Episode 162: Want To Launch A Podcast? 10 Lessons From Behind The Mic – with April Beach

you’re listening to the sweet life Entrepreneur Podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age, you guys and welcome Thio Podcast number 162 I’m April Beach and I’m so glad that you’re here were actually recording today from Burbank, California This is my very first podcast episode After three years of podcasting, Thio ever record outside of my home studio office. So it’s learning, going through the process and learning here. Sitting at the Burbank Airport Marriott,

my son Jake is in town for three days filming a music video. And it’s just part of the learning process of what we do is Mom’s and as entrepreneurs and just kind of figuring things out as we go. This was more of a last minute trip, and and so it is. It is what it is. And I’m so excited you’ve joined me on today’s show so funny a little bit behind the scenes. We actually spend a lot of time in this hotel. We’re here usually for a couple of weeks a year,

and this is the hotel you guys quiet. Yes, I’m in now. This is the hotel where they have all their producer rooms. So all of the contestants for shows like The Voice and like the new songwriter show they bring them here and they’re walking around with their guitars and you can hear them singing in the hallways. But it’s super hush hush because they’re not allowed to tell you what they’re auditioning for or what show they’re on in. So this is where they bring in, you know, all these singer songwriters to audition and to kind of go through a process of it.

So it’s super cool. So walking around in the lobby, there’s guitars everywhere and groups of people singing. And it’s always the case here at this hotel. So it’s super fun to stay at and just see a little bit, you know, behind the scenes of Hollywood and people are in and out of here all the time. That is not us. You know, nobody’s hounding us to know what we’re doing, but is cool to see honestly, all these kids that are putting themselves out there and just doing their dreams.

So here we are at the Hotel. Today’s show is for those of you guys who are considering launching a podcast, you want to be a guest on another podcast. And you really want to know that inside scoop to increase your chance of landing that dream guest spot today shows also for those of you guys who are in business scaling and growth processes. And you think you love just kind of hearing about how other women fall on their face to make you feel better about the times that you do too, Because guess what we all do.

And I’m gonna be sharing some tough lessons here with you in this episode and some things that I’ve learned along the way both podcasting and through the business of growing a podcast today shows for those of you guys who are also in phases one through five of my lifestyle Entrepreneur road map if you don’t know where you are or if you’ve never taken the quiz to find out where you are in the road map, just simply text to the word sweet life. One word to the number 3196 and will shoot over linked to take a quick quiz so you can get the whole access to the lifestyle Entrepreneur road map in my lifestyle entrepreneur system.

Happy to share that with you. Okay, before we dive into today’s show, we have a special announcement. I know we’ve been talking about it for a couple weeks. This Onley happens a few times a year, but Sweet Life Launch is open. Sweet Life launches my 90 day business launch program with weekly projects that include videos and worksheets to make your business decisions simpler and clear and to help you build your business week by week for 90 days every step of the way. Plus, you get personal coaching for me live business Training’s every single month with advanced business skills teaching you what’s happening.

Always staying on top of the latest trends in technology and marketing and business development and helping you troubleshoot common stuck problems that most women who are launching their business face on top of that sweet life launch. We also have live question and answers in hot seats for every single member. There are a lot of these mass business launch programs out there, and it’s really hard to get attention and to get your specific questions answered so sweet life launches for those of you guys that really want to connect personally and have an opportunity to ask your specific questions instead of throwing them into a baseball group with hundreds or thousands of people and actually have your business have the opportunity every single month to have a hot seat with me so that we can strategize your business development.

On top of this, I have an amazing team of guest advisors and experts and friends that I bring into this community in this month. Inside Sweet Life Launch, Jen Herman, who is an INSTAGRAM marketing expert, is teaching a private live master class too sweet life launch members on Lee. So if you were interested in launching your business, or have you been trying to launch your business and get it off the ground for a long time? Or if you’re interested in launching a business and you’re listening to this show because you’re interested in launching a podcast and you’re wondering how to develop that business in that business model and how it works,

then cruise over to sweet life co dot com forward slash launch because now is your time to get in there is for, goes on Lee open for a short window a few times a year. Okay, so we’re taking care of a little bit of business, making sure you have the business coaching and support that you need when we aren’t listening to this show. Now let’s go ahead and dive more into this show. At the end of this episode, you’ll have more insight on what podcast hosting is like. You’ll be clear.

