Ep# 99: Lessons Learned From 100 Episodes for Podcast Success and Growth for Women Entrepreneurs
Episode Summary
Are you struggling to keep your podcast listeners engaged and coming back for more? Discover the secrets to transforming casual listeners into dedicated fans in our latest episode!
In today's crowded podcast landscape, merely attracting listeners isn't enough. This episode dives into practical tips and mindset shifts essential for maintaining listener retention, which is crucial for growing your podcast audience. If you’re tired of seeing fluctuating download numbers and want to build a loyal following, this episode is for you.
In this episode, you will:
Learn the top tactical tip to ensure your audience sticks around and keeps listening to your episodes.
Uncover the biggest mindset block holding back women entrepreneurs from podcasting success and how to overcome it.
Understand the energetic importance of podcasting and how it can transform your listener's experience and engagement.
Ready to elevate your podcast game and ensure your listeners keep coming back?
Tune into this episode now and start transforming your podcasting journey today!
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The Uncommon Way is led by business coach Jenna Harrison, who helps women entrepreneurs feel confident, find their ideal clients effortlessly and avoid overwork so they can manifest money and abundance in their business and life.
This podcast empowers female entrepreneurs to overcome imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and limiting beliefs through somatics, mindset, and spirituality, create 7-figure offers, and build an online coaching business with clarity and alignment.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Speaker: [00:00:00] Hey, want a cheat sheet for podcasting, both the tactical and the mindset components? Let me tell you the top lessons I have learned with nearly 100 episodes of podcasting.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Uncommon Way business and life coaching podcast. The podcast that helps women entrepreneurs get clear on signature offers and strategies that sell themselves so you can lean back and stop the hustle. You will learn to maximize your mindset, messaging, and strategy, and step into the uncommonly successful business and life you are creating.
Here's your host,
Speaker: Welcome back to the Uncommon Way, I am [00:01:00] so glad you're here with me again. We are celebrating our hundredth episode next week! Party of one! In my closet! But, I can feel you all celebrating with me. And I have decided to create this mini series to celebrate, and so what we'll be doing in this episode, I will tell you my top tactical tips for the podcast.
But in the next one, I'm going to tell you how I've changed over a hundred episodes, and we'll break down exactly what was going on, like from episode X to episode Y, here's what was happening, and Here were the seeds that were being planted, for then these over here, this is why they sound a little different, and I think that'll be a really fun way to commemorate this time as well.
Now technically, we're actually at episode 100, because I did have a trailer, and then there was another little time where I just very quickly hopped on to give a [00:02:00] little teaser and update, but the way the numbers work out, this is 99, and the next one is 100. So in this particular episode You will get my top tactical tip for making sure that people stick around and keep listening to your podcast, which I have learned is the name of the game, and I'll be telling you why that is.
You'll also get the number one mindset block that I see holding so many women entrepreneurs back from really creating the kind of consistency over the years. That I've been able to do now, or even that keeps them from even undertaking, even trying to do a project of this sort. And then for those of you who are interested, we'll sprinkle in a little woo, and I'll be telling you why this is such an important medium energetically.
All right, [00:03:00] let's get tactical. So at the beginning of this year, I started working with these crack podcast consultants from whom I've learned so much. I've talked about them before. And what I learned was that if your podcast is not really growing like you would like it to, it's not actually a visibility problem.
Most of us would tend to think, Oh, I need to get more people to see this on social media. I have to better entice people to go listen to the podcast if they're in a Facebook group or something. But actually, it's not a visibility problem, it's a retention problem. What it means is that people are dropping off.
They come for a while, but then they don't stick around and keep coming back to listen and listen again. People are always coming into your universe and making their way to your podcast. And so you should see commensurate growth over time. That reframe helped me so much, and I'm going to link to their info in case [00:04:00] you would like a podcast consultant to help you with your show as well.
Or even if you're getting started and you just want to do it right, which you're definitely my kind of girl. But I'll give you some of my favorite key takeaways, and then of course I will link to their podcast so you can go learn more. Now just like any other place in marketing, you need a strong attention getting opener.
Whether it's a subject line in your email, whether it's the, you know, Hero title on your homepage. These days we have to capture people quickly. Now that's something I've been focusing on since the beginning. But you know what I'd do after that? I would warm up to people and I'd start telling them about everything that was going on in my life.
As if I were seeing an old friend or even a best client and I kind of wanted to catch them up on what had happened since we last saw each other. Now obviously when you're sitting in a closet like I am talking to the void, you don't have [00:05:00] somebody that can come back to you and tell you what's going on with them too.
