those business goals using our podcast. And so if this is something that you want to be a part of, I would love to have you. The doors are open. You can head to strategicpodcastacademy.com and thank you so much for listening and being here on this podcast because this podcast is a huge piece of what my business is, what it has become and what it's going to become the future. And I'm just so excited to go on this journey with you, to take you along with me and to keep recording episodes. See you next week.
[00:19:38] Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram at wildhomepodcasting. If you're ready to launch, up level, or grow your podcast, head to wildhomepodcasting.com to get started today.
