Inside the Podcaster's Studio: Private Podcast with Nicole Cheri Oden

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Hi, and welcome to podcasting one on one with Rachel.

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This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own

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businesses and want to start a podcast or who may already have a podcast.

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I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast

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started and managing it along the way.

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I'll also be interviewing other female podcast hosts to give you

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real insight into what it's like.

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Have

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Hi,

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everybody, and welcome to this week's episode.

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Today I am welcoming Nicole Cherie Oden.

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Nicole is an attorney and legal consultant from the States who helps online service

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providers and digital content creators.

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She is also the host of the uncomplicating trademarks, private podcast, which is why

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I've invited her here today to share her.

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Podcast insights and experience with all of you.

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So welcome Nicole.

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Thanks, Rachel.

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I'm excited to be here.

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Yeah.

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I'm excited

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to chat to you.

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It's been a while since we've chatted because we met.

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I'm trying to remember the year.

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I feel, I feel hard when, when I was, it was through Michelle Denayo's

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Accelerated Business Alliance.

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Are you still part of the Alliance?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: No, so the alliance?

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No, so the alliance is no longer going.

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She's relaunched a year long focused visionary program and that I am a part of.

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And that just kicked off in December and that's been great.

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Oh,

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this is her planning thing.

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Yes, I've heard about her because she used to just do The single planning thing,

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didn't she, like the December and then she's made into a year long program now.

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Well, I love Michelle Michelle Denies Podcast, her strategy while I still

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listen to that and that's how I kind of got to know you and, and Michelle.

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So, just for a little bit of context for listeners.

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So, do you want to just let us know a little bit more about what you do and also

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like why you decided to start a podcast?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

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So like you said, I'm a licensed attorney in California.

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I've been licensed for 12 years now, and I work pretty much primarily

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with online business owners.

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And so a lot of coaches, agency owners social media managers,

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VAs, those types of clients.

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And, I mean, if we're being honest, legal can feel very dry and people have

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a very clear impression of what they think legal is and what an attorney looks

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like and what the process looks like.

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And so for me, Starting the private podcast was a way for me to connect

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with not only potential clients, but also current clients, because it's

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become a great resource for me to send current clients to if they have

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questions and like want to flush something out a little bit more.

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Maybe after we have a strategy session and it's kind of reinforcing

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something we talked about.

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So it's become a great resource kind of for various.

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Yeah,

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I think that when people hear kind of legal, it's like,

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Oh, I don't, I don't know about it.

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And what the kind of process is as well.

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So it can be quite sometimes a daunting thing.

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I think it's like up there with GDPR stuff, I think sometimes,

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but I think that that's like a common misconception, isn't it?

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Actually, when you look at it, you can make it much more palatable for people to.

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be able to embrace that side of thing for their business because it's

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an important thing to do for your business to make sure that everything

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is, you know, set up correctly.

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

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I think when you approach it to as an online business owner, I kind of, a lot

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of people will shut down because they just think, Oh my gosh, all these different

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pieces and all these different components.

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And my main focus is trademarks and contracts.

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And the podcast focus is trademarks because it is.

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a big buzzword in the online space.

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People kind of hear the word trademark and think it's something

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that they absolutely have to do.

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And I'm a huge proponent of registering your trademarks, but actually providing

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an actionable advice and you know, how tos and guides in terms of getting your

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business set up the best way that you can and making sure that you're using

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a mark that's actually protectable and you're not going to be on the

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receiving end of a cease and desist.

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Being able to break it down kind of by topic in a way that flows versus just

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dumping a ton of information on people, I think has been the most beneficial thing.

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Yeah, I know somebody that went through the was going through

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the trademark process and I think somebody else was using the same trademark as

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her and they had to, either she had to change, but I know she was saying the

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whole process was lost because she had to re then start again and, and, and.

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So it's especially, I think she's she was doing it for coaching and she had

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a practice, so she wanted to do that.

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So I feel like that would be quite important that you want to have

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that trademark sealed down so that it's there for your business.

