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Inside the Podcaster's Studio: Private Podcast with Nicole Cheri Oden
Episode 546th March 2024 • Podcasting 101 with Rachael • Rachael Botfield
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Welcome to Season 3 of the podcast!

My first guest is Nicole Cheri Oden, host of the Uncomplicating Trademarks podcast.

Nicole wanted to help digital content creators and online service providers understand complex legal processes.

What I find so interesting is that her podcast is private.

You need to sign up to get access to the episodes. So that when you enter her world, you really want to be there.

We chat about how Nicole launched her podcast, shares her challenges and her inquisitive, experimental attitude towards podcasting!

Nicole’s Top Tip is to commit to starting your podcast and to reach out for help if you are overwhelmed.

About Nicole

A licensed attorney in the State of California for 12+ years, Nicole left Big Law to start her own virtual law firm – Nicole Cheri Oden Law, PC – to make trademark registration and boutique legal services accessible to small business owners across the United States.

After Nicole started working with fellow online entrepreneurs, she found many of them were overwhelmed by their legal needs. So she opened her digital shop, Legal Templates and More, to bring legal awareness and protection to small business owners.

Her attorney-drafted templates are customizable for almost every industry – making legal protection available to everyone!

Sign up for the podcast - https://nicolecheriodenlaw.com/podcast/

Website - https://nicolecheriodenlaw.com/

Connect on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nicolecheriodenlaw/

Transcripts

Rachael Botfield:

Hi, and welcome to podcasting one on one with Rachel.

Rachael Botfield:

This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own

Rachael Botfield:

businesses and want to start a podcast or who may already have a podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast

Rachael Botfield:

started and managing it along the way.

Rachael Botfield:

I'll also be interviewing other female podcast hosts to give you

Rachael Botfield:

real insight into what it's like.

Rachael Botfield:

Have

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Hi,

Rachael Botfield:

everybody, and welcome to this week's episode.

Rachael Botfield:

Today I am welcoming Nicole Cherie Oden.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole is an attorney and legal consultant from the States who helps online service

Rachael Botfield:

providers and digital content creators.

Rachael Botfield:

She is also the host of the uncomplicating trademarks, private podcast, which is why

Rachael Botfield:

I've invited her here today to share her.

Rachael Botfield:

Podcast insights and experience with all of you.

Rachael Botfield:

So welcome Nicole.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Thanks, Rachel.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm excited to be here.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm excited

Rachael Botfield:

to chat to you.

Rachael Botfield:

It's been a while since we've chatted because we met.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm trying to remember the year.

Rachael Botfield:

I feel, I feel hard when, when I was, it was through Michelle Denayo's

Rachael Botfield:

Accelerated Business Alliance.

Rachael Botfield:

Are you still part of the Alliance?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: No, so the alliance?

Rachael Botfield:

No, so the alliance is no longer going.

Rachael Botfield:

She's relaunched a year long focused visionary program and that I am a part of.

Rachael Botfield:

And that just kicked off in December and that's been great.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh,

Rachael Botfield:

this is her planning thing.

Rachael Botfield:

Yes, I've heard about her because she used to just do The single planning thing,

Rachael Botfield:

didn't she, like the December and then she's made into a year long program now.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, I love Michelle Michelle Denies Podcast, her strategy while I still

Rachael Botfield:

listen to that and that's how I kind of got to know you and, and Michelle.

Rachael Botfield:

So, just for a little bit of context for listeners.

Rachael Botfield:

So, do you want to just let us know a little bit more about what you do and also

Rachael Botfield:

like why you decided to start a podcast?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So like you said, I'm a licensed attorney in California.

Rachael Botfield:

I've been licensed for 12 years now, and I work pretty much primarily

Rachael Botfield:

with online business owners.

Rachael Botfield:

And so a lot of coaches, agency owners social media managers,

Rachael Botfield:

VAs, those types of clients.

Rachael Botfield:

And, I mean, if we're being honest, legal can feel very dry and people have

Rachael Botfield:

a very clear impression of what they think legal is and what an attorney looks

Rachael Botfield:

like and what the process looks like.

Rachael Botfield:

And so for me, Starting the private podcast was a way for me to connect

Rachael Botfield:

with not only potential clients, but also current clients, because it's

Rachael Botfield:

become a great resource for me to send current clients to if they have

Rachael Botfield:

questions and like want to flush something out a little bit more.

Rachael Botfield:

Maybe after we have a strategy session and it's kind of reinforcing

Rachael Botfield:

something we talked about.

Rachael Botfield:

So it's become a great resource kind of for various.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield:

I think that when people hear kind of legal, it's like,

Rachael Botfield:

Oh, I don't, I don't know about it.

