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January 26, 2021 16 mins

 As a professional podcaster (like, I get paid to podcast) who started a podcast before they were as plentiful as Instagram accounts, I know a thing or two about showing up and creating content in this medium. In this video, I'm sharing my top 6 lessons (plus a few sub-lessons), I've learned from 6 years of podcasting. 

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(00:03):
Over six years ago, in Decemberof 2014, I wrote a friend of
mine an email asking her if shewanted to start a podcast with
me, because I felt, and I quote,"it would change our lives."
Over six years, almost 10million downloads, a book
deal, and well over a milliondollars later, here are six
things that I've learned frompodcasting for six years.

(00:28):
Hi, I'm Emily Thompson hostof the Being Boss podcast, a
top-ranked business podcastfor creative business owners
and co-author of the book BeingBoss: Take Control of Your Work
and Live Life on Your Own Terms.
And welcome back to 10Minutes to Being Boss, a
bite-sized show offeringup tips, tools, and tactics
for helping you do business.
In today's episode.
I am here to share with youthe six lessons, the top six

(00:52):
lessons that I have learned frompodcasting for over six years.
But before we dive in,I do want to share about
our sponsor, Podia.
Podia is an all-in-onedigital storefront, where
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downloads all in one place.
So if you're in the mood toshare what it is that you know,
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(01:13):
Sign up for Podia and geta free 14 day trial with
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going to podia.com/bosses.
Okay.
So now we have to getinto our six lessons.
My lesson number one, that Iwish I had known then that I
totally know now, is that thespoken word hits differently.

(01:38):
Whenever people can hear yousay what you need to say in
your voice, you are so muchmore able to one, get your
point across, but also two,people connect with you on
a sincerely deeper level.
I had been blogging and writingemail content for years before

(02:00):
I started my podcast andnever did I gain the types
of engagement and sort ofstrong community that I did
whenever I started podcasting.
I was able to so much moreclearly share what it is that
I wanted to share and ouraudience has come back time
and time again to expressedthat they feel like I am

(02:23):
their best friend in theirears, while they're driving
to work or doing the dishes.
They often feel like they arehaving a conversation with me or
listening in on a conversationthat I'm having, where we're
all sitting around the table andthey're just eavesdropping in.
I will also say a sort ofsub-note to, a like 1.1, maybe

(02:46):
1.2, lesson that I learnedhere is that the community
that I grew from podcastingended up being so important
to me and my business.
By growing that audience byengaging with that audience, by
interacting with that audience,you are gaining one of the
most important assets for yourbusiness, and podcasting allowed

(03:09):
me to do that in a way thatno other platform ever has.
All right, and this is whereI would love to hear from you.
If you're here, you listento podcast and or you watch
YouTube videos, in which caseyou have probably become a
really big fan of at leastone or two online content
personalities in your day.
I would love for you tohead down into the comments

(03:30):
and share with me who yourfavorite content creators
are, either in the YouTubespace or in the podcast space,
people who have attractedyou with their spoken word.
I look forward to seeing whoyou share in the comments.
Okay.
Now, number two, playto your strengths.
There are so manypodcast types out there.

(03:54):
There are differentkinds of formats.
There are different ways inwhich you can release content
into the podcasting world.
You can have an interviewshow, you can have a scripted
sort of storytelling show.
You can have just likespeaking to your audience show.
There are so many formatsthat you can adopt or
use in your podcast.

(04:16):
Don't think that you need tochoose the one that is the most
standard for your industry orthat someone has told you you
should be doing it in this way.
And so playing to yourstrengths, creating content
in a way that feels goodand natural to you, that you
enjoy doing it, and you'reexcited to show up for is a
key secret is a very importantlesson learned for podcasting.

(04:42):
Okay, let's get into lessonnumber three, and this one
is one that I learned afterthree years - four years?
- four years, I think, ofpodcasting, of releasing a
podcast, every single week.
Sometimes for about twoand a half of those years,
we were actually releasinga podcast twice a week.

(05:05):
And one of the things thatwe learned a couple of years
into podcasting that much,and this doesn't include all
the interviews that we werehaving, the secret episodes
we were releasing withinour community, all of these
things, hundreds and hundredsof podcasts, is that you
need to not talk sometimes.
Periods of not talking aremandatory for keeping at it.

