All right. Episode 510, our first episode of 2021. Yay. We’re here. We’re back from holiday break. We took a little hiatus last week. It’s time. It’s time to record. I want to talk today about questions. We talked a lot about questions in December. The last few episodes, we go back to them mostly because I answered some really common questions I get that I don’t think are the most effective questions for podcasters to get results. And so I wanted to give you three questions that are going to generate actual revenue for you from your podcast. So often I get looped into these conversations, and people just aren’t sure their podcast is working. And a lot of that’s because they don’t really have a clear intention for what their podcast is supposed to be doing.
I think if you are a brand-led podcast, meaning your podcast is put out and sponsored by your business and its purpose is to nurture leads and move them into a sales cycle. Whether that’s clicking to buy a thing, a program or whatever, maybe that’s booking a sales conversation with you because you have a higher touch sales process. That’s certainly our case. Very little of the show is formatted to get you to go buy something without talking to me just because there’s not a lot for you to buy without talking to someone on my team first. Whatever the case may be, but you need to be really clear about what that is. You need to be really, really clear about what that goal for your show is. And so I want to be abundantly forthcoming with this idea that it’s okay for that goal and quite frankly, it should be to generate these conversations or to generate those sales. And I think the answer to these questions, the questions I’m going to give you today is that bridge or that link.
And so I want to dig into this because I want you to be really shifting the way you look at your content creation as you move into the rest of the year. And here’s the deal. These questions can be applied to literally everything. Blog posts, podcasts, videos, social content, TikToks, Instagram stories, Instagram videos, LinkedIn articles, live video, or prerecorded, your email marketing, everything. And so make note of these and really use them as a filter when you’re in creation mode of whatever you’re going to create this month and really this quarter and this year and forever and ever, amen. First and foremost, and this one’s not going to shock you because it’s a question we start with a lot.
Who’s listening?
And I really encourage you to look at this from pros perspectives. Both who do you need listening and who is currently listening? I like to start with, who do I currently have in the room? Who’s currently taking action? When I get on sales conversations or people book one-on-one calls with me and we get onto their consulting hours, whatever it is, I want to know if they listen to the podcast. I’ll ask them, “Hey, how’d you hear about me? Oh, awesome. Do you ever listen to the podcast?” That can be a great source to start, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I ask them. If you don’t know the answer to who’s listening right now, get into your DMs, get in your inbox. Look for those responses that you’ve got from promoting your content. Start there. Go to your existing clients and ask them, “Hey, do you listen to the podcast?” Find out, and then compare that to who you want listening to the podcast.
If your DMs and your inbox are filled with, Oh my God, I love the show. But you go to talk to every single one of your clients who were like, “No, I’ve never listened to your show.” Then there might be a disconnect with the people who are actually working with you and the content you’re providing. Then we need to start looking at, how do we close that gap? How do we bridge that gap? But this is critical because right now you’re spending a ton of time, energy, and very potentially money funneling into a group that are not your clients. Who do you want listening? Now, create content for them. And that’s really where we get into the second question.
We talked about the who, and now let’s talk about the what.
Most often when I do use three questions, it’s great. What are you selling them? But here, I want to take a different approach to that question. I want you to think about what they need to know before they buy from you. What needs to be true for your podcast listeners? What needs to be true for your clients so that they know you are the right next step for them? What do they need to believe to help them identify that your solution is the solution? I am obsessed with this question right now because it is providing me a lot of clarity.
I spent much of last year talking about launching a podcast, things you need to know before you get started, answering questions that are really geared more towards people who haven’t been podcasting long. But when I looked at who our clients were, when I looked at who I was getting into sales conversations with, most of them have already been producing and releasing podcast content for a year-plus. What they needed to know to figure out that we were the right fit, that this was the right solution that UM was the agency that could help them get a handle on their podcast to-dos was different than what I was actually sharing.
Now, here and there I shared some of it. Certainly several of them knew me or found me via referral. And so they got that information other ways, but there was a disconnect between who I wanted listening and what they needed to know, and what they needed to believe before they hired us and who was actually being spoken to. And that difference is a leak. It’s your boat taken on water. And so I made a shift. I went, oh, duh, we can fix that. We tweaked the positioning of the content even more than the actual meat of the content to making sure we’re reaching out to the right people. We make sure I’m getting interviewed on the right podcasts and I’m spending time in the right groups, mounted all the pieces. And so really spend some time with this question.
What do they need to know?
I’m actually running this question through a lot of things. When I go to write emails, what do they need to know to take the action? I want them to take in this email? Whether it’s to click through to a podcast, whether it’s to click through to a service offering, whether it’s to reply. When we’re creating social content, as I looked at where I’m spending time and where I’m positioning our agency and our team, I’m actually even looking at this work so I’m going to be doing some hiring. In this first quarter of the year, we’re going to be bringing on a new production assistant, a new show notes writer, and a new podcast editor in Q1 on Uncommonly More. If you’re interested in any of those positions, reach out. But I’m thinking about, what do they need to know before they can apply for this job? What do they need to know before they look to become a part of this team? And that’s how we’re writing job descriptions. Really think about this episode or this information of this episode. Really think about this question at every step.
