Episode 077 | When to start a podcast to boost sales?

If you're looking to market your business without social media because you're not getting the return on investment from your existing social media marketing strategy, or you're just feeling really burnt out with social media and looking for a different, more aligned, more fun way of marketing your business, a way that allows you to connect more deeply with people, with your audience, with your dream clients, the question then becomes, what should you do to market your business? And should you start a podcast at the very beginning of your business journey? That's exactly what we're going to dive into today. When to start a podcast? Welcome to Marketing without social media with me, Viv Guy. The only podcast for entrepreneurs who are ready to learn how to market their businesses in a way that not only feels good, but makes money and allows you the freedom to work less and play more. Every week, I'll be sharing with you proven techniques from my own experiences of building a seven figure business without social media, and from other leading experts from across the globe to help you to market without social media and grow your business in a feel good way. Welcome, welcome, friends. So let's talk about when to start a podcast. But before we do, what I want to do is talk about moving house. Because we're looking to move house. Our house is on the market, we're moving, we're getting somewhere with an annex for my parents that we can kind of have this like multigenerational living arrangement going on. And we've been in our home now for over ten years. It's my dream home. I love my home. You'll hear me talk about this very, very often, very attached. But I'm kind of getting my head around this whole moving idea and going somewhere else. And it's quite exciting and I'm really nosy. So I quite like looking around other houses to kind of find this home, but it's freaking tricky. A house with an annex is not an easy find. So here's the thing. Here's the point. When we bought this house, we knew we were going to want to extend it because it was not really configured in a great way. We knew we were going to want to reconfigure and extend it to make it bigger because, well, at that time we were not considering a family, but we still wanted to make it bigger and change the layout. But here's the thing. When we move house, whether you want to add an extension, whatever. My husband and I and some of our friends, we got talking about this recently, and we were saying it's really important when you move somewhere to live there for a while before you start changing things. We had to live here for a while before we could have even worked out how to reconfigure this house and what we would do. Because the way our house is designed, all our views over the countryside, over our garden are at the back. But that wasn't where our living room, our dining room, or our kitchen particularly, were. So only when we lived here for a while and summer came, we were like, oh, this doesn't really work for getting access to the garden, like, and being open and having these views and letting the outside in, it was one of those things we needed to be there because originally we were thinking of a very different layout and design, but kind of being there in it, getting on with it, and the same goes with decorating. You kind of want to get a feel for a house. Like my husband has said, when we moved here, let's paint the dining room red, because in our old house, our walls were red, a really nice red, and it was a big room, wooden floors, it was gorgeous. It worked really well. But I said to him, well, it doesn't work here because a we're open plan, so everything has to flow. And this house is a different design and a different style. And we had to live here with very boring, plain walls for a good while until we figured out what felt right for this house. So what is my point here? What has decorating and house renovations and extensions got to do with when to start a podcast? Well, you've got to get a feel for things sometimes before you go in and design something that you're going to be stuck with for a good long time. And the same, I believe, goes for podcasting. So I started my podcast in 2021, and it was the end of my first year with this coaching business. And I started it because at that point, I'd left social media and I was kind of like, oh, okay, I've got an email list, but I feel like I need something else. And there was a reason I wanted to connect more deeply with people, and I wanted to have conversations with guests. And yes, guests are coming back soon, guys, watch this space. Because I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed being able to connect with people. It was a way to meet new people, to then be able to tap into and borrow other people's audiences and vice versa. All very reciprocal and lovely. So that's why I decided to start a podcast. But hey, my business had been going for like twelve months, in fact, twelve months of actually officially going, but I'd been having the ideas for three months before that. So kind of like 15 months before I started my podcast. And here's the reason. I don't recommend starting a podcast on like day one of your business, because in that time, your business will go through a number of iterations, your messaging will evolve and change. And this is why I always say social media as a strategy is not a good strategy when you are starting out, because your messaging has to be so dialed in. And that takes time, it takes experience, it takes knowledge of your audience, of your offer, of everything you are doing. So I started, I think when I started, I was focused on working specifically with mums in business, and there were several other ideas in between. I was going to specifically focus on teaching a 20 hours business, like how to run a business in 20 hours a week. And it is still something I work really hard to incorporate into my offer, but it wasn't my main message. I talked about marketing in an aligned way, feel good marketing, and then eventually I got to marketing without social media. So can you see how many variations and iterations my core program evolved? And if you are wanting to launch a podcast as a revenue generating or conversion generator, so it's going to drive people into your email list, into your offers, then we have to be really clear on what is that final thing we are selling people into and who is it for? Because that is going to determine the name of your show, the show description, the type of content that you're bringing in for episodes. It's going to dictate an influence and impact on so many things. So if that clarity is not there, and you may think other clarity is there, but I assure you, as you work with people, things will change. And I was chatting to one of my clients just a couple of weeks ago, who is working as a coach, but actually he works one to one, like B to C. But actually he's now talking about working B to B and going in and speaking to the director so he can go in on an organizational level to work with team leaders of frontline responders, police and security and so on and so forth. So his business is evolving. So the podcast he would have created 612 months ago to the podcast he will potentially be creating in the next three months, very, very different. And yes, I definitely recommend starting a podcast pretty early on in your business. I don't want to say wait five years, three years, because it is a long term growth strategy. Just like blogging, just like YouTube. These are not things that you start