(05:28):
This is something that I'veseen a lot of times for
writers, they can get alittle burnt out whenever
they are writing too much.
And it's something thatI definitely experienced
as a podcaster.
And especially as someonewho started running a
business that was podcasting.
One of the things that Ilearned is that I had to go out
and cultivate experiences anddifferent kinds of expertise

(05:52):
so I could bring the morecontent back into the podcast.
I often joked aroundthat my throat chakra
was a little too open.
It was like, it was tired.
My throat shocker was tiredand I kept bumping up against
this feeling that I had nothingelse to say, that I had said
everything that I wanted to say.
So I really had to stepback and put more focus into

(06:18):
cultivating those experiencesand that expertise that
would allow me to show up andpodcast as much as I wanted to.
All right, number four is maybeone of the smartest things we
did when we started the podcast.
We didn't know at the timethat it was one of the smartest
things that we were doing,but it has ended up being the
smartest thing that we did,and that is identifying very

(06:42):
clear and defined contentpillars around which we
shape all of our content.
In those early days offormulating the Being Boss
brand, before we even releasedour first episode, Kathleen
and I sat down and made alist of our content pillars.
Of, I believe six pillars.

(07:03):
Now that I'm thinking aboutit, I hope that's right.
I'll count them in a second.
A set of pillars around whichall of our content would be
shaped, based on what we hadexperienced from being creative
business owners, ourselves,and working with creative
business owner clients.
At Being Boss, those pillarsare mindset, boundaries,
habits and routine,community, work, and life.

(07:25):
Good.
There are six.
That makes me feel better.
And those pillars haveworked their way through
every bit of content thatwe have ever created.
And it ended up beingthe chapter structure of
our book when we wroteour book back in...
2016?
2017?
I think we wrote it in 2017.

(07:45):
It came out in 2019.
So back in 2014, in Decemberof 2014, we define these
pillars that have followedus through the entirety of
our podcasts and I stillconsider with every piece of
content that I create today.
It has helped me stay veryfocused in our content
and has helped us create astructure that our audience

(08:09):
can always count on.
And honestly, I will sayanything that makes content
creation easier is a total win.
Don't you think for sure.
Okay.
And because these contentpillars are so incredibly
important, I do actuallyhave a worksheet for you
in the description below tohelp you figure out, if you
were wanting to create apodcast, what your podcast

(08:31):
style and content topics are.
You can head down into thedescription and find a link to
that podcasting worksheet there.
Okay, we're almostdone, but not done yet.
Here is lesson number five.
This one I really wish I hadknown because I was not prepared
for how difficult this was.
And that is that podcastmonetization is more

(08:53):
difficult, I think, thanany other online content.
Whenever we started the BeingBoss podcast, we had this
idea that we would create thiscontent as a marketing platform
for our individual businesses.
And it ended up growinginto so much more than that.
We ended up selling events.
We have sponsors.

(09:15):
I have a community of creatives.
There are so many thingsthat we have been able to do.
But it is more difficultthan any other kind of online
content that you create.
One of the mindsets that I haveto keep for myself that coach
every creative who's consideringto start a podcast for
themselves, and for sponsors whodon't really know what they're

(09:38):
signing up for, podcastingis for brand awareness.
Period.
It is not for brand conversion.
Because whenever people arelistening to the cast, they're
washing their dishes, they'redriving down the road, they
are doing all kinds of things.
They're not sitting there atthe ready at their computer
to type in that URL thatyou've shared with them.

(09:59):
It is all about brand awareness.
Conversion comes afterwards.
Conversion comes whenever youmake podcast advertising or
podcast creation one part of amuch larger marketing strategy.
And that makes it reallydifficult for you to understand,

(10:19):
truly, what the ROI, whatthe return on investment,
is in creating a podcast.
Once you know that, once you'revery well aware, going into
it makes a lot more sense.
You can plan for it.
You can budget for it,all of those things.
But if you go into podcastingwith unrealistic expectations
around how much you're goingto be able to make and the

(10:40):
kind of data you're going to beserved and all of these things.
There's going to be like a rudeawakening happening because
podcasting is both very new, butalso operates in a very old way.
My sort of 5.3 or 4 or 8 aroundthis is that stats are hard
to track, but there are nowtrackers coming out that allow