Certainly as I sat down and I outlined to these episodes for this unofficial podcasting foundations conversation, what do they need to know to get more sales from their podcast? Well, they need to do A, B and C. Well, cool. And those are the questions they need to ask themselves, and those are the questions I’m sharing today. All right? What do they need to know before they hire you? The third thing, and this is a bit less 10,000 square or 10,000 foot view. This is a bit less high level. This is really more tactical.
How are you making the asks?
I want you to really think about how currently you’re moving people from your podcast to something else. Where are you putting your promotions? I think it’s really easy and I’ve been as guilty as this as anybody in the world. It’s really easy to go, I have to load them up with 20 minutes of value. And then I can briefly go on, “By the way, if you want to do this, there’s that.” Now I’m shifting that. We’re seeing a lot of success with this with our clients. We’ve had a lot of successful clients running mid roles, almost a traditional podcast commercial kind of setup. We had a ton of success with that with clients in 2020, especially for programs and things like that. And then they remind them in the outro, “Hey, don’t forget if you want to do blah, blah, blah. Here’s how you do that.” We’ve had a lot of success with clients in the last two quarters, really putting that promotion upfront at the top of the episode while they’re still in there settling in. Very potentially they still have the screen open or their phone in their hand and telling them to do something then, and then reminding them at the end of the episode.
And for me, it can’t just be one thing. You’ll notice that there hasn’t been a hard promo for anything in this episode because A) it’s not really the season we’re in this week. It’ll be different next week, but this is the first week back. My team has been back in the office two days. Today is day two. It’s January 5th. The day this episode goes live. I wanted this episode to be a little more subtle, and so you’ll notice I mentioned how our agency works. Results we’ve gotten with different tactics throughout this episode. Reminding you that my team and I do this professionally, establishing trust and expertise, and really modeling for you one of the ways that you can be using the podcast episodes to move people into something else. Because I promise someone listening to this episode will email me and go, “Hey, I know you were talking about such and such in the episode. Can you do that for us? What do you recommend here?”
I will at some point, have someone who gets on a one-on-one call with me and mentioned some part of this episode, because that’s the kind of episode we’ve structured here, because I’ve talked about how we work with clients throughout the actual value. Don’t hide that this is an asset to move them from problem to solution. That is your whole job. I’ve said this so many times. It’s one of those if I had a dollar, I’d be a millionaire kind of things. But I say it so frequently because it’s so important. Our whole job is to move people from problem to solution. They have a problem before they meet you. Their solution actually happens some, them buying from you, them hiring you. It’s somewhere in the middle of this journey.
You’ve got to get them to the point where they’re ready to go, “Yes, I will invest with you to solve this problem.” And then the paid part of that work and moving them to solution starts. But them hiring you is not the beginning of moving them from problem to solution. Your nurture content is. But your nurture content has to give them the opportunity to take the next step to invest to find their solutions. And if you don’t make the ask, if you’re not telling them in lots of different ways throughout lots of different pieces of content how to make that next step, they’re never going to get to the solution. And you’re going to have a real hard time generating consistent revenue from your show or from anything. And so really look at and be honest with yourself.
It’s a great thing to do with a coach or a business bestie who occasionally or regularly consumes your content or keeps an eye on your stuff and say, “Hey, I want to talk through how I’m making the ask in my content, how I’m making the ask in my social, how I’m making the ask in my email, how I’m making the ask in a speaking engagement, how I’m making the ask in a networking conversation.” Because you likely think you’re making much stronger asks than you actually are. And in many cases, and I’ve had these calls with clients many times. You think you’re making a really strong, very almost borderline obnoxious ask. And the listener doesn’t actually know they were asked a question. They don’t know they’ve been called to action because it really wasn’t clear because they’re not paying attention to you with the same lens that you are paying attention to you. All right?
Sit down and be really honest with yourself. How are you making asks? How frequently are you giving them a next step that is a sales pitch, a call to action to buy or book? How are you doing that? How frequently are you doing that? Where in your show are you doing it? All right? That’s it. Those are the three questions that are going to … Answering those, sitting down, processing through that. Those answers are going to help you figure out the changes that need to be made to get better results from your show. Because when you sit down and you realize who you want listening isn’t listening yet. Cool. How do we get who we want listening?
Now that becomes the actionable question. What do I need them to know before they buy from me? Cool. There’s your next 12 months of content. How am I making the ask? I’m willing to bet that it’s probably not enough or not in the right place. Tweak that. Play with that. All right? That’s it. That’s the episode for today. How was that for an outro. That’s it. Goodbye.
I would love to hear the answers to some of these questions for you. If you’re on the email list, which you should be, hit reply to the email that pointed you to this direction, that reminded you there was an episode today. And let me know. Otherwise, the DM me on Instagram something. I want to hear from you. Head over to the website UncommonlyMore.com/contact. Reach out. I want to hear how you’re taking action on answering these questions and what the answers to these questions are pointing you to. All right? I will see you next week. We’ve got a ton of really good episodes coming this month because there’s just some really cool stuff happening. Next week is going to be all about pod fade. We’re going to talk a little bit about avoiding it because it happens to shows of all ages. All right? I’ll see you next week. Have a good one.
