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Overcoming Podcast Challenges, Future planning and Super Fans with Hannah McCormick
Episode 6112th June 2024 • Podcasting 101 with Rachael • Rachael Botfield
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➡️ Have a clear goal

➡️ Get support and

➡️ Use your podcast as part of your wide content strategy.

Hannah McCormick is a marketing coach and consultant and the host of The Showing Up Solo podcast.   

The podcast's aim is to help solopreneurs navigate their online marketing for their business.  

Hannah has been podcasting for over 2 years now and has over 66 episodes published.   

I wanted her to share her experience with podcasting for her business so that you can get a real insight into what it’s like.  

We talk about Hannah’s biggest challenges to get started, the benefits of having support, the podcast's future including monetization and her top tip for starting your podcast.   

Listen to Hannah’s episode on how to repurpose your content.

 

About Hannah  

Hannah is a Marketing Coach & Consultant dedicated to helping solopreneurs navigate the online marketing landscape with confidence.  

 

“Let's transform your marketing journey, so you can achieve impactful growth and turn your dream business into a reality.” 

 

Website: https://www.showingupsolo.com/  

Podcast: https://www.showingupsolo.com/episodes  

Get your Batch it Crazy T-shirts here! https://www.showingupsolo.com/merchandise  

Support the pod on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ShowingUpSolo  

If you have any questions or would like some help with your podcast, book a podcast enquiry call.

Can I ask a favour?

If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

You can leave one here

Thanks so much!

I'd love to connect with you on social!

You can find me on:

LinkedIn | Website

Want to start a podcast, but not sure where to start? Download my free Podcast Playbook Get clear on your ideas!

Need some extra support? Book a 90-minute Podcast Strategy Session

Struggling with your podcast promotion? Grab my Easy-Peasy Podcast Promotion Checklist here!



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

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:

Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode.

Rachael Botfield:

Today I have my lovely client, collaborator, and

Rachael Botfield:

friend, Hannah McCormick.

Rachael Botfield:

She is a marketing coach and consultant and host.

Rachael Botfield:

of the Showing Up Solo podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

Hannah's podcast has been going for about two and a half years now and has, at the

Rachael Botfield:

time of recording, 65 episodes published.

Rachael Botfield:

So I'd say it's a pretty established show and Hannah is

Rachael Botfield:

a pretty established podcaster.

Rachael Botfield:

I wanted to talk to Hannah a little bit more in depth about her podcast and

Rachael Botfield:

how it's been working for her business.

Rachael Botfield:

So welcome, Hannah.

Hannah McCormick:

Hi, Rachel.

Hannah McCormick:

Thanks for having me on the show.

Hannah McCormick:

Always a pleasure.

Rachael Botfield:

Yes.

Rachael Botfield:

This is, I think, the third time you've been

Hannah McCormick:

Third time on this show.

Rachael Botfield:

Yes, you did you did appear on my first podcast, The

Rachael Botfield:

Virtually Inspiring Podcast because we were both VAs once upon a time and

Rachael Botfield:

yeah, and then it was you and Nicole, your co host when you first started

Rachael Botfield:

out, and then your awesome marketing.

Rachael Botfield:

Full circle content method.

Rachael Botfield:

For those of you not listened, check it out.

Rachael Botfield:

I will put a link in the show notes because Hannah has an awesome

Rachael Botfield:

way of batching and producing your content to make it work

Rachael Botfield:

harder for you, for your podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

It's a shame it's not a video right now.

Hannah McCormick:

Cause I'm wearing my Jesco batch.

Hannah McCormick:

It's

Rachael Botfield:

I've been meaning to get some merch since you, it

Rachael Botfield:

was Hannah's business birthday well, this month in May 2024.

Rachael Botfield:

And you sent out that email and I saw it about, The merch and it's something that

Rachael Botfield:

I meant to buy and I wanted to go to buy.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm gonna go on there after this and buy the Badget Crazy t

Rachael Botfield:

shirt because I love that one.

Rachael Botfield:

It's my fave.

Hannah McCormick:

I always get compliments on it.

Hannah McCormick:

It's my fave.

Hannah McCormick:

It's great.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, do you

Rachael Botfield:

know what?

Rachael Botfield:

I've told people about it as well myself because when I've mentioned your

Rachael Botfield:

content, your full Content Circle method.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm going to talk about Batchit.

