One small podcast audit can unlock the growth that's been sitting right under your nose all along.

Kim Parkinson sits down with Ashley Costello, award-winning psychotherapist, TEDx speaker, and host of The Resilient Kid Podcast, for a live coaching call that reveals how a handful of simple, practical fixes can dramatically increase a podcast's discoverability. From updating cover art to include the podcast name, to stuffing a podcast description with searchable keywords, to dropping the generic intro music and capturing listeners right from the first sentence, Kim walks Ashley through the exact changes that move the needle on downloads.

These are not complicated overhauls. They are the kind of clear, actionable tweaks that anyone can implement today to start being found by the audience who needs them most.

Connect with Ashley Costello:

Resilient Kid Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/resilient-kid-therapy-and-tips-for-raising-strong/id1572235687

More Resources:

Normalize Your Audio: https://kpcreativemedia.com/auphonic

Want a podcast coaching call? Reach out to me at kim@kpcreativemedia.com and let me know you listened to this episode and would like to record a podcast coaching call with me.

Sometimes all it takes is a second set of eyes or third set of eyes to take a look at your podcast and just offer a few different tweaks that is going to expand the reach of your podcast exponentially.

So today I have a podcast coaching call that I am doing with Ashley Costello.

Her podcast is the Resilient Kid Podcast.

And she just had a few things that she even said herself was just obvious that she just overlooked.

And we did a 15, 20 minute podcast coaching call with her and she was able to walk away with a few actionable steps so that she can then go ahead and make those and grow her show.

Now, this episode was from February, so please go look her up.

I've left her podcast in the show notes and I hope you really enjoy this coaching call.

Now, if you would like to be a coaching call or have another set of eyes on your podcast, I am opening up a couple of slots in my calendar for you to be one of those people that I just take a look at.

It's just a couple of actionable tips.

I spend a few minutes looking at your podcast before we meet, and then I offer you just one or two little tweaks that you can do over the summer or whenever this, you are listening to this and you can just make those tweaks just so that you can get some more downloads.

If you would like a podcast coaching call with me, please reach out@kimpcreativemedia.com and just tell me that you'd love to be part of a podcast coaching call for podcasting for your spiritual business.

Yep, that's right.

That's what you're listening to, podcasting for your spiritual business.

I'm Kim Parkinson, and without further ado, here is that coaching call with Ashley Costello of the Resilient Kid podcast.

Hello there, Ashley.

Welcome.

Hi, how are you today?

Yes, I'm good, thank you.

How are you?

Excellent, thank you.

Where are you calling in from today?

Uk.

Nice, Nice.

We were there a couple years ago.

We went to London.

I loved it.

It was amazing.

I loved.

Is it cold and wet and raining?

No and no and no.

Okay.

Yeah, I went in late October and it was beautiful, actually.

Although we did go to Stonehenge and there was a drizzle.

That's okay.

It was okay.

It was fitting for the day, so.

But yes, it was beautiful.

We got to do the London Eye and do the Trafalgar Square and all that fun stuff.

You know, all the things tourists do.

Yeah, I played tourists.

Do you know what?

We do that as well.

It's Lovely.

London is a great place to be a tourist.

Yeah, yeah.

Excellent, excellent.

All right, I know.

Chantelle has joined us.

Hello, my darling.

So, Ashley, I am going to get started and just kind of like, kind of walk you through a couple of things that I see.

Just so you know a little bit about who I am.

If Chantelle hasn't told you, I am a certified podcast growth coach.

This is what I do for a living.

I help people grow their shows.

I've had multiple people get into the top categories in Apple and they their field top 100.

And then I've also seen clients that have started working with me and within the first couple of weeks, you know, four weeks, a month or so, they have seen people come into their world through their podcast.

So it's just these little tweaks that we do.

And so this is just like a taste of what I do offer.

So I do have packages.

We can talk about that if you want it.

