Podcast Insights with Cydelle Stewart

Unknown: 00:00:07

Welcome to podcasting one on one with me your host

Unknown: 00:00:10

Rachel. This podcast is for female business owners and

Unknown: 00:00:13

solopreneurs that are looking to start a podcast that add to your

Unknown: 00:00:16

own already awesome offering. I'll give you helpful advice

Unknown: 00:00:20

that you can take away and use in your podcasting journey. I

Unknown: 00:00:23

hope to answer those tricky questions that just keep you

Unknown: 00:00:25

from starting. Once a month, I'll be joined by other female

Unknown: 00:00:28

podcasters. They'll share their journey with you and offer tips

Unknown: 00:00:31

and advice they discovered along the way. Let's get started.

Unknown: 00:00:51

Hi, and welcome to this week's episode. Today I have with me

Unknown: 00:00:56

Citadel Stewart. Welcome to Dow.

Unknown: 00:00:58

Hi, thanks for having me, Rachel.

Unknown: 00:01:01

And well, thanks for coming on. And Fidel is an online business

Unknown: 00:01:04

operations expert, a virtual assistant mentor and the founder

Unknown: 00:01:07

of the VA agency on it communications. And her podcast

Unknown: 00:01:11

is called virtual duality. And yeah, it's great to have you

Unknown: 00:01:15

here today. You want to tell us a little bit about you and your

Unknown: 00:01:18

podcast.

Unknown: 00:01:19

Yeah, no problem. So like you said, my name is Fidel shara,

Unknown: 00:01:22

otherwise known as said, and I've been in the virtual online

Unknown: 00:01:26

space now for just coming up to 13 years. And we started the

Unknown: 00:01:31

podcast virtual reality which is aimed at aspiring and emerging

Unknown: 00:01:35

virtual assistants, in Oh, I can't remember the date. I don't

Unknown: 00:01:39

remember the day off the top of my head to be honest, in terms

Unknown: 00:01:41

of when we launched it. But we're on season three, we just

Unknown: 00:01:45

finished season three, we're on a break at the moment. And the

Unknown: 00:01:47

purpose of the podcast is to empower people who are

Unknown: 00:01:53

interested in being virtual assistants or are new in their

Unknown: 00:01:55

journey like within the first 18 months, two years of their

Unknown: 00:01:58

journey, who were really clued up on the service delivery in

Unknown: 00:02:03

terms of what they do for clients, but not so much

Unknown: 00:02:06

necessarily on running a business. And so that's where

Unknown: 00:02:09

the actual duality comes in. It's like you're you're Julie

Unknown: 00:02:12

running this business, as well as servicing your clients. And I

Unknown: 00:02:15

think that often bas focus so heavily on client delivery and

Unknown: 00:02:19

service, that they don't really take into consideration the

Unknown: 00:02:23

aspects of building their business and running it at the

Unknown: 00:02:25

same time and it gets lost. And it becomes really stressful

Unknown: 00:02:29

because all of your focus is on getting clients and maintaining

Unknown: 00:02:31

clients. So that was the impetus for launching it really?

Unknown: 00:02:36

Absolutely. I would agree with that me. Starting out as a

Unknown: 00:02:39

virtual assistant, march 21, there was a lot of focus on

Unknown: 00:02:44

initially thinking about all of like, say, getting the clients,

Unknown: 00:02:47

but actually when you're trying to, I ended up doing a

Unknown: 00:02:49

copywriting course. And that looks a little bit about setting

Unknown: 00:02:52

up your business as well. And actually, there was a lot of

Unknown: 00:02:55

things that you don't consider, because if you're not a business

Unknown: 00:02:58

owner before, so that is great to have something out there

Unknown: 00:03:00

that's going to help guide you. So what did you do in the

Unknown: 00:03:06

planning stages? So how did you decide to Why did you decide to

Unknown: 00:03:11

target VAs and that that aspect of setting up?

Unknown: 00:03:14

At that point, I had decided that I was going to launch a VA

Unknown: 00:03:19

training and development arm of my business. And so the natural

Unknown: 00:03:23

thing felt like, how do I do that? Pretty immediately,

Unknown: 00:03:28

without spending lots of time overly perfecting and stressing

Unknown: 00:03:33

about what I'm putting out. And our podcast felt like the most

Unknown: 00:03:36

natural way to do that, as opposed to writing content. So

Unknown: 00:03:42

I've always loved audio. I've done a lot of radio in the past.