Rachael Botfield:

And what the kind of process is as well.

Rachael Botfield:

So it can be quite sometimes a daunting thing.

Rachael Botfield:

I think it's like up there with GDPR stuff, I think sometimes,

Rachael Botfield:

but I think that that's like a common misconception, isn't it?

Rachael Botfield:

Actually, when you look at it, you can make it much more palatable for people to.

Rachael Botfield:

be able to embrace that side of thing for their business because it's

Rachael Botfield:

an important thing to do for your business to make sure that everything

Rachael Botfield:

is, you know, set up correctly.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

I think when you approach it to as an online business owner, I kind of, a lot

Rachael Botfield:

of people will shut down because they just think, Oh my gosh, all these different

Rachael Botfield:

pieces and all these different components.

Rachael Botfield:

And my main focus is trademarks and contracts.

Rachael Botfield:

And the podcast focus is trademarks because it is.

Rachael Botfield:

a big buzzword in the online space.

Rachael Botfield:

People kind of hear the word trademark and think it's something

Rachael Botfield:

that they absolutely have to do.

Rachael Botfield:

And I'm a huge proponent of registering your trademarks, but actually providing

Rachael Botfield:

an actionable advice and you know, how tos and guides in terms of getting your

Rachael Botfield:

business set up the best way that you can and making sure that you're using

Rachael Botfield:

a mark that's actually protectable and you're not going to be on the

Rachael Botfield:

receiving end of a cease and desist.

Rachael Botfield:

Being able to break it down kind of by topic in a way that flows versus just

Rachael Botfield:

dumping a ton of information on people, I think has been the most beneficial thing.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I know somebody that went through the was going through

Rachael Botfield:

the trademark process and I think somebody else was using the same trademark as

Rachael Botfield:

her and they had to, either she had to change, but I know she was saying the

Rachael Botfield:

whole process was lost because she had to re then start again and, and, and.

Rachael Botfield:

So it's especially, I think she's she was doing it for coaching and she had

Rachael Botfield:

a practice, so she wanted to do that.

Rachael Botfield:

So I feel like that would be quite important that you want to have

Rachael Botfield:

that trademark sealed down so that it's there for your business.

Rachael Botfield:

I noticed one of your episodes recently was talking about that, a trademark on

Rachael Botfield:

your brand as well, which I found quite.

Rachael Botfield:

Interesting.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, because they really are two distinct pieces.

Rachael Botfield:

And I think a lot of people lump together a brand and a trademark.

Rachael Botfield:

And while they're related, they are different.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, your brand really is the way that you make your clients

Rachael Botfield:

and your customers feel about your products or your services.

Rachael Botfield:

And when people see your trademarks, they think of your brand.

Rachael Botfield:

And just to kind of go back to the beginning, a trademark

Rachael Botfield:

really is a source indicator.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, a phrase, a tagline, a name, a logo, something that really ties to your

Rachael Botfield:

brand in the marketplace so that people see it and think, Oh, that belongs to

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole or, Oh, that belongs to Rachel.

Rachael Botfield:

That's who's providing those goods or services.

Rachael Botfield:

And people kind of start there and like, Oh, I'm going to jump out

Rachael Botfield:

there and start operating under.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, this name or this logo without really kind of doing the legwork for

Rachael Botfield:

all of the research and all of the kind of issues spotting before you

Rachael Botfield:

spend the money trying to register.

Rachael Botfield:

And that was kind of where the idea for the private pod podcast came in because

Rachael Botfield:

I was having a lot of consultations with online business owners that.

Rachael Botfield:

We're kind of jumping ahead without having done kind of that due diligence

Rachael Botfield:

and looking before they left and having to have that hard conversation with

Rachael Botfield:

them about, okay, well, there's either already a registered mark or there's,

Rachael Botfield:

you know, a company that's been using it for, you know, 10 plus years.

Rachael Botfield:

So, you know, we're treading on, you know, thin ice here.

Rachael Botfield:

And so it's kind of a way to provide that education and that free resource,

Rachael Botfield:

which is a big cornerstone of my law firm is I really want to make.

Rachael Botfield:

Legal approachable and accessible for everyone, no matter whether you're

Rachael Botfield:

a huge billion dollar corporation or you're a scrappy online business owner

Rachael Botfield:

that, you know, is making 10 K a month.

Rachael Botfield:

I want to make sure that you're getting protections in place and you have the

Rachael Botfield:

knowledge because you do have to have some legal knowledge as an entrepreneur.

Rachael Botfield:

It's just not something you can get away from.

Rachael Botfield:

Exactly.

