Podcasting is a perfect partner in crime (but I mean, not real crime) with virtual summits. They both build on each other to help you grow your audience, establish trust and relationships with them, and ultimately make sales that benefit your audience. If you've hosted a summit or are thinking about hosting one, now's the time to start a podcast!

Listen in to get some of the top tips that speakers from Sell With a Summit: Podcaster Edition want you to know about summits + podcasts.

If you want to learn more about how to start a podcast and how a podcast can work together with a summit, join me and Danny Ozment from Emerald City Productions (and a speaker on Sell With a Summit: Podcaster Edition!) on March 21st at 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern. We'll be sharing our biggest tips for summit hosts who are considering starting a podcast and we have time set aside for Q&A too! I'd love to see you there, so RSVP to save your seat at http://share.virtualsummitsearch.com/podcastSummitWebinar

Mentioned in this episode:

Evergreen Summit Audio Training

If you're ready to host a summit or have already hosted one and want to get more out of the months of work you put into your summit, jump over to evergreensummits.com. I put together a free audio training that you can take on the go in your regular podcast player!

Evergreen Summit Audio Training

Jenn: 00:00:00

Last week, we talked a little bit about how podcasts and summits work

Jenn: 00:00:03

together, so let's explore some more ways that summits and podcasts work together!

Jenn: 00:00:07

If you are a summit host - or thinking about hosting the summit - starting

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a podcast can be a gamechanger for your business and your summits.

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Here's some of what our fantastic speakers from Sell With a Summit:

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Speaker Edition want you to know about hosting a summit and podcast.

Jenn: 00:00:21

Okay, so Nicole, why do you feel like it's so important for podcasters to have

Jenn: 00:00:26

a plan before launching their summit?

Nicole Batey: 00:00:28

Well, I mean, if you have no plan, you go nowhere,

Nicole Batey: 00:00:31

honestly, and you go nowhere fast.

Nicole Batey: 00:00:33

It's so easy to just, "Oh, I'm going to do this.

Nicole Batey: 00:00:36

I'm going to do this.

Nicole Batey: 00:00:36

I'm going to do this," and not really realize that you have

Nicole Batey: 00:00:40

to get them somewhere right?

Nicole Batey: 00:00:42

There has to be a reason they need to go with you on the journey that

Nicole Batey: 00:00:46

you're trying to take them on.

Nicole Batey: 00:00:48

And it's so easy with summits to think, "okay, I'm going to do this topic and

Nicole Batey: 00:00:51

I'm going to do this topic and I'll do this topic," and then you're like, wait,

Nicole Batey: 00:00:54

okay, what was the meaning of this?

Nicole Batey: 00:00:56

What was I trying to do?

Nicole Batey: 00:00:58

And oftentimes you kind of go someplace and you don't get

Nicole Batey: 00:01:02

to where you want them to go.

Nicole Batey: 00:01:03

So you have to have that plan before you start; you have

Nicole Batey: 00:01:07

to have a plan going forward.

And a bonus tip: 00:01:10

one of my colleagues, what she did was she actually - she's

And a bonus tip: 00:01:17

a podcaster - all her speakers from her summit are on her podcast.

And a bonus tip: 00:01:23

So she's got like 20 episodes that she created, which is like, insane,

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but she's got 20 episodes because people still want to hear from your

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speakers so they can kind of get more of a taste on the podcast.

And a bonus tip: 00:01:36

And she says something like, "Hey, if you want to hear more from this

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particular speaker, they're going to be on the podcast coming up.

And a bonus tip: 00:01:44

Take a listen."

And a bonus tip: 00:01:45

So it drives people to the podcast, especially if you're thinking

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about like, I need to make more of an audience for my podcast.

Jenn: 00:01:53

What are a couple of ways that you'd say a summit can make a big

Jenn: 00:01:56

impact on a podcaster's visibility, with that definition in mind?

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:00

Absolutely.

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:01

The nice thing about guesting on a summit, like I'm doing right now, is you're

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:05

able to usually talk to the show host or have a 20 to 30 minute presentation.

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:10

You're able to dive deep into one aspect that you really know and love.

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:15

And the great thing is that the audience feels that, the audience usually has

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:19

much more of a instant connection to you on a summit than they do on a podcast.

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:24

They can see you, they can interact with you.

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:26

They're here to learn one specific thing - that really grows the

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:28

trust - and so they're excited to take the next step with you.

Jenn: 00:02:32

What are some ways that a podcaster can leverage their summit

Jenn: 00:02:36

hosting experience to get even bigger visibility and publicity opportunities

Jenn: 00:02:41

both before and after the summit is over in terms of publicity opportunities?

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:47

I think what's really great is if you are hosting your own

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:50

show and if you just hosted your first virtual summit, you're usually able to

Michelle Lewis: 00:02:55

connect with some higher profile guests, especially if you can pitch it correctly.