And if this is a responsibility that you are wanting to add to your business to your weekly or your monthly regimen to your expenses, if that really makes sense for you right now, and you’ll have 10 on his lessons that you can apply to your business across the board to save time, money and sanity. So for all the show notes and everything, but I just mentioned, If you forget it and you’re on the go, you can cruise to sweet life podcast dot com forward slash 162 and everything. I just mentioned the lynx I mentioned,

and the notes from this show will be in there for you. Now let’s go ahead and dive into these 10 lessons, Okay? First things first, all my numbers. Girls out there who loves numbers. Raise your hand. Let’s look at some of the podcasting statistics for 2020. These numbers come from music cunth dot com and I will go ahead and make sure, of course, there’s a link to this infographic and all these numbers for you in the show notes of this episode according to Music Goof,

the top five most popular podcasting categories or genres, our society and culture, business, comedy, news and politics and health.

Now let’s break up some of the numbers a little bit more. 70% of the U. S population are familiar with the term podcasting.

We actually have a lot of people that still have absolutely no clue how to even listen to a podcast.

And so we need to help educate other people on how to find the podcast happen their phone and how they actually consume podcasting information.

If you have a friend that doesn’t listen to podcasts, please take a second and show her on her phone.

How to do it. There are a lot of people didn’t know that there is such a thing as poss casting,

but have zero clue how, actually to consume podcasts just a little f y i If you didn’t realize that 51% of the U.

S population have listened to a podcast, 32% of the U. S population listen to podcasts every single month.

22% listen to podcasts every week. In 6% are avid podcast fans. I really believe we’re going to see that 6% in 2020 be up almost 2 18% which is 18% of the world.

Being an avid podcast fan, if you’re listening to the show thinking about launching a podcast, now’s the time,

girl. You know, this is a crazy exponential growth we’re seeing in the podcasting industry. And let me break up some of the age numbers.

28% of millennials. So 25 to 34 year olds listen to podcasts. 21% of Gen Xers like me That’s up to age 44.

Listen to podcasts. 16% of 45 to 54 year olds. Listen, a podcast, I believe out of those numbers,

we’re going to see a huge rise in the 40 something in the 50 something women consuming podcast, particularly over this year.

We’re already starting to see that, and there’s so many more numbers here on this. Infographic will make sure that there is a link to this for you,

but I just want to mention a few other things. Podcast genders. It’s almost split 50 50 men and women listen to podcasts,

and 45% of podcast listeners have a new income an annual income of greater than $250,000 a year. So as a business coach,

I work with women all the time who are struggling to actually reach an audience it can pay for. Their service is podcasting.

The average listener has a higher education level and makes more money. And so if you have a business that sells a service to people that are have more income and more money,

podcasting could be a really great option for you. But then, let’s also look at the other numbers.

32% of podcast listeners have an annual income of 75,000. So it’s not, you know, obviously, just just the half a millionaire’s that are listening to podcasts.

It’s everyday people that are listening to podcasts, so it’s a really a great clientele, and I just want you to kind of know some of the numbers behind scenes.

So I just wanted to talk about some of the numbers behind the scenes for you first. So if you’re wondering whether or not there’s actually an audience here or you can grow your business,

I will tell you that my business has grown after 22 years of business coaching exponentially since I’ve launched this show because you and I get to connect in a very Rahway that no Facebook marketing,

you know, no static image that’s on Instagram even know video that’s pre recorded that might be on. LinkedIn can connect us away that we’re connecting right now.

So there’s the numbers for all of you numbers, girls. Now let’s go ahead and dive into the 10 lessons I learned from three years of podcasting,

and some of them I learned really fast. Some of them already knew, but they became much more important in order to continually produce a popular podcast show that continues to grow every single week.