But this here is just like a little mini audit and you can do a couple of little tweaks, see if it grows, see what it does.

And I'll give you some ideas on some things that I, I see that you can generally fix in or, and, or Chantelle can generally fix.

However you, you guys do that.

So.

But I'm happy to do that.

So I'm going to jump right in unless you have any questions for me.

No, no, go, go ahead.

Don't go.

All right, great.

Excellent.

So the very first thing that I see when I bring up your podcast on Apple and Spotify is your cover art.

So your cover art does not have the name of the podcast on it right now.

It is just a large graphic that says Season nine with Ashley Costello.

Is that correct?

That is you, right?

Okay.

All right, I'm sorry, I could have put that on there.

Do you know what?

Now you've said it.

It's like, oh my God, that's so obvious.

But like, well, this is, these are the things that I look at.

These are the things that I. Yeah, so.

And you know what?

It could have happened, you know, to anybody.

Like you change it and whatever.

But so my, my goal here, my thought process here is I, I, unless, which I do know actually I went to your website, so you are award winning.

So you are well known.

So if you want to leave your photo in there, my suggestion here is that beautiful pink dress is great because it goes with your color scheme.

I would remove the background and, and then make you a little bit bigger in the COVID art.

And then I would make sure that your title goes from one end of the podcast cover art to the other.

That is super important.

And here's the other thing I'm going to say about your, your title.

Drop the right away today, whatever.

Because the is not a keyword that you can actually search.

It's just not even needed.

So I always tell people, drop the, drop a, you know, any articles and then drop any word.

Like if you had podcast, just drop it.

And then create your podcast cover art so that you can put the at the top.

You can still say the in the intro and all of that.

But for the COVID art and for discoverability on podcast players, just drop the or podcast, which you don't have the podcast.

So that's good.

All right.

So now the other thing in regards to this is, is now you're calling it the Resilient Kid, but I think you might be able to just do a little tweaking to the podcast name to bring in a little bit more of some keywords.

Now, I know that you have, I have four pages, four tiny pages of notes here that I did.

So I, I don't know, I did listen to the latest one that released yesterday, the Low Mood in Kids, and I have a few things to say about that too.

But.

And again, none of what I'm saying is a reflection of what you're doing.

I'm just giving you some ideas on how to improve things if you want to continue to do it the way you do.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

It won't be.

We won't take it personal.

We're here.

You're the expert.

We're here for, for it all.

So.

Okay, great, excellent.

I, I never want you to feel like, oh, my gosh, that was terrible.

No, I want, I'm trying to bring you up, lift you up some.

So here.

So the Resilient Kid.

I understand that, but let me think here.

So you have the Resilient Academy is the name of your, your website that I see on there.

Would you, would you say that you are more talking about a resilient kid or resilient parenting on the podcast?

We are talking more about, probably.

Well, we, the audience is parents and educators.

So we are talking to, you know, parents really there.

The Resilient Kid name came about because.

So I'm from North.

In, in the uk, north of England.

And we have like a saying where I'm from, like our kid.

Meaning that could be your sister, your cousin, your friend, but it would be somebody that would hold close.

And when I rebranded, oh, probably.

I.

Want to say six or seven years ago, the Resilient Kid was a name that we did because it was in a TED Talk of mine, a TedX talk of mine, and then I became known as the Resilient Kid.

And that's just kind of how it's involved.

So we have, like, you know, Resilient Kid, Resilient Teen.

And the Resilient Academy is just a way of keeping all that together, isn't it, Chantal?

Really?

Okay, first of all, what I heard there and I did not know, so we're gonna.

We're gonna reach back out about that, is that you're a TEDx speaker.

So that needs to be somewhere on here.

So we're gonna talk about that in a second, too.

But for.

For your name, what I'm proposing that you perhaps look at is adding on a title extension.

And that would just be either something.

So I wrote one down here.

I wrote down Therapy and Tips for Raising Strong Kids and Teens, something like that.