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I noticed one of your episodes recently was talking about that, a trademark on

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your brand as well, which I found quite.

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Interesting.

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, because they really are two distinct pieces.

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And I think a lot of people lump together a brand and a trademark.

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And while they're related, they are different.

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You know, your brand really is the way that you make your clients

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and your customers feel about your products or your services.

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And when people see your trademarks, they think of your brand.

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And just to kind of go back to the beginning, a trademark

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really is a source indicator.

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You know, a phrase, a tagline, a name, a logo, something that really ties to your

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brand in the marketplace so that people see it and think, Oh, that belongs to

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Nicole or, Oh, that belongs to Rachel.

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That's who's providing those goods or services.

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And people kind of start there and like, Oh, I'm going to jump out

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there and start operating under.

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You know, this name or this logo without really kind of doing the legwork for

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all of the research and all of the kind of issues spotting before you

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spend the money trying to register.

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And that was kind of where the idea for the private pod podcast came in because

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I was having a lot of consultations with online business owners that.

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We're kind of jumping ahead without having done kind of that due diligence

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and looking before they left and having to have that hard conversation with

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them about, okay, well, there's either already a registered mark or there's,

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you know, a company that's been using it for, you know, 10 plus years.

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So, you know, we're treading on, you know, thin ice here.

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And so it's kind of a way to provide that education and that free resource,

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which is a big cornerstone of my law firm is I really want to make.

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Legal approachable and accessible for everyone, no matter whether you're

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a huge billion dollar corporation or you're a scrappy online business owner

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that, you know, is making 10 K a month.

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I want to make sure that you're getting protections in place and you have the

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knowledge because you do have to have some legal knowledge as an entrepreneur.

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It's just not something you can get away from.

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Exactly.

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So that was where the idea, like you said, talking to some of your

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clients, that was where you came up with the idea for the podcast.

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So how did you kind of start with the planning side of things?

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Did you have a frequency in mind or all those kind of things?

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Things that you have to do with a podcast, did you, how did you kind of get started?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, I mean, I, to be honest, I was a little scared

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about adding something else to my plate because I do have two businesses.

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So I have a law firm, but then I also have an online business

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that provides legal templates and resources for online business owners.

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So I have that day to day going on.

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And so it was kind of like, Ooh, I've got this great idea, but how do I make it?

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Not feel overwhelming because I think that was kind of my first initial

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impression was there was a lot of moving pieces to get a podcast up and out.

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And so kind of, you know, serendipitously when I was thinking about this idea,

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about a month or two later, I'd heard about this platform called Hello

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Audio that gives you the opportunity to do public or private podcasts.

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And I had been kind of toying with the idea of.

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A public podcast.

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And then when I heard this idea of a private podcast, I was like, Oh, this is

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great because then it can feel like it's a community that I'm fostering that kind

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of you're in this exclusive conversation with me, and it's a way that I can kind

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of connect with my clients as well.

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And so I'd signed up cause they were having a.

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A black Friday special.

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And so I'd signed up just to try it.

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And I thought, okay, I'm just going to get scrappy and I'm

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going to, you know, try it.

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I'm going to launch one episode a month.

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That's all I started with.

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Cause it seemed like the easiest, like at least I could do that.

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I could sit down and record one episode and go from there.

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And the podcast is.

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A year and two months old now, and I've moved to where it's an episode a week,

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but they're very short episodes, which is something I really wanted to, I mean,

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people aren't going to jump up and down to listen to a legal podcast for 45 minutes.

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I mean, let's just be honest.

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And so making sure that the episodes were kind of digestible and bite

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size and approachable was big for me.

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So, you know, I think my longest episode right now is 15 minutes.

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It's that, so.

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So two things, I love that, that they're short and actual like

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we say before we hit record, though I think the type of subject that you're

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doing as well, it works really, really well to have those short digestible pieces

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of information you're breaking down.

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That information that people are feeling overwhelmed about and making it like

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really easy and simple for them to follow those, you know, follow your advice.