And some of them were totally a slap in the face, and I wasn’t expecting so Lesson. Number one was really to know my listeners.

So when I first launched the show, almost all my listeners were in startup. But as the show is grown,

I have listeners that stay and continue to subscribe to the show. And you know your businesses scaling your business is growing.

So I’ve learned that it’s important to break up my episodes. And so you noticed that the beginning of every single one of my shows I’ll tell you what phase of my lifestyle entrepreneur road map that each show applies to.

Well, the phase in the road map applies to where you are in your business, so, like face to is launch phase three and phase for or scale.

I had to figure out a way to categorize what I was teaching on that show so that it hit home for listeners that were in different phases of business.

And it’s really clear in the beginning of each show what actual show is for you, because I don’t want you hanging out here in spending 30 minutes with me when you could be directing that 30 minutes to doing something really productive in your business or creating something that you’ve been waiting to build.

If this show doesn’t apply to you, don’t listen. Turn it off. Come to the next one.

And so it’s one of the things that I had to learn very early on was how to categorize the things I was talking about so that my listeners immediately knew whether or not each show was a good one for them to listen to.

That was a lesson. It probably took me about 20 maybe only 10 episodes, because I had my last entrepreneur a road map for years and years before I launched this show.

But it was very quick when I realized that I want to make sure that each listener knows whether or not that show is right for them.

So if you’re thinking about launching a podcast or even in your business in general, try to figure out a way to kind of classify or categorize those people that listen to your show and help them out ahead of time,

you know, and just say, Hey, listen, this is for you or don’t be afraid to say you know what?

Don’t listen, go do something else. This isn’t for you. So lesson number one is was to learn who my listeners were and to make sure I was disqualifying certain people from listening to each episode just as much as I was pre qualifying others.

It did need to hear it. Lesson number two. I had to learn really quick to be picky about the guests I chose on this show.

This could apply to you if you weren’t a podcaster. Just being picky about the people that you know might contribute to your business or my,

you know, might want to be in a failure partner of yours. I’ve had some not so great guests on the show.

Well, I should say that I’ve recorded. So I’ve recorded shows with guests that seemed super awesome in the application process.

And then he never published shows. And honestly, it’s gonna sound terrible. Any men out there listening?

Sorry, guys. You know I love you. I love guys, but I will tell you it’s primarily the men who were guessed that would come to be a guest on the show.

In all they want to do is sell their shit. So women, we come on podcasts and we wanna contribute and have conversations.

Well, primarily, I can’t say all the men. I’ve had some amazing men who are guests on this show.

The ones I didn’t record and I didn’t publish were guys that came on in. All they wanted to do was pimp their stuff out.

So I have learned to be really, really picky about who speaks for our audience and not to waste my time recording shows that I’m never gonna air.

Now I do a lot of pre screening, so I don’t waste my time. It doesn’t mean I only have women who are guests.

So this is a women’s business podcast. And when you’re launching your podcast or in your business, you know who you serve.

Women want to hear from women, though. So I have had some amazing male guests that I just feel so honored to be on the show.

John Lee do miss who I know has been on the show in path. Flynn has been on the show so many different guys who’ve been on this show,

and I’m very picky, though at this point in time, after three years of podcasting about who I bring in.

So that was lesson number two. Lesson number three was really not to be worried about hurting other people’s feelings.

This actually wasn’t a hard lesson for me. I’m not inherently sensitive person, So being brutally honest about business was totally fine.

However, I know that I’ve lost some listeners because sometimes I come a crime, a Christian that says the effort.

And sometimes I come across and people just don’t really know how to take my personality or my parenting style,

which I share a lot about that on the show, and that’s okay. Not being worried about hurting other people’s feelings was a lesson I really had to learn,

though, because when they initially launched, I wanted everybody to be happy. But when I realized I wasn’t going to make everybody happy,

it actually wasn’t too hard for me to accept that, because that’s just part of life. So lesson number three is don’t worry about hurting other people’s feelings.