Unknown: 00:03:45

So a podcast just felt comfortable. To be honest. It

Unknown: 00:03:49

was the idea of doing solo episodes was a little bit

Unknown: 00:03:52

daunting, because we tried to consider do we do solo episodes,

Unknown: 00:03:56

just guest episodes. And then in the end, we decided to do a

Unknown: 00:03:59

hybrid of both. And the solo episodes, the first few like

Unknown: 00:04:03

when you listen back to them, they're a little bit cringe

Unknown: 00:04:05

because I was just like, What do I talk about don't want to sound

Unknown: 00:04:08

like I'm reading. So I didn't want to write it all out. Do I

Unknown: 00:04:12

have enough to say is what I'm saying valuable? There was all

Unknown: 00:04:15

those kinds of considerations. So the planning was around? What

Unknown: 00:04:19

did the audience that I'm targeting need? What are their

Unknown: 00:04:22

challenges? And because I'm in so many virtual assistant, and

Unknown: 00:04:25

executive assistant and personal assistant forums, that part of

Unknown: 00:04:28

the research was quite easy. I could I could tap into what

Unknown: 00:04:31

people were struggling with, what kind of questions people

Unknown: 00:04:34

had about the NBA, and then turn that into episodes that I could

Unknown: 00:04:39

answer those questions essentially, and then bring on

Unknown: 00:04:41

experts onto the guest episodes to answer more business related

Unknown: 00:04:45

questions but geared towards virtual assistants. Yeah.

Unknown: 00:04:49

So you're kind of on you were on the ground. Yeah, listening to

Unknown: 00:04:53

what Pete What VAs was saying they wanted and they needed and

Unknown: 00:04:57

then you could turn that around to give them that I in that in

Unknown: 00:05:00

that podcast? Yeah. What was your planning process? So how

Unknown: 00:05:05

long did it take you to get from when you decided to write, I'm

Unknown: 00:05:08

going to do a podcast? What kind of things did you do? Did you do

Unknown: 00:05:11

it by yourself? Did you have a team to help you what what kind

Unknown: 00:05:14

of things did you do?

Unknown: 00:05:16

Kind of disciplining myself in terms of ideas? And then I

Unknown: 00:05:21

worked with Gemma, My Online Business Manager to help me kind

Unknown: 00:05:24

of map out the process we were looking at how do we physically

Unknown: 00:05:32

produce this podcast? Like, what does the editing look like? And

Unknown: 00:05:36

I did some research. When I first had the idea. I did some

Unknown: 00:05:39

research online in some groups, asking people to share what was

Unknown: 00:05:44

included in their editing packages, what they charge, how

Unknown: 00:05:48

long it takes, turn it around, etc. And I got some really good

Unknown: 00:05:52

quotes. And then I kind of em up somebody that I was going to

Unknown: 00:05:54

reach back out to you and then did this like four months in

Unknown: 00:05:57

advance. So I had an understanding of what it was

Unknown: 00:06:00

going to cost to produce it, how many episodes we could do at a

Unknown: 00:06:04

time because we were going to batch them rather than doing

Unknown: 00:06:06

them week by week. And what it would look like internally for

Unknown: 00:06:11

Gemma to help make the podcast actually happened alongside the

Unknown: 00:06:14

editor. And we planned it down to I think we got down to 87

Unknown: 00:06:19

steps that it takes for each podcast from initial invitation

Unknown: 00:06:25

of asking somebody if they if they're happy to be on the pod

Unknown: 00:06:28

to the final email where we thank them and share their

Unknown: 00:06:32

assets with them for their episode. And then one more

Unknown: 00:06:35

follow up email. So it was a lot of steps. But we've automated a

Unknown: 00:06:40

lot of it. And so we managed to get the process down to a tee

Unknown: 00:06:43

really

Unknown: 00:06:44

well, that is very, super organised. I guess if you're

Unknown: 00:06:48

having a lot of guests as well, it helps. It's helped refine

Unknown: 00:06:52

that process along the way as well. What do you use to

Unknown: 00:06:55

automate? It's not of interest to haha?

Unknown: 00:06:59

Oh, is it air table? No. Actually, actually, that's not

Unknown: 00:07:04

our table, we use air table for our planning to map our date,

Unknown: 00:07:08

the topics and all of that kind of side of it. So we map that

Unknown: 00:07:12

out episode per episode in our table because a table is my

Unknown: 00:07:16

baby. And I use it for everything, as I'm sure you

Unknown: 00:07:18

would have guessed from listening. But we use dubsado

Unknown: 00:07:23

for automation with a few external steps, because we use

Unknown: 00:07:28

external scheduler. So I use acuity scheduling for booking

Unknown: 00:07:32

the actual podcast recording session, we use squad class for

Unknown: 00:07:38

our actual platform to do our recording. We use products

Unknown: 00:07:43

later. And then we use dubsado to kind of string it all

Unknown: 00:07:46

together. And we use Zapier in the background for any of the

Unknown: 00:07:48

parts that aren't like intuitively automated. And there

Unknown: 00:07:54

are a couple of manual steps in between. But for the most part,

Unknown: 00:07:58

especially the early part of the production, the pre pre

Unknown: 00:08:01

production that is automated. And we actually have recreated

Unknown: 00:08:06

that process now in actual digital products that we can

Unknown: 00:08:10

sell to other people if they were interested in not having to

Unknown: 00:08:14

figure it out for themselves.