Rachael Botfield:

So that was where the idea, like you said, talking to some of your

Rachael Botfield:

clients, that was where you came up with the idea for the podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

So how did you kind of start with the planning side of things?

Rachael Botfield:

Did you have a frequency in mind or all those kind of things?

Rachael Botfield:

Things that you have to do with a podcast, did you, how did you kind of get started?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, I mean, I, to be honest, I was a little scared

Rachael Botfield:

about adding something else to my plate because I do have two businesses.

Rachael Botfield:

So I have a law firm, but then I also have an online business

Rachael Botfield:

that provides legal templates and resources for online business owners.

Rachael Botfield:

So I have that day to day going on.

Rachael Botfield:

And so it was kind of like, Ooh, I've got this great idea, but how do I make it?

Rachael Botfield:

Not feel overwhelming because I think that was kind of my first initial

Rachael Botfield:

impression was there was a lot of moving pieces to get a podcast up and out.

Rachael Botfield:

And so kind of, you know, serendipitously when I was thinking about this idea,

Rachael Botfield:

about a month or two later, I'd heard about this platform called Hello

Rachael Botfield:

Audio that gives you the opportunity to do public or private podcasts.

Rachael Botfield:

And I had been kind of toying with the idea of.

Rachael Botfield:

A public podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

And then when I heard this idea of a private podcast, I was like, Oh, this is

Rachael Botfield:

great because then it can feel like it's a community that I'm fostering that kind

Rachael Botfield:

of you're in this exclusive conversation with me, and it's a way that I can kind

Rachael Botfield:

of connect with my clients as well.

Rachael Botfield:

And so I'd signed up cause they were having a.

Rachael Botfield:

A black Friday special.

Rachael Botfield:

And so I'd signed up just to try it.

Rachael Botfield:

And I thought, okay, I'm just going to get scrappy and I'm

Rachael Botfield:

going to, you know, try it.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm going to launch one episode a month.

Rachael Botfield:

That's all I started with.

Rachael Botfield:

Cause it seemed like the easiest, like at least I could do that.

Rachael Botfield:

I could sit down and record one episode and go from there.

Rachael Botfield:

And the podcast is.

Rachael Botfield:

A year and two months old now, and I've moved to where it's an episode a week,

Rachael Botfield:

but they're very short episodes, which is something I really wanted to, I mean,

Rachael Botfield:

people aren't going to jump up and down to listen to a legal podcast for 45 minutes.

Rachael Botfield:

I mean, let's just be honest.

Rachael Botfield:

And so making sure that the episodes were kind of digestible and bite

Rachael Botfield:

size and approachable was big for me.

Rachael Botfield:

So, you know, I think my longest episode right now is 15 minutes.

Rachael Botfield:

It's that, so.

Rachael Botfield:

So two things, I love that, that they're short and actual like

Rachael Botfield:

we say before we hit record, though I think the type of subject that you're

Rachael Botfield:

doing as well, it works really, really well to have those short digestible pieces

Rachael Botfield:

of information you're breaking down.

Rachael Botfield:

That information that people are feeling overwhelmed about and making it like

Rachael Botfield:

really easy and simple for them to follow those, you know, follow your advice.

Rachael Botfield:

And I love that it's a private podcast and I know that it's a free private podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

So I was really, really interested in this.

Rachael Botfield:

I've not heard of Hello Audio, did you say that you that you do that through?

Rachael Botfield:

So I use a podcast hosting platform called Captivate and they I had a course

Rachael Botfield:

from a lady called Janet Murray and she has, in her course, she has private

Rachael Botfield:

podcast she hosts through Captivate.

Rachael Botfield:

So I'd seen that, but that was obviously a paid, a paid platform, so I'd not

Rachael Botfield:

seen it like that, but I thought it was a really good idea, like you say,

Rachael Botfield:

to foster that community and have.

Rachael Botfield:

People coming in, they really want to listen to, about the trademarks,

Rachael Botfield:

have that information from you.

Rachael Botfield:

How have you found with people with signups and, and

Rachael Botfield:

people joining your community?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Well, okay, so complete transparency here,

Rachael Botfield:

which is a big thing for me.

Rachael Botfield:

I had worked with a tech person to set up the landing page on my website who.

Rachael Botfield:

Set things up incorrectly.

Rachael Botfield:

And I had no idea.

Rachael Botfield:

And so it was conflicting with my, my cookies often so that when people

Rachael Botfield:

landed on the page, rather than seeing the convert kit often form, it was

Rachael Botfield:

blank unless they accepted all cookies.

Rachael Botfield:

And that was that way for six months.