Rachael Botfield:

I then always note on Hannah Hazlitt's merch.

Rachael Botfield:

So yeah, you should if you're a fan of the Showing Up Solo podcast, then

Rachael Botfield:

go and have a check out the merch.

Rachael Botfield:

I'll obviously leave all the links in the show notes for you.

Rachael Botfield:

So just to get a little bit of for people that haven't listened to your previous

Rachael Botfield:

episodes, just a little bit about your business and also why you wanted to

Rachael Botfield:

start the Showing Up Solo podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, absolutely.

Hannah McCormick:

Well, I Started my business June 2020, you know, following a pandemic layoff,

Hannah McCormick:

I jumped into self employment as a virtual assistant and had to figure

Hannah McCormick:

out a completely new way of building clients that I hadn't been used to.

Hannah McCormick:

I'd been used to the traditional ways of marketing yourself, but of course,

Hannah McCormick:

mid pandemic, everyone's locked up.

Hannah McCormick:

You can't really, you know, Go pound the pavement, or go to networking events.

Hannah McCormick:

So I very quickly had to learn how to use things like social media and online

Hannah McCormick:

networking events to build a client base.

Hannah McCormick:

Long story short.

Hannah McCormick:

The more I did it, the better I got at it.

Hannah McCormick:

The more people started reaching out to me, not for my virtual assistant

Hannah McCormick:

businesses, but for support doing what I was doing for my business for them.

Hannah McCormick:

And so it wasn't long before I pivoted to offering social media management services.

Hannah McCormick:

And the more I did it, the more I just thought, like the more I fell in love with

Hannah McCormick:

being self employed, being a solopreneur and the more it dawned on me that really.

Hannah McCormick:

Marketing is one of the biggest barriers to people getting out there, getting

Hannah McCormick:

like starting a business, the fear of, well, will I ever find a client?

Hannah McCormick:

How do I find a client?

Hannah McCormick:

I don't know the first thing about online marketing, so I

Hannah McCormick:

don't know if I'll make money.

Hannah McCormick:

Maybe I should just go the safe bet.

Hannah McCormick:

Go work for someone and know I'm going to have a steady paycheck.

Hannah McCormick:

So at that point, I had a collaborator, Nicole and We were teaming up on a

Hannah McCormick:

lot of projects, and we decided that it could be really helpful to team

Hannah McCormick:

up on our marketing as well to create content together so that we could focus

Hannah McCormick:

more of our energy on bigger projects.

Hannah McCormick:

And that's when we decided to launch the project.

Hannah McCormick:

The podcast, it kind of just, it came from a need for more content

Hannah McCormick:

and then we're like, well, we may as well do a, like, we need to do some

Hannah McCormick:

videos for Instagram, or we may as well do a podcast while we're at it.

Hannah McCormick:

And we just so happen to know an amazing podcast manager.

Hannah McCormick:

You!

Hannah McCormick:

So we're like, Great.

Hannah McCormick:

We don't have to figure out how to do this ourselves.

Hannah McCormick:

We'll just get Rachel's help.

Hannah McCormick:

And basically, I think we just reached out to you, told you what our vision was,

Hannah McCormick:

and let you take the reins from there.

Hannah McCormick:

We just sort of batched our content and we just sent it off

Hannah McCormick:

to you and you did your magic.

Hannah McCormick:

And I've had a episode coming out every two weeks for now over two years.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, you've, the episode, you've been

Rachael Botfield:

consistent, consistent there.

Rachael Botfield:

Even when Nicole stepped down as co host and you took over doing all the

Rachael Botfield:

interviews and everything yourself.

Rachael Botfield:

And I have to say, Hannah is super organized.

Rachael Botfield:

We have a great way of working now.

Rachael Botfield:

And I'm able to get ahead because Hannah is so organized in getting ahead with

Rachael Botfield:

knowing the, with all the planning and knowing what topics you want to talk

Rachael Botfield:

about and always thinking about guests and potential people that can come along

Rachael Botfield:

and offer their expertise to your podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

And I think.

Rachael Botfield:

You've definitely hit the nail on the head with solopreneurs when

Rachael Botfield:

they're first starting and not knowing where to go and to learn.

Rachael Botfield:

I mean, I myself was in, you know, the same position when

Rachael Botfield:

I first started before we met.

