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83. The Podcast CEO Mindset Shift Most Hosts Never Make · Podcast Growth, Podcast SEO, and Podcast Launch Strategies for Mom Entrepreneurs | Podcasting for Moms

• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let me describe a Wednesday night for you.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's 9 15 p.m.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The kids are finally down.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're sitting at your kitchen table with your laptop open, and you're recording the episode that has to go out tomorrow morning.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a topic, sort of.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: You picked it out about 40 minutes ago because it felt relevant and you just needed something.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: You hit record, you talk for about 20 minutes, you edit out the part where someone came downstairs asking for water, you write a description, you upload it, schedule it, and you close your laptop around 11:30, feeling equal parts relieved and vaguely defeated.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then next Wednesday, you do it all over again.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to notice about that scene.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Nowhere in it did you ask the question that a CEO would ask, which is, what is this episode supposed to do for my business?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: You asked what you were going to talk about, you asked what you were going to talk about.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is a content creator question.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is a completely valid question, but it's just not the one that turns a podcast into revenue.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The mindset shift that I want to hand you today is the single biggest difference I see between the mom entrepreneurs whose podcasts make them money and the ones whose podcasts just make them exhausted.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your podcast is not just content, your podcast is a sales asset.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the second you start running it like one, everything about how you plan, record, and close an episode changes.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about it.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Podcasting for Moms, the show for moms in business ready to start, grow, and scale a podcast that turns your listeners into buyers.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenny Summenson, a podcast strategist and fellow mom entrepreneur.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the right place if you want to learn how to start and grow a podcast that attracts your ideal clients and really does the heavy lifting for you when it comes to selling your offers, all while balancing life as a busy mom.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to create a podcast that grows your income, impact, and influence?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make podcasting work for you.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because as moms, we know how to get things done.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's jump into the episode.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, hey, and welcome to Podcasting for Moms, the show for mom entrepreneurs who are using podcasting as their primary marketing channel.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenny Sunnison, a podcast strategist and producer, and every week I'm here to help you build a podcast that doesn't just sound good but actually works as a business tool.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the episode.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's talk about what I actually mean by content versus sales asset because I think this can get fuzzy fast.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Content is something that you make.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You publish it, you hope it helps somebody, and then you move on to making the next one.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Success looks like it got made.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Someone said they liked it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas a sales asset is something that you own that produces something.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: It has a job, it has an output you can point to.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Success for this looks like it did the thing it was built to do.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Same episode, same 20 minutes, but a completely different relationship to it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the part that stinks a little.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us did not choose to be content creators.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We fell into it.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you start a podcast, the only feedback loop that exists in the beginning is publishing.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did I publish an episode this week?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you build a whole system around the act of publishing, and publishing becomes the goal instead of the delivery mechanism for the goal.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to walk you through three shifts that move a show from content to asset.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I call this the listener-to-buyer bridge because that is genuinely what it is.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the structure that connects somebody pressing play for the first time to someone actually buying from you.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the first shift is that every single episode needs a job.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not a topic, but a job.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: A topic is batching your content, whereas a job is make the listener realize she's doing this the hard way and warm her up for the accelerator.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those two things might produce the exact same episode, but they will not produce the same ending, the same examples, or the same call to action.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So what are the jobs?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: There are really only a handful, and most shows need all of them in rotation.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the first job is a track.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode's job is to bring in someone brand new.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's searchable, it answers a question people are actively typing into Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever podcast player they use.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the whole and its whole purpose is discovery.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: The second job is to build trust.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode's job is to make someone go, oh, she totally gets it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: She gets me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Usually this one's more personal, has a lot more story.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not really selling anything, but it's earning the right to.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then the third job is to shift beliefs.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is the sneaky important one.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This episode's job is to move someone from one belief to another that has to be true before they'd ever buy from you.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: If your program requires someone to believe that a podcast can replace social media, you need episodes doing that work long before you open doors to that program.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the fourth job is sell.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode's job is to make an offer and make it clearly, not cheapishly, not buried at minute 19, but clearly.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's the CEO move.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you sit down to plan, you don't start with the topic.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You start by asking which of these four jobs this week needs.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then you pick a topic that can do the job.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is a five-second question that changes the trajectory of the entire episode.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be really clear here because I know that the mom brain is already spiraling.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that this is not more work.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is less.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now you're staring at a blank page every single Wednesday night, trying to summon a topic out of nowhere.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: When the episode has a job, the topic gets narrowed for you.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And constraint is a gift, and constraint is also speed.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the second pillar.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your CTA has to flow from the content.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So your call to action has to flow out of the episode, not get pasted onto the end of it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what most of us do we teach for 20 minutes on one thing, and then we get to the end of the episode and we go, okay, if you want more help, I have a program.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: The link's in the show notes.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: The link's in the show notes.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the listener who was fully with you 30 seconds ago kind of snaps out of it because that was a hard left turn.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was no bridge between what she just learned and what you just asked her to do.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the fix here is almost annoyingly simple.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Your CTA should be the natural next thing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if your episode taught her how to identify the problem, the CTA is the thing that solves that problem.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If your episode showed her what's possible, the CTA is the path to get there.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: If your episode gave her step one, the CTA is where she gets steps two through ten.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the test I use is this.