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And I love that it's a private podcast and I know that it's a free private podcast.

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So I was really, really interested in this.

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I've not heard of Hello Audio, did you say that you that you do that through?

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So I use a podcast hosting platform called Captivate and they I had a course

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from a lady called Janet Murray and she has, in her course, she has private

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podcast she hosts through Captivate.

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So I'd seen that, but that was obviously a paid, a paid platform, so I'd not

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seen it like that, but I thought it was a really good idea, like you say,

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to foster that community and have.

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People coming in, they really want to listen to, about the trademarks,

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have that information from you.

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How have you found with people with signups and, and

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people joining your community?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Well, okay, so complete transparency here,

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which is a big thing for me.

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I had worked with a tech person to set up the landing page on my website who.

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Set things up incorrectly.

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And I had no idea.

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And so it was conflicting with my, my cookies often so that when people

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landed on the page, rather than seeing the convert kit often form, it was

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blank unless they accepted all cookies.

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And that was that way for six months.

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And so the launch I've, and I've had a great amount of signups, but you

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know, was truncated, I think, because I mean, let's be honest, a lot of

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people don't accept for cookies these days because not everybody wants their

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actions across the internet tracked or they use incognito platforms.

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So that was kind of like a bit wah wah.

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So when I found that out and I ended up hiring a new website management

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company to come in and clean it up and so things are running now and the

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signups have increased exponentially since those first six months.

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That's so frustrating

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as well in your first six months to have that problem but like

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you're right it's something you wouldn't necessarily notice though, would you?

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Because you don't go to your sign up page and, and major.

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And on

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Nicole Cheri Oden: my, you know, when I visit, I've got all cookies

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because I want it, you know.

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Of course.

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And so it wasn't conflicting for me until I finally had somebody reach out

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and was like, Hey, like I went to your sign up page, but there's nothing there.

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Blank.

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And I was like, what

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? Rachael Botfield: So, oh, well thankfully that person reaching

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out to you to, to do that.

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So yeah, that's really great that you've had, had silence and

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have people coming in that way.

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Yeah, I just really like that method of making, you know, people, you know,

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really being there as well because I, I feel like like podcast discoverability

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as well can be quite difficult.

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on the whole, I think, searching through different platforms.

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So, you know that when someone signs up, they really want to be

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there and they really want to listen to what you've got to say and the

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information that you're sharing.

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So, I think that's a really, really nice strategy to, to, to use for your podcast.

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How have you felt with kind of like the production elements of the

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podcast, like the recording and.

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You said you've upped your kind of recordings now, episodes.

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So how have you found, because I think like one of the biggest

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things I say to people like is like, have you got time for a podcast?

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Can you fit in your business?

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And I think, you know, you did the sensible thing where you, you know, you

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look at what you can manage because.

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I think it's overwhelming starting a new project anyway, but then trying

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to crowbar it in when actually you don't really have the time is just

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so difficult, I think, as well.

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So, how have you found things have evolved over, like, just over a

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year that you've been podcasting?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, so I started with the month to month episode, and because

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So once you join the private podcast, you get access to the feed and you have

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all, you can binge all the episodes.

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And then you also get emailed weekly as they come out now.

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And I had transitioned to weekly because the once a month, even just picking one

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topic a month, because there's so many components to things, the episodes were

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going to be longer and it just felt.

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overwhelming.

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And I didn't want to overwhelm my listeners.

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I didn't want them to tune in to a couple of episodes and think,

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okay, this is still too much for me.

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And so what I would do is pick a topic.

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And then I started breaking it down into the weekly episodes and that's

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felt a little bit more digestible.

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So I live and die by my calendar.

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And so what I've done is I, I blocked out one morning a month where I sit

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down and I map out my four episodes.

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another morning where I record the four episodes.

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And since my episodes average around five minutes, it's, you know, a couple

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of outtakes, but it's, it's, it's, you know, maybe an hour, hour and a half that

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I'm recording in the scheme of things.