Rachael Botfield:

And it's, you do learn so much in that first year that

Rachael Botfield:

you're setting up on your own.

Rachael Botfield:

But if you have somebody, I always do say to them, people like you need

Rachael Botfield:

Hannah, you need a Hannah in your life because like Hannah has helped me with

Rachael Botfield:

all of my copy and my website as well.

Rachael Botfield:

And yeah, I just say you need a Hannah in your life.

Rachael Botfield:

And if you don't know where you're starting you know, if you're listening

Rachael Botfield:

to this podcast and you're, you know, you're starting your, you're

Rachael Botfield:

starting your business as well, even if you're not, you get just this X.

Rachael Botfield:

Extra layer of advice to be able to do your marketing.

Rachael Botfield:

And it's such an important thing that we do, you know, to build our, build

Rachael Botfield:

our businesses and grow and be able to run our businesses and keep them on our

Rachael Botfield:

own terms, like we both, you know, want to do with our, with our businesses.

Rachael Botfield:

And I'm sure those of you listening want to do as well.

Hannah McCormick:

That was one of the big goals of the showing up solo podcast was.

Hannah McCormick:

Partly was hopefully to attract more clients and to use it as a tool for

Hannah McCormick:

marketing the business, but also There's just, you don't know what you don't know.

Hannah McCormick:

So letting people, anyone who's just toying with the idea or just

Hannah McCormick:

starting out, maybe aren't in a position to afford a coach yet.

Hannah McCormick:

There's all this wonderful, easy to access, easy to understand.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, we wanted it to be really accessible.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, anyone can do this level of, you know, Of knowledge, and we want

Hannah McCormick:

it there so that you can get started, get the ball rolling, and then when

Hannah McCormick:

you are in a position to do so, you can bring on some professional help.

Hannah McCormick:

To just take it up to the next level.

Hannah McCormick:

And that was always the goal with the podcast.

Rachael Botfield:

Absolutely.

Rachael Botfield:

And that is what I aim to do with this podcast as well.

Rachael Botfield:

I know that everybody can't afford to outsource their podcasts and I want

Rachael Botfield:

people to be able to have access to that, to be able to do it themselves.

Rachael Botfield:

And that is my, you know, my goal in bringing insights from podcasters

Rachael Botfield:

and business owners like you and experts in and all that kind of advice

Rachael Botfield:

that, you know, You just have to put the time in there and look at it.

Rachael Botfield:

But the information is all there.

Rachael Botfield:

Going back to the beginning a little bit.

Rachael Botfield:

So what were your biggest challenges to getting started when you

Rachael Botfield:

and Nicole decided to introduce podcasting to your business?

Hannah McCormick:

Well, I mean, there was a logistical challenge.

Hannah McCormick:

Nicole and I were both based in Canada and, but in different provinces.

Hannah McCormick:

So one of us had to get on a plane to go see the other and being

Hannah McCormick:

mothers of small children, not easy.

Hannah McCormick:

So we would get together, like there was logistical.

Hannah McCormick:

One of the reasons we got so organized is because we would batch six months

Hannah McCormick:

worth of episodes in one shot.

Hannah McCormick:

Of course, doing interviews over Zoom helps a lot, but it's nice to

Hannah McCormick:

have those in person ones as well.

Hannah McCormick:

But in terms of the actual challenges, whilst we knew a lot

Hannah McCormick:

about social media marketing, we knew how to promote a podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

Neither of us had ever made a podcast before.

Hannah McCormick:

I didn't know anything about podcasting platforms, like how to get it in,

Hannah McCormick:

how to set up our SV, RSS or RSS.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

RSS.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

I knew, I knew about SEO, but not necessarily podcasting SEO.

Hannah McCormick:

And I just knew what to do with it, the finished product, but not.

Hannah McCormick:

how to make that product.

Hannah McCormick:

And it would have been a huge challenge if we didn't have someone like you around.

Hannah McCormick:

Lucky for me, you were there and you, you just knew everything we needed to do.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, things you don't think about.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, Trailers, intro and outro.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, there's just so many things I didn't know that I didn't know.

Hannah McCormick:

So it was helpful.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

So I think that's been a benefit then to you getting it

Rachael Botfield:

started is having someone there.

Rachael Botfield:

You mentioned to me as well about accountability, and I found that's

Rachael Botfield:

come up with a few of my other clients as well, is having that

Rachael Botfield:

accountability to, To be consistent.

