Podcasting for Profit with David Perez

David Perez, a podcast producer who helps health and wellness podcasters grow their audience, expand their presence, and find their voice, is our guest today. He’s also the host of the Audience Coach podcast, which gives him a platform to share his knowledge with his listeners.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Email | RSS

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

• Why podcasting is a long-term strategy game.
• How podcasting can make you a better business owner.
• Ways that a podcast facilitates a better connection with your audience.
• The realities of podcasting, especially in the beginning.
• How some podcasts can help you upgrade your listening and interviewing skills.
• Insight into David’s experiences in starting a podcast.
• Why podcasters need to focus on making themselves more human.
• Tips for getting the conversation to flow.
• Top mistakes podcasters make and how to do better.
• The importance of audio quality in podcasting.
• Why it takes time to reap the benefits of podcasting.
• How often you should be putting out new episodes.
• A few ways you can increase your audience.
• Why podcast hosts should also be podcast guests.
• The best way to decide on your podcast topic.
• David’s favorite aspects of podcasting.
• Why podcasting is great for introverts.

Connect with David

David’s email: david (at) audiencecoach.com

Audience Coach Website: https://audiencecoach.com/

TRANSCRIPT

Quick Links:

• Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community
• Intuitive Business Coaching
• The Live. Love. Engage. Book
• Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you’re hearing on Live Love Engage? Make sure you subscribe and leave a 5 STAR – Review at Apple Podcasts – Click here to review, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – such as Spotify, Pandora and iHeart Radio. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:02] I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of the Love Method and author of the number one Amazon Best Seller, Live Love Engage – How to Stop Doubting Yourself and start being yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully. Love deeply and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence and income. Welcome to live love. Engage.

[00:00:37] Namaste and welcome to live love engage I am your host, Gloria Grace Rand, and today I’ve got my guest on the show who is an expert at what we are actually doing here today, which is podcast. So I’m going to tell you a little bit more about him in a second. But first, I want to welcome David Perez all the way from Columbia today. So welcome, David.

[00:01:01] Thank you very much for having me, Gloria.

[00:01:04] Yeah, I’m delighted to talk with you. So I’m going to tell you why this guy is an expert. He is a podcast producer who actually helps health and wellness coaches build their audiences, grow their online presence and find their voice through podcasts. And he’s also, of course, a podcast host himself for a show called Audience Coach, which is focused on helping coaches start and run their own shows. And he has a company, podcasters through the production and release of over a thousand podcast episodes and featured a ton of publications which I’ll have a lot of the stuff in the show notes for you, but essentially he really helps people develop podcast content and devise it and come up with strategies to help business owners. So I thought where we’d start is not only why someone should start a podcast, but. Is it too late to start a podcast because it seems like it’s got a chance of being oversaturated out that oversaturated if I can speak properly today? So is it number one? Is it? Is it still a good time to start a podcast? And then why should a small business owner do it?

[00:02:25] Ok. So is it too late to start a podcast? I think. I mean, absolutely. It’s not too late. It will be the same question. Is it too late to start a blog or is it too late to start a YouTube channel? I think every single channel, no matter what channel you pick, is going to be saturated. Social media, blogs, podcasting, whatever you do, there’s always going to be saturation. That’s why niching down is important. So it’s not. It’s not about being late, it’s about just picking a niche and being consistent. A lot of podcasts, like so many podcasts, do not go beyond their tenth episode. So at the end, yeah, I mean, it’s just us. Duopolies, who is a content marketer, says it’s a war of attrition like podcasting. Just like any other kind of content. Strategy for a business is a long term game, so you need to plan for the long term. And there are always going to be new things that are going to be always like other shows. There’s going to be a lot of competition, but is a matter of you finding your space, your spot in the in the in your niche, your market in your industry?

[00:03:38] Hmm. Awesome. So how does it benefit small business owners in particular? Why should they consider starting a podcast?