Unknown: 00:08:15

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't I that's something that I hadn't

Unknown: 00:08:19

really thought about. But I don't know, I know some people

Unknown: 00:08:21

that use dubsado. But I don't I haven't used it myself. From

Unknown: 00:08:25

what I can gather, it's really powerful, and really great for

Unknown: 00:08:28

having that that type of process having everything automated

Unknown: 00:08:31

along the way. So that saves you a lot of time. And that helps a

Unknown: 00:08:34

lot with your your planning. Planning

Unknown: 00:08:38

really does help, especially because we do a podcast release

Unknown: 00:08:41

form, which I know lots of people don't do. But I am, you

Unknown: 00:08:44

know, formally a VA and formally, executive system like

Unknown: 00:08:49

the legalities of things are a big part of what I do. So I

Unknown: 00:08:53

don't ever skip that that portion. So we do podcast

Unknown: 00:08:56

release form, which is easy for us to do using dubsado as well

Unknown: 00:08:59

as the person saying that they're up for it showing all

Unknown: 00:09:02

the information and the links to anything else that they need.

Unknown: 00:09:05

All in a really easy automated step without us having to

Unknown: 00:09:08

manually do that each time.

Unknown: 00:09:11

That's really helpful. With the tech side of things then did you

Unknown: 00:09:15

did you have somebody in to help edit the episodes once you'd

Unknown: 00:09:18

recorded them? Or did you do that? Did you manage that within

Unknown: 00:09:21

your own team?

Unknown: 00:09:22

No. So we one of the people that I found when I was doing the

Unknown: 00:09:25

research a few months prior, I contacted him and then he was

Unknown: 00:09:30

basically our editor. So he would take four weeks worth of

Unknown: 00:09:34

episodes at a time and edit those and then send them back to

Unknown: 00:09:37

us. And then Gemma would do all of the work that goes into

Unknown: 00:09:40

creating the audio Graham versions, for example, and the

Unknown: 00:09:44

artwork and show notes and then scheduling it, loading it up to

Unknown: 00:09:49

pod bean which is the platform that we use to spare and then

Unknown: 00:09:54

liaising with the guest, again to send them their assets and

Unknown: 00:09:58

stuff. So they are quite a few different like, between us,

Unknown: 00:10:02

we've mentioned a lot of tools, right? So be daunted by that.

Unknown: 00:10:06

And I mean, you don't have to use lots of tools, you could

Unknown: 00:10:08

literally just do your editing and then do everything by, you

Unknown: 00:10:13

know, regular email and word documents, or Google Docs. But

Unknown: 00:10:18

this is much simpler. Found it once you've got the process kind

Unknown: 00:10:22

of in place, and it it works through. So

Unknown: 00:10:25

yeah, I tend to do my emails myself, I do have a scheduler, I

Unknown: 00:10:30

use Captivate, I really, they have like an episode planning

Unknown: 00:10:33

thing in there they have, but they do have like a booking

Unknown: 00:10:36

schedule. Inside the platforms, you can send a booking link out,

Unknown: 00:10:40

which is what you've booked through. And you can add social

Unknown: 00:10:43

links and things like that for your guests. If, if they if they

Unknown: 00:10:46

want to. You use pod Bean as your platform. What was your

Unknown: 00:10:50

decision? How did you? Why did you decide to use pod bean over?

Unknown: 00:10:54

I mean, there are many other platforms out there, and there's

Unknown: 00:10:55

no wrong platform. But I have done a solo episode about like

Unknown: 00:10:59

choosing your publishing platform. So I'm interested to

Unknown: 00:11:01

know what your feelings are about pod bean.

Unknown: 00:11:04

To be honest, we looked at Lisbon, I think it's called

Unknown: 00:11:09

first because that's the one that I'm a real geek, I mean,

Unknown: 00:11:13

formally attack VA, I noticed the tools that people use for

Unknown: 00:11:16

everything in ways that most people don't even notice. It's

Unknown: 00:11:19

like, you've got an email. And I'm like, Yeah, but how did you

Unknown: 00:11:22

get the email? Where did it come from? Who sent it like, what

Unknown: 00:11:25

tool was use? What's that code in the corner? So I'm really

Unknown: 00:11:28

curious like that. So I had been scoping out what other people

Unknown: 00:11:32

use for their podcasts. And there were some people that I

Unknown: 00:11:34

follow online, who have really slick production. And so I was

Unknown: 00:11:40

looking, and I realised that this thing was quite popular

Unknown: 00:11:43

with really big, well established online business

Unknown: 00:11:45

owners. So I had looked at that, but then I was deterred by a

Unknown: 00:11:50

cost, if I remember correctly. And I thought we're just

Unknown: 00:11:54

starting, we can always move to a, you know, a more established

Unknown: 00:11:57

more Pricing Platform later on. So I think Gemma did some

Unknown: 00:12:02

research into like lower end in terms of cost platforms, and we

Unknown: 00:12:07

just picked up on Bing for its ease of functionality. Really.