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Could someone listen to your episode and then hear your call to action and think, well, obviously, if yes, then you nailed it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: If instead they think, oh, she's selling something now, that means you built a wall where you needed to build a bridge.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, I know some of you get kind of scorny here.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's a voice that says it feels salesy, it feels pushy.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: She's gonna think I only did this episode to sell her something, but can I offer you a reframe here?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you genuinely believe the thing that you sell would help her, then not telling her about it is not humility.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's just leaving her stuck to protect your own comfort.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: A CEO tells people how to get help.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is the whole job.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third pillar is your episode topics have to map to your offers.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like this is where everything begins to click into place.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So your episode topics have to map to your offers.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the audit that I run with almost every client, and I want you to do it in your head right now while I talk.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I still want you to think back to your last 10 episodes.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now think about what you actually sell.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: How many of those 10 episodes connect to something that you sell?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: For most people, the honest answer is maybe two or three, and they're not even the good ones.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're the accidental ones.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: That means that 70% of her show was doing the work for a business you don't have.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: You were teaching things that are genuinely helpful and completely disconnected from the way that you make money.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your listener finishes the episode smarter, but no closer to becoming client.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a content problem, that is an architecture problem.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So here's how a CEO fixes it.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: You go the other direction.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: You start with the offer and then you work backwards.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So take one offer and ask yourself this.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: What does someone need to believe, understand, or realize before this offer makes obvious sense to her?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to write those down.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'll usually get between five to eight things.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And congratulations.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Those things that you get are your next five to eight episodes.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole method.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Your content calendar comes out of your offer, not out of the blue at 9 15 p.m.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: on a Wednesday.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens when you do this is that your podcast stops being a bunch of helpful episodes and becomes a sequence.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode's doing a piece of the persuading for you.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that by the time that you say doors are open, you're not just starting the conversation.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're finishing one that you've been having with them for six weeks.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is what a sales asset looks like.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So before we recap, one thing I want you to stop doing immediately.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to stop measuring your podcast by whether you publish a new episode or not.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Publishing is not a metric.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a prerequisite.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is honestly just table stakes.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody gives you a trophy for the thing that you're supposed to do anyway.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I know why we do it, because publishing is the only number we can fully control.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Downloads are unpredictable, sales are unpredictable, but did I hit publish on Thursday is entirely up to me.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it feels safe to make that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it feels safe to make that the scoreboard.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: If publishing is your metric, you will keep your show alive for years that isn't producing anything.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: You will be consistent right past right past the point where consistency is helping you.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to swap this question.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of did I publish a new episode this month, ask what did my podcast produce this month.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Things like emails collected, discovery calls booked, replies in your inbox, sales, even one person saying, I found you through episode 61 and I've been listening ever since.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's an output.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Write it down.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need fancy tracking, you just need a note in your phone in 30 seconds at the end of the month.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because a CEO doesn't ask if the machine ran.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: She asks what came out of it.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's bring it all home.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast CEO mindset shift is this.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your podcast is not just content, it is a sales asset.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And three things make that true.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: One, the first thing is every episode gets a job before it gets a topic.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Attract, build trust, shift relief, or sell.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Pick the job first, and then the topic gets much easier.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing, your call to action flows out of the content instead of getting pasted onto the end.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: If the offer isn't the obvious next step after what you just taught, then you built a wall instead of a bridge.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third thing is your episode topics map map backwards from your offers.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So start with what you sell, list what someone has to believe before she'd buy it, and then let that become your content calendar and stop treating iPublish like a win.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Start asking what the show actually produced.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here is your one action step this week.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one business goal, just one.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's filling a program, maybe it's booking two new clients, maybe it's getting 100 people onto your email list, just one goal.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then open your next four planned episodes and ask each one, what job does this do for that goal?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer is nothing, it's just a good topic, then I want you to swap it right now, before you even record it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Four episodes, one goal, that's the entire assignment.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're sitting there like, okay, I get it, but I want someone to actually build this thing with me, then this is exactly what we do inside the podcast a profit accelerator.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's my coaching program for mom entrepreneurs who are done publishing into the void and ready to turn their show into something that actually sells.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: We map your offers to your content, we build the bridge, we fix the calls to action, and you walk out with a podcast that has a job description instead of posting schedule.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Doors are open now, and I would genuinely love to have you in there.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Head to podcasting for moms.co slash PTP dash accelerator, and you'll find everything you need to know.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also make sure the links in the show notes as well.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's it for today's episode.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you have if this one hit a nerve in a good way, will you send it to a fellow mom podcaster who's been grinding out episodes and wondering why nothing's happening?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: She needs to hear this one too.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be back next week with more strategy to help you build podcasts that actually works for your business.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, take care of yourself, keep showing up, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in to Podcasting for Moms.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's episode gave you the tools and inspiration you need to make your podcasts work smarter, not harder.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you love what you heard, be sure to subscribe and leave a review.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: It means the world and helps other moms in business find the show.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: For more tips, resources, and support, head to podcastingformoms.co.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you're not just building a podcast, you're building your legacy.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, friends.