It would be a lot longer to get that.

You do not have to say it in the intro.

You do not have to change your podcast cover art to reflect the new name.

The name would only be placed up on your podcast host.

And that would be just for searchability.

So you.

You wouldn't actually be rebranding the podcast.

You can still call it.

Although I would definitely drop the.

Sorry, still.

I still would drop the.

But I would call it Resilient Kid.

And then.

And then again some really key SEO words like therapy, raising Strong Kids, Strong Teens tips, things like that, and add those in there, because that.

That is going to be the things that people are searching for when they're.

When they're doing their.

I want to listen to a podcast about raising strong Teens.

You're going to pop up.

So that's some things that you want there.

Now you have as your name the Resilient Kid by.

Do you have a question?

She is not just an award winner and a TEDx speaker, but she is also an author.

Okay.

Wondered what you were gonna say then.

I was like, for a minute.

Okay.

All right, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna real quickly talk about the name on your podcast, but then we're gonna dive into the description because that is.

That's super important.

So another piece here is you actually have your name as the Resilient Kid by Ashley Costello.

So that is the title of your name as the host in your hosting platform.

Remove the Resilient Kid by.

Because you don't need it.

Do Ashley Costello, and then add in some of your names.

Add in, add in some of your accolades as far as I believe you have other pieces because you're a psychotherapist.

So you could say, you know, psychotherapy, or you could say, you know, teen expert or something like that.

That is also going to be searchable.

So remove all the rest at the beginning.

Keep your name.

And then what I like to do is on the keyboard above the Enter key is that line there, Chantelle.

That's what I'd like to use.

I don't, I don't know what that's called.

I wish I did, but I don't.

I know.

I don't know.

We all know what you mean.

Okay, yeah, I like to use that.

And then, and then just some type of a title that people are going to be searching.

That people could be searching for.

Okay, all right.

We're going to dive right into that description because your description.

And I also know, because you're using Anchor.

So I know you're very limited on your podcast description.

Anchor does not allow you to have very much, much as a. I think it's very short, like 500 words or something like that.

So we're going to have to try very hard to stuff in as many keywords.

And the fact that you are a TEDx speaker, an author and award winner in that little description, you don't need to mention the Resilient Kid Podcast again.

You don't need to say hello.

You don't need.

Like right now it says, discover the power of resilience with the Resilient Kid podcast.

Nope.

We want to start strong.

We want to be like TEDx speaker, author and award winner Ashley Costello speaks about.

And then what you speak about specifically, we want all those keywords.

Bam, bam, bam, right there.

Because podcast players first look at the podcast name, which is why I started with that, to get that.

Then they're going to look at the podcast description.

And that's why we need that to be as almost.

And I hesitate sometimes to say this, but with Anchor, I don't have any other really great way to say this stuff.

That, that about as full as you can with keywords.

Full of.

You can.

Because you don't have very much real estate in Anchor.

If you were to move to someplace else, you have a lot more real estate.

But I know Anchor doesn't, which is fine.

You can stay there.

Absolutely.

No, no problem with it.

But stuff that with as much keywords as you want mention.

I didn't know that you were based on this.

You know, based on Your description.

I didn't know that you were a TEDx talker, an author, and a.

And an award winner.

So, you know, it does say that you're a seasoned psychotherapist, and it does say you're a visionary founder of the Resilient Kid.

Those are fine.

But my, My goal here is to really get a hold of some of those real amazing keywords because people.

People.

TEDx speaker is.

Holds weight.

People love that.

People love to hear that.

See that?

And if they are.

If they're doing a search on TEDx speakers, wouldn't it be great?

They just.

You just popped up because that was in your description.

Right.

So, yeah.

All right.

I know that there's a ton of other pieces here that you could.

You could do.

There's a couple more pieces here that I might want to just, like, kind of gloss over.

Unless you.

Which I didn't hear.

Unless you are needing to put in some type of a disclaimer that this is not a.