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:00

And what's nice about that is that you're then able to leverage that into,

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:04

okay, do I want my first TV appearance?

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:07

Do I want my first publication?

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:10

Do I want to be featured on this dream podcast that I've been

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:14

drooling over for a couple of years?

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:16

And you can actually customize the fact that you've been this

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:19

authority with podcasting and your virtual summit inside of your pitch.

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:24

And being sure to also include this - especially if you don't necessarily

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:28

have a brand video yet - taking pieces of you hosting these two things and

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:33

putting it into a nice brand video that lives on your press page, using

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:37

the logo from not only your show, but your summit on your press page.

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:41

A lot of people feel like, well, I've never been on anything,

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:44

there's nothing to pull from.

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:45

Well, pull from your own stuff for now!

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:46

People don't really necessarily care what the logo is, they just want to see a logo.

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:51

They want to know that you've been featured somewhere, so just pull from

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:53

your own arsenal and then customize that in your pitch, especially in your

Michelle Lewis: 00:03:58

mini bio to showcase what you have been an authority in, and that can really

Michelle Lewis: 00:04:03

increase your ability to book that press, especially after your summit.

Jenn: 00:04:07

What are some other ways that it's important for podcasters to have a

Jenn: 00:04:11

plan for developing those connections?

Jenn: 00:04:14

Why is it so important for them?

Mary Chan: 00:04:17

It's important because of that trust factor.

Mary Chan: 00:04:19

That's what you're trying to build.

Mary Chan: 00:04:21

So, if I don't trust what you are saying, And you're not talking to me directly,

Mary Chan: 00:04:31

why should I care what you're saying?

Mary Chan: 00:04:34

You know, through your podcast, a relationship gets built because you are

Mary Chan: 00:04:38

speaking from your heart and that's the way you're going to connect to people.

Mary Chan: 00:04:41

So trust then of course leads to credibility.

Mary Chan: 00:04:44

The platform that you've created in your podcast will then showcase

Mary Chan: 00:04:48

your whole thought leadership and what you are all about.

Mary Chan: 00:04:51

So people want to hear you, not just read you, read the words that you've created.

Mary Chan: 00:04:56

They want to hear what you have to say.

Mary Chan: 00:04:58

And then that final piece of influence.

Mary Chan: 00:05:02

You know, once you have the trust and the credibility, then you can start

Mary Chan: 00:05:04

influencing people to grow your own brand or business or whatever your

Mary Chan: 00:05:08

podcast is going to lead you towards.

Mary Chan: 00:05:11

So influential people - podcasters - inspire change, and now that you've

Mary Chan: 00:05:17

created this inspiration, you've got raving fans that will take action based

Mary Chan: 00:05:23

on almost every word that you have to say.

Jenn: 00:05:27

Yeah, that's true.

Jenn: 00:05:28

I know I definitely take action on a lot of the podcasts that I listen to.

Jenn: 00:05:31

So that is definitely important because of that...

Mary Chan: 00:05:35

You trust their word, right?

Mary Chan: 00:05:36

You trust what they're saying and you know they're credible,

Mary Chan: 00:05:39

so why not do what they say?

Jenn: 00:05:43

Since interviews are a fantastic way to build that relationship with

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your guests, what would you say a couple of ways are that a host

Jenn: 00:05:51

- whether it's podcast or summit - can continue building those relationships

Jenn: 00:05:55

after the interview is over?

Laura Kebart: 00:05:57

Okay, so you're going to see me do this.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:00

I'm telling you ahead of time.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:02

Normally it would be like a nice surprise, but I'm gonna go ahead

Laura Kebart: 00:06:04

and tell you ahead of time.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:05

And this is something that - and you know, our attendees right now

Laura Kebart: 00:06:07

can totally steal and use this.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:09

But after our interview - not right after, it'll be like a day after - I'll

Laura Kebart: 00:06:13

email you and I will say, "Hey, that was a really great interview

Laura Kebart: 00:06:16

-" which it is totally genuine here.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:18

And I'll say, "is there anything that you need, like, is there anything that I

Laura Kebart: 00:06:22

could be a resource to you for this event, like, is there anything else you need?"

Laura Kebart: 00:06:27

And usually the response is no, but sometimes you do...

Laura Kebart: 00:06:32

it like, it opens a door, a very genuine door to saying, you know what?

Laura Kebart: 00:06:38

Yeah.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:39

Um, I'm still needing somebody to talk about this topic.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:43

I haven't found the right person yet.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:44

Like maybe I know someone that I could refer to you, right?

Laura Kebart: 00:06:48

And actually that did happen two or three times after my last summit,

Laura Kebart: 00:06:51

I had a couple of people email me like, "Hey, that was really great.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:53

I have a friend who would be fantastic at this topic.