Hannah McCormick:

You are the reason, you are the reason that the episode

Hannah McCormick:

has come out without fail every two weeks for the last two years, Rachel.

Hannah McCormick:

If it was not for you, and I tell this to everybody, if it was not for

Hannah McCormick:

you, that would not be happening.

Hannah McCormick:

My neurodivergent brain is terrible at that.

Hannah McCormick:

If it wasn't for your little messages saying, Hannah, I've done everything.

Hannah McCormick:

I just need this one little thing from you to Hit go, it wouldn't get done.

Hannah McCormick:

And it would be because of like this one little thing I just hadn't done.

Hannah McCormick:

But then I get your little prompts and, and then I just know.

Hannah McCormick:

I don't have to think about it.

Hannah McCormick:

I just know it's going to come out and it's like, I just send

Hannah McCormick:

you the raw recordings and you just, you're doing your magic.

Hannah McCormick:

And I have this like awesome show coming out.

Hannah McCormick:

It feels like autopilot, but obviously there's a lot of hard work going on.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, you've done, you've done a lot of the, you know,

Rachael Botfield:

the front end work with the content and the creation and everything like that.

Rachael Botfield:

I suppose that is the benefit of having somebody like me working with you.

Rachael Botfield:

That you've done the creative part, you've got that interview,

Rachael Botfield:

you've got your, your gold dust.

Rachael Botfield:

And then you also have the other puzzle of the promotional side of

Rachael Botfield:

things, which is equally important.

Rachael Botfield:

important as, you know, three big things, creating the content in the first place

Rachael Botfield:

and getting, and so you're delivering something great to your clients, have it,

Rachael Botfield:

doing the production elements of getting all those tasks and lined up, ready to go.

Rachael Botfield:

And then, you know, The promotion so that everybody, you know, as

Rachael Botfield:

many people as possible get to hear your podcast going out there.

Rachael Botfield:

Do you have any current challenges that you find coming up with your podcast?

Rachael Botfield:

Like I don't know, maybe thinking of different subjects to, to

Rachael Botfield:

approach or things like that?

Hannah McCormick:

No, I think content wise, that's not a challenge,

Hannah McCormick:

like coming up with content.

Hannah McCormick:

I'll tell you what, one of the challenges in.

Hannah McCormick:

Literally, the only barrier to it is just needing the budget available, is

Hannah McCormick:

I know what to do with the content.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, I know exactly, like, I know all these ways.

Hannah McCormick:

It's really frustrating because I have, I know all these ways I could,

Hannah McCormick:

like, maximize the content I'm creating for the podcast and use it in so many

Hannah McCormick:

different ways, and yet I, I lack.

Hannah McCormick:

the time.

Hannah McCormick:

It's just always what comes up.

Hannah McCormick:

I, I need to just like sit down and spend a month going through my

Hannah McCormick:

back catalog of content and writing captions and graphics, or I need

Hannah McCormick:

to get, I need to get you to do it.

Hannah McCormick:

Like it's on my list of things is if I can increase that

Hannah McCormick:

budget to just get you to do it.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, take the reins, because that is one of the biggest things.

Hannah McCormick:

It feels like such a waste.

Hannah McCormick:

These amazing episodes are coming out, and I still do my bit.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, I send my newsletters out, and I send them out on LinkedIn,

Hannah McCormick:

and that gets a lot of traction.

Hannah McCormick:

But I know that I'm missing opportunities on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube Shorts

Hannah McCormick:

and Pinterest that I was doing before, when there was two of us to handle it.

Hannah McCormick:

But now that it's just me, it's a little harder to balance the The

Hannah McCormick:

marketing plus the client work, so that's something is that's probably my

Hannah McCormick:

biggest challenge right now is, is the podcast is doing well, but I just know.

Hannah McCormick:

It could be doing even better if I could just get my act together.

Rachael Botfield:

Wow.

Rachael Botfield:

I mean, I think this is a common challenge for a lot of business owners with

Rachael Botfield:

podcasts or just generally, but if you don't have a podcast with your marketing,

Rachael Botfield:

is that that time and the budget.

Rachael Botfield:

So in an ideal world, if you had either more time or more money

Rachael Botfield:

to be able to invest in it you would be able to do so much more.