Rachael Botfield:

And so the launch I've, and I've had a great amount of signups, but you

Rachael Botfield:

know, was truncated, I think, because I mean, let's be honest, a lot of

Rachael Botfield:

people don't accept for cookies these days because not everybody wants their

Rachael Botfield:

actions across the internet tracked or they use incognito platforms.

Rachael Botfield:

So that was kind of like a bit wah wah.

Rachael Botfield:

So when I found that out and I ended up hiring a new website management

Rachael Botfield:

company to come in and clean it up and so things are running now and the

Rachael Botfield:

signups have increased exponentially since those first six months.

Rachael Botfield:

That's so frustrating

Rachael Botfield:

as well in your first six months to have that problem but like

Rachael Botfield:

you're right it's something you wouldn't necessarily notice though, would you?

Rachael Botfield:

Because you don't go to your sign up page and, and major.

Rachael Botfield:

And on

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: my, you know, when I visit, I've got all cookies

Rachael Botfield:

because I want it, you know.

Rachael Botfield:

Of course.

Rachael Botfield:

And so it wasn't conflicting for me until I finally had somebody reach out

Rachael Botfield:

and was like, Hey, like I went to your sign up page, but there's nothing there.

Rachael Botfield:

Blank.

Rachael Botfield:

And I was like, what

Rachael Botfield:

? Rachael Botfield: So, oh, well thankfully that person reaching

Rachael Botfield:

out to you to, to do that.

Rachael Botfield:

So yeah, that's really great that you've had, had silence and

Rachael Botfield:

have people coming in that way.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I just really like that method of making, you know, people, you know,

Rachael Botfield:

really being there as well because I, I feel like like podcast discoverability

Rachael Botfield:

as well can be quite difficult.

Rachael Botfield:

on the whole, I think, searching through different platforms.

Rachael Botfield:

So, you know that when someone signs up, they really want to be

Rachael Botfield:

there and they really want to listen to what you've got to say and the

Rachael Botfield:

information that you're sharing.

Rachael Botfield:

So, I think that's a really, really nice strategy to, to, to use for your podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

How have you felt with kind of like the production elements of the

Rachael Botfield:

podcast, like the recording and.

Rachael Botfield:

You said you've upped your kind of recordings now, episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

So how have you found, because I think like one of the biggest

Rachael Botfield:

things I say to people like is like, have you got time for a podcast?

Rachael Botfield:

Can you fit in your business?

Rachael Botfield:

And I think, you know, you did the sensible thing where you, you know, you

Rachael Botfield:

look at what you can manage because.

Rachael Botfield:

I think it's overwhelming starting a new project anyway, but then trying

Rachael Botfield:

to crowbar it in when actually you don't really have the time is just

Rachael Botfield:

so difficult, I think, as well.

Rachael Botfield:

So, how have you found things have evolved over, like, just over a

Rachael Botfield:

year that you've been podcasting?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, so I started with the month to month episode, and because

Rachael Botfield:

So once you join the private podcast, you get access to the feed and you have

Rachael Botfield:

all, you can binge all the episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

And then you also get emailed weekly as they come out now.

Rachael Botfield:

And I had transitioned to weekly because the once a month, even just picking one

Rachael Botfield:

topic a month, because there's so many components to things, the episodes were

Rachael Botfield:

going to be longer and it just felt.

Rachael Botfield:

overwhelming.

Rachael Botfield:

And I didn't want to overwhelm my listeners.

Rachael Botfield:

I didn't want them to tune in to a couple of episodes and think,

Rachael Botfield:

okay, this is still too much for me.

Rachael Botfield:

And so what I would do is pick a topic.

Rachael Botfield:

And then I started breaking it down into the weekly episodes and that's

Rachael Botfield:

felt a little bit more digestible.

Rachael Botfield:

So I live and die by my calendar.

Rachael Botfield:

And so what I've done is I, I blocked out one morning a month where I sit

Rachael Botfield:

down and I map out my four episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

another morning where I record the four episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

And since my episodes average around five minutes, it's, you know, a couple

Rachael Botfield:

of outtakes, but it's, it's, it's, you know, maybe an hour, hour and a half that

Rachael Botfield:

I'm recording in the scheme of things.

Rachael Botfield:

And I send it off to my editor who just adds on the intro and the outro

Rachael Botfield:

and cleans up the audio and sends it back to me like the next week.

Rachael Botfield:

And so it's become kind of this streamlined process for

Rachael Botfield:

me where it's really not.

Rachael Botfield:

Very time consuming and then everything gets uploaded and I can schedule

Rachael Botfield:

everything and I can schedule my emails and I work with a copywriter so she's able

Rachael Botfield:

to go in, listen, pull out the emails, pull out show notes, and everything is

Rachael Botfield:

just kind of streamlined at this point.