But for a lot of women, including myself, sharing is bonding. And so that's how I would start out. And to be honest, that is how I heard so many podcasts starting out. The truth is, there used to be a lot fewer podcasts. And people could get away with a lot more. The medium was new, there was less competition, and people could ramble on and just expect that their listeners were going to stay there until they got to the meat of the episode.
So if you hop back and listen to one of my early episodes, you'll hear this difference. But now, you'll hear me always making sure, right at the very beginning, to give you three direct takeaways. About big wins, big benefits that you will get if you listen through the episode. Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your [00:06:00] people, your best way of doing business and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator.
I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this. Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn. From Facebook ads to manifestation, just go to the uncommon way. com slash schedule and set up a time to talk I can't wait to be your coach I've also learned how helpful it is to keep things easily digestible A lot of us are listening to podcasts when we're out and about moving around We don't necessarily have a pen and paper there to take down notes.
What we're looking for is what is my next step? Or what is the way I need to think about this problem? What's the thing I need to be focusing on right now? And then in order to keep people engaged and coming back, you want to let them know what's coming down the [00:07:00] pipeline, what they can look forward to and why that's important in a subsequent episode.
And, past episodes that they may not even know about that will really help them. So they get used to jumping around in your timeline and they realize how much is there for them. So again, you need your hooks, your teasers, make it easily digestible, and then do a lot of cross referencing and foreshadowing.
And I hope it goes without saying that the content needs to be really good as well. Like my consultants say. Everything that you think about, oh, I want my podcast, I want to feel really like I'm talking to a real person, and I want to be giving really high value, and I want to XYZ, they're like, yeah, that's the baseline.
Of course you have to be doing that. But what else really separates us and sets us apart, which, of course, is so near and dear? To the heart of the uncommon way, but [00:08:00] sometimes that can bite us on the tushy because let's talk about mindset here. From my point of view, the only thing that holds you back from consistency, even consistency over years, I have not missed a podcast episode for a single week.
Well, to be honest, sometimes I have repurposed episodes, but I've never not put something out. And you know what holds us back? The have dos. I talk about this a lot because those have dos, they show up everywhere. A podcast has to be like this. I have to do that. Now whether those are your expectations or the expectations of others that you've either inherited or absorbed, those are how we make ourselves miserable in business and life.
We have to throw away the have tos, and I get it. It's hard, especially as women who are high [00:09:00] performers. We're thinking things like, anything he can do, I have to be able to do backwards in heels. It has to be that much better. Or, I need to be giving freely. That's what makes me a good woman. Is to help others.
Seriously, when I look back in hindsight now, I can see that my early episodes, they're basically masterclasses. I can see subconsciously, I was thinking I had to give all of the information on every topic. And it, sometimes it was a have to, but other times it was just my desire to not leave anything out.
Like, it wasn't really complete unless I'd told you all the different possibilities and all the different kinds of things that were important to that or that you could actually do. But I'm thinking about it now, and I'm just imagining a client comes to me with a certain topic or question. If I'd responded in that way, no one gets anything done.
How do you prioritize [00:10:00] those things? I can only take in so much information at a time. How is that telling me what to actually do right now to focus on to solve this? But I mean, I still get the thoughts. Full transparency. Of course I do. I'm human. And conditioned. As a woman. But really, it's about how do you react to them?
Like right now. Today, as a matter of fact. I was gone last week for my mastermind in Austin, so I was not working, came back, it's a holiday weekend, so my son was off on Monday, and we're preparing for our move, because this weekend we'll be out of state again for my husband's retirement ceremony. And the movers come on Monday, meaning these couple days right now are when we have to get the things prepared.
And obviously I have a lot of catch up with work. So once again, I see that little siren voice saying to me, well, maybe we'll just miss one episode. [00:11:00] Don't you deserve to miss an episode after a hundred episodes? Won't it be better quality for them if you just wait? Or once that gets shot down, the frog jumps to the next lily pad and it's like Okay, well if we're going to do this then, we need to be staying up late, we need to spend all the time we need to produce a really high quality product, or there's another voice sometimes that says, I just don't have the time, I'm not even going to look at it, like it's just impossible.
But I remember specifically the first time that came up and I had the conversation with myself and I realized. Was I really saying that I didn't have even 10 minutes to sit down and talk to someone that I really enjoy and trust about a topic that's interesting to them? Come on. Of course I have 10 minutes.