Rachael Botfield:

But again, we all, we can only do what we can do.

Rachael Botfield:

I think it's great to keep, you know, maybe a note and things of what things you

Rachael Botfield:

think would be work, what you could do.

Rachael Botfield:

So if you were able to a pass off to somebody else or find

Rachael Botfield:

some time where you go, okay.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm going to carve out a day.

Rachael Botfield:

Like I know when you and use a batch, you know, a lot of your, you carve out a day

Rachael Botfield:

or your trick to carve it out to do it.

Rachael Botfield:

I think maybe those things to keep in mind, you know, for the future or for,

Rachael Botfield:

you know, for people listening, if you're struggling to find time, it is.

Rachael Botfield:

But I also think you shouldn't beat yourself up too much.

Rachael Botfield:

It's so easy and I can see it myself with my podcast and, you know, getting

Rachael Botfield:

this out and I want to be able to share it in lots of different ways.

Rachael Botfield:

And I'm all, you know, telling.

Rachael Botfield:

Everybody else happens to it and then you think, well, I actually haven't done that.

Rachael Botfield:

I haven't done that, but cobblers kids

Hannah McCormick:

have no shoes, you know, that classic.

Hannah McCormick:

I, I, like, I would never let my clients get get I would be like,

Hannah McCormick:

no, we're using your content.

Hannah McCormick:

You had a, I'd never let them get to the state I have, but,

Hannah McCormick:

you know, it's, it's, it's.

Hannah McCormick:

But I'm not, no, I don't beat myself up about it, but I would say if, if that, as

Hannah McCormick:

someone who's now got it well established, got the pattern of the content coming

Hannah McCormick:

out regularly, like, that's down.

Hannah McCormick:

I know you have that handled.

Hannah McCormick:

It's now the, the, the next stage that I think like getting word out there.

Hannah McCormick:

That's the, the biggest, and again, it's not a case of not knowing how, yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

It's just a case of earning the time or the money to do it.

Hannah McCormick:

And that's always the problem, isn't it?

Hannah McCormick:

? Rachael Botfield: Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

I think, yeah, I think as, as we just said, it, it, that's the.

Hannah McCormick:

The, the, the crux of the Venn diagram of where you would like to

Hannah McCormick:

be is the time and, a time and money.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

As we said, you're pretty, pretty seasoned now and your podcast is going well and

Hannah McCormick:

your business is going great as well.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, do you have any more goals for your podcast in the future?

Hannah McCormick:

Have you got like a vision of where you'd like your podcast to go?

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

Well,

Hannah McCormick:

actually that's a really interesting one.

Hannah McCormick:

I've been thinking about this for a while.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

We covered a lot.

Hannah McCormick:

We have covered a lot in the show.

Hannah McCormick:

I recently just sort of reorganized all of the episodes onto different

Hannah McCormick:

playlists and I took a look and there are some categories that I thought

Hannah McCormick:

I had like really covered and they definitely need some more work.

Hannah McCormick:

So that's inspired like quite a few upcoming episodes and topics

Hannah McCormick:

to make it fully fleshed out.

Hannah McCormick:

But I do think we're going to reach a point where Where the show maybe, like,

Hannah McCormick:

reaches its, I don't know, it's hard to say, because it's always evolving.

Hannah McCormick:

So, part of me is, like, really enjoying the process of podcasting and has quite a

Hannah McCormick:

few different ideas in my head of, like, doing a different podcast and getting

Hannah McCormick:

swept up in the content creation road.

Hannah McCormick:

But the other thing I would really like to do, which would enable me to go off

Hannah McCormick:

and do other content, is if I could get the podcast paying for itself.

Hannah McCormick:

Thank you.

Hannah McCormick:

Through things like selling merchandise or Patreon.

Hannah McCormick:

If I can get the podcast paying for itself, then I can continue to

Hannah McCormick:

bring free education to the people I want to help, you know, and I can

Hannah McCormick:

continue giving this information and using this platform to benefit others

Hannah McCormick:

while also giving me the free time to maybe pursue some other topics.

Hannah McCormick:

Because I tell you what, Rachel, I have become a podcasting addict.

Hannah McCormick:

I really

Rachael Botfield:

like it.