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And I send it off to my editor who just adds on the intro and the outro

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and cleans up the audio and sends it back to me like the next week.

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And so it's become kind of this streamlined process for

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me where it's really not.

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Very time consuming and then everything gets uploaded and I can schedule

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everything and I can schedule my emails and I work with a copywriter so she's able

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to go in, listen, pull out the emails, pull out show notes, and everything is

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just kind of streamlined at this point.

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And there was a, you know, the first six months with finding out the opt in issue

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and kind of toying with how Frequently, I wanted to email people and, you know, what

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I wanted to include in the emails and the show notes was kind of a learning curve,

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but I feel like I've found my groove now, and it's kind of a well oiled machine.

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Yeah, I

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think doing things, you know, over a year now, like say

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you've managed to get your process and you know what you need to do.

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I was going to ask about the marketing, so you have somebody that supports

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you to be able to You know, get your promotional stuff out of there.

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I think having an email list for your podcast is a really, really good thing.

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I, I have one for mine that I like to, you know, every time a new episode comes out

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and you know you're sharing it that way.

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How have you found kind of listener engagement or people

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engaging with you in the podcast?

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'cause I know that I speak to a lot of other podcasts and for myself,

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sometimes it's quite difficult to get, you know, you feel sometimes

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you're speaking out into the void and you're not sure who's listening.

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Even that.

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You know, even when you look at your stats kind of thing.

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So how do you feel with your engagement and with your audience?

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Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, it's been interesting to watch.

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So the email open rate is sitting at about 80 percent

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right now, which is really good.

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:32

And then the click through rate is at about like 50, which is still decent.

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:39

And then I'm finding that the episode downloads is going up, like the

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:44

further I get, and I think part of that too is testing the subject lines.

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:47

So I find that when I, the episode titles and the subject line of the

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:52

emails, when they correspond with something that's kind of a, a pain

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:55

point that I've heard about from clients versus more of an informational

Rachael Botfield: 00:15:58

title, they're opened more frequently and listened to more frequently.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:03

So that's been an interesting, like trying to find.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:08

That's really interesting.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:09

Subject lines.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:10

I, I find them very difficult myself to create subject lines

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:14

that you hope that that people are going to find that stand out.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:17

It's just kind of like another piece that you need to fit in.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:22

Is it your copywriter that comes up with the, helps you with the,

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:25

the subject lines and things?

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:26

Because I use a lot of I sometimes use AI to help give me some, you

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:30

know, enticing words that I can build into what I already, you

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:33

know, Kind of have for the episode.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:36

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, so I adore my copywriter.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:38

We've, we've found this really good synergy.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:40

We've been working together for like two years now and she's like

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:42

my left hand for all things copy in both my businesses, honestly.

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:46

And so what I do is she gets the complete episodes and then I'll kind of give her

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:51

thoughts about like this is kind of what I'm thinking and then she will go check

Rachael Botfield: 00:16:55

like The subject line scoring and use her tools to kind of give me feedback.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:00

And sometimes we'll A and B test in terms of like, do we want to add an emoji?

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:03

Do we want to add a more descriptive term?

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:06

And like we get kind of creative.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:08

And so that I think gamifying it almost and like looking at it as.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:13

It's not something I have to do, but something that I get to do, I get to

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:15

share my wisdom and I get to connect with, with people and I get to experiment,

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:20

I think has made it a lot more fun for me because it's kind of like, Oh, okay,

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:23

let's see how this subject line does.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:26

And let's see how something as small as adding an emoji does, it's made

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:31

it a little bit more fun and not so much of a, Oh, this is something I

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:35

have to sit down and do this month.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:37

I think that's the, the danger with, with anything that you

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:40

don't want it to feel repetitive or you kind of get either overwhelmed or bored

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:45

with it because then it's, it doesn't feel like it's encouraging you to want to

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:49

continue doing something when it's hard.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:52

I mean, I know that.