Laura Kebart: 00:06:57

I noticed it was on your summit registration page and you don't have

Laura Kebart: 00:07:00

like, the speaker picture there yet.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:02

Do you have anyone yet?

Laura Kebart: 00:07:03

Like, I know someone."

Laura Kebart: 00:07:04

And that was just amazing to me, like, oh my gosh, that's amazing.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:07

One step you can do right now, even if you're like, "Oh, I'm not

Laura Kebart: 00:07:11

quite ready to host my summit.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:13

I'm not quite ready to launch my podcast or I've always done solo episodes.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:17

I'm not quite ready."

Laura Kebart: 00:07:18

If you're not quite ready, that is okay, right?

Laura Kebart: 00:07:22

But what you can do right now is you can go ahead and start creating

Laura Kebart: 00:07:28

some relationships with people who you might want to bring onto your

Laura Kebart: 00:07:32

podcast or people you might want to bring onto your summit someday.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:36

Go ahead and start those now, because relationships that are genuinely built

Laura Kebart: 00:07:41

are going to be so much stronger and so much more authentic when you are

Laura Kebart: 00:07:46

ready for that event for yourself.

Laura Kebart: 00:07:48

So wherever, you know, people in similar spaces to you are hanging out

Laura Kebart: 00:07:55

online - whether it's Instagram, whether it's Facebook, whatever - go ahead and

Laura Kebart: 00:07:58

start building some relationships, start commenting on what they're saying, right?

Laura Kebart: 00:08:03

You could even DM them for nothing more than to say, "Hey, I'm in a similar space.

Laura Kebart: 00:08:09

It's really interesting what you're doing."

Laura Kebart: 00:08:10

Like, just start a little relationship there.

Jenn: 00:08:14

Krista, can you share one thing you want someone to do when

Jenn: 00:08:16

choosing a podcast or summit topic?

Krista Miller: 00:08:18

Just start brainstorming for now.

Krista Miller: 00:08:21

Once you have an audience that you feel like is a good fit, then you can

Krista Miller: 00:08:23

move into the rest of the action steps.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:25

start with your existing audience,

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:29

use them as a starting point.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:31

If you target an audience like online business owners, creative business owners,

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:34

women, moms professionals, you need to get more specific, even if it is more

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:37

specific than your podcast audience.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:39

So you're going to break that down into smaller groups next.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:42

So for example, if you're targeting, I don't know, creative business

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:44

owners, maybe you have photographers, coaches, designers, I don't know.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:50

All of those different subsets are different groups you could

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:53

break your audience down into, and then choose the group that you

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:55

feel like you can help them most.

So, how to actually do it: 00:08:57

So if there's a group you resonate with the most, maybe there's a group that

So, how to actually do it: 00:09:01

tends to respond best to your marketing or purchase your offers more often,

So, how to actually do it: 00:09:04

that's a perfect group to start with.

So, how to actually do it: 00:09:07

It doesn't mean you can't come back and host a summit for another one later,

So, how to actually do it: 00:09:10

but it gives you a good starting point and that is your summit audience.

Jenn: 00:09:14

What would be a specific action step that a podcaster should take right

Jenn: 00:09:18

away to make the most out of their new summit subscribers after the summit's

Jenn: 00:09:22

over so they can kind of nurture them and get them excited about the podcast

Jenn: 00:09:26

and everything else they have to offer?

Kate Doster: 00:09:29

Excellent.

Kate Doster: 00:09:29

So it would be literally like what we had just talked about:

Kate Doster: 00:09:33

plan out those next three emails.

Kate Doster: 00:09:35

Make sure that one of them is more of a transitional email where it's like,

Kate Doster: 00:09:40

"Hey, so you enjoyed the summit" - again, say its name, reminde them of this

Kate Doster: 00:09:43

thing - "you're going to want to make sure that you're listing to [name of

Kate Doster: 00:09:47

your brand new podcast] where we're going to help you do avoid/have" - those are

Kate Doster: 00:09:52

usually fun sentence starters to use- "and we're going to talk about this."

Kate Doster: 00:09:56

And then if you already have your podcast episodes up and ready to

Kate Doster: 00:10:00

go, those emails that we had talked about - the mistake ones, the story,

Kate Doster: 00:10:03

once those sorts of things - instead, it can just be about the topics that

Kate Doster: 00:10:08

your podcasts are going to be about.

Kate Doster: 00:10:09

So definitely have those three weeks worth of emails so that way you've got

Kate Doster: 00:10:14

that downtime - done, written - they're not going to take you that long

Kate Doster: 00:10:18

because you know that being on your list is a privilege, because you are

Kate Doster: 00:10:21

always thinking to yourself, how is...

Kate Doster: 00:10:23

I hate using this term because it's thrown around a lot, but how is this of service?

Kate Doster: 00:10:26

What are you going to help them avoid?