Rachael Botfield:

Once you start looking at what different types of podcasts are out

Rachael Botfield:

there, and there is, there are, I mean, there are so many, but there's

Rachael Botfield:

so many different conversations going on, And I know that I have discovered

Rachael Botfield:

a lot of diverse range of podcasts.

Rachael Botfield:

I listen, I try to listen to as diverse a range as possible, like

Rachael Botfield:

some that are like highly produced that come on BBC sounds, but then some

Rachael Botfield:

that are, you know, I've discovered.

Rachael Botfield:

I run a free podcast community, as you know, and me seeing lots of different

Rachael Botfield:

independent podcasters there has been so great in discovering so many

Rachael Botfield:

different new topics to listen to.

Rachael Botfield:

And I think there's definitely podcasts out there for everything,

Rachael Botfield:

if you wanted to find, to learn about something, which I think is great.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, it's funny.

Hannah McCormick:

I Googled, I came up with a podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

an idea for a podcast title and I googled it and there was already

Hannah McCormick:

two podcasts with the same name.

Rachael Botfield:

Darn, got in there first.

Rachael Botfield:

Darn,

Hannah McCormick:

but you know, obviously it was a good

Hannah McCormick:

idea because other people have

Rachael Botfield:

done the same.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, yeah, great minds think alike.

Rachael Botfield:

So that, that's, so kind of monetization is something that you're

Rachael Botfield:

looking at for the, for the future.

Rachael Botfield:

I know that you have started a Patreon very recently and

Rachael Botfield:

that has come out in the past.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

In your May birthday letter that I, that I read about.

Rachael Botfield:

So tell us a little bit more about Patreon and how you're using it for

Rachael Botfield:

the monetization and what kind of features and things you're offering.

Rachael Botfield:

Because I know that when I first kind of came across Patreon and different

Rachael Botfield:

levels of monetization, I was, I was thinking about it in a very, I don't

Rachael Botfield:

know whether linear is the right word, but in one way and then I've discovered

Rachael Botfield:

some other people and thought, oh, okay, they're doing it in that way.

Rachael Botfield:

Quite out of the box thinking, so I'm just interested to see your take.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, well, it's interesting because when I first, when

Hannah McCormick:

we first launched the podcast back when it was Nicole and I, we actually

Hannah McCormick:

launched it alongside a membership.

Hannah McCormick:

And the idea was to get listeners to come into the membership.

Hannah McCormick:

Those are obviously, they're, it's very difficult to maintain.

Hannah McCormick:

And we happened to be launching it at a time when membership, interest in

Hannah McCormick:

online memberships was just kind of going down now that people could start

Hannah McCormick:

meeting, because it was early 2022.

Hannah McCormick:

And so people are starting to be able to meet in person again.

Hannah McCormick:

And so there was like a less interest in that.

Hannah McCormick:

But I have had people asking like, is there a membership?

Hannah McCormick:

Can we get a membership?

Hannah McCormick:

And so basically I started collecting like bonus interviews with guests for

Hannah McCormick:

a while just sort of seeing where it would go and Now that I've set it up.

Hannah McCormick:

I basically tried to set it up so that It's very low, very accessible ways that

Hannah McCormick:

people can just support the channel to like say thank you for giving me this info

Hannah McCormick:

and and then they get like an immediate benefit of access to bonus content and

Hannah McCormick:

they get a discount on my online courses and then like the next tier up you

Hannah McCormick:

also get some free lessons and the Tier after that, you get free tech tutorials.

Hannah McCormick:

And, and then there, then like the higher the tiers go, there's access to live

Hannah McCormick:

Q and A sessions once a quarter, and then personal, like one on one coaching

Hannah McCormick:

sessions, which is the higher tier one.

Hannah McCormick:

But it's a nice way for people to kind of support the show and

Hannah McCormick:

get something back in return.

Hannah McCormick:

Just a key.

Hannah McCormick:

So that's what I'm hoping to use it for.

Hannah McCormick:

I need to start, like I literally just launched it in May.

Hannah McCormick:

So I'm going to be starting to.

Hannah McCormick:

I need to start posting some little tidbits to there regularly as well.

Hannah McCormick:

But I'm excited to see how that goes.

Hannah McCormick:

And of course, there's that community aspect too.