Not medical advice, which I know I've, I've worked with other therapists and other.

Other actually, other kid therapists.

Actually, I've.

If you need to put that in, then I would see the understanding of the intro, but nowadays, just omit it.

Remove it completely.

We do not need it.

We do not need 15 seconds of music, and we don't need you to do, like, a little chapter of, like, this episode is going to be on Low Moods in Kids.

Nope, we don't need that.

Oh, okay.

Start right away.

Capture them right away.

Just be like.

All right, so this week, I think you talked about this week being a blue week.

Just this week is the blue week.

You want to know why it's a blue week?

This is why.

And just go right in.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm also.

I have so many.

I have so many thoughts, but do you have a question, Chantel?

Does she not mention herself or anything?

Not that I.

Not that I heard in the first.

In the.

In the one that I listened to.

The way that you would want it.

Would you say that she would just start with the episode and then somewhere along the line introduce herself or those that are new or.

Yeah.

Yes.

So.

So you can.

You can absolutely do that organically in every single episode.

And I do in my.

Even in my own podcast.

And I suggest that.

So you want to just get started right away and be like, you know, this is blue week, and this is why it's a blue week.

And hey, by the way, I'm Ashley Costello, and you are listening to the Resilient.

Well, you can still say the, the resilient kid and then whatever, whatever you want to say.

And today we're diving into why this is a blue week.

So let me just tell you.

La la la la la la la.

On you go.

So you can.

And you can be it.

You can have it in there organically and I would always add it in there organically.

And that's how I usually start my podcasts, is I will.

And let me also tell you, I start them that way, but sometimes I don't start them.

When I record, I go back and I re.

I record like an intro because sometimes I get kind of like on a track and then I'm like, you know what?

That really needed a little bit more explanation at the beginning.

And I, I create just a little, a little 30 second clip at the beginning to talk about what it is that I talked about.

And then I just add it seamlessly in.

I just kind of just like a highlight almost of.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

You don't need it.

I mean, like I do have clients that have.

They do their intro and then we do a tiniest like 3 second clip of music just to denote that that was the intro and then we're diving into the episode.

You could do that if you wanted to, but it's not necessary.

Totally up to you.

Yeah.

One other thing, and this is probably actually more of a Chantelle think.

Does Chantelle do your editing?

Okay.

Chantelle, my darling, when, when we have a conversation, I'm going to introduce you to something called Auphonic.

What is that?

Auphanic is a.

Just a website.

It's a little app website and it is absolutely amazing for normalizing audio.

So when I listened to your podcast this morning, I had my speaker on a hundred and I still was having trouble hearing you.

Oh, wow.

But if she runs your podcast through just Auphonic and it's.

It.

There's.

You get two hours free every month or it's very minimal cost, like literally like one time charge for like hours and hours.

But if you.

And what it does is it will take that audio and it will actually make it so that people don't have to listen on like the highest setting and they can hear you.

So.

And it, that's all it does is it normalizes the audio.

So.

But it's a amazing tool that I always keep in my back pocket.

I love to tell people about it because it's really.

It's such a miracle worker.

So it is such a great, great tool.

So that is a phonic Chantelle, in case you didn't hear that.

So.

All right.

Any questions about what I've told you, I've loaded you up with a bunch of stuff and I want to make sure that, you know, you don't feel overloaded.

But if you have any questions.

Yeah, no, it just, like, when you're saying it, it's Kim.

It just sounds like, why didn't we think of that?

Like, why?

You know, but.

And it's funny because there's a few times that, you know, Chantelle and I have had a discussion about should we carry on with the podcast?

You know, and we have families that are like regular listeners.

You know, they'll message me on WhatsApp or email and go, oh, you know, thanks for that today, and stuff.

And the numbers aren't massive.

But then I think, my God, like, we, you know, we've got a fair amount of content out.

Why are you just going to stop it, like now, you know, kind of thing?

