Building Trust and Influence in Speaking & Coaching: The Power of Podcasting

Summary

In this episode of Present Influence, John delves into the importance of trust for coaches, speakers, and communication professionals. He discusses how to become a trusted voice and guide for audiences, emphasizing the significant role podcasting plays in establishing trust in a low-trust economy.

John shares insights from his conversation with podcast systems expert Joe Casabona, highlighting the benefits and strategies for being a podcast guest and starting your own podcast.

Additionally, he offers practical advice on preparation, recording quality, and long-term content strategy.

Join John as he explores how to amplify your influence and maintain a professional presence through effective communication.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Importance of Trust

00:49 Welcome to Present Influence

01:31 Building Trust Through Podcasting

02:40 Starting Your Podcast Journey

03:53 Guesting on Podcasts

05:15 Creating Your Own Podcast

12:19 Practical Tips for Podcasting

18:46 Conclusion and Next Steps

Visit https://presentinfluence.com to find out more or connect with John on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening and please give the show a 5* review if you enjoyed it.

Welcome to the show.

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I've been thinking a lot this week

about the importance of trust and what

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the best ways are as a coach and a

speaker and a communication professional

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perhaps to be gaining trust , from

your current and future audiences.

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Where and how do you need to be

showing up in order to become

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a trusted voice and guide?

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Now it's hard to get people to trust

you these days and the coaching and

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speaking world has its own share

of charlatans, crooks and creeps.

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How then can we establish a trust

relationship amongst all of that?

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What I want to share with you is

what I think now to be one of the

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most essential weapons or tools in

the war for trust and truth and how

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you can help to seal the deal as

your ideal audience's trusted guide.

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Welcome to Present Influence the show

that helps coaches, speakers, and

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business leaders develop the communication

skills to influence and inspire.

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My name is John Ball, a keynote

coach, professional speaker, and your

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guide on the journey to mastery level

communication and presentation skills.

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My mission is to provide professional

communicators like you with

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everything you need to maximize your

impact and present with influence.

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Follow the show on your favorite

podcast app for weekly episodes and

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interviews with influence experts.

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And , please consider leaving a five star

review on your podcast listening app.

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it means the world to me.

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And it also helps other people know that

this is a show that's worth tuning into.

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So earlier this week, I released an

episode with a podcast systems expert

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called Joe Casabona, super nice guy.

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And one of the things that was coming

up in that conversation was how

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important it is now for people who are

in personal and professional development

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as coaches, speakers and consultants

to be able to establish a significant

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level of trust and how podcasts are

one of the key vehicles for making

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that happen in this day and age.

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And here's one of the main reasons

for that, because we are in an

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environment and an economy of low trust.

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Misinformation surrounds us and

these things are probably only

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going to get worse as AI gets better

and better and it becomes easier.

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to mislead and misguide people.

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People are desperately searching for

sources and voices that they can trust.

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And that's why it may no longer be

one of those sort of optional things

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to have some kind of involvement in

podcasting, probably to the point I

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would say of having your own show.

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And whilst I know that for some of

you that you might be thinking well,

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that's a lot of work, I would say it

isn't the first thing you should do if

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you're just setting up a coaching or

speaking business And I do have some

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thoughts and ideas about what you maybe

should be doing if that's where you are

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But one of the, one of the best

strategies for building and

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growing a coaching business is

getting out there and speaking.

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So, you know, podcast guesting

fits into that very nicely.

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And that probably is a better place for

you to begin, start getting your name out

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there, getting better and practiced at

what it is that you talk about, so that

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you can get smoother in your responses

and engage with your audience more.

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Learning how to prepare for these kinds

of things as well because most people just

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don't bother and will show up for podcast

interviews and be like oh well i have the

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knowledge that you already want to speak

to me about what do i need to prepare?

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As a speaker you would never show up for

a talk unprepared unless you had been

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asked to unless it was a purely improvised

presentation that you had been asked

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to do which isn't really something that

happens for most people So why show up

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to a podcast interview not fully prepared?

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Now, there are a handful of people

I think who do an exceptionally

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good job of being podcast guests.

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And if you haven't checked out one of

my previous episodes with Christine

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Ammerman, Christine was my guest in

episode 171 of present influence.

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So I do recommend going back and checking

that episode out She really knows how

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to show up as a podcast guest to show

up researched having listened to some

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of the episodes Go and get some great

pointers from her and doing that and

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perhaps start your podcast guesting

journey sooner rather than later.

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Now At this stage, I would also say I

wouldn't be too concerned in getting

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started as to whether you're going on

a podcast with a big following or not.