Unknown: 00:12:11

When we relaunched podcast, we probably will move because it is

Unknown: 00:12:16

a little bit clunky. And the aesthetic of it is not, it's not

Unknown: 00:12:20

great. But we generally don't send people directly to there,

Unknown: 00:12:23

we we host it on our own website. Each episode is listed

Unknown: 00:12:28

and loaded up individually. So we kind of direct people to go

Unknown: 00:12:31

there to listen to it. But obviously, there are the other

Unknown: 00:12:35

platforms like Apple and Spotify, for example, where

Unknown: 00:12:37

people will tune in. So pod bean doesn't feature too much in

Unknown: 00:12:41

terms of the actual display page that people see.

Unknown: 00:12:45

Yeah, I think I listened to your episode, the Haley's one. Which

Unknown: 00:12:49

is when Haley Hudson's episode where I first came across you.

Unknown: 00:12:54

And what one thing I did like about pod Bean was that you

Unknown: 00:12:58

could comment and like on each individual episode. Yeah. And

Unknown: 00:13:02

know that not an apple podcast, you can leave the review down

Unknown: 00:13:06

the button, but like in Google pot in the in the app, you can't

Unknown: 00:13:08

do that. And I quite liked that feature on it. But I do see what

Unknown: 00:13:13

you mean about that. The way that it looks is not as pretty,

Unknown: 00:13:17

or as you know, it's

Unknown: 00:13:18

not it's not sexy. So we have it on our own site, and you come in

Unknown: 00:13:25

per episode. And that's a nice feature. Yeah, or whatever. But

Unknown: 00:13:29

it means it picks it up on brands as well. So yeah, impetus

Unknown: 00:13:33

for that.

Unknown: 00:13:34

Also, I think having all your reviews in one place as well

Unknown: 00:13:38

makes it easier for I mean, like you say, people do use the

Unknown: 00:13:41

different apps, but having that kind of if someone's directed

Unknown: 00:13:44

right to your website, and they've got they can see the

Unknown: 00:13:46

comments that people have made on on your podcast there. I

Unknown: 00:13:49

think that's a really valuable, valuable way for people to see

Unknown: 00:13:52

the impact that it's having with with listeners. I mean, that's

Unknown: 00:13:56

quite a challenging thing. I know I find this myself with

Unknown: 00:13:59

getting your listeners to engage and leave reviews, how do you

Unknown: 00:14:03

find that side of things?

Unknown: 00:14:05

We're just about to ask you that because we've really struggled

Unknown: 00:14:07

with that we get the listens, and people download it. I get a

Unknown: 00:14:11

lot of private messages, people telling me how great the episode

Unknown: 00:14:14

was, or it resonated for them in some way. But and, and I get a

Unknown: 00:14:17

lot of messages from people saying, Oh, it's so nice to see

Unknown: 00:14:20

a black woman doing a podcast in this particular space, because

Unknown: 00:14:25

it's quite uncommon. So all of those comments are amazing, but

Unknown: 00:14:28

then private messages and don't get them publicly. They're not

Unknown: 00:14:31

left on the podcast. So that's something that we haven't quite

Unknown: 00:14:35

mastered is getting public review. So I'll be I'll be

Unknown: 00:14:39

looking to you for those tips.

Unknown: 00:14:42

Well, I have some I've got to say I it's something that I

Unknown: 00:14:45

struggle with as well. And one of the reasons why I chose

Unknown: 00:14:48

Captivate I mean it's a paid platform, and they are kind of

Unknown: 00:14:52

like a growth specialist platform. And they do offer some

Unknown: 00:14:57

like subscriber like webinars and things like that. So I

Unknown: 00:15:01

really want to start looking at, at the growth side of things

Unknown: 00:15:06

about how to increase your engagement with the, with the

Unknown: 00:15:09

listeners and try and get that. Because it's it's nice to know,

Unknown: 00:15:14

you know, when you're putting stuff out there that like who's

Unknown: 00:15:17

listening and how are they taking it? And yeah, it's it's

Unknown: 00:15:20

lovely to get it publicly as well so that other people can

Unknown: 00:15:24

see it and then say, Oh, why actually this is going to be for

Unknown: 00:15:27

me. So yeah, I think I have a few ideas, but I'm not an expert

Unknown: 00:15:32

in either unfortunately, I wish. You know, hundreds of 1000s of

Unknown: 00:15:39

listeners, that would be amazing. But I mean, it's kind

Unknown: 00:15:42

of like your social media, isn't it? Kind of like not getting too

Unknown: 00:15:45

caught up in to bigger download numbers? Because if you've got

Unknown: 00:15:48

like a core, a core group of listeners that are your other

Unknown: 00:15:52

listing, and if you can get them to engage, they will be like,

Unknown: 00:15:55

like your most value ambassadors? Yeah, exactly.