Lesson number four is that systems or king. Now this is not a new lesson. We all know this in business.

I can’t remember what I’m doing. Like when I’m walking into the kitchen. My brain is constantly multitasking,

and whether it’s that I’m not taking care of my brain because I’m 43 years old or whether or not I just have too much on my mind.

If I didn’t have systems in place for this podcast, I would be completely lost. And so if you’re thinking about producing content,

whether it’s through a podcast or their weekly video or through you know any other capacity, it is absolutely important that you have systems that you follow to create your content.

Thio Make sure and double check that everything has been created, that it is produced graphically or in what other way,

as faras like sound mixing if you’re in podcasting and that it comes out in a predictable way every single time with checklists everywhere so that no step is missed.

Systems are absolutely king and even more specifically for those of you guys who are wanting to podcast, that’s lesson number four.

Can you guys hear The maid’s with housekeeping is coming down the hall, so let’s see if we can get through this podcast episode together.

Welcome to my mom. Laptop lifestyle dance Mom, Lacrosse Mom working from wherever podcasting life. Okay, Lesson number five.

It’s never gonna be perfect. This one’s hard, and I’ll be honest for you. It’s super hard for me.

I want everything to be the very best it can, but sometimes have had to record shows. And I’m really not ready or I’m sick or I’ve lost my research or I hate the topic or I’m sitting in a dang hotel room and I’m trying to finish recording this episode for you because he’s,

er 10 really great lessons and I want you to have them in Housekeeping is coming down the hall, and I know if I don’t finish recording this thing by the time the kids were done with rehearsal,

that I’m gonna have to pick it back up again two days from now. It’s never gonna be perfect,

You guys, This is par for the course off, being a lifestyle entrepreneur, especially if you have family.

So I had to learn that lesson fast, but it still sucks. I hate that lesson. That’s the worst one of all.

You never get over it, but more that’s more of like something you have to accept. Lesson number five.

Some people flat out won’t like you. I have never been the most popular girl in the room. In fact,

when I was a teen. I was that really bad girl that smoked pot when I was 13 and was doing things I shouldn’t have been doing that other girl’s parents didn’t let them hang out with Still to this day,

people will go up Thio my ex step dad and say, Oh, you’re broken. April’s dad. Yeah,

we weren’t allowed to hang out with them. That’s the kind of the reputation that I always had. And I wasn’t that most popular person and some people won’t like me.

I’m okay with that when it comes to podcasting. You guys, when you go to put yourself out there,

there are people that are not gonna like what you have to say. They’re not gonna like the way you do things.

They’re not gonna like your philosophy. Who gives a shit? You are not doing what you’re doing for those people.

If you’re choosing to put yourself out there in any capacity as a woman and it’s a business leader, you have to be okay with the fact that not everybody’s gonna like you.

On top of that, the women are the worst. They’re the most critical when I say they like you and I aren’t one of them.

It’s the truth, and that culture is starting to change. And we’re seeing a lot more women supporting other women.

But I just want to be really honest with you, especially if you’re watching a podcast or reading a book or speaking on stage is there are some people that aren’t gonna like you,

and you need to be okay with that. You need to love you first in order to get through that.

So lesson number six is some people won’t like you. Lesson number seven is your hardest work pig. Go unnoticed.

This one actually sucks really bad. This is one of those ones, like number five, where not everything is going to be perfect.

Less in number seven, your hardest work may go on notice is when you’ve been working for hours on producing great show.

And if you’re not launching a podcast, this applies to you. If you wrote an amazing article or created a video Siri’s you were really excited about and you put it out there and you work your butt off and you think it’s fantastic in some people won’t even notice that you did it now,

we could take a whole entire episode to talk about the marketing strategy on how to get your hard work noticed.

But I want you to know that sometimes you put things out there and people don’t pick it up the way that you expect.

And you have to be willing to pick yourself up, get past that look at the lessons learned from it,

or maybe just hold it for a little bit. It re release it at another time. So there have been some shows that I have recorded that I’ve put out there and I’m like,

Oh, my gosh, this is it My audience needs is so bad. And the numbers, the downloads don’t reflect how popular I thought that particular show is gonna be.