[00:03:45] Well, there are so many reasons. There are so many reasons I can list two or three of them. First of all, you’re going to be able to build yourself an image as an expert in your area because you’re going to be sharing information that is just not going to be just information that is going to be out there, but many times is going to be practical advice that the listeners can apply themselves into their lives into their like, daily, daily, daily lives. For example, if the podcast is about weight loss, so they’re going to be able to take your knowledge, apply that into their lives and see if it works, if it resonates with them. And then that will give you the image of an authority of an expert in the area and potentially give you leads not just leads, but qualified leads. Because these people already know you, they already trust you, they already know what you have to offer and they know if it works for them. Hmm. So that’s going to be very, very important. There are other sites like beyond just the listeners side, o your site, for example. It’s a very nice opportunity to connect with other people in your industry to network because running a podcast is having conversations with people like you and I are having a conversation right now. I’m sure you’ve had a lot of guests before me.

[00:05:03] You’re going to have a lot of more guests after me and from all of them, you’re going to be learning new stuff. You’re going to be improving your own practice and you’re going to be connecting with other experts in other areas. So any time you need to maybe face a challenge or maybe you need to do a collaboration with somebody, you already have that network there and you can support each other. And a third point, which is which I think is connected to the second one, which is very important. You’re going to be able to self reflect on your practice. Podcasts are very like having conversations through a podcast is a very nice way of getting out of the echo chamber. Yeah, because like sometimes we have conceptions about our practice, about or knowledge about or approach. But then we have a conversation with other person and we think, Oh my God, OK, this is a new approach. I have never thought of this, even if it’s something I had known for a while. It’s a completely new approach to it. So like, it’s a very nice way to reevaluate the way you process things, the way you approach things and the way you do things in your practice. So I think in every single aspect of your business, internal and external is a positive contribution.

[00:06:11] Absolutely. You know, and it’s I love that last point because I was just interviewing someone yesterday who we are in alignment in how we work with people. But she comes at it from a different way and just really made me aware of something in my own personal life that was just so mind blowing, frankly, and in and so beneficial to me. And we also connected afterwards because she had written a book. I’ve written a book, so we exchanged books. So, you know, so now we can kind of continue developing that relationship. So I love I love all those reasons. It’s definitely some of the reasons that I even started this podcast. Mm hmm. How you talked a little bit about, you know, being able to listen to the audience, I think I think you said, but how does a podcast actually help you to really engage authentic? Because that’s part of what my live loving age title is about, it’s about living fully, loving deeply and engaging authentically. So how does that help you engage with with your audience?

[00:07:16] Okay. It will depend a lot on your own personality and what you consider to be authentic. Some people express themselves better on social media. Some people express themselves better on video or on written language or in audio. So, for example, in my case, it’s not so easy for me just to pop up on like social media or Instagram Reels. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs who who do these dances and these choreographies. I mean, it’s fine. It’s what works for them, but it’s not what works for me. So first of all, you need to identify if the format is something that resonates and connects with who you are in how you like to express yourself. This is the case. The other thing is it takes practice, Gloria. Like, if it’s the first time you’re going to run a podcast show is not going to be natural the first episode. Even my own episodes are like, we’re robotic and maybe a little bit dull. I was like tense. I was very tense. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But as you do it more and more, you get accustomed to talking into the mic. It becomes so natural. So you don’t prepare a script. You just create some ideas. The bullet points and it flows. It absolutely flows. And the nice thing about podcasting is that it’s so intimate, it’s dialogue. Even like if the person listening is not actively speaking with you, it’s still a dialogue. What I see people react to usually is like they say, I listen to the show and I feel like I am just there. I am part of the conversation. I am sitting in the room speaking to these people, which is something for example, video doesn’t have, even though video is supposed to have a lot more engagement. The visuals are usually a distraction because if you’re watching a video on their cell phone, you go, Oh, you get all these notifications, all these things, because that’s how cell phones are designed. Whereas with a podcast, you can read yourself, you can express yourself, and you can connect with other people for who you are. No distractions.