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:53

It's marketing in general, I know a lot of people struggle with it and

Rachael Botfield: 00:17:56

struggle with, you know, coming up with themes and ideas and things like that.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:00

So how do you feel that your podcast works, kind of like

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:03

fits into your business, kind of with your marketing as well?

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:06

Do you use it in your marketing, kind of like for your social

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:09

media and things like that as

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:10

Nicole Cheri Oden: well?

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:11

Yeah, so I try and say, you know, sign up for the private podcast.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:15

In at least one to two social media captions you know, still giving value

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:20

independently of if they sign up or not, but like if they want to dive a little

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:23

bit deeper and further than joining the podcast, it's kind of the next step.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:27

It's kind of also been great because with hello audio, there's shareable links.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:31

So sometimes like with a client, I'll have a conversation about.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:35

You know, the supplemental register or classes or so we'll have a conversation

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:39

then I can shoot them an email and be like, Hey, like if you wanted to

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:42

kind of reinforce what we talked about or, you know, here's an episode and

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:45

I can literally send them the link so that they can listen without even

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:48

having to sign up for the podcast.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:50

So that's really nice.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:52

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:52

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:53

So something I'm toying with is I'm going to be actually adding in another opt in

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:57

that's kind of even more ground level.

Rachael Botfield: 00:18:59

about naming, because that's kind of the, the crux, right?

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:03

As you're trying to come up with a name for your product, your service, your

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:07

business, and kind of the legal things to think about in a more approachable way.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:12

And then we're going to curate kind of a library of episodes

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:14

where they don't have to.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:16

necessarily sign up, but they kind of tie to the download and

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:19

then they have the option to continue to get the, the episodes.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:21

And so that's something that we're toying with now.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:23

So it's still evolving.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:24

It's still growing.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:25

It's become a really fun tool.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:27

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:27

So I'm excited to see kind of where we grow and where we build from here.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:31

So kind of like a private playlist almost.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:34

Mm hmm.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:34

Yeah, I love the idea.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:36

Actually, you know Devin Lee as well, don't you?

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:40

So, Devin, I remember when I met her, she had a playlist for all

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:44

the podcasts that she'd been on.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:46

And I, that was kind of like the first time this was, you know, a year ago

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:50

now, but that was the first time I'd come across, like, curated playlists.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:54

that you, for podcasts.

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:55

I've seen obviously curated playlists for music and things like

Rachael Botfield: 00:19:58

that, but I'd never really thought about them in terms of podcasts.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:01

And I love the idea that she could have that on her website, have all

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:05

the curate, like all the episodes that she's been on to promote them.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:09

And then, cause I, I created one myself, like for just the beginner

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:12

episodes and things like that.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:13

So I think that as time goes on and like you say.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:16

different things come up in different topics, so you can pull out those

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:19

themes and share those as a playlist.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:22

I think that's a really nice way.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:24

Also to get people introduced to your podcast as well, and then they

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:27

can choose to kind of like, get the rest of the episodes after having

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:31

like, access to that playlist.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:33

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, no, I, and I like that idea.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:35

That's actually a really good idea, and one of the other things that

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:37

I was toying with was actually adding And I haven't done this

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:40

yet, but adding a shareable link.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:41

One of the episodes is like what it looks like to work with my law firm.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:44

So I walk you through from when you first reach out to hopefully when you

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:47

reach registration and then beyond how you can continue to work with me.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:50

And so I've toyed with adding the link to the episode in my

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:52

signature line in my email.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:54

And so that might be something that I do this year too.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:56

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:57

that's a great idea.

Rachael Botfield: 00:20:58

I, in my signature, I do have.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:00

I have the link to my podcast, I have the link to my, my freebie playbook

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:05

podcast playbook, and then I've started a podcast community with my friend Sarah,

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:10

so I put that link in the bottom there.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:12

I think having that, because it's kind of like prime real estate, isn't it

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:16

really, if someone's looking at your signature and you make it look really fun.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:19

I wonder whether you can, I don't know whether you can like actually embed

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:22

the episode in the bottom of the email signature, that would be quite interesting

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:26

to find out whether you can actually do that, but I'm not sure whether that's.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:28

I don't know if it's capable or not, but you know, like you can on your

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:31

website, you can embed like a player.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:34

Although when I've ever tried to embed the actual player in an email, I've

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:38

never managed to get it to work properly.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:40

So I just have a link to go to the player itself, but I've seen people

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:44

embed the player in the email.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:47

before, but mine never seems to show up.

