Latest / Podcast Growth, Podcast SEO, and Podcast Launch Strategies for Mom Entrepreneurs | Podcasting for Moms / 85. The Questions I Ask Every New Podcast Client

Transcript

85. The Questions I Ask Every New Podcast Client · Podcast Growth, Podcast SEO, and Podcast Launch Strategies for Mom Entrepreneurs | Podcasting for Moms

• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: A few months ago, I got on a call with a woman who had been podcasting for nearly two years.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: She had 80-something episodes, she was consistent every single week, and never missed the published date.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: She had great cover art, good audio, and basically she had done everything that the internet told her to do.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And she opened the call by saying, I think I just need help with growth.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked her my first question, and she went quiet for a few seconds.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then she said this.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: No one has ever asked me that question before.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing about podcasting.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much advice out there about how to publish, but there's almost none about why you're publishing, and the gap between those two things is where most shows stall out.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So today, so today I'm taking you behind the scenes.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the exact three questions that I ask every single new client before I touch a single episode.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: These are the questions that tell me within about 15 minutes whether this show has a growth problem or a strategy problem.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And spoiler, it is almost never a growth problem.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the episode.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Podcasting for Moms, the show for moms in business ready to start, grow, and scale a podcast that turns their listeners into buyers.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenny Summerson, a podcast strategist and fellow mom entrepreneur.
• 2:02
  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.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: All while balancing life as a busy mom.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to create a podcast that grows your income, impact, and influence?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make podcasting work for you.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because as moms, we know how to get things done.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's jump into the episode.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, and welcome back to Podcasting for Moms, the show for mom entrepreneurs wanting to use podcasting as their primary marketing channel.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to do something a little bit different today.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Usually I come on here and I teach you some sort of strategy, but today I'm gonna show you inside of how I think.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what happens when someone hires me.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's for a launch, for management, or for growth and strategy, before I take a look at their downloads, before I open their host dashboard, before I even listen to a single episode, we get on a kickoff call and I ask them three questions.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been doing this long enough now that I can usually tell where the whole thing is broken based on how someone answers these questions.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I'm a psychic, but because these three questions are load bearing.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: If any one of them is shaky, then everything built on top of it wobbles.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now you may be wondering why am I giving you my client questions for free?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, two reasons here.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: One, most of you are probably not going to hire anybody, and I'd rather you have a podcast that works than a podcast that doesn't.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Two, if you sit with these questions and realize that you can't answer them cleanly on your own, that is generally useful information.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: That tells you what to do next.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to grab a notebook or don't, but at least mentally answer these questions as I go.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the first one that made my client go silent for a bit.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the first question I ask is, what do you want this podcast to sell?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really the first question I ask, no exceptions.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I ask it exactly like that, because the wording here matters.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't ask what's your podcast about, who's your audience.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I also don't ask about your goals because goals is a word that lets people be vague.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I ask what it truly sells.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you would not believe how many people freeze on this one.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I usually get back from people.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I get, well, it kind of supports everything that I do, or I get it's more of a brand awareness thing, or also, honestly, I just want a place to share what I know.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, none of those are bad instincts by any means, but none of those are a strategy either.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those are all descriptions of a hobby with a microphone.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you may be wondering why this question tells me so much.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when someone can answer this question cleanly, everything downstream gets easier.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you tell me your podcast sells your group program, I now know what your episodes should teach.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I now know what your episodes should teach, what objections you need to handle, what your CTAs should say, and what a good month looks like for you.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you tell me your podcast sells your one-on-one service, that's a completely different show.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Different episode structure, different proof, different call to action.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you tell me it supports everything, what you've actually told me is that it supports nothing in particular.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: A podcast that points at your whole business points at nothing.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your listener does not have a full map of your offer suite in her head.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: She has about 30 seconds of attention at the end of the episode and one thing she might be willing to click.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I'm listening for underneath that question.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm listening for whether the offer is even ready.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the podcast isn't the problem.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes someone has been podcasting for 18 months into a business that doesn't have a clear offer yet, and the show is doing exactly what it should.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's producing listeners.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's just nowhere for those listeners to go.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot content your way out of an offer problem.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that with love.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: If the destination isn't built, then the road just simply doesn't matter.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to say this out loud in one sentence.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: My podcast sells blank.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't finish that sentence without a comma, an and or a qualifier, that's your work this week.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one thing.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can change it next quarter, but right now pick one.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The second question I ask is who is the one listener you're talking to and what does she already believe?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: This one is two parts, and people always answer the first half and skip the second half.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the first half is the one everyone's heard before.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Who's your ideal listener?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Fine.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Most people can give me some version of this.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Moms who want to start a business, women in their 40s who want to get healthy, whatever that may be for that specific person.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the second half is where the actual gold is.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: What does she already believe?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why the belief part matters more than the demographic part.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're not writing for a demographic, you're writing for a person who already has opinions.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say your listener is a mom who wants to lose weight.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you need to know is she someone who has never tried anything and is nervous to start?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or is she someone who's tried nine programs, has a drawer full of half-used supplements, and is deeply, deeply skeptical of anyone promising her anything?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the same demographic, but they need completely opposite podcasts.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: The first one needs encouragement and simple first steps, whereas the second one needs you to name her exhaustion out loud in the first 30 seconds or she's gone.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you talk to the skeptical one like she's brand new, she will feel like you're talking down on her and she will not come back.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when a client can tell me what their listener already believes, I can immediately see whether their episode topics are landing or floating.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, here's what I find.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: The topics are technically correct, but they're emotionally off.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're answering questions their listener isn't asking yet, or they're spending an entire episode convincing someone of something she already agreed with before she even pressed play.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a content quality problem, that is an aim problem.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you fix aim with clarity, not with more episodes.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to write down three things your listener already believes before she meets you.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then write down one thing she believes that you think is wrong.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: The last one, that is going to be your best episode.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one that makes people text their friend and say, you have to hear this episode.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have the third and final question.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: What happens after someone finishes an episode?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the one that separates a podcast from a marketing asset.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I ask this question to my clients and then I wait.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't help, I just let them sit in it and I let it be a little bit awkward.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because the honest answer most of the time is nothing.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: She finishes the episode, she likes me a little more, and then she goes and unloads the dishwasher and I never hear from her again.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I talk about this constantly on the show.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been here for a while, you know I call this the listener to buyer bridge.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But here's a version that matters for this conversation.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Every single episode in that is a guaranteed moment of tension.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your listener has just spent like 10, 15, 20 minutes with you in her ears while she folded laundry or drove to pick up.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: She's warmer towards you at the moment than she will be at she is warmer towards you at the moment than she will be at any other point in the week.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And most podcasters use that moment to say, thanks so much for listening.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to rate and review.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to think about what you just did there.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: You had a warm listener at Peak Trust, and you ask her to do a favor for you that benefits your ego and does approximately nothing for her.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I ask this question, I'm checking on three things.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: One, is there a next step at all?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Frequently, there is not.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing I'm checking is, is the next step connected to the episode or is it a generic bumper that runs at the end of every episode, regardless of the topic?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you talked about batching your content for 20 minutes and then you sent people to a completely unrelated freebie, then you just broke that momentum.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: The next step has to feel like the obvious continuation of what she just heard.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then third thing I'm looking for is does the next step lead anywhere?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: A freebie that dumps someone onto a list with no follow-up isn't a bridge.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a plank.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to pull up your last five episodes and write down the exact call to action from each one.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: If all five are the same and that CTA is follow the show, then you found your bottleneck.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that is good news.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is the cheapest thing on this entire list to fix.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need more downloads to fix that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: You need about 90 minutes and a decision.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so before I wrap, I want to name the thing that keeps people stuck because I hear it on almost every call.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to stop believing that the next thing you learn will unlock this.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I meet so many podcasters who have taken the courses, they know a little bit about SEO, they know about listener journeys, they know their titles should be searchable, they could probably teach a workshop on it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: But their show still isn't producing anything.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not because they don't know enough, but because they've never sat down and answered the three questions that I just asked you.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: They've collected a lot of tactics and skipped the strategy underneath it all.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So here's how you know this is you.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever said I just need to be more consistent while already being consistent, that is the tell.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency is not your problem.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: You have proven you can publish.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: What you haven't proven is that the publishing is pointed at anything.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: More episodes will not fix an aim problem.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: They'll just get you to the wrong place faster.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you a quick recap.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the first question, what does your podcast sell?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: One offer, one sense, no and.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Question two, who is she and what does she already believe?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Demographics get you close, but beliefs get you heard.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And question three, what happens after the episode ends?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer is nothing, that is your highest leverage fix this month.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Three questions, 15 minutes.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I bet money that at least one of them made you a little uncomfortable, which is exactly why it's the one to start with.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's the part where I tell you what to do if you sat through all of that and thought, cool, I can't answer any of those.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, that is totally fine.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Most people can't the first time.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a character flaw.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is just what happens when you start a podcast because you had something to say, which is completely a reasonable reason to start a podcast.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're at the point where you want someone to actually sit with you and work through it, that's what a podcast profit plan discovery call is for.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what it is and what it isn't.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is a real conversation where I ask you these questions plus a handful of follow-ups depending on where you get stuck.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell you honestly what I think is going on with your show.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a strategy fix, a positioning fix, or your podcast is fine, your offer is a problem type situation.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will tell you either way.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a 45-minute pitch.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's about 20 minutes long.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if I don't think working together is a right move for you, I will say that on the call and point you somewhere better.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that plenty of times.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather lead you to the right answer than take your money for no reason.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to get on a podcast profit plan call with me, head to the link in the show notes so you don't have to remember that you're out while you're driving.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not ready for a call, that's fine too.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just go answer the three questions on your own.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's all I got for you today.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode gave you a little bit of a gut check, do me a favor and send it to the podcaster friend that you know is publishing consistently and still wondering why nothing's happening.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I'll see you next week.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning into Podcasting for Moms.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's episode gave you the tools and inspiration you need to make your podcasts work smarter, not harder.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you love what you heard, be sure to subscribe and leave a review.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It means the world and helps other moms in business find the show.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: For more tips, resources, and support, head to podcastingformoms.co.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you're not just building a podcast, you're building your legacy.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, friends.