[00:09:14] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. In fact, I know sometimes you still you watch videos and and actually, I saw I was watching a training the other day where I think she had like two different. She had like a camera and her phone or and her laptop going, but she was looking over here, you know, instead of looking at me and it’s like. So that that can be distracting. And so it is nice to have sometimes just to be able to listen because that way you get to engage your imagination and you can you can really connect with someone that way. And yes, could I ask you something else? And now I went out of my head, but it’ll come back. Oh, I know, huh? Yeah. One of the things I find, and maybe you can talk about this as well is I found that it if you are especially doing an interview style of a podcast that it can help you to, hopefully you learn to get better at interviewing. Because I know when I first started, I wasn’t very good and I really have found in doing this now for over a year, almost a year and a half that I do attempt to make a better job of listening to the guest and really being present with them and then asking a question as opposed to just saying, Oh, you know, concentrating on what am I going to ask next? What am I going to say? So can you talk about that a little bit? Have you found that even in your, you know how you’ve been doing a podcast at all?

[00:10:40] So like the question is like, what is the process like to improve your skills in terms of running interviews? Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:48] Have you found that? Have you found that? Especially because we talked about you talked about it a minute ago about how it can be a little rough in the beginning, even just talking yourself. So have you found OK?

[00:11:00] Yes, I’ve learned that at my first interviews were not very nice because as you mentioned, I was just concerned about getting the going through the questions and getting the answers. Yeah, just like a questionnaire. And I think it’s not that nice because you are not establishing that rapport with the person you’re talking to. What you want to build eventually is a conversation, and I think that’s the key to it. The interview is not just like you ask me questions. The other person responding is just you establishing a conversation? And those questions are just like a guideline, like an outline for the whole. It holds the frame so you don’t go off topic. But those those questions are just a reference for you to have a conversation. Yeah. And I think it’s just like everything in human interactions with some people. You connect like very easily and the conversation flows you, you crack jokes and you have fun and like you go a little bit personal with some other people like like, maybe they are not so open. There is no great chemistry. So maybe you go like.

[00:12:05] Okay, question, ask your question, answer dynamics. It depends, it depends on so many factors like personalities and also like what kind of day that person is having babies they have. They’ve had a rough day, a rough week. They’re stressed. We don’t know. But in the end, I think that the bottom of it is of this is make it very human, like, do not focus on just getting the information that through the questions, but building that rapport like talking to the person caring about what the person is saying. Establishing that interaction and and then the conversation will flow. That’s why and I think we did this right before we started recording. I always ask a few personal questions Where are you based? What’s the weather like over there? If maybe there is a cat around? I know cats love to be around when people are recording podcasts and they just interrupt their freaking love it. So like that builds a rapport like first, the basis of it all is the human interaction, the human rapport The questions come after.

[00:13:08] Hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And and I boy, Oh boy, I’m having I’m really, you know what? I’m I think I’m just so focused on listening to you today. I’m like, totally not even like losing track of what I want to talk about because I love this topic. But oh, I know what I wanted it. I wanted to ask you back, and I think I probably just demonstrated one of them. Have you found that there are maybe some top mistakes that people make when they start, even when they start a podcast or even as they’re going through it? Have you found some typical things that people mess up with?

[00:13:47] Yes. Yeah. There are several mistakes I’ve seen in podcasts. One of them is in terms of content, they are too broad or too vague in terms of what they cover. A podcast is not just you’re recording a random conversation between two people like a podcast. Is you recording a conversation around a very specific topic aimed at helping the listener tackle a challenge or achieve an objective? So I’ve seen sometimes like podcast episodes that cover a lot of topics, but they don’t go very deep into any of these topics, like there is nothing we learn or like, nothing we can take. There are very few takeaways. So like focusing the the the general topic or the topic of the show and then focusing the topics of each of the episodes is very important. If you go very broad, like you’re going to be talking about a lot of things, but not contributing to to the audience. That’s one thing. The other thing is probably not taking care of your audio quality. A lot of like I listen to podcasts like, it’s very hard to make up what they’re saying because they’re recording spaces very echoey. Or maybe the microphone is not working properly so that that’s something you need to pay attention to.