Kate Doster: 00:10:28

What are you going to help them accomplish?

Kate Doster: 00:10:29

And then just go with it.

Jenn: 00:10:31

Where would you say that a summit falls into the podcast listener

Jenn: 00:10:35

journey and how can podcasters making the most of that kind of experience?

Desola Davis: 00:10:39

Oh, I love that.

Desola Davis: 00:10:40

I think that a summit...

Desola Davis: 00:10:42

so just to give everyone an overview of the customer journey, as I teach it:

Desola Davis: 00:10:47

There's a Stranger.

Desola Davis: 00:10:49

They start off as a Stranger, everybody does, and then they move

Desola Davis: 00:10:52

into what's called your Audience.

Desola Davis: 00:10:54

So they're still kind of in the outer court, they're still

Desola Davis: 00:10:56

kind of checking you out.

Desola Davis: 00:10:58

Maybe they've listened to one episode, but they haven't really fully subscribed.

Desola Davis: 00:11:02

Maybe they're on your Instagram and they follow you and they double tap every once

Desola Davis: 00:11:06

in a while, but you're not like, on their notifications lists or anything like that.

Desola Davis: 00:11:10

And maybe they've even joined your email list, but you're not moved to Primary,

Desola Davis: 00:11:13

they don't really care whether or not they missed your emails, all of those.

Desola Davis: 00:11:16

And then they move to the Prospect status.

Desola Davis: 00:11:19

This is now when you're one of maybe three to five options that they're

Desola Davis: 00:11:24

really considering to solve whatever problem you solve, and they're trying

Desola Davis: 00:11:27

to figure out whether you're the best person to solve their problem.

Desola Davis: 00:11:31

And so this is really where you want to connect with them on a deeper level: share

Desola Davis: 00:11:36

some more stories, testimonials, show more of your expertise so that they can

Desola Davis: 00:11:40

make the right decision for themselves.

Desola Davis: 00:11:43

And then they move into the Customer status.

Desola Davis: 00:11:45

This is where they've raised their hand and they've said, "you won.

Desola Davis: 00:11:48

You're Miss America, we crowned you and you're the person that we've

Desola Davis: 00:11:52

decided is going to solve our problem."

Desola Davis: 00:11:54

And at that point, your job is to make sure that their problem actually gets

Desola Davis: 00:11:57

solved and that they achieve the goals for what they paid for essentially.

Desola Davis: 00:12:02

But even after that, once their problem gets solved, what you've inadvertently

Desola Davis: 00:12:06

done is given them more problems to solve.

Desola Davis: 00:12:10

They moved from one set of problems to like, a new set of problems and

Desola Davis: 00:12:13

really, that's just life, right?

Desola Davis: 00:12:14

There's never going to be a time where it's just like,

Desola Davis: 00:12:16

"all my problems are solved.

Desola Davis: 00:12:17

I'm just at home, just really living my best life."

Desola Davis: 00:12:19

It just doesn't happen.

Desola Davis: 00:12:21

And so what happens is once they become Customers and you've helped

Desola Davis: 00:12:23

them with their goals and they can tie that success back to you

Desola Davis: 00:12:26

and your genius, they become Fans.

Desola Davis: 00:12:29

And so they look back and they say, "okay, now I have all these new problems.

Desola Davis: 00:12:33

Obviously I'm going to come to you because you're a genius

Desola Davis: 00:12:37

at solving all my problems.

Desola Davis: 00:12:38

How do we work together even more?"

Desola Davis: 00:12:40

and then designing solutions for them at that status.

Desola Davis: 00:12:43

And that level is what keeps you relevant on a continual basis and actually

Desola Davis: 00:12:48

extends your customer lifetime value.

Desola Davis: 00:12:50

So all of the elements of the customer journey - Stranger, Audience, Prospect,

Desola Davis: 00:12:57

Customer, Fan or Ambassador - and so for a summit, it's pretty unique because

Desola Davis: 00:13:07

it helps highlight your Ambassadors and it helps bring your Audience closer so

Desola Davis: 00:13:15

that they can become Prospects for you.

Desola Davis: 00:13:17

So it has kind of...

Desola Davis: 00:13:18

as a podcaster, it has kind of a dual thing to it.

Jenn: 00:13:22

There you have it!

Jenn: 00:13:23

There are so many reasons why podcasts and summits work together so well, and

Jenn: 00:13:28

we'll get into more of them next week.

Jenn: 00:13:29

For now, think about how a podcast could impact your summit.

Jenn: 00:13:33

If you start the podcast before your summit, you can start building an audience

Jenn: 00:13:37

that already loves to listen to you.

Jenn: 00:13:38

If you launch your podcast through your summit, you have

Jenn: 00:13:41

somewhere for your attendees to continue their journey with you.

Jenn: 00:13:44

Whichever way you decide to do it, podcasts are an amazing way to