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You really just want to get

some reps in initially, so

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don't worry too much about that.

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But as you go forward with it, you

will want to be a little more strategic

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to going on to shows that kind of

have your audience and have the kinds

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of people who you might want to be

signing up as clients and ideally also

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have some kind of following that is

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Going to give you a bit of bang for your

buck and help you to move the needle.

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Some of the things that have turned

up inquiries and lead generation for

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me the most have been appearing as

a guest on some bigger shows where

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I have shown up prepared and I've

given a very clear call to action.

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That is definitely the kind of thing

that you should be doing as a guest

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if you're getting started with this.

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However, if you're already pretty

well established as a coach speaker

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or consultant It may be the case that

now is the right time for you to start

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thinking about having your own podcast

And certainly if you listen to the episode

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with Joe and you Take up his resources

that were offered in that last episode you

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will have some of the systems already in

place to be able to start to delegate and

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dish out the work that's involved in that.

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So really probably all you'll have to do

is plan, record, and schedule for yourself

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and have an assistant or a producer or

whoever else have someone else take care

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of some of the time consuming elements

of that like editing the show and audio

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engineering and all those good things

that you probably will want to have

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because Realistically, this is going to be

something that's going to be representing

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you in the professional world.

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So, some thrown together, unedited,

untreated podcast that's just you

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and someone else chatting about

whatever is not going to cut it here.

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Think about this from

a professional state.

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Now this is something that came from

Joe actually, that a question that

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had come up at a podcast convention as

to whether as a podcast host, whether

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you should be doing stuff from a sort

of professional style studio as much as

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possible, or whether to do these sort of

videos and recordings where you're out

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and about, and we should quite common now.

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The answer that was given by an industry

expert, was that if you are really looking

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to establish yourself as a trusted thought

leader, you probably should be doing your

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recordings from a professional studio.

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People do associate that level of

professionalism with higher quality.

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So I think about it from those terms.

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Here's another really key thing.

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A lot of people when they're thinking

about starting a podcast as a speaker

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or as a coach or consultant are

thinking about doing guest interview

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shows and I would probably advise you

even though I have a show where I do

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interview a lot of guests myself, I

would say probably don't go that way.

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Maybe start off just having you and your

knowledge, or if you're not working

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alone, have you and your business partner,

or, you have a panel of the people who

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you work with, if that's going to work

better, or maybe even take it in turns

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to record elements of the show, but

don't do an interview show, and the

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reason I say that is because interviewing

in itself is not an easy skill.

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I have certainly got better at it over the

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I am by no means an expert interviewer.

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So I do not, I would still not consider

myself to be an amazing interviewer.

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I think I do a decent job.

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But one of the things I'm not

doing when I'm interviewing is

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really establishing my expertise.

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And when I'm interviewing someone

else, I'm helping to establish their

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expertise and whatever credibility

and following and trust I have from

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my audience, I am sharing with the

guests that I bring on to my show.

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So I still do think it's worth you

being a guest on other people's shows

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and having that as part of your, having

it as part of your growth strategy

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for lead generation and opportunity.

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I wouldn't miss out on that at all.

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And if that's something that you want

to discuss and to understand how to

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do better, I have a free guide on

how to be an amazing podcast guest.

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You can get that from my

website, presentinfluence.

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com.

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And completely free for you to download

and if you actually want to have a chat

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with me about that Just reach out through

either through the contact page on my

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website or connect with me on linkedin.

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You'll find the information to do that

in the show notes for this episode And

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i'll be more than happy to talk to you

and maybe even help you with your plan

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for Guiding you to start a podcast and

how to make that really work for you

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So the key thing here is this is

about establishing you as a trusted

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voice and guide for your audience.

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And so it doesn't have to be that

you're delivering keynote level

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podcast episodes every single week.

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That's a lot of work.

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It might just be 5, 10, 15 minutes

of you on a particular topic that

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you can cut out a piece of content.

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You can even use a lot of AI tools now

for helping you to figure out, what do I

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want to cover on these particular topics?

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If I'm doing, I've used AI for this

as well, put in some prompts of, if

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I'm doing a podcast on this topic,

give me some episode ideas and it

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will throw some stuff out at you.

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I would even say maybe see if you can

find some podcasts from people who

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are in a similar area to you and make

sure you know they will have maybe

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already covered a lot of the topics

that you might want to cover as well.

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You probably want to change

titles from what they've done.

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What you may also notice when you

do that is how badly some people

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name their podcast episodes and

their podcasts as and this is why

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this is such an important thing.