Unknown: 00:15:58

Definitely. Yeah. So how do you find squad cast for you? Is it a

Unknown: 00:16:03

free platform? Or do you have to pay for No,

Unknown: 00:16:06

it's a paid platform? Yeah, I think they may have a premium.

Unknown: 00:16:09

Yeah.

Unknown: 00:16:10

To briefly kind of come across score.

Unknown: 00:16:14

It's really good. It's, it's been extremely reliable. I've

Unknown: 00:16:18

had technical issues twice in all of the episodes that we've

Unknown: 00:16:21

done. And those have mostly been broadband issues, or Wi Fi

Unknown: 00:16:26

issues from my guests, rather than the platform itself. And

Unknown: 00:16:31

it's really easy to use, you can have up to four people per

Unknown: 00:16:34

episode, they have the option to do video, as well as audio, we

Unknown: 00:16:39

just do our podcast, we use video to record them, but the

Unknown: 00:16:43

video is not saved. So it's just audio. Yeah. But there is an

Unknown: 00:16:47

option at a higher price point where you can do videos, whilst

Unknown: 00:16:50

if you know, you want to put your video on YouTube, for

Unknown: 00:16:53

example. It makes it really easy to do that. And it's just quite

Unknown: 00:17:00

straightforward to use. It isn't there's just no, no issues. It

Unknown: 00:17:03

looks great on slick screen, it's just the split screen,

Unknown: 00:17:06

kinda visual identity. And yeah, it works great. And they're

Unknown: 00:17:11

quite receptive in terms of their customer service have

Unknown: 00:17:13

given me advice or guidance from somebody and they get back to

Unknown: 00:17:16

you pretty quickly.

Unknown: 00:17:17

Oh, that's good. I must say I've only use Zoom. Mainly because I

Unknown: 00:17:22

didn't want to initially when I was starting, I didn't want to

Unknown: 00:17:24

pay for a platform. And I felt that Zoom was going to work okay

Unknown: 00:17:29

for me. But I have since looked into a friend of mine uses Zen

Unknown: 00:17:33

caster for their podcast, and I looked at that, I tried it, I

Unknown: 00:17:38

use the free version. And so you could have the video, but it

Unknown: 00:17:42

didn't record that you just recorded the audio. And you have

Unknown: 00:17:45

the person who you're into, as well has to have the space on

Unknown: 00:17:48

their laptop. So it can it can save like just a file while

Unknown: 00:17:54

you're recording. So she didn't have enough space that she's got

Unknown: 00:17:56

a Chromebook didn't have enough space. So we couldn't I couldn't

Unknown: 00:17:59

get it to work. It was only afterwards, I discovered that it

Unknown: 00:18:01

was the space. So that was kind of a bit of a barrier for me

Unknown: 00:18:05

because it felt like yeah,

Unknown: 00:18:09

to expect to have a to have a requirement that your guest has

Unknown: 00:18:13

a certain amount of storage space on them. Yeah, device is a

Unknown: 00:18:16

bit restrictive.

Unknown: 00:18:17

Yeah, so that kind of was a bit like oh, that was a bit

Unknown: 00:18:19

disappointing. And by no submit issues riverside.fm and had been

Unknown: 00:18:23

very happy with that. So that is using a different platform other

Unknown: 00:18:27

than Zoom is something that I'm considering. And when I record

Unknown: 00:18:31

solo episodes, I record straight into Audacity. So I find that

Unknown: 00:18:34

that is like a good quality. It's a record straight into for

Unknown: 00:18:38

myself. But obviously that's not possible to use when you've got

Unknown: 00:18:41

guests because then you're only kind of you can't Well, you

Unknown: 00:18:47

could record at the same time I don't think it'd be too

Unknown: 00:18:49

complicated to expect your guests to like, work out or that

Unknown: 00:18:52

that tech side of things, as well as is a bit complicated.

Unknown: 00:18:57

I know that Gemma uses audacity because we bought our editing in

Unknown: 00:19:01

house. Okay, maybe the first six months. And Gemma does the

Unknown: 00:19:06

editing of the pods now and she uses them dusty. I've got no

Unknown: 00:19:10

clue how it works. But yeah, I can't imagine you've been able

Unknown: 00:19:14

to use that with guests and kind of the channels are separate,

Unknown: 00:19:18

right? So they'd be like, yeah,

Unknown: 00:19:19

that's you'd have to get them to record on their own computer and

Unknown: 00:19:22

send it to you, which doesn't seem like it's just a lot of

Unknown: 00:19:25

effort for your guests and really isn't it's the same. So

Unknown: 00:19:30

you are pretty confident around the tech relating to the process

Unknown: 00:19:33

side of things and you've brought your editing in house

Unknown: 00:19:36

now. I use Audacity to edit as well. And I do love I don't know

Unknown: 00:19:40

all of the features on it. But I do really think I really like

Unknown: 00:19:43

Audacity, my husband's a sound engineer as well. And he's going

Unknown: 00:19:46

to teach me loads of stuff, which is Yeah, it's really it's

Unknown: 00:19:50

super helpful actually. So my actual little, little Wikipedia

Unknown: 00:19:54

guide on my shoulder. And what kind of things do you do to

Unknown: 00:20:00

molecule promote your podcasts.