[00:15:07] It’s a technical thing, but it’s important. I always advise people to buy a microphone. You don’t have to break the bank, just go by. There are some hundred dollar microphones that work well, and they will say, if you’re like for ten years, you know they you can use them for webinars or for online summit and all these things. So like, they are multipurpose, actually. And I think the other thing is think in short term, that’s quite common, like, oh, it doesn’t work like Facebook ads or like any ad campaign, like you’re not going to get results after two weeks of running the show. This is a long term game, and you’re not look like looking to a podcast. Looking at our podcast as a transaction is not the right way to look at it. A podcast is a way to building relationships with other people in the industry and with your audience. And that’s going to take weeks, months, even years. So you’re not going to get results in sales and leads after four weeks. It takes time because it’s a matter of listening to your audience, knowing what they need and building relationships.

[00:16:10] Yeah, that’s for sure. It definitely does take time. And I know when I first started mine, it was like, Oh, you know, kind of sad song downloads, but then it just did. Yeah, but it started picking up. And and I think that is important that to people to remember that it is a long game that you can’t just do ten episodes. I think, you know, people giving up after ten episodes just seems totally ludicrous to me because if you’re going to go to all the trouble of starting it, you know, give it a fair chance. Yeah. I’m going to actually I’m going to ask you this question, because this was when I first I actually this is my second iteration of a podcast. I, because I did want about five years ago that was more focused on really on online marketing, and I had taken a course on how to do a podcast. And he recommended that, you know, if at all possible, to do as many episodes as you can. Because the more episodes you put out there, then you’ve got the better chance of being able to have it found. Of course, number one, and that you’ve got that chance of building an audience. But I so I started out doing five days a week and then life got in the way as it often does happen. And but I also, I think, just really burnt myself out doing it and often. So this time around, I vowed to at least do one episode a week. And then if I can do more than that, great. So what do you recommend, especially for someone just starting out and they’re going to do a podcast? What is there like a sweet spot and how many episodes you should try to do? What’s your thought on that?

[00:17:50] Yeah, I think you have to start slow and you have to treat yourself nicely, because if you rush to publish like five episodes a week, you’re going to burn out. And that’s the idea. I think in general, the sweet spot for new and for new shows and the shows that have been running for longer, it’s one one episode a week, at least. Like that’s the ideal. Like maybe to ISO twice a month is harder to build engagement. So I think once a week is just great depending on the length of your content. If you have, like shorter of the content, like maybe 10 minute episodes, right? So you can just release two a week. But I think once a week will be just perfect. Another recommendation because as you mentioned, life gets in the way like, I’m a dad. So like, sometimes I got to go pick up my kids at school or I got to go to meetings or I don’t know, like the other day, my my daughter’s dog got sick, so I had to take all these things and you cannot sit down and record because like, there is life happening.

[00:18:55] So what I recommend is always a batch record, like if you have the chance to record like two or three episodes in a week, four episodes in a week, you are going to have a month’s worth of content. So that’s very important. That’s that’s one thing Gloria is once a week is going to be fine. If you’re comfortable whilst you’re comfortable, try twice a week. You can always go back to once a week, if that’s if that’s comfortable to you. And also try to balance the time because it’s not just the time you spend on recording. It’s not just a matter of recording. You can put the best content out there, but if nobody sees it, if nobody listens to it, it’s not going to create an impact. So focus your time more on the promotion side than on the recording side, like you can record through four four episodes in a couple of hours. But then you need to spend a lot of time and effort on the promotion that’s there’s going to be key.

[00:19:47] Yeah. Well, talk a little bit more about that because I think that is maybe something that people don’t often realize is is the important part of it because it isn’t just enough. You can’t just, you know, it’s not like the Field of Dreams movie, you know, build it and they will come. You’ve got to be able to get people to come. So what are some ways that you can increase your chances of getting people to listen?