Hannah McCormick:

So it'll be nice to see how that kind of goes in that less formal

Hannah McCormick:

membership way, where it's not about having to show up live all the

Hannah McCormick:

time, but still being available and accessible online to my community.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, that's really the goal there.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

And then in addition to that, then there's, there's the merch, which

Hannah McCormick:

is, I mean, it's fun to have to, and it's, again, it's like a nice little

Hannah McCormick:

small way that people can support the channel without like breaking

Hannah McCormick:

the bank, you know, like a little, like a little, Hey, thank you.

Hannah McCormick:

And, and then they're, of course, they're self, they're promoting the show for me.

Hannah McCormick:

It's like a conversation piece.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachael Botfield:

I think merch is like a really good way to go.

Rachael Botfield:

Have you limited the amount of people that can join at the higher levels or is

Rachael Botfield:

it as many people, just out of interest?

Hannah McCormick:

Not as yet.

Hannah McCormick:

There probably will be a limit because I'm only one person.

Rachael Botfield:

So Just the one podcast is like this sequel, like it's

Rachael Botfield:

a film podcast and obviously they've got some that are higher that like I

Rachael Botfield:

think they only have like a few spots, but they're obviously, they can have

Rachael Botfield:

input in the show and things like that.

Rachael Botfield:

So obviously you can't have too many people having that kind of access

Rachael Botfield:

or voice because you would just then be drowning in potential requests

Rachael Botfield:

trying to be able to fulfill, you know, honor what you have said.

Rachael Botfield:

So that was just an interesting piece that I hadn't really thought about before.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, I've been

Hannah McCormick:

watching what a lot of other people have been doing as well.

Hannah McCormick:

I mean, there's some content creators, I do love consuming content.

Hannah McCormick:

YouTube content.

Hannah McCormick:

And so there's some content creators that I've recently been totally like,

Hannah McCormick:

this is my little my neurodivergent brain gets like focused on something

Hannah McCormick:

and then just like dive deep, deep, deep into the bottomless pit

Hannah McCormick:

until there's nothing left to find.

Hannah McCormick:

And I've been, so I've been looking at their, their various ways of doing things

Hannah McCormick:

and how they've set up their Patreons.

Hannah McCormick:

And yeah, they have some like really top tier offers.

Hannah McCormick:

limited availability, but then you get like creative input to the show or

Hannah McCormick:

like the opportunity to be featured.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

I think that's

Rachael Botfield:

incredibly, sorry, I think that's incredibly

Rachael Botfield:

community building though, isn't it?

Rachael Botfield:

I know it's like a, you know, top level, but if you've got some super fans say

Rachael Botfield:

in your community and it's a way to really help bring them on and include

Rachael Botfield:

them in the show that is, you know, for them and you're creating for them,

Rachael Botfield:

I think that's a really lovely thing.

Rachael Botfield:

thing to be able to, opportunity for somebody if they really

Rachael Botfield:

wanted to, to be able to do that.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, I do.

Hannah McCormick:

I think it, it helps.

Hannah McCormick:

It really, you do feel part of the community.

Hannah McCormick:

Like I've started well, I started following a little bit different

Hannah McCormick:

channels and like reading like the community tabs and exploring.

Hannah McCormick:

I've only just started exploring Twitch.

Hannah McCormick:

I don't know if you're familiar with Twitch, but that seems to

Hannah McCormick:

be all about streaming too, but I think it's mostly for gamers.

Hannah McCormick:

That's what I love about this, this content creation world is

Hannah McCormick:

there's so many ways to go with it.

Hannah McCormick:

Like podcasting.

Hannah McCormick:

There's so many, like, limitless possibilities, you know, like you can make

Hannah McCormick:

video podcasts or just audio and you can focus on performing really well on just

Hannah McCormick:

podcasting platforms or performing really well, or you can supplement your podcast

Hannah McCormick:

with other things like again, one of the YouTube One of the content creators,

Hannah McCormick:

they do like comedy skits, but they've just launched their own podcast called

Hannah McCormick:

We Were Told We Should Do A Podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

Like that's literally the title of it.

Hannah McCormick:

So they've gone from like content creation to podcasting as just like a

Hannah McCormick:

supplement to, you know, but it's totally different to what they normally do.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

I just think it's like a really interesting, you tool, like that,

Hannah McCormick:

I think not, not enough people are using as a way to build community

Hannah McCormick:

and, and yeah, business to like, Oh

Rachael Botfield:

my gosh.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, yeah, because you're reaching, you know, a