Unknown: 00:20:02

So we have a dedicated mailing list, which is like a VA

Unknown: 00:20:06

audience specific. We share it on social. So we have a social

Unknown: 00:20:11

account for that brand. Then I also share on my own socials on

Unknown: 00:20:15

LinkedIn and on Instagram. And then we share we do when we're

Unknown: 00:20:19

running it, you know, weekly, we share an email once a week, just

Unknown: 00:20:23

letting our audience know, like, whose episode is or what we're

Unknown: 00:20:26

talking about this week. And that's worked quite well for us

Unknown: 00:20:31

in terms of the return on investment in terms of how many

Unknown: 00:20:36

people were listening, versus how many people were reaching

Unknown: 00:20:39

for advertising, that's still being figured out. We're still

Unknown: 00:20:42

kind of finding our feet. But people are quite receptive in

Unknown: 00:20:47

but they don't necessarily listen on the day that it comes

Unknown: 00:20:49

out noticed, it tends to get better traction in the three

Unknown: 00:20:53

days after it's been published than it does on the day. It's

Unknown: 00:20:57

been published.

Unknown: 00:20:58

Well, that's interesting. Yeah, I think I get over the week, I

Unknown: 00:21:02

think I might get one or two lessons that dive in. I'm

Unknown: 00:21:04

talking I think I've got like about eight unique listeners on

Unknown: 00:21:07

my dashboard on Captivate at the moment. So I think like a few do

Unknown: 00:21:11

within the thigh. And then like the next within that week, kind

Unknown: 00:21:15

of before the next episodes, but I've noticed on a lot of just

Unknown: 00:21:19

looking at different statistics on some different podcasts that

Unknown: 00:21:22

I'm that I've managed, like they tend the episodes have tended to

Unknown: 00:21:26

like peak, and then they kind of go down a little bit, and then

Unknown: 00:21:29

they peak up again, like, but I think that it's the podcast

Unknown: 00:21:35

stats and everything are interesting and how they relate

Unknown: 00:21:37

to marketing. But I think that sometimes, if you feel

Unknown: 00:21:42

podcasting is quite a long game. Well, it's a long game. Yeah.

Unknown: 00:21:44

And I think that it's hard to quantify it sometimes into how

Unknown: 00:21:52

how beneficial because you could have like, like, say like a

Unknown: 00:21:54

really small ng ng, but they're super engaged with your content.

Unknown: 00:21:59

And yeah, it's not taking they're not getting too

Unknown: 00:22:04

disheartened, I think to begin with as an important thing to

Unknown: 00:22:07

kind of, to say to people out there that are starting a

Unknown: 00:22:10

podcast, you know, don't be worried if you don't get like

Unknown: 00:22:13

1000 downloads, or anything like that. So

Unknown: 00:22:17

yeah, definitely, I think it's worth finding a way to track

Unknown: 00:22:20

stuff. So using Google Analytics where you can and then having a

Unknown: 00:22:24

spreadsheet set up to track your listened or your download at

Unknown: 00:22:28

some point. But I think it's, I would suggest that people just

Unknown: 00:22:32

don't look at their stats for the first three months. Like

Unknown: 00:22:35

just focus on the content, and what you're saying and sharing

Unknown: 00:22:39

and focus on the engagement that you're getting, or not getting,

Unknown: 00:22:44

and try and work on building that rather than focusing on the

Unknown: 00:22:47

stats, because, like you said, the stats are going to take a

Unknown: 00:22:50

while to build up. And if you're focused on them, it's gonna feel

Unknown: 00:22:52

really disheartening. And you're like, why am I buffering, and it

Unknown: 00:22:55

will start to eat away at your enthusiasm for it. When really,

Unknown: 00:23:00

you really just need to put your gusto behind getting it out

Unknown: 00:23:03

there. And not worrying about how many people are aren't

Unknown: 00:23:06

listening to straight away? Yeah, absolutely.

Unknown: 00:23:09

It's yeah, making sure that your content is that you go back to,

Unknown: 00:23:14

who are you doing your podcast for? And what do they need? And

Unknown: 00:23:18

making sure that your content or your podcasts fits that bill?

Unknown: 00:23:22

Then you know, that you don't, you know, you are putting out

Unknown: 00:23:25

there what people want to listen in, which is the most important

Unknown: 00:23:28

part of doing your podcast, obviously. How would you feel?

