Joanne Bolt (Intro)

The power of a podcast extends well beyond plugging in the mind. So if you're ready to learn how it can help you build a big business, then I’m your best friend, Hi, I'm Joanne Bolt and I am obsessed with all things podcasting, and creating an unapologetically big revenue business with it from podcast guesting to podcast hosting and everything in between. We're gonna dive into it all and show you step by awesome step how using a podcast can and will grow your business. So grab a glass of wine and pop your headphones on. Cuz, Girlfriend, happy hour has begun here on the B-Word.

 

Okay, so I wanted to kind of just give you a little bit of tactical advice on taking that podcast from being just something that you speak into and something that actually generates revenue for you. And then we'll move into a q&a. And I am an open book, you guys, you can ask anything. I will tell you, I have no freaking clue on the answer. I will tell you what I think is the answer. I've been podcasting a hot second more than most of you. But maybe not much more than a hot second more. So there might be some things that I'm like, never thought about that before. Let's go find the answer. And I will commit to you here that I will find the answer and get it to you. Because then you'll intrigue me as well. The first thing I want you to really do with your business in general and your podcast is tie the two together. And I know that that sounds obvious, because I feel like I say it all the time. But if your podcast is not an active marketing member of your team, it is time to promote that bitch. Okay. Your podcast is not like oh, everyone got on clubhouse. Let me get on clubhouse. Everyone has an Instagram account. Let me get on Instagram. Like anything else. You know, if we're gonna use Instagram for social sales, maybe we need to learn from Jillian how to do that. Your Podcast should be something that if you're going to take the time to record it, and create all this content, you should actually have a strategy behind it so that it leads the business. It doesn't trail behind the business. And here's one of the most beautiful things to me about a podcast. It is one of the most evergreen things you'll ever create. For instance, I can go on Jillian's social today, if I just discovered her, and I might been six of her reels. If she's lucky. Exactly. And I might then think I love her reels. And I might ring the bell on top of the Instagram account so that I get notified when she shows up on Instagram. But I've given her maybe six reels, maybe three or four posts, eight minutes tops of my attention span, right? I find a new podcast that interests me. And you all this statistically, if you actually read podcasting, like newsletters and stuff, I'm not making this shit up. This is statistically, if someone finds a podcast that interests them, they will binge eight episodes. Now if eight episodes or 20 minutes or an hour, you're you're up to eight hours of their attention. Well guess what you just became for them the goat greatest of all time. You are their go to for that, that whatever they're listening to. And it may be a specific topic that you're talking about. Or it may just be how you talk about it. Or maybe just life in general that they just like you because they like your voice or they like how you explain things or they like how relatable you are. It doesn't matter. They generally speaking when they first find you they do not listen to just one episode. They listen to multiple and that means they'll go back in time. So if you're listening You know, if you just discover me for the first time, and I gave you a great tip on using an email list in your business, and you're like, Oh, I love that. And then my next episode is on something else, you are very likely as a consumer, to go to my actual blog page, search all the episodes I ever did on emails, because that's what you need help with right now. And you'll listen to everything so you can have some idea three years ago. That's why it's one of the most evergreen things you can create. When you say evergreen was always there.

 

I actually have my podcast like listed on my website, and there's a search feature. So I can point out, Hey, if you're struggling with building your email list, go to my website and type in. Yeah, because then I have the opt in there to get them on my email list so I can capture their emails. Yep.

 