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I think a podcast can position you just

as well in your market now as a book

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can, and it's free for people to access.

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One thing that I've heard from people who

listen to this show on a regular basis,

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and people who have been my clients

for a number of years as well, will say

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that they hear my voice in their head.

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I kind of love that as well as find

it a little bit scary, but people will

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say they hear my voice in their head.

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So when they're, they will go, Oh,

maybe what do I think, what do I think

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John would say in this situation?

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I love that, that anyone would

even think, Oh, what does

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John think in this situation?

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And hear my voice, because they've heard

me enough times, and are familiar enough

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with my take to know what it sounds like.

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That is a very special position of trust.

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And that's what I'm saying that

you can have with your own podcast

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without a huge amount of work.

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You can keep this pretty well

streamlined and flowing and this

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is why I say probably avoid going

down the path of interview episodes.

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I'm not saying never do that but if

you want something that's going to be

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manageable helping to establish you as

an industry expert and thought leader

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Maybe now is the time to be thinking

about starting up your own podcast I

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would love to hear your thoughts on

this and certainly i would love to

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hear from you if you're looking for

any help or assistance Or guidance on

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being able to follow through follow

down this path as to whether you know

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Whether it's the right time for you to

do this and No, if you are going to do

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it what you maybe you want to know things

like You What should I call my show?

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What will I talk about?

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How often will I do episodes?

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And all those things.

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How will I plan this out?

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Who will I get to help me?

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Well, if you want some help with

that, I'm more than happy to.

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I'm not a podcast coach as such.

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I've worked in the podcast

industry for a good amount of time.

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I've worked with podcast

training companies and I've

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had my own shows since 2019.

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So I'm pretty well entrenched in the

industry and the knowledge and I'm

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certainly happy to have a chat . But

here's what I'll say as well.

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If you are going to do solo episodes.

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I would aim to plan out more than

your first six or seven episodes.

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Maybe try and plan out 10, perhaps

even try and batch record them.

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So give yourself a couple of hours,

record maybe in 10 minute slots because

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you don't really want it to be going

too much over that for solo episodes.

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And then maybe hand those over to

someone else to edit, or maybe even

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use some AI tools to edit those

down and quickly turn them around.

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You don't need all the bells and

whistles at this stage, but you may

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want to make sure you at least have

some decent recording equipment,

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things like not using the internal

mic on your computer, not using your

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mobile device to record the episodes.

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Although if that is all you've got,

certainly you could start with that,

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but I'm, I would also guess if that

if you are in a position where you

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already have clients and your business

is doing pretty well, a little bit

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of investment in a, like 200 euro

dollar pound microphone or so,

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I have a samsung Q9U Shure

MB7s you can get now that plug

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straight into your computer and

will make you sound like a pro.

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So you know, don't you, maybe you don't

have to worry too much about all the

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other aspects of it, you don't want a

grainy camera, you don't want horrible

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audio, and it's not a huge investment.

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But I would avoid things like, I

do a lot of webinars and stuff with

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headsets, and they're cool stuff, but

you probably don't really want to be

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recording a podcast episode on onto them.

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Although it might just suffice.

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So I think it is worth making that little

bit of investment into a bit of recording

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and video equipment especially for getting

started on going on other people's shows.

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They will, podcast hosts, are definitely

going to appreciate you if you show

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up and you've got a good quality

microphone, good quality video,

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hopefully a high speed Wi Fi connection

and ideally Good audio acoustics as

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well for the room that you're in.

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I don't have the best here where I am.

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And it's something that I keep

thinking, I do need to get someone

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to come in and audio treat this room.

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One of these days I will, but, you

don't need all of that to get started.

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And that's really a key thing here.

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It's said often that you probably

need multiple points of contact

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before you really do have that level

of trust from someone where they

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feel confident in who you are and

comfortable enough to trust you.

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So I think with this particular path,

you do want to make sure, and if you're

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going to do it, you might want to do it

as a limited series, you might want to

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do it as, something that you're going

to do temporarily every year we're maybe

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going to do 10 episodes, or, maybe it's

something you want to have Ongoing.

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So there's no hard and fast rules to this,

but I certainly think you want to aim

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for at least getting 10 episodes knocked

out, even if that's all you're going to

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do this year, and have those available,

release them in a drip format and start

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having your podcast, your show, start

promoting it in some places, have it

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featured on your website and start going

on other shows, mentioning it on those

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other shows, have people come and check

you out because they're going to love

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what you can provide for them for free.