Rachael Botfield:

And there was a, you know, the first six months with finding out the opt in issue

Rachael Botfield:

and kind of toying with how Frequently, I wanted to email people and, you know, what

Rachael Botfield:

I wanted to include in the emails and the show notes was kind of a learning curve,

Rachael Botfield:

but I feel like I've found my groove now, and it's kind of a well oiled machine.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I

Rachael Botfield:

think doing things, you know, over a year now, like say

Rachael Botfield:

you've managed to get your process and you know what you need to do.

Rachael Botfield:

I was going to ask about the marketing, so you have somebody that supports

Rachael Botfield:

you to be able to You know, get your promotional stuff out of there.

Rachael Botfield:

I think having an email list for your podcast is a really, really good thing.

Rachael Botfield:

I, I have one for mine that I like to, you know, every time a new episode comes out

Rachael Botfield:

and you know you're sharing it that way.

Rachael Botfield:

How have you found kind of listener engagement or people

Rachael Botfield:

engaging with you in the podcast?

Rachael Botfield:

'cause I know that I speak to a lot of other podcasts and for myself,

Rachael Botfield:

sometimes it's quite difficult to get, you know, you feel sometimes

Rachael Botfield:

you're speaking out into the void and you're not sure who's listening.

Rachael Botfield:

Even that.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, even when you look at your stats kind of thing.

Rachael Botfield:

So how do you feel with your engagement and with your audience?

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, it's been interesting to watch.

Rachael Botfield:

So the email open rate is sitting at about 80 percent

Rachael Botfield:

right now, which is really good.

Rachael Botfield:

And then the click through rate is at about like 50, which is still decent.

Rachael Botfield:

And then I'm finding that the episode downloads is going up, like the

Rachael Botfield:

further I get, and I think part of that too is testing the subject lines.

Rachael Botfield:

So I find that when I, the episode titles and the subject line of the

Rachael Botfield:

emails, when they correspond with something that's kind of a, a pain

Rachael Botfield:

point that I've heard about from clients versus more of an informational

Rachael Botfield:

title, they're opened more frequently and listened to more frequently.

Rachael Botfield:

So that's been an interesting, like trying to find.

Rachael Botfield:

That's really interesting.

Rachael Botfield:

Subject lines.

Rachael Botfield:

I, I find them very difficult myself to create subject lines

Rachael Botfield:

that you hope that that people are going to find that stand out.

Rachael Botfield:

It's just kind of like another piece that you need to fit in.

Rachael Botfield:

Is it your copywriter that comes up with the, helps you with the,

Rachael Botfield:

the subject lines and things?

Rachael Botfield:

Because I use a lot of I sometimes use AI to help give me some, you

Rachael Botfield:

know, enticing words that I can build into what I already, you

Rachael Botfield:

know, Kind of have for the episode.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, so I adore my copywriter.

Rachael Botfield:

We've, we've found this really good synergy.

Rachael Botfield:

We've been working together for like two years now and she's like

Rachael Botfield:

my left hand for all things copy in both my businesses, honestly.

Rachael Botfield:

And so what I do is she gets the complete episodes and then I'll kind of give her

Rachael Botfield:

thoughts about like this is kind of what I'm thinking and then she will go check

Rachael Botfield:

like The subject line scoring and use her tools to kind of give me feedback.

Rachael Botfield:

And sometimes we'll A and B test in terms of like, do we want to add an emoji?

Rachael Botfield:

Do we want to add a more descriptive term?

Rachael Botfield:

And like we get kind of creative.

Rachael Botfield:

And so that I think gamifying it almost and like looking at it as.

Rachael Botfield:

It's not something I have to do, but something that I get to do, I get to

Rachael Botfield:

share my wisdom and I get to connect with, with people and I get to experiment,

Rachael Botfield:

I think has made it a lot more fun for me because it's kind of like, Oh, okay,

Rachael Botfield:

let's see how this subject line does.

Rachael Botfield:

And let's see how something as small as adding an emoji does, it's made

Rachael Botfield:

it a little bit more fun and not so much of a, Oh, this is something I

Rachael Botfield:

have to sit down and do this month.

Rachael Botfield:

I think that's the, the danger with, with anything that you

Rachael Botfield:

don't want it to feel repetitive or you kind of get either overwhelmed or bored

Rachael Botfield:

with it because then it's, it doesn't feel like it's encouraging you to want to

Rachael Botfield:

continue doing something when it's hard.

Rachael Botfield:

I mean, I know that.

Rachael Botfield:

It's marketing in general, I know a lot of people struggle with it and

Rachael Botfield:

struggle with, you know, coming up with themes and ideas and things like that.