[00:20:11] Ok. First of all, you need to make sure your content is relevant to the audience, right? Otherwise there is going to go no going to be any engagement is not what you think they need or what you think they want. You’ve got to go there in research while they actually need it. Want, for example, one thing I do is I find I look for influencers in the industry and I see particular posts that are related to what I do, and I go through the comments and I extract all these information. I see what challenges they have. What problems are having. What complaints. What objectives. What achievements they have. So I’m getting the information directly from them, not what I think is what. So that is going to make the content relevant. If it’s relevant, they are going to consume it more. Now, in terms of promotion, there are several strategies you can do always. For example, social media, that is a very popular one. You can do. You can generate different kinds of of assets for social media promotion. You can generate images of videos like reaching copy. You can do that. Social media It’s tricky sometimes because of the algorithm variations. The other way for promotion, for promoting is the email newsletters. I think the email lists are a key. They are paramount. They are very important. In another one, which is the one we are focusing more on, is going on other people’s platforms and sharing value with their audiences. I think because in the end, you want to build that report and offer and help people. I mean, a podcast is not just putting information, is putting information out there to help people and to add value to their lives, to their businesses. So getting other people’s platforms, for example, other people, podcasts or peoples, live streams or Instagram lives. So you can leverage their audience while you provide value?

[00:22:06] Absolutely. Yeah, that’s that’s so important. And that’s actually what I was doing yesterday when I mentioned earlier about this interview I was doing. I had already appeared on her podcast and now I was having her on my podcast.

[00:22:19] Yes, absolutely.

[00:22:20] Yeah, because we do have complementary audiences. And so it’s a good way to network, to connect and to be able to then share my episode with her network. I’ll share it with her episode with mine. And yeah, and hopefully we both get a win win, and I think that’s that’s important about it. I think you’ve talked about this a little bit, but maybe let’s get maybe a little bit more specific because especially I know when I first got started to, especially the last time around, I was trying to decide what to I actually want to talk about. So how, how, what are sort of the best ways to figure out what to talk about if you’re going to launch a podcast?

[00:23:05] Ok, so there are there are several strategies you can you can use for that. So I think the basis of it all to begin with is your own knowledge and skills. Because we can talk about any topic, but we need a topic that connects with all skillset so we can help people through that. So we need to identify what we can do. Like if I’m a coach or an entrepreneur, what is it that I can do? What is the value that I can offer as a coach, as a consultant, as an entrepreneur? What can I do? Ok, because like, there are some things that might be interesting, but that are at the moment that might be outside of my, of my reach. So that’s going to be one thing. The other thing is start researching to for what people are having issues with common problems, objection situation that probably if you are having like frequent conversations with potential clients, a lot of common questions are going to come up like you’re going to always have that like those same four or five questions that come over and over and over again with every single potential client.

[00:24:11] So you see, OK, these are friction points. I need to tackle this. You’re going to make a list of that. You’re going to educate your audience so they don’t have that friction point anymore. Objections, objectives they have. So you’re going to make a list of all those interactions and you’re going to start identifying patterns. If you’re having conversations with different people, you will start identifying patterns about what they need. So they’re like just from that, like from the conversations you’re getting with your with your with your clients or potential clients, you’re probably going to have like 30 or 40 topics to cover easily. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the other one is the one I mentioned is go on social media of finding influencer or a creator that covers topics in a similar area or related area to what your area of expertise belongs to. And go into comments, just going to comments, and you’re going to find a lot of people trying to to express their achievements or their concerns or their challenges and. It’s going to be very valuable information for you.

[00:25:13] Absolutely. You know, I’ve done that some, but I really I think I’m going to actually be more mindful, but really more, yeah, deliberate about it and in really researching mining that because there is gold in that stuff. Tell me a little bit about you. What is your favorite thing about podcasting? Why do you do it?