tomorrow and get results from instantly. There's not a lot of marketing that will do that for you. We know that borrowing is the fastest way to grow your audience and to make sales. A podcast, a YouTube channel, a blog, these are all building audiences. So if you are going to start a podcast, here are a couple of things to consider. Number one, how dialed in is your messaging? Have you worked with clients for a number of months? Are you clear, very clear now on where your business is going over the next few years, because you want to create a podcast that is going to enable you to grow and expand and is going to grow and expand with you without you having to make multiple changes. How much time do you have? Are you all in on this business or are you building this business around a full time job? Because the time you have available is a big factor. Having a podcast, absolutely. It is a time saver versus social media. But you're going to have to have time if you don't have the budget to edit yourself, to create the content. If you're doing interviews, you've got to schedule all of this stuff and you've got to then obviously create emails to promote the episode, graphics to upload, show notes, all of this kind of stuff. So how much time do you have? And is that going to take time away from revenue generating activities? Because if it is, it is not the right time to start. We have to ensure that the revenue generating activities that are bringing revenue in, in the short term are not negatively influenced. It's so, so important that we really keep that focus and that eye on short term and the long term, but only bring in the long term when you have that capacity. So how much time do you have and how much budget do you have? Because starting a podcast, it's not cheap. Okay. The tech does not cost what you think. Couple of hundred pounds, you're good to go. But actually, are you an editor? Are you good at editing? Do you want to spend the time learning how to edit well? Well, I would always say outsource. Send it out to an expert. So you're going to need some money. Same if you do YouTube, you need to edit those videos. Blogging, you may want to invest in someone to do keyword research, whatever it might be. But I want you to be aware there is going to be a cost, potentially to your long term strategy. The cost may be time, the cost may be financial. So are you bringing in some client revenue right now? Are you generating money in your business so that you can invest in that support? And is that the right support right now, or are you better as I talked about in episode 76, I think it was investing in someone to do one or two of the steps in your revenue generating activities, the things that maybe you drop the ball on, that you procrastinate on, that you avoid doing, that you can see having an impact, negative impact. So for me, I wouldn't recommend starting a podcast for six plus months. I would recommend focusing on building your email list with some collaborations. I would recommend getting out there and doing some podcast guesting to get a feel for it, to see what generates the conversions, to test your message. Because this is the big thing. So often we create something, we think it's amazing, but we don't test the messaging. And if you start a podcast and you don't pick a show name that is dialed in to the problems that your ideal client is really facing, not what you think, but they are saying if we don't meet them where they're at, then it is going to flop before they even get through to press the play button on an episode. So I would wait six months and this is why I have changed my business offerings. This is why I've changed my packages. Because I was obviously going down the route of selling podcasts. How to start a podcast, profitable podcasting, how to build out, create a podcast as part of your marketing ecosystem. And that is still something I will be doing and am offering. But here's the thing. I want you to work with me depending where you're at. But if you're in those first sort of 1224 months, you don't have consistent clients yet. You don't have a marketing system in place, a marketing funnel set up. Then we're going to work together for six months. We're going to do the revenue generating audience building activities right now. And then come six months when you're bringing in more revenue, you have a strategy in place for getting in front of people, that visibility strategy, that growth strategy for growing your audience. You have a consistent weekly, monthly, daily protocol in place. That is the point where we can look at a podcast and building that alongside what you've already got, but trying to do it all, start a podcast, learn how to go out and guest and creating signature content that's going to convert and da da da da, all of that stuff in one foul swoop at the beginning. Whoa, my gosh, you're going to crash and you're going to burn and it's going to be hard. I started my podcast and I was like, woohoo, great. Got it launched, hit number one in the charts. Had all that focus. And then I was like, now what? How do I grow this blinking thing? And I don't want you to start your podcast kind of doing that and then kind of, it feels like it's falling off the edge of a cliff. Whoa. What now? I want you to have the time to focus on it. Podcasting is such a valuable tool, whether you are on social media or off social media. It is the fastest growing platform. It's the most influential place. So podcast hosts are the biggest influencers now. They have overtaken actors, celebrities, people like that. There was a study that came out in 2023 talking about the impact and influence, the amount of people that will purchase as a result of listening to a podcast. Because of the relationship, it is the place to be. But as I've said, as with YouTube, as with blogging, as with everything, I would not start here. If you need to make revenue in your business, if you don't need to make revenue in your business, if you're kind of like, I've got an income, I've been ticking along. I've done some work with clients. I'm really clear on my message, and income is not a priority, then fine, start a podcast. Let's put a long term strategy in place. But if you do need to be making revenue right now in your business, if that is the focus, getting sales in right now and growing your sales and growing your, and building out a marketing ecosystem, a funnel so you know how to bring people in, then don't start a podcast now. So as I said, it's not so black and white. And if you want help figuring out whether it's the right time or not to start a podcast, or consider even if a podcast is right for you in your business, then why not book in a call with me and let's just chat this through absolutely free of charge. To book in a call. It's vivguy.com call. Vivguy.com call. So guys, I hope you've enjoyed the show today. And if you love what you've heard, I would love, love, love for you to connect with me on Facebook messenger. Yes, I do use messenger because I am a girl who likes a voice note and a chat on there. Share with me your biggest takeaways from today's episode. Share with me your thoughts on whether you want a podcast if it's on your radar or not. And I know guys that nobody likes to take the time to do these things, but not many people realize how much your reviews and ratings help other people really struggling in their business right now to find this show. So if you love what you've heard today, it would mean the world to me if you would take a moment, 15 seconds at mode. So tap the five stars and write a sentence and let me know. Closer.