Rachael Botfield:

So how do you feel that your podcast works, kind of like

Rachael Botfield:

fits into your business, kind of with your marketing as well?

Rachael Botfield:

Do you use it in your marketing, kind of like for your social

Rachael Botfield:

media and things like that as

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: well?

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, so I try and say, you know, sign up for the private podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

In at least one to two social media captions you know, still giving value

Rachael Botfield:

independently of if they sign up or not, but like if they want to dive a little

Rachael Botfield:

bit deeper and further than joining the podcast, it's kind of the next step.

Rachael Botfield:

It's kind of also been great because with hello audio, there's shareable links.

Rachael Botfield:

So sometimes like with a client, I'll have a conversation about.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, the supplemental register or classes or so we'll have a conversation

Rachael Botfield:

then I can shoot them an email and be like, Hey, like if you wanted to

Rachael Botfield:

kind of reinforce what we talked about or, you know, here's an episode and

Rachael Botfield:

I can literally send them the link so that they can listen without even

Rachael Botfield:

having to sign up for the podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

So that's really nice.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So something I'm toying with is I'm going to be actually adding in another opt in

Rachael Botfield:

that's kind of even more ground level.

Rachael Botfield:

about naming, because that's kind of the, the crux, right?

Rachael Botfield:

As you're trying to come up with a name for your product, your service, your

Rachael Botfield:

business, and kind of the legal things to think about in a more approachable way.

Rachael Botfield:

And then we're going to curate kind of a library of episodes

Rachael Botfield:

where they don't have to.

Rachael Botfield:

necessarily sign up, but they kind of tie to the download and

Rachael Botfield:

then they have the option to continue to get the, the episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

And so that's something that we're toying with now.

Rachael Botfield:

So it's still evolving.

Rachael Botfield:

It's still growing.

Rachael Botfield:

It's become a really fun tool.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So I'm excited to see kind of where we grow and where we build from here.

Rachael Botfield:

So kind of like a private playlist almost.

Rachael Botfield:

Mm hmm.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I love the idea.

Rachael Botfield:

Actually, you know Devin Lee as well, don't you?

Rachael Botfield:

So, Devin, I remember when I met her, she had a playlist for all

Rachael Botfield:

the podcasts that she'd been on.

Rachael Botfield:

And I, that was kind of like the first time this was, you know, a year ago

Rachael Botfield:

now, but that was the first time I'd come across, like, curated playlists.

Rachael Botfield:

that you, for podcasts.

Rachael Botfield:

I've seen obviously curated playlists for music and things like

Rachael Botfield:

that, but I'd never really thought about them in terms of podcasts.

Rachael Botfield:

And I love the idea that she could have that on her website, have all

Rachael Botfield:

the curate, like all the episodes that she's been on to promote them.

Rachael Botfield:

And then, cause I, I created one myself, like for just the beginner

Rachael Botfield:

episodes and things like that.

Rachael Botfield:

So I think that as time goes on and like you say.

Rachael Botfield:

different things come up in different topics, so you can pull out those

Rachael Botfield:

themes and share those as a playlist.

Rachael Botfield:

I think that's a really nice way.

Rachael Botfield:

Also to get people introduced to your podcast as well, and then they

Rachael Botfield:

can choose to kind of like, get the rest of the episodes after having

Rachael Botfield:

like, access to that playlist.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, no, I, and I like that idea.

Rachael Botfield:

That's actually a really good idea, and one of the other things that

Rachael Botfield:

I was toying with was actually adding And I haven't done this

Rachael Botfield:

yet, but adding a shareable link.

Rachael Botfield:

One of the episodes is like what it looks like to work with my law firm.

Rachael Botfield:

So I walk you through from when you first reach out to hopefully when you

Rachael Botfield:

reach registration and then beyond how you can continue to work with me.

Rachael Botfield:

And so I've toyed with adding the link to the episode in my

Rachael Botfield:

signature line in my email.

Rachael Botfield:

And so that might be something that I do this year too.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield:

that's a great idea.

Rachael Botfield:

I, in my signature, I do have.

Rachael Botfield:

I have the link to my podcast, I have the link to my, my freebie playbook

Rachael Botfield:

podcast playbook, and then I've started a podcast community with my friend Sarah,

Rachael Botfield:

so I put that link in the bottom there.

Rachael Botfield:

I think having that, because it's kind of like prime real estate, isn't it

Rachael Botfield:

really, if someone's looking at your signature and you make it look really fun.

Rachael Botfield:

I wonder whether you can, I don't know whether you can like actually embed

Rachael Botfield:

the episode in the bottom of the email signature, that would be quite interesting

Rachael Botfield:

to find out whether you can actually do that, but I'm not sure whether that's.