Here's another great idea. If you can take the time to do it on your on your blog pages or your show notes. Always think of show notes in terms of the baby show note. And the mama show note. The baby show note is like the three to four sentences that goes out on Apple Spotify, if someone's in their podcast player is three to four sentences that makes them think, yep, I'm going to click play. The mama show notes are like what you put on your blog or your web page. And it's a deeper in depth show note, if someone is taking the time to go to that show note, I want to see even if it's not much more, I want to see a little bit more than I got on my apple podcast player. So give them a little bit more meat on the bottom of ours. I also linked to other episodes that may interest them. So if I am discussing of mine, I always want them on mine. Yeah, especially and this is what we're gonna talk about just a second when you determine what your content pillars are. So one of my content pillars is email marketing, I am really good at it. And I have a lot of ways to other people to be good at it. So every six weeks or so I'm going to cycle in an email marketing type episode, well, then it's really easy at the bottom of the show notes. Hey, If this episode interested you, you might also like these two episodes, and I will strategically pull a recent issue one and a further one back. Because now if I'm on Episode 100, and you skip to Episode 92, for email, and go all the way back into the 60s or 70s, for another email topic, guess what I've just taught you how good I am at this, because it's 40 episodes of heart. And so you keep them intrigued with what you're doing. And you just you just keep becoming that person that expert for them. And then when they're like, Oh, she's so good at the email marketing, well, then I have a link to a Pinterest and you're like, I've never thought about using Pinterest before. Let me read that. Let me listen to that. And the next thing you know that that you're their go to person for whatever your topic is. 64 they thought 6365 Yeah, sure, yeah. Because 64 is gonna have two different things linked to it. So it's keeps them there. I like to think of like, Instagram, and my social presence is the welcome mat into my world. You know, when you walk up to the door of someone's house, and they got a little welcome mat, like during the fall, or says, Let yourself in footballs on, like, you get a little bit of their personality, you know, you kind of get a glimpse into the home, you can stand at the front door and kind of like glance in when they come into your home, which is your website, then they can choose what room they want to go into. And so on my website, I've got the blogs. And we've got the programs that we offer. And we've got, you know a little bit about me. So maybe you landed there because you went to a show note. And then maybe you'll keep reading in the show notes. Or maybe you're now going to click over and look at one of my offers, because I've connected it to the show notes. And so the more you can keep them engaged in what you're doing and not bounce double, the more success you're going to have getting revenue off your podcast, and I call bounce double anything on social media. Because let's be honest, I freaking love Instagram, I can, I can scroll that shit for hours. And that's the problem. If I start out on someone's reels, and then something else pops in, I'm going to their reel. And 30 minutes later, I'm going to someone else's reel and I'm like that puppy dog is amazing. Well, I started out trying to learn from Pink arrows spouse, whatever her name is how to do a real and now I'm looking at puppy dogs. Versus if you if you land on someone's landing pages and you don't have to have a full website but you can have landing pages that all kind of connect together and going from one to the next. I'm just walking through the rooms of your home. And I'm really investing in you as a person. And so that's why I really encourage people to take those show notes from the baby show note to the mama show and take the time or hire someone to take the time. You know and always know when you hire out your show notes for someone else to write 70% is good enough. If you read that show note and you're like that is 70% as good as what I would have written myself keep going. As long as it's somewhat in your tone somewhat conveys your message. It doesn't have to be perfect Done is better than perfect. Keep going I look at my, the big show notes is more of a blog. And they're actually sitting in the blog on my website. Like, if you look it says blogs because from there I can control so much. You know, like, if you think you're putting in a link, like in your baby show notes, and you're like, go here and you put a link in and you're like, oh, that link works from Apple. Guess what, that link does not work on Spotify. And so then you frustrate your your users, if you're always telling them, if you want the links, if you go to the show notes, they're likely to click it, and then not be frustrated, because they can actually get to your links. The most frustrating thing you can do to someone is put a non clickable link. That's obnoxious. Don't do that. 

 

And when you're in the shownotes, adding their Instagram, do you put the link or the handle?

 