[00:25:37] Ok. There are tools like personally, there are two favorite things on the one side. I love gadgets, so I I love I. Maybe the listener can see right now, but I have a lot of gadgets right now. I have like a lot of monitors and like I have two microphones just because so I just love gadgets. I have to control myself so I don’t spend more than I should on microphones in that kind of thing. Ok. And I love connecting with with people. I love having conversations. I’m an introvert. So like if I’m in a large group, it’s going to be a little bit tough for me to interact with other people. But I don’t want conversations. I just love them. And it’s a way to interact and just to learn and to learn, not just in terms of like content, but by the like world views and approaches to like, even to the same topic, things that seem so simple. But some people have have such different topics, so like being able to have these conversations that are mind changing. Mm hmm. Yeah, amazing.

[00:26:42] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I can relate to it, for sure. In fact, last year, when the United States was going through a lot of this Black Lives Matter issue is, you know, on top of the pandemic and everything else. I was fortunate to have a couple of guests on who could really speak to that because that was what they lived every day and it was very informative for me as a white woman. For those of you who are not watching on YouTube and don’t know. So important for me to be able to have conversations with people of color. And I’ve also had people from the LGBTQ community as well, and being able to learn from other people, learn different perspectives. And and I do think it’s awesome that you also mentioned that you’re an introvert because I am very much that in certain circumstances, I can be extroverted. But basically, you know, I am that I think this is a great way for people who may feel, you know, challenged, even even challenged being seen on social media. I think you mentioned earlier before that that doing a podcast is really a great way for you to be able to have a little bit more comfort and and still be able to promote yourself. But also, if you’re doing an interview, then promote someone else’s point of view. If someone wants to get some advice from you, you know, specifically, I maybe really, really are ready to dive in because we we still didn’t even cover like there’s even a whole ‘nother side to it. Like the technical side, you’ve got all the microphones and things moving and all that. So there’s yeah, I mean, we could talk about podcasting, I think all day.

[00:28:23] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:28:25] So someone wants to to learn more from you. Where is where’s the best place that they can? How can they reach out to you?

[00:28:32] Okay. If you’re considering, like, to start a podcast or you’re running a podcast and maybe you have a lot of questions, usually the technical side or the strategy side, you can just reach out, reach out to me at David, at audience dot com. Or on social media, on Instagram. Also on Instagram, the the thing is audience coach, but it’s better if you reach out to me via email. David at Audience Coach.

[00:29:00] Ok, awesome. Well, I will make sure that I have that in the show notes as well today, but I just thank you so much because it was a pleasure talking to you and you are. I can tell a font of information about podcasting, and I didn’t even ask you, how long have you been doing? How long have you been doing a podcast?

[00:29:20] Oh, I think over four years now, I’ve been doing this. Yeah, over four years.

[00:29:25] So, yeah, you’ve been around the block a few times, so you definitely know your way around. So, yeah. So if you are listening out there, if you were an entrepreneur and business owner and you want to get started, I would definitely go ahead and reach out to reach out to David and get some help. So you can maybe avoid some of those mistakes he talked about earlier today and get started the right way and save yourself some time and stress.

[00:29:49] Yeah, save yourself some headaches.

[00:29:51] Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you again. Thank you again for being on the show today. Really appreciate it.

[00:29:57] Thank you very much, Gloria.

[00:29:58] Yeah, and thank you. Everyone out there watching on YouTube and and or listening on the podcast platform of your choice. So make sure that you if you’re not a subscriber already, I hope you will do that and leave us a rating or comment on Apple as well. And until next time. As always, I encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically. Did you know that

[00:30:24] A majority of entrepreneurs tend to discount the importance of their work and a good number feel their success is simply due to luck? I know from personal experience that self-doubt can keep you from having the kind of life and business you desire. That’s why I’ve created a free guide called Uniquely You How to Move From Self-doubt to Self-love in four simple steps to claim your free guide. Go to live love. Engage dot gift that’s live love. Engage dot G I F.T.