Rachael Botfield:

I don't know if it's capable or not, but you know, like you can on your

Rachael Botfield:

website, you can embed like a player.

Rachael Botfield:

Although when I've ever tried to embed the actual player in an email, I've

Rachael Botfield:

never managed to get it to work properly.

Rachael Botfield:

So I just have a link to go to the player itself, but I've seen people

Rachael Botfield:

embed the player in the email.

Rachael Botfield:

before, but mine never seems to show up.

Rachael Botfield:

Maybe that's just my email provider, but I think, I think things like that

Rachael Botfield:

on emails I think it could work really well, especially when you're reaching

Rachael Botfield:

out to, to new people and things like that make it like, you know, more

Rachael Botfield:

pretty for people to, to click on.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

And zhuzhing up my email search alignment.

Rachael Botfield:

This year is on my to dos.

Rachael Botfield:

So.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I did mine last year.

Rachael Botfield:

I was like, Oh, I'm going to make it look all pretty.

Rachael Botfield:

It's like, there are, I, I kind of create an image and, I don't know

Rachael Botfield:

if you can put links in there.

Rachael Botfield:

Canva is a great thing for for helping you with design work.

Rachael Botfield:

I found when I first started my business, discovering Canva was

Rachael Botfield:

like, Oh my gosh, I love this.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: Yeah, no Canva I think was one of the very

Rachael Botfield:

first spends when I launched.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, mine now.

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: It's a suck hole for me because I can spend way too long

Rachael Botfield:

in Canva, so I have a graphic designer as well that I'm happily, like, here.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So that I don't spend hours upon hours tweaking fonts and sizes and

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, it can get quite time sucky.

Rachael Botfield:

I quite like the fact that I just like that you can have the templates.

Rachael Botfield:

I often change the bits, but I, for me, I find it difficult.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm not a graphic designer, so to start with a blank page, I'm just

Rachael Botfield:

like, I don't know what to do here.

Rachael Botfield:

So, but having those templates and things you can pull from just makes

Rachael Botfield:

it easier to be a bit more creative than I necessarily would be if I

Rachael Botfield:

wasn't, you know, just had to start with a blank page, you know, the time

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: before Canvas.

Rachael Botfield:

Yes.

Rachael Botfield:

Templates make everything so much easier.

Rachael Botfield:

Yes, absolutely.

Rachael Botfield:

Absolutely.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, thank you for sharing your experience with your podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

I, I just.

Rachael Botfield:

I really love how the way you're doing private podcasts, it's definitely

Rachael Botfield:

something to think about and I shall be telling other people about your strategy.

Rachael Botfield:

Do you have any other kind of tips or advice you'd like to offer somebody who's

Rachael Botfield:

just starting out with their podcast?

Rachael Botfield:

I,

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: I think it's really just to, to do it.

Rachael Botfield:

Like, to make the commitment that you're gonna try.

Rachael Botfield:

And reach out to somebody like you, if, if you don't have any idea of how to get

Rachael Botfield:

started to kind of get some insight in terms of these are the next steps and

Rachael Botfield:

I can work with you to help get things together, but yeah, I think that was kind

Rachael Botfield:

of the biggest hurdle for me was just.

Rachael Botfield:

Feeling overwhelmed by all the tech options, and there's so many

Rachael Botfield:

people that you can work with and platforms you can use that have really

Rachael Botfield:

streamlined the process these days.

Rachael Botfield:

So it's not as overwhelming as I think it first seems.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I think, you know, your piece of advice, a lot of

Rachael Botfield:

people give that advice just to start.

Rachael Botfield:

I think I did that myself.

Rachael Botfield:

I just started, and Yeah, kind of dove in and then figure a

Rachael Botfield:

lot of stuff out along the way.

Rachael Botfield:

I think that it's really, I think there's that perfectionism part of thing that does

Rachael Botfield:

hold back with letting it, with kind of what people will think and is it correct

Rachael Botfield:

and I get that my, you know, myself that, you know, you feel like you should know

Rachael Botfield:

everything before you, before you hit go and I love that podcasts can You know,

Rachael Botfield:

evolve along the way, the more that your knowledge expands, you know, you can

Rachael Botfield:

evolve your podcast and change things up.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, I've done that with mine and, and yours has evolved to the more

Rachael Botfield:

confident you get and the more feedback you get from your listeners as well.

Rachael Botfield:

So I think that that's a really lovely thing seeing, you know, from

Rachael Botfield:

the very beginning and then you're seeing your podcast evolving over

Rachael Botfield:

the years or over the episodes.