I put the app or both? Okay, but I try to make it a link. Because again, people like to just click and go, you always have to look at everything through the is there a staples easy button on this? The low barrier of entry, like, if they click something twice, and it doesn't like they're gone, yeah, you've lost them. Here's the other reason, if you haven't been doing bigger show notes, because they're time consuming. And they're troublesome. And I don't want a million landing pages or even a website, Jill. I love to mess with her. You may not know now that you want to run a Facebook ad, and you may think to yourself, I will never give Meta the money for a Facebook ad. If you are running a business, you will at some point, run a Facebook ad, you say no ad. Money, I don't know, if you are actually wanting to make money in your business, you are going to have to at some point run ads because you will exhaust your current audience unless you're pumping out a new offer every six weeks. And if you are we need to have a separate conversation because that's exhausting. Okay. So if you're going to run Facebook ads at some point, even if you never think so there's this little bitty gem called a Facebook pixel to pixel is it's a cookie. So you place it on the header of your website. So that now every time someone goes to your blog to read the show notes, they pick up your Facebook pixel that stays active for up to 365 days. So you put the pixel on and it stays for 365 days. And guess what? Now a year from now, you're like, oh, I need to make a digital course. That digital course would be perfect for everyone who's been listening to the podcast. But you have no idea who's been watching your show notes because you didn't leave a little bitty cookie on their website. So if you've left the cookie, through the Facebook pixel, then you tell Facebook, I want to run an ad. And I want to target it to people who went to my Instagram account and engaged with my Instagram account. Facebook pixel storefronts. They're all owned by meta. But okay, so how do you do that? Exactly. That's technical. And I, I can't, I can't help you with that. Because I have enough technical nearness, nerdiness and me but like this part of the conversation that I actually did, like, show you how to do. But if you're gonna create all this content, you're going to drive people back to landing pages or websites, then take that extra step now and set yourself up for success later. We ever wondered how like, if you, you know, we're looking at cars on Google. And then you go to Facebook, and all of a sudden everything on Facebook is that freaking car is because there's a Google Pixel that shares its information with Facebook. You can put your Google Analytics pixel, you can put your Pinterest pixel, you can put your LinkedIn pixel, I have them all on my website. That's why you have to click the thing that says, Yep, we're good with cookies. Because that way, I can actually identify within my database. Now, the people who came to my website from Pinterest, and I can actually now target specific ads that are very Pinterest looking, because Pinterest has its own look and feel. And I'm not putting those ads on Pinterest. I'm putting that shit on Facebook. Because if you found me on Pinterest, you clicked on something to maybe download a PDF or a freebie or watch a webinar. And now all of a sudden I'm showing up on your Instagram. I am literally everywhere in front of you. I'm the only person now that you see. And the next step is you're going to either engage with my podcast or one of my courses, you're going to pop into another commute like that's how you become omnipresent. And it's absolutely gorgeous. And it's just part of marketing. Everybody doesn't seem as well. Don't feel bad about it. And if you throw a pixel on there and then you never use it, okay, it took you 20 minutes to set a pixel up on your website and a big deal. But that also strategically for me is Why if you've ever really watched some of my stuff, occasionally like on a story, we'll put the link straight to Apple podcast or listen to the episode, most of the time, we don't. Most of the time, we were sending you to the link to the blog, the episodes embedded in there. So if you do listen, I still get download credit on the you know, the Almighty download count. But I have not sent you to Apple, where I can control nothing for you to listen to an episode, I have sent you to my show notes, to listen to the episode, because then I've installed pixels, and given you the opportunity to read the show notes and bounced around my website. So if you're gonna take the time to create a story, and put a link, make it strategic. And this is when we start moving out of just having a podcast and tutoring strategically using one to keep people in our world and sell them things, you have two things, you always need to be thinking of what's your value, and what's your offer. If you don't have offers, you're gonna be broke, sorry. And your offer could be a conference, or it could be a digital course, or it could be a monthly membership, it doesn't matter what your offer is, it could be coaching, it could be, you know, coming to like, whatever your offer is at the moment that you're selling, have two or three in your business and just rotate them around. But if your value leads to your offer, and if you're not connecting the dots for your people, then you're just a podcast to listen to you. And like that's a waste of your time, maybe not theirs, but yours. And we do not have enough time in the day to waste the pixel what it is, what it does is like if I go to your website, I have now got your pixel or Facebook sees me for 365 days, if I don't visit you again, then if you were to run an ad on day, 366, I'm not going to get it. But if I keep going back, it resets my clock every single time

 

I can you're saying embed that pixel on all the other platforms that I have,

 

you can or take a platforms pixel and put them all on your website to figure out how to do that like if you use. Right? Like if you don't have a Pinterest present, you don't need a Pinterest pixel. If you never throw anything on LinkedIn, you don't need a LinkedIn pixel. If you're using YouTube and Google, you need their pixels. Why? Because why show up for someone on one platform, and then not show up for them on the other. But if you don't have content on that platform, you don't need the pixel. Does that make sense? It tells you where to keep spending your time, I have a Google Analytics girl who set my Google up my analytics. Now I can tell you from every single page on my website where that traffic is coming from. And I have a date with those numbers every single month. Because if I'm spending all my time on Instagram, and I'm feeling the love on Instagram, but turns out my freebie is getting all the traffic from LinkedIn. Then when I go to put my offer out, then I need to not pay for the offers ads on Instagram, I need to be putting more effort into LinkedIn. Versus if all my traffic from Instagram is just random pages. And like there's there's no clickable anything. It's just making me feel good.

 

You did all your cookie pixel stuff.

 

I set up my cookies because I actually know enough to do that. And I'm totally willing to help you. She did the Google Analytics page piece because I don't know Google Analytics to keep track. I paid her a one time retainer and that she taught me how to read it. Could I get the referral for whoever? Yeah, just ask me later. And I'll send it to you.

 

Always with what you were saying I don't use link tree. I always use the page that I use the page. Number one,

 

thank you for listening to that. Because some people are like, I still don't get it. And I'm like, why would I you guys will learn the more you're like in my world like there is methods to every madness. I do

 

stuff because I would go into the analytics and go, Okay, where are my like, acquisition sources? And like, oh, here, boom, here. Like it was so easy to run ads for free programs. So then massively like 10x my email list? Yep. Because I was giving them something for free. And then they use that to Yep.