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:49

Maybe that's just my email provider, but I think, I think things like that

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:54

on emails I think it could work really well, especially when you're reaching

Rachael Botfield: 00:21:56

out to, to new people and things like that make it like, you know, more

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:01

pretty for people to, to click on.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:03

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:04

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:04

And zhuzhing up my email search alignment.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:06

This year is on my to dos.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:08

So.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:09

Yeah, I did mine last year.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:10

I was like, Oh, I'm going to make it look all pretty.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:11

It's like, there are, I, I kind of create an image and, I don't know

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:16

if you can put links in there.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:17

Canva is a great thing for for helping you with design work.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:21

I found when I first started my business, discovering Canva was

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:24

like, Oh my gosh, I love this.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:27

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, no Canva I think was one of the very

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:29

first spends when I launched.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:32

Yeah, mine now.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:34

Nicole Cheri Oden: It's a suck hole for me because I can spend way too long

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:37

in Canva, so I have a graphic designer as well that I'm happily, like, here.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:41

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:42

So that I don't spend hours upon hours tweaking fonts and sizes and

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:46

Yeah, it can get quite time sucky.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:49

I quite like the fact that I just like that you can have the templates.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:54

I often change the bits, but I, for me, I find it difficult.

Rachael Botfield: 00:22:58

I'm not a graphic designer, so to start with a blank page, I'm just

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:01

like, I don't know what to do here.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:03

So, but having those templates and things you can pull from just makes

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:08

it easier to be a bit more creative than I necessarily would be if I

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:13

wasn't, you know, just had to start with a blank page, you know, the time

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:18

Nicole Cheri Oden: before Canvas.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:19

Yes.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:19

Templates make everything so much easier.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:21

Yes, absolutely.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:22

Absolutely.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:24

Well, thank you for sharing your experience with your podcast.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:28

I, I just.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:29

I really love how the way you're doing private podcasts, it's definitely

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:32

something to think about and I shall be telling other people about your strategy.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:36

Do you have any other kind of tips or advice you'd like to offer somebody who's

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:40

just starting out with their podcast?

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:41

I,

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:42

Nicole Cheri Oden: I think it's really just to, to do it.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:46

Like, to make the commitment that you're gonna try.

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:48

And reach out to somebody like you, if, if you don't have any idea of how to get

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:53

started to kind of get some insight in terms of these are the next steps and

Rachael Botfield: 00:23:57

I can work with you to help get things together, but yeah, I think that was kind

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:00

of the biggest hurdle for me was just.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:02

Feeling overwhelmed by all the tech options, and there's so many

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:07

people that you can work with and platforms you can use that have really

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:09

streamlined the process these days.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:12

So it's not as overwhelming as I think it first seems.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:16

Yeah, I think, you know, your piece of advice, a lot of

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:18

people give that advice just to start.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:20

I think I did that myself.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:21

I just started, and Yeah, kind of dove in and then figure a

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:26

lot of stuff out along the way.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:28

I think that it's really, I think there's that perfectionism part of thing that does

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:32

hold back with letting it, with kind of what people will think and is it correct

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:37

and I get that my, you know, myself that, you know, you feel like you should know

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:42

everything before you, before you hit go and I love that podcasts can You know,

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:47

evolve along the way, the more that your knowledge expands, you know, you can

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:51

evolve your podcast and change things up.