And it's one of them where it is time consuming.

I do like doing it.

So the more that we can use it and the more that we can spread the, you know, any tips and tricks we're here for.

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The beauty of this is just a few of these tips that I've offered you here will help you be seen by a wider audience, which I think is what you're looking for, too.

And then the other pieces that I help with and the other pieces that, you know, you and Chantelle can talk about is like organically adding in CTAs.

Now, I will be honest, I did not listen to the end.

I listened the first, I don't know, 14 minutes, I guess something like that of the 22 minute episode.

So I didn't listen to the end to see if you had a cta.

But having a clear call to action in every episode and sometimes organically within the episode helps too.

If you had any testimonials from people, you could maybe read some of those or they could read them.

If you, If Chantelle's been listening to my podcast at the beginning of each of the episodes, starting in January, what I've been doing is I've just been having any clients that have been doing testimonials speak on Speak Pipe.

And then I just add them to the beginning of the episode and I rotate through them.

I'm going to rotate through them because it's just another way of people, you know, validating what you're doing.

So there's a couple of different, like, tweaks that you could do like that you do have guests on.

So that's, that's great.

If you want guests that are also have a podcast, because you may be then able to do a podcast swap.

So you might be able to say, you know, I'd like to be on your podcast, but first come on mine, you know, that type of thing.

And people that have podcasts have a tendency to share their podcasts.

And, and it's not a hard, hard stretch for their listener to say, ah, I'm gonna go listen to that one.

So you're, you're like borrowing their audience, so to speak, which is great.

How is that feel with you right now?

How does that feel in my.

Did I cover pieces you wanted to know?

Did I not cover something that you wanted to know?

No, no, absolutely.

They were, you know, they're really like easy, practical tips.

We could do like.

Yeah.

Really quickly.

Yeah.

And so you, you have 103 episodes and at this point each of those episodes should be getting about a hundred, the minimum 100 downloads every 30 days.

Not even nearly.

Yeah.

So these tweaks will just help you kind of grab more of an audience, especially since you are an award winner.

I would love to have seen in that award.

And you know what, I'm going to double check it here because it, it's up here.

I would love to have seen that it said somewhere on there that you were a podcaster.

Yeah.

You know, or even speaker speaker, podcaster, TEDx speaker, you know, that type thing.

Only because that's going to then bring people over to the podcast.

Speaking of also, and I know that Chantelle can do this very easily for you.

The podcast button.

While I love that you have the guest speaker up there or, you know, be a guest.

And I love that you have the listeners lounge.

You should also have a feed to your podcast there.

It's just a simple, easy feed on the website.

Yeah, yeah.

Because here's the thing, you're going to then send in your social media because on your Instagram and Facebook and all that, you're going to say, listen to my podcast.

And you're going to say theresiliantacademy.co.uk podcast.

And so what's going to happen is they're going to go to listen and then they're going to go, oh my gosh, she does all these other things.

Let me go take a look.

And they're going to poke around and then, you know, maybe join your newsletter, maybe buy maybe do, you know, so just, just another little tip There you have some great information there.

I would not move that off of the podcast page.

I would just maybe push it down and then put the feed up at the top there.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, yeah.

Just so people can feed Kim.

Because obviously I'm not as tech savvy as Chantal.

That's why I have Chantelle.

Cause she's amazing.

But that podcast feed, is that just to get them over to the podcast or is that like the weekly feed?

Like, do you know?

Yeah, so there should.

There's.

There's usually two different options.

And I'm not as familiar with with Anchor or Spotify for creators as I am with other feeds, but there is usually a feed where all she has to do is put the code in one time and it will update every time you update an episode.

Or there's also another feed just specific for that episode.

So, like, if you wanted to do a blog post about that episode or something like that, you could put that right and embed that right into the blog post.

So okay.

Yeah, there's usually two different options.

Oh, that's brilliant.

Thank you.

Of course.

Yeah.

All right.