 

Alright, so that's actually kind of like my next biggest tip to putting money back into your podcast is you look at every single thing you do as a launch. And that was a digital word that I had to learn coming out of real estate. And I was like, What the hell is a launch? I don't understand. I don't have a digital course. I don't watch anything. And then I thought even back to the real estate business. The reality was, every time I was getting a home ready to put on the market, I was getting ready to launch that home onto the market to be able to sell it to the public, right? So it's no different in the business I'm doing now. So if you break your business up into what are your paid things, what actually brings revenue into your business? Then you also need to back that up into how do I launch that and how often do I launch it? So even if it's a membership that you could go into 365 days a year and join you should still put into your calendar a launch time that You're going to spend this month really focusing on the membership. And think of it like a membership drive, what can you do to really propel interest in that one thing that is always available. If it's a digital course that you can join 365 days a year, I don't care, I'm still going to ask you to put into your calendar, the launch month for it, and then we're gonna back 30 days up and do a marketing propeller for it. And then 30 days up to get ready for that. Everything is a launch. And here's how it ties into your pod. If I know and I do that, I'm going to launch something in October. Now if I know that that is my launch month for XYZ, then I know that the month before most of my content needs to lead you in that direction. So that doesn't mean I have to be talking about that offer. I don't need commission breath. But if the offer that's coming in October is a digital course and involves four different modules that I know will help you in a certain way, I'm going to make sure my content leading up to that somehow touches on those four modules. So that then when I launched that product, the bumper, that little 32nd that you can just add to all your can say, oh my gosh, here's what is available to you. Now, if you're not sure you need it, go back and listen to these four episodes. Like you didn't even realize I was prepping you for this launch. And now my content creation just got easier, because I know what I have to create because I know what I'm leading into. So see what I see a lot of podcasters start missing and leaving money on the table is they just get up and they're like, Well, yesterday, I had this experience, I'm gonna talk about it on an episode and it'll air at some point, and they have no strategy behind what they're truly talking about. Whereas I'm like, huh, I know in advance what I'm going to try to be getting money with. So I'm leading up to that in advance. But I'm going to do it in a way that you don't realize I'm selling to you. You know, like if I'm teaching you the hell out of some email marketing, it's probably because I'm about to launch one of my programs where I really break down the emails for you. But you don't know that at the time, I'm just teaching you how to hit him up email market, I might give you a freebie you can download, guess what I'm doing. I'm priming my email list to get ready to send you information on what I'm about to launch. And now we start to tie it all together with a bow so that it a makes your life easier. Because you know what the hell you need to be prepping and getting ready for and be you start making more money. There's no just throwing spaghetti on the wall anymore. Now that does require that you learn to organization, if that's not your best tool, that's okay, we'll get you there took me awhile. And you won't get it right the first time, right? Like you might think, well, I'll watch this in October and then come to find out you're like, oh, no, that's a really bad time to launch it. So then next year, put a different time point in your calendar. And here's why what you would do is on your podcast, you're really establishing thought leadership toward that evergreen program, right? So you don't even have to mention that the program. Yeah, like you're just talking, you're bringing people into your world, they're understanding that you really know what the heck you're talking about. So then if you know, again, you can sign up for that program 365 days a year, but on your personal marketing calendar, if you're like I'm going to launch it. I'm going to say that November is launch month for the program. Then in October, maybe you do a free 30 Minute Webinar. Maybe you have three free PDFs that if someone does a certain link or a word you can download, what you're doing is priming the pump. So you're getting them to say oh, I want the free something. Right because we all have to remember something people are listening to podcast, it is a free medium. So you need to come at them with free stuff. They do not expect to yank their credit card out from a podcast. And so you offer them something free that gives them one more step into your world there's so much value there that the follow up email sequence from everyone who registered for this one thing in launch month. You'll get a certain percentage of them that purchase then the course when you do your launch month yeah you then put a bonus like hey, this extra module is only available or hey this one on one coaching call is only available and then once or twice a year just make a big launch of it with a set goal of I want to get this many new people in the program during launch month and then you do everything leading up to increasing that number. And you'll start to track it and understand something and you'll I know tracking is not sexy. The numbers are not sexy, it's not as fun adding to them such a number shares go but without Data. Even with a launch strategy, it is still throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping it sticks. 

 

Listen To The Episode