Unknown: 00:23:35

Has it helped you as a business had you? Do you feel that it's,

Unknown: 00:23:40

have you enjoyed adding podcasting to your, to your

Unknown: 00:23:43

selection, like for your marketing and everything?

Unknown: 00:23:45

Yeah, I felt like it is, like you said, it's a long game. And

Unknown: 00:23:49

I was very clear that that would be the situation from the

Unknown: 00:23:52

beginning. Because I think if you thought you're gonna do a

Unknown: 00:23:54

podcast and scuze me for like, a couple of months, and it's going

Unknown: 00:23:58

to have a major impact, then, you know, be in for, you know, a

Unknown: 00:24:02

rude awakening. It is a long game. It is also a combination

Unknown: 00:24:07

of doing your podcast, but also appearing on other people's

Unknown: 00:24:10

podcast is a great marketing mix. Just doing your own in it

Unknown: 00:24:14

in isolation, I think is powerful, but not as powerful as

Unknown: 00:24:18

also being on other people's podcasts. And really using it in

Unknown: 00:24:25

a way that you're getting your voice out there, you're showing

Unknown: 00:24:28

your expertise, but you're also inviting other people to do the

Unknown: 00:24:31

same. It's a really rewarding feeling having other people come

Unknown: 00:24:36

on, share their expertise and their insights that potentially

Unknown: 00:24:39

then go on to help other people and you're facilitating that

Unknown: 00:24:41

process. So that feels great. And from a marketing

Unknown: 00:24:44

perspective, it's just helping to raise your visibility, like

Unknown: 00:24:48

it's never going to do any harm. Having yourself out there unless

Unknown: 00:24:51

you really don't know what you're doing, in which case then

Unknown: 00:24:53

don't do it. Don't set yourself up, but also just focus on the

Unknown: 00:25:00

fact that what you take for granted in terms of your

Unknown: 00:25:04

expertise other people are dying to hear. And sometimes we can

Unknown: 00:25:08

convince ourselves, we don't have anything valuable to share.

Unknown: 00:25:11

Maybe the why is anybody going to be interested in that? Or

Unknown: 00:25:14

doesn't everybody know that? No, they really don't. And if it's

Unknown: 00:25:17

not their expertise, they probably definitely don't. And

Unknown: 00:25:21

you sharing that it's going to open somebody else's eyes or,

Unknown: 00:25:24

you know, lead them to find out something that they didn't

Unknown: 00:25:27

already know, that could potentially benefit them. And

Unknown: 00:25:30

just just do that with with gusto. And with some pride.

Unknown: 00:25:34

Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice. Is that your kind of top

Unknown: 00:25:38

tip for somebody who's starting out podcasting?

Unknown: 00:25:41

Yeah, just just go for it. Like, what's the worst that can

Unknown: 00:25:45

happen, but give yourself a timeline and say, Okay, I'm

Unknown: 00:25:47

gonna do this for three months. And if you're going to do do for

Unknown: 00:25:49

at least 12 weeks, because you need to give yourself the

Unknown: 00:25:53

opportunity to get into a groove with it. And I think sometimes

Unknown: 00:25:58

people think, Oh, God, you know, I do free episodes, or I do a

Unknown: 00:26:01

month, and then I'll see how I feel. And it's like, you've got

Unknown: 00:26:04

to give yourself a chance for success. So did three months,

Unknown: 00:26:09

and then see where you're at? Take a break, and then come back

Unknown: 00:26:11

to it? Yeah,

Unknown: 00:26:13

I planned out 12 months of this podcast to say I decided I was

Unknown: 00:26:17

going to do it for a year. So I planned out. I've not like in

Unknown: 00:26:21

detail planned out every single episode yet. So I kind of do

Unknown: 00:26:24

more than a full weekly basis. I think that having whatever that

Unknown: 00:26:28

plan is, whether it's a season or whether it you know, you

Unknown: 00:26:30

have, it's important to have that planned out. Because

Unknown: 00:26:34

otherwise, you will lose enthusiasm, you'll find it if

Unknown: 00:26:38

you're, you might find an excuse not to do it. And I think you've

Unknown: 00:26:42

got to be consistent. However, that is for your audience,

Unknown: 00:26:44

whether it's weekly or monthly, or however it is you want to

Unknown: 00:26:48

show up. And we all know that from our marketing as well.

Unknown: 00:26:51

Don't worry from everything. Yeah, trying to be consistent.

Unknown: 00:26:54

Key word consistency. Yeah. But I think with podcasts as well,

Unknown: 00:26:57

it's the same thing. And the planning element is not

Unknown: 00:27:02

something although you kind of sometimes want to skip ahead and

Unknown: 00:27:04

get into the dive into the exciting part of the podcasts.

Unknown: 00:27:08

But you need to think about that you're reaching your ideal

Unknown: 00:27:10

client and your content is going to do that for those people.