(11:04):
people to track more podcastlisteners and their sort of
habits in the podcasting world.
And let me tell you mypersonal opinion is that
these things are gross.
Because unlike terms ofuse on a website or privacy
policies that you sign up forwhen you're signing up for an

(11:26):
account, the tracking that'shappening in the podcasting
world these days is notsomething that you are aware of.
I was actually having aconversation once with the
CEO, maybe founder, I thinka co-founder of a podcast
hosting platform that I amfamiliar with and I was asking
him about these trackersand he told me something

(11:49):
that has stuck with me.
He said, they remind himof the Facebook pixel
and Facebook ruined theinternet with their tracking
of literally everything.
So know that a lot of podcaststhat you are listening to
have installed these sort oftracking pixels into their RSS
feeds to track how much you'relistening to that podcast, how

(12:13):
far you make it in, all of thesethings, but also across all
of the podcasts that are usingthese tracking pixels as well,
and you don't know about it.
And to add insult to injury, ifI may, a lot of sponsors these
days require you to have them.
So if you are listening topodcasts that have sponsorships,

(12:34):
there is a good chancethat in order to gain those
sponsorships, they had to addthe trackers to their podcasts.
I still refuse to do this,and I only work with sponsors,
obviously, that do notrequire me to add the tracker.
It's like, whenever Kathleenand I started podcasting

(12:55):
we always called it theWild West of the internet.
There are a few things inthe world that really feel
like wild and untapped.
I feel podcasting was oneof them, but a new sheriff
is in town and I don'tlike him, I will say.
So that is an important thingfor you to know as a podcaster,

(13:16):
but also as a podcast listener.
There is a very good chancethat you are being tracked
and you don't even know it.
But you'll be served upmore relevant ads, and if
that makes you happy, thenyou can feel okay with it.
But it annoys me, and itannoys me most of all, that
so many sponsors will now holdsponsorships unless you allow

(13:38):
them to track your listeners.
I personally love my listenersmore than I love sponsors
who make me do that, soknow that I am not in that
camp, just so you know.
However Spotify,whole different story.
You guys are there.
That's all on you.
Read that privacypolicy, just so you know.
Okay.
And that's the end of that rant.

(13:59):
Let's get into the finallesson that I learned from
podcasting for six years.
Actually, it's the final of six.
I really learned like a millionlessons, but this is number
six for this particular list.
And that is that yourguests shape your show
maybe more so than you do.
Maybe not more so, butthey definitely shape it.

(14:20):
This is one of those thingsthat I feel like we learned
maybe a little later, honestlythan I would have liked.
Whenever your show startsgetting big, or you just
want to keep up with creatingcontent, you will likely start.
Pulling in as many guestsas you can, you will, be
excited when you startgetting your first guests
pitches., all those things.

(14:41):
Slow down, slow down, andreally consider each and every
guest because they will allbring something into your
show, planned or not planned,that will shape your show
in just the way that you do.
We learned this in a seasonwhen we were trying to keep up
with content demand, ended uphaving on a lot of guests and no

(15:04):
one that I regret by any means,but there was a pause that came
after a big rush of lots andlots of guests where we both,
sat down and we were like, weneed to hold on the guests.
We need to be waymore particular.
We need to really vet peoplereally know that they're going
to one, be able to show upbecause that's a thing: podcast
guests don't show up a lot.

(15:24):
That's actually 6.3 lessonhere is that if you want
to have guests, you shouldexpect about a quarter of
the time for them not toshow up, even a big podcast.
It's an interestingphenomenon, but whatever.
Be careful as to who it is thatyou bring on as your guests,

(15:45):
because they will absolutelyshape your show in ways that
you don't even anticipate.
So proceed with caution orat least a ton of awareness.
And there you have it, mysix top lessons learned from
six years of podcasting.
It has been a wildride for sure.
I actually should probably sitdown and get a number of how

(16:10):
many podcasts, how many hoursof podcasts I have created in
my career, because I imagine Iam probably a total expert...
at talking.
That's really all it means,I'm an expert at talking.
But thank you so much forcoming to hang out with me.
I hope that this helps youthink about how it is that

(16:32):
you may start your own podcastor make your podcast better.
Now, if you don't mindme, I probably have some
podcasting to go do.
I feel like I always do.
And until next time,do the work, be boss.
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