Rachael Botfield:

Do you have any other podcast plans?

Rachael Botfield:

Anything?

Rachael Botfield:

that you see in the future or, or anything like that?

Rachael Botfield:

You know, I've

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: toyed with turning it public.

Rachael Botfield:

And so kind of my commitment to myself this year was let's go all in on it, being

Rachael Botfield:

private and really trying to grow that listenership and that community feeling.

Rachael Botfield:

And then in December, when I start planning for 2025, like really revisiting.

Rachael Botfield:

Is the private serving the way that I felt it was going to serve the way

Rachael Botfield:

I wanted it to, or should I make it public or should I maybe, you know, keep

Rachael Botfield:

pieces private and other things public?

Rachael Botfield:

Because the other thing I tried was doing like a curated public feed of

Rachael Botfield:

just a limited amount of episodes that leads back to the private podcast

Rachael Botfield:

to kind of build that exposure.

Rachael Botfield:

So there's a lot of strategies, but I'm trying to stay very focused on.

Rachael Botfield:

A couple of things.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

It's, it's so easy to get distracted by

Rachael Botfield:

some other strategies as well.

Rachael Botfield:

And I think that I personally think podcasting is, is a long, a long term

Rachael Botfield:

game and it takes, well, for what I found anyway, you know, it takes time to build,

Rachael Botfield:

build your audience and also having that community and engagement is probably much.

Rachael Botfield:

Much better than feeling like, you know, you've got maybe quite

Rachael Botfield:

a lot of downloads, but you're not connecting with anybody there.

Rachael Botfield:

And also you want it to help, you know, your podcast is for your business.

Rachael Botfield:

You want it to be able to support your business in that way.

Rachael Botfield:

You know, we are all here.

Rachael Botfield:

This is our business.

Rachael Botfield:

We want to earn some money.

Rachael Botfield:

It's not like this big hidden thing.

Rachael Botfield:

And like, this is what I would love my podcast to do.

Rachael Botfield:

Like if somebody's listening and they want to do it themselves, great.

Rachael Botfield:

I would love this podcast to help.

Rachael Botfield:

But also the, you know, People need support and needs help and reaching out.

Rachael Botfield:

That is also great and, you know, I think that that's how podcasts fit

Rachael Botfield:

in with your business in that way.

Rachael Botfield:

It's an extra tool that you're, you know, you're giving back and helping build in

Rachael Botfield:

that community, but also it's helping build your business at the same time.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: exactly.

Rachael Botfield:

I agree 100%.

Rachael Botfield:

So, I think it's really just experimentation.

Rachael Botfield:

this year.

Rachael Botfield:

I think it's just another year of experimentation and,

Rachael Botfield:

and enjoying the process.

Rachael Botfield:

I love how positive you are about it.

Rachael Botfield:

I love how, that how like experimental that your ideas are.

Rachael Botfield:

Like, I, when I first started, I was kind of like, I feel like you

Rachael Botfield:

go down the one route and like open, then something opens up and I

Rachael Botfield:

don't know, you seem like very Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Very positive and inquisitive.

Rachael Botfield:

That's the word I'm thinking of.

Rachael Botfield:

Inquisitive about podcasting.

Rachael Botfield:

So I wish you the best of luck with your podcast and would you

Rachael Botfield:

like to just tell him on where you hang out, where they can find you?

Rachael Botfield:

And I'll pop all the links in the show notes, but love to just let us know

Rachael Botfield:

where people can get in touch with

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: you.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So you can find me on LinkedIn, Nicole Sri Oden, and I'm on Instagram

Rachael Botfield:

and Facebook, Nicole Sri Oden Law.

Rachael Botfield:

My legal templates and resources are at legal templates and more on Instagram and

Rachael Botfield:

Pinterest and Facebook and all the places.

Rachael Botfield:

So really, if you just type in my name, I'm normally the first person that

Rachael Botfield:

pops up.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh, brilliant.

Rachael Botfield:

But yeah, I will leave a link to your podcast and all your socials

Rachael Botfield:

and everything there so people can get in touch with you easily if

Rachael Botfield:

they want to follow up with you.

Rachael Botfield:

Thanks so much, Nicole, for coming on and hopefully we'll speak again

Rachael Botfield:

Nicole Cheri Oden: soon.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Rachael Botfield:

This was a fun conversation.

Rachael Botfield:

Thanks for listening to the show.

Rachael Botfield:

If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch, then head on over to my website.

Rachael Botfield:

If you liked the episode, then I'd love it if you could leave me a

Rachael Botfield:

review in your chosen podcast app.

Rachael Botfield:

Your feedback is much appreciated.

Rachael Botfield:

See you next time.

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