And so really, what's getting in the way are just my thoughts about how it [00:12:00] has to be. And maybe even a baseline thought that it's not good enough unless X, Y, Z. Instead of what I have to say right now is good enough and it's a liquid gold for the person that needs to hear it. What if we really just believed and grounded into the fact that everything that we have to say, from a place of grounded intention of course, not when we're just spouting whatever off, but if we just take a few minutes to center, ground, collect thoughts, speak, that's enough.
And that it's more than enough. What if your 70 percent is someone else's 110%? One of my mentors, Brooke Castillo, says, B minus work changes lives. Because you're actually getting your work out there. Whereas if you're always trying to be at an A or an A you'll produce so much less. And it's such a disservice.
Now, full [00:13:00] transparency, I don't usually just sit down and talk for 10 minutes. But when I need to, I have. Usually I spend a full day, so for me that's like 5 or 6 hours. And I do find it more comfortable to script everything out. I'm not doing it right now, but that's my happy place. But I know a lot of people that just sit down with an outline and go for it.
I know people that spend more time than me podcasting, and people that spend less time than me podcasting. You get to make it however you want it to be, your uncommon way. But you're never even going to get there if you're not detoxing those thoughts that are keeping you in that pattern in the first place that isn't serving you.
Now I have an episode called The Thought Cleanse that we're going to link to, and there's a PDF and a seven day course that you can sign up for as well if you want to go deeper into these things. But sometimes it's as simple as sitting down and [00:14:00] thinking. What would I have to believe if I believed it was fully okay for me to just press record right now?
It's a fun thought, right? Or a fun question. Oh, and quick addition about the time that I spend on the podcast. I do not do any editing. I do have a team for that. And as you're thinking about that for yourself, you just want to examine your thoughts, right? Are you holding back from sharing because you say you can't afford a team and you want everything to be so super perfect and high production that you're not even allowing You, whatever you have to say now to actually help people now, and you're more focused on how your ego will feel.
Or if you're further along in your business, maybe you could afford it, but you're not because you just hate to spend money and you don't really value your genius enough. So you're just spending cognitive energy and time on any old thing rather than truly being in the zone. Both of those things will hold you [00:15:00] back.
Both are relevant to different stages of business. Alright, let's sprinkle in some woo. When it comes down to it, podcasting is about frequency transfer. And that's kind of a woo way to say that people can pick up on so much more from you through your voice and the way you talk and the things you say than the actual words that you're saying.
You're really just getting content out there and not letting perfectionism stop you. Because you can know that even if you have a topic where maybe you didn't shine on that day, maybe you think back and you're like, Oh, I forgot to say this thing or I wish now that I'd said it in this way. What underlies all of that is your voice, is your frequency.
I'll give you an example. So many people will come to me and they'll say, I wanted to talk to you because of this calm certainty you have and I feel like I [00:16:00] need more of that in my life. Or, I just really enjoy your laid back confidence. Now, I never do episodes on creating confidence, really, or how to show up with calm certainty.
And yet that gets transmitted. People can pick up on it just because of the way I talk. The throat chakra is what separates kind of the abstract realm from the physical realm. In our body, and so it's very important for manifestation, speaking it out. When you use your voice to clarify your thoughts and inspiration, it sets wheels in motion.
When I say to you, we are women choosing to do business differently, we are choosing to live differently and create our own uncommon way and care about different markers and KPIs than just wealth. That's an act of manifestation that I'm speaking out into the universe. You're benefiting from [00:17:00] it and hopefully lending your energy to it.
And we're creating amplification, which then turns into movement and decisions here in the 3D world. And so, this medium, I believe, and video, of course, too, is just so freaking powerful and protective, honestly. It's a yet another level of drawing your right people to you and signaling to others that this is not the right place for them.
So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the how What you say is even more important than the what you say. And so you can really lean back and step into flow. Because when you're in alignment, you are already doing your right work. You're already focusing on the information that you have coming into you that you then want to share with others, [00:18:00] and or the inspiration that's generated from within you that you want to share with others.
Good content, of the kind that you could print out in a transcript and just read dispassionately and agree this is good content if there were some arbiter of that, that will speak to people on a logical level. Which is important, yes, science shows us again and again that decisions really get made on an emotional level.
And through voice you have the opportunity to communicate with people in one of the most effective ways that you could ever reach them. And that is what elicits true change. And really helps the people that you want to help. All right, my friend, that is it for the day. I hope you have a wonderful week.
I'll see you back here for episode 100. And remember, you know who you are, and each day you're stepping further into what you're here to create.[00:19:00]
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us here at the Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit theuncommonway. com. See you next time.