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:53

You know, I've done that with mine and, and yours has evolved to the more

Rachael Botfield: 00:24:56

confident you get and the more feedback you get from your listeners as well.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:00

So I think that that's a really lovely thing seeing, you know, from

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:03

the very beginning and then you're seeing your podcast evolving over

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:06

the years or over the episodes.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:08

Do you have any other podcast plans?

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:11

Anything?

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:12

that you see in the future or, or anything like that?

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:15

You know, I've

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:16

Nicole Cheri Oden: toyed with turning it public.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:20

And so kind of my commitment to myself this year was let's go all in on it, being

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:24

private and really trying to grow that listenership and that community feeling.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:28

And then in December, when I start planning for 2025, like really revisiting.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:33

Is the private serving the way that I felt it was going to serve the way

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:37

I wanted it to, or should I make it public or should I maybe, you know, keep

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:41

pieces private and other things public?

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:43

Because the other thing I tried was doing like a curated public feed of

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:47

just a limited amount of episodes that leads back to the private podcast

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:51

to kind of build that exposure.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:53

So there's a lot of strategies, but I'm trying to stay very focused on.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:57

A couple of things.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:58

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:25:59

It's, it's so easy to get distracted by

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:03

some other strategies as well.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:04

And I think that I personally think podcasting is, is a long, a long term

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:09

game and it takes, well, for what I found anyway, you know, it takes time to build,

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:15

build your audience and also having that community and engagement is probably much.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:22

Much better than feeling like, you know, you've got maybe quite

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:26

a lot of downloads, but you're not connecting with anybody there.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:29

And also you want it to help, you know, your podcast is for your business.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:33

You want it to be able to support your business in that way.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:36

You know, we are all here.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:38

This is our business.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:39

We want to earn some money.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:40

It's not like this big hidden thing.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:42

And like, this is what I would love my podcast to do.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:44

Like if somebody's listening and they want to do it themselves, great.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:47

I would love this podcast to help.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:48

But also the, you know, People need support and needs help and reaching out.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:53

That is also great and, you know, I think that that's how podcasts fit

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:57

in with your business in that way.

Rachael Botfield: 00:26:59

It's an extra tool that you're, you know, you're giving back and helping build in

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:03

that community, but also it's helping build your business at the same time.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:07

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:08

Nicole Cheri Oden: exactly.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:08

I agree 100%.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:09

So, I think it's really just experimentation.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:12

this year.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:13

I think it's just another year of experimentation and,

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:16

and enjoying the process.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:18

I love how positive you are about it.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:19

I love how, that how like experimental that your ideas are.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:24

Like, I, when I first started, I was kind of like, I feel like you

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:29

go down the one route and like open, then something opens up and I

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:32

don't know, you seem like very Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:34

Very positive and inquisitive.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:36

That's the word I'm thinking of.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:37

Inquisitive about podcasting.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:38

So I wish you the best of luck with your podcast and would you

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:42

like to just tell him on where you hang out, where they can find you?

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:45

And I'll pop all the links in the show notes, but love to just let us know

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:48

where people can get in touch with

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:49

Nicole Cheri Oden: you.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:50

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:51

So you can find me on LinkedIn, Nicole Sri Oden, and I'm on Instagram

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:55

and Facebook, Nicole Sri Oden Law.

Rachael Botfield: 00:27:58

My legal templates and resources are at legal templates and more on Instagram and

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:02

Pinterest and Facebook and all the places.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:05

So really, if you just type in my name, I'm normally the first person that

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:08

pops up.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:08

Oh, brilliant.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:10

But yeah, I will leave a link to your podcast and all your socials

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:13

and everything there so people can get in touch with you easily if

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:16

they want to follow up with you.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:17

Thanks so much, Nicole, for coming on and hopefully we'll speak again

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:20

Nicole Cheri Oden: soon.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:21

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:22

This was a fun conversation.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:26

Thanks for listening to the show.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:27

If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch, then head on over to my website.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:31

If you liked the episode, then I'd love it if you could leave me a

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:34

review in your chosen podcast app.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:36

Your feedback is much appreciated.

Rachael Botfield: 00:28:38

See you next time.