And that can be frustrating. So just be okay with the fact that sometimes it’s not gonna be noticed.

But you’re all right and keep going along your course. You know, the people that need your content,

it will get to them. Lesson number eight is to trust your team. I am not a natural delegator.

I don’t do well with having a staff and honestly, just keeping it real. Here I really don’t like having to stop and take the time and communicate with people,

even though they work for me and what they’re doing is to help me. It just doesn’t fit into who I am as a person in.

So I’ve had to learn to trust my team. This is a very entrepreneur mentality that I have, and it’s a weakness of mine.

But when it comes to a podcast recording, you have to be able to trust your podcast production team.

You need to be on top of things when they’re due. You need to supply the deliverer bols, whether that is,

you know, design and graphics or research or obviously the audio behind your show, and you have to be ableto have a team in place so that you can produce a great show.

I know very few entrepreneurs that are profitable, successful six plus figure business women that produce their own podcast.

That usually is not the way that it goes. It’s very time consuming and you want to be ableto have the budget to be able to hire out to other people for their area of expertise,

for you to launch your own podcast show. I know that there are so many of you guys out there that want to launch a podcast and you’re willing to do the hard work in the beginning on your own to get it off the ground.

That’s awesome. I love that. I love how scrappy that is. And I love that you are gonna need a podcast production team or a podcast team to distribute your content soon.

So this lesson number eight trust your team is to find a team you love as soon as you can in delegate the heck of your thing.

Hit the heck out of your things to you them so that they can help your show reach more people and higher levels.

Lesson number nine is to plan ahead through this show. It’s really taught me the power of strategic planning when I’m sharing certain content.

So, for example, in this show, you notice in the beginning I was able to share that sweet,

lifelong TRIBE business Launch program is opened If I didn’t plan ahead in my business to know when my coaching programs were opening,

when my retreats were opening, when my master mind was available to apply for that I wouldn’t be able to fit it into the business model and the structure of this show.

So the lesson here is to make money from podcasting. You need to plan ahead so that you know what you’re selling when you’re selling it,

how people have an opportunity to work with you, how to incorporate that into your show, whether it’s self sponsorship of the show or being able to share what you’re selling sporadically throughout the year.

And that comes with the power of planning ahead, both your episodes and how to make money in your business.

How the show’s flow into what it is that you’re offering for your audience. And then the very last lesson is number 10.

Don’t be afraid to sell now. I don’t want this to be a contradiction toe what I said in lesson number two,

Remember when I was talking about a few people who have come on here and all they want to do is sell their stuff to you guys?

That’s not what I’m talking about. When this show first launched back in 2017 I went overboard to never mention any of my programs.

I never told our listeners how they could join my programs, how they could work with me privately. I never did that.

I actually did like the total opposite because the purpose of this show isn’t to sell my business programs. The purpose of this show,

our mission. It is to equip a 1,000,000 women to design their life through entrepreneurship by giving them the springboard and the free tools to do it.

So I did not sell you guys for a really, really long time. I wanted the show to be a love offering,

not a sales pitch. And I hated listening to those podcast where the advertisements would come on, and it would just be trying to sell me stuff.

I wanted to make sure this show is different. So for the entire first year rarely gave people an opportunity to work with me personally.

And then in 2018 a listener wrote to me, asking if there was any way that she could hire me to help grow her business.

I had honestly done such a terrible job of of reverse not selling to my listeners that I was not clear that I’m a business launch coach.

I have been coaching women to design lunch and scale their business for 22 years, and I didn’t make that clear on the show.

And so she wrote just Bagan of those anyway, that she could work with me because the podcast website is a separate website than my business development,

my business coaching website for those of you guys that don’t know that, So when you go to the podcast website,

you don’t see like these big banners to say, Hire a bruise, your business coach That’s not what it’s for.

And so she didn’t know. And I realized at that point in time that I was literally doing my listeners a disservice by not making it clear that I can help them get beyond where they are in their business and take their business to the next level.