Unknown: 00:27:14

Yeah, definitely. And also the top end of that, that's the,

Unknown: 00:27:18

that's the output. But the the actual, the client experience

Unknown: 00:27:23

that people have, when they're going to be a guest on your

Unknown: 00:27:25

podcast is majorly important. And a lot of people overlook

Unknown: 00:27:28

that side of it. I say that as somebody who focuses on client

Unknown: 00:27:32

experience as as my role in my day job. So outside of

Unknown: 00:27:37

podcasting, so it's easy for me to focus on that element. But

Unknown: 00:27:41

it's been really rewarding to have people come in and remark

Unknown: 00:27:44

at how easy or have slipped in process words, for them being a

Unknown: 00:27:48

guest. And when somebody has an experience that feels

Unknown: 00:27:51

delightful, prior to recording with you, they come up with

Unknown: 00:27:56

particular type of energy, until your podcast is naturally just

Unknown: 00:27:58

going to be a really great conversation too. Because they

Unknown: 00:28:01

realise that, you know, this is this this top shelf like top

Unknown: 00:28:05

shelf, maybe not the best expression. But it's high end,

Unknown: 00:28:08

you know? Yeah, it's a, it's been a great experience is going

Unknown: 00:28:13

to be a great conversation. And then and then they're going to

Unknown: 00:28:16

be proud to share the end output as well would their audience,

Unknown: 00:28:19

which is obviously what you want. When you do recording,

Unknown: 00:28:22

right. You want people to share it with their own network.

Unknown: 00:28:24

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that that is important. If

Unknown: 00:28:27

you've not sent a link or not remind you know, all those

Unknown: 00:28:31

little things they do they do matter to people, don't they?

Unknown: 00:28:33

And they turn up and then it's not not a great experience.

Unknown: 00:28:36

They're not they might they're not going to think back on it

Unknown: 00:28:38

with fondest memories, are they? Yeah, that's

Unknown: 00:28:41

right. And so by the time it goes live, which is often you

Unknown: 00:28:43

know, a month or longer after you've recorded, they forgotten

Unknown: 00:28:46

about it, and then they're not fazed and suddenly the assets

Unknown: 00:28:48

and then they might not share it, and then that can feel

Unknown: 00:28:50

disheartening.

Unknown: 00:28:52

Yeah. I've really enjoyed chatting to you today said, I've

Unknown: 00:28:56

really felt you've given our audience, however small they may

Unknown: 00:29:00

be real insights into the way that you do your podcast. And I

Unknown: 00:29:06

do want to just let people know where we can find you and where

Unknown: 00:29:09

we can listen to your I know you mentioned, your podcast is

Unknown: 00:29:11

housed on your website. And if anyone would like to work with,

Unknown: 00:29:14

you're getting in touch, where's the best way to do that?

Unknown: 00:29:17

Okay, so the podcast virtual reality is available on all

Unknown: 00:29:21

major podcast platforms. And it's also on our website, which

Unknown: 00:29:25

is from PA to va.com forward slash podcast. And you can find

Unknown: 00:29:31

all of the episodes there from the three seasons that we've

Unknown: 00:29:33

done. Like I say, the first few seasons are focused on business

Unknown: 00:29:38

professionals across the board in all different industries,

Unknown: 00:29:41

teaching virtual assistants how to level up all of that way to

Unknown: 00:29:45

put it. And and the last season is a combination of sub vi

Unknown: 00:29:52

diaries. So hearing from people who have who obviously

Unknown: 00:29:55

transitioned from business support roles in employment, to

Unknown: 00:29:58

running their own businesses. And it's also a series of people

Unknown: 00:30:03

who booked VAs who, who found joy in having a VA in their

Unknown: 00:30:07

business and what that journey has looked like what kind of

Unknown: 00:30:09

things they were looking for. So that's been a really interesting

Unknown: 00:30:13

season. In terms of finding me, I'm on all socials, at eight all

Unknown: 00:30:19

socials, I use Instagram, predominantly. So you can find

Unknown: 00:30:23

me at Citadel, Stewart, and also on Facebook. And if you're

Unknown: 00:30:27

looking for a VA, or you're interested in that side of the

Unknown: 00:30:30

world, or you're interested in becoming an associate VA, then

Unknown: 00:30:33

it's onic communications.

Unknown: 00:30:35

Brilliant. I will link all those in the show notes so people can

Unknown: 00:30:38

have easy access to all your details. Thanks again for coming

Unknown: 00:30:42

on said

Unknown: 00:30:42

thanks for having me.

Unknown: 00:30:46

Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed today's episode,

Unknown: 00:30:48

please like share and subscribe. Your support means so much to

Unknown: 00:30:52

me. If there's a question or topic you'd like covering then

Unknown: 00:30:55

I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Instagram at

Unknown: 00:30:58

Rachel Botfield and drop me a DM till next time bye