Anything else I can help you with today?

So, yes, you can tell me what your podcast is.

I would love to know what your podcast is and then have a listen to that.

See in action.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah.

So my podcast is podcasting for your spiritual business.

So I help a lot of woo type women, but not just them.

So I have pastors and ministers and then I have priestesses and light healers and.

And yeah, I help a whole array.

But all of this information is for anyone.

All my.

It's just when I have.

When I niche down to one.

Well, first of all, I didn't really niche down.

They niche down for me, by the way.

They just flooded in, which was amazing.

But the best part is, is that when I'm trying to connect people, because I have.

I know all of these people, I can usually get like a podcast guest for them and type thing.

I can, you know, kind of do that.

But I will say I did just help a woman that does something similar to you.

So if you are looking for a podcast swap, I might be able to connect you with her.

So where is she based?

She's here in the United States.

And hers is single parenting with connection, not perfection.

And I like that.

Yeah, so she.

Like I said, I think they're kind of adjacent.

You might want to listen to a few to make sure that she's not like a direct competitor or anything like that.

But I do feel like, if you wanted to, I could definitely make an introduction for the two of you guys.

So.

And that's what I love to do.

Not only do I love to help people with their podcast, grow their podcast, but I love the connection piece and I never know who walks into my world, so.

No, that's Belle.

And yeah, the spiritual side is definitely up mine and Chantal street, anyway, we're always, you know, talking about.

Of stuff.

So.

Cool.

Oh, Kim, honestly, I can't thank you enough for your time today.

It's.

It's been brilliant.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna go away and have a look, have a listen.

Should I say not a look, Have a listen to your podcast and get some details of, of you from Chantelle for you as well, if that's okay.

Yeah, of course, Absolutely.

I'm here.

This is what I do, you know, all the time.

So whenever you're ready, you know, just reach out and it can certainly.

We can go through a lot more.

You know, I, I took, I took 15 minutes worth of notes before the call as you were talking, so I'm sure that if I, if I have these, then I, I'm sure that there's a lot more there that I can.

When I dive in deeper.

So.

Cool.

Yeah, because, I mean, you probably get, but we get all the time, like, oh, you know, you're not being seen, your podcast, not being heard, blah, blah, blah, emails and stuff.

And I ignore them because I think, you know, that can just be anyone.

Whereas the minute that Chantelle said, oh, you know, I know somebody, she's really good, I was like, yes, like, absolutely.

So that's, that's.

Honestly, it's been brilliant today.

Like, just that straight away is, that's easy, fixable, fantastic.

Yeah, fantastic.

And I will send this recording over to Chantelle too, so she has it.

And with your permission, I may post this as a podcast episode if that is something that you're agreeable to.

Yeah, absolutely.

That'd be great.

Fantastic.

So if that is the case, then please would you introduce yourself and tell the world the name of your podcast,.

Resilient Kid by Ashley Costello, award winning psychotherapist, TEDx speaker and podcaster.

I love it.

That's amazing.

Good job.

I was like, I can't remember what you said.

I can't remember what you said.

You did it.

You did it.

It's amazing.

Thank you so much, Kim.

You are very welcome, Chantelle.

Do you have any questions for me?

We have no questions.

I'm sorry that I missed half of the chat but I'll definitely listen to the recording and I'm sure we will make some changes and hopefully see an increase.

Yeah, no, so this is not going to be an overnight increase.

I do want to let you know that it's not overnight but but right now January through the end of May, beginning of June is our podcast growth season just so you know.

But January through May, end of end of May, beginning of June, you should see your numbers increase with just a few of these tweaks and so yeah definitely get on, get on them and then none of them have to be hard.

Like I said don't rebrand the whole name of the podcast.

Just add those into anchor.

Yeah.

Oh brilliant.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for your time Kim.

You're very welcome.

It was so it was a pleasure to meet you.

Ashley.

Thank you so much for, for coming on today.

Thank you.