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And they're also going to start to hear

your voice on a more regular basis.

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And if you're adding value, if

you're specific enough to what you

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work with, with your audience and

some things you talk about, don't

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be afraid to give away knowledge.

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Now there may be some

stuff you definitely want to

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keep back in your business.

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Sure.

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Great.

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But certainly for the most part, you want

to be able to share enough that people

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are going to be able to take action and

see that you do know what you're talking

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about, you do have some expertise,

and you're not holding back from them.

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You're not holding back from them, you're

giving them enough that they can start

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moving forward, and of course if they

want to accelerate that journey, you

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want to give them the opportunities to

be able to come and do that with you.

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Now I probably wouldn't start

advertising my own coaching services

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within the first several episodes.

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That's something maybe, when you've got

five or six episodes out, that might

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be a time where you could start to have

some calls to action that are encouraging

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people to come and perhaps work with you

when you've had a bit of an opportunity

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to establish some trust with people.

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The good thing with creating this kind

of content is you can repurpose it.

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You can use it on all sorts

of different social media.

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You can create clips from it.

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You can use it to get ideas and

inspiration for other articles, put

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your scripts back into AI and ask

it to pick out themes and related

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topics that you might want to do

some episodes and articles around.

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There's a lot you can do in terms of

repurposing the content that you work

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with here and utilizing it to make your

social media presence easier as well.

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So you can get a lot of bang for

your buck with really not that

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much work to go into a podcast.

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So, yeah, the, one of the big

differences between podcasts and other

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social media content is you, it's

hard to reuse a lot of other content.

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And so

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most social media content is ephemeral, it

doesn't last very long, it'll maybe have

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a week or a couple of weeks of longevity.

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Something you post on LinkedIn might

do several rounds, something you

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post on other social media platforms

might get a bit of interaction

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for seven days, maybe a bit more.

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So most content doesn't

have that much longevity.

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Podcasts are a little different.

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So people will, if you have a podcast

that has good information and is on a

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topic that people are interested in,

people will very often go and listen

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to your back catalogue of episodes.

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They will go and check out earlier

topics and see what's been talked about.

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A good example of this for me recently

was, checking out a podcast on

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marketing for coaches from somebody

who I quite enjoy as a speaker.

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And, I didn't just listen to the

latest episode, I went right back

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to the start of the show and started

listening all the way through.

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And that is a pretty common thing

to find with podcast listeners,

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that they're not just going to

listen to your latest episode.

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People will go back and listen to

your catalogue if it has information

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that is valuable for them.

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This is also something that can end up,

Over time, giving you content that can

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be transcribed and worked into books

and other resources, other information

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products that you could ultimately sell.

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So I really do think there's

a lot of high value.

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in this a lot of opportunities for

creating points of contact with people

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and to become a trusted voice and

guide for the audience that you want

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to serve by having your own podcast.

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Now if this is something that's piquing

your interest and you would like to know

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more about it or you at least have to

have a chat about how you proceed from

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here, I'm very happy to have that chat

with you and see if there's any way

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that I can help you to move forward.

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So reach out through the contact

form in my website, presentinfluence.

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com or Or, contact me on LinkedIn,

where I hang out a lot, my main social

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media place, and you'll find the

links to do that if we're not already

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connected there in the show notes.

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I would also like to invite you to

follow my LinkedIn newsletter, which

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will have some updates for the show, as

well as different articles topics and

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themes that are related to presentation

skills and to developing your influence

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that's pretty much it for this solo

episode from me, and I'm going to be

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back next time with Expert Lida Citroen,

and had a wonderful chat with Lida.

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She has an amazing book on

influence out at the moment,

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and we had a great conversation.

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We even had a few things that we didn't

completely agree on, which certainly

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made things interesting for both of us.

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So I hope you'll come

and join us for that.

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That will be out next Wednesday.

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For now, I'm trying out having my

interview episodes on Wednesday and my

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solo episodes on Friday and , keeping

this level of production for a while

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with the show to see how it goes.

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But I'd love your thoughts and feedback.

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What are the topics that you would

like to see covered on the show?

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Who are the guests you'd like

me to have or be interviewing?

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Maybe it's you that you'd like, so reach

out and let me know if that's the case.

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Maybe you have some thoughts or ideas

about other ways that we can Establish

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trust in this low trust economy that

we're in right now I'd love to hear

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from them and maybe even bring you on

the show to talk about it All right,

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that's it from me wherever you're going.

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Whatever you're doing.

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Have an amazing week.

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I'll see you again very soon.

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Take care