Today, I mentioned advanced business trainings were things like sweet life launch so that people know who are listening and absorbing this,

who are really ready to get to the next level or really want somebody to personally work with them that they can relate to that.

Absolutely. I would love to work with you to help you grow your business But that was a lesson that took me over a year to learn.

Don’t be afraid to make available what you have. Don’t go over word like I did and not sell to people or not articulate how you can transform their life for their business because you want to prove another point or you want to.

You know, be a mission to the world and make sure that people know exactly how you can get them Results both through your podcast if you’re launching a podcast or through the content that you share,

if you aren’t launching a podcast for the content that you put out in social media Ah, lot of people just put out content or social media with no call the action saying,

Hey, do you need more help? I’m here for you. Don’t be afraid to sell your service.

Is those air than 10 lessons I learned from three years of podcasting? Let me just give you a really quick recap.

Lesson number one was to know my listeners and to sort my shows and my content accordingly so that my listeners could find exactly what they were looking for or know that they shouldn’t listen to a show lesson.

Number two was to be picky about my guests and stop getting these dudes on here that want to pitch themselves and on Lee.

So all of their stuff to you guys. And so our application process is pretty extensive on how we pre screen guests to be on this show.

If any of you ever applied before, I just want you to know that that’s why her application process is the way that it is.

I would love to have you on the show, and I’d love to have you apply Number three. Don’t worry about her.

The other people’s feelings some people just don’t necessarily resonate with your message. And being brutally honest in the content that you share on your show is okay.

And that’s who you are. And you need to do you. Lesson number four. The systems Air King that self explanatory.

Get systems down, don’t divert from them and follow them to the tea less Number five is. It’s never gonna be perfect,

and you might need to record from places that you didn’t expect to, and your audio might not be perfect.

Your show might not be perfect but getting it out there is better than never getting another cause you’re waiting for a perfection.

Number six is Some people just won’t like you. And that is totally okay. Number seven is your hardest work may go unnoticed.

Number eight is to trust your team. Number nine was to plan ahead and number 10 was Don’t be afraid to sell.

Okay, So on this show I spoke directly to those of you guys. They’re considering launching a podcast.

But again, these lessons can reply across the board to your business, to content you’re creating on social media and I hope you take them to heart.

I would love for you to not have to go through some of the hard lessons that I learned and not waste some of your time.

Like I have wasted my And in closing, I just want you to know not to be afraid. Tow,

Launch your show, but toe on Lee, launch a podcast. If you are totally ready to be committed to it.

You don’t want to be that podcast that launched and only recorded, like 20 episodes. Unless, of course,

that’s the design of the content you’re delivering in second The second part of closing, of course, is that if you would like to launch your business,

or if you’d like to launch a podcast in conjunction with Growing Your business, then cruise over to sweet Life co dot com and join me in sweet life Watch.

Let’s get your business and your podcast movie. Thank you so much for tuning into this show. I love hearing from you guys and really quick.

Before we leave, I want to give a shout out Thio. This week’s podcast review. This review is from Lisa Marie Pepe,

she said. One of the best podcast for women April is the real deal. Authentic, savvy, funny and inspiring.

And she offers a listener practical and easy things to implement with action steps, all of which are instrumental and being a successful entrepreneur.

Whether you’re just starting up or a been in business for several years, I guarantee the sweet life entrepreneur a podcast.

We’ll provide you with everything you need to succeed in life in business. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.

Now. Lisa Marie, thank you so much for being a listener to the show. I appreciate you so much,

and if you would like to get a shout out on the podcast cruise overto abou podcasts and leave us review.

Or you can also cruise over to my Facebook page. You can find me in April Beach on Facebook and leave this review on Facebook as well,

and for all of the show notes of everything we talked about in today’s show, including the podcast statistics in the data that I dropped in a ruling cool graphic that comes along with that data and cruise over to sweet life.

Podcast dot com forward slash 1 62 All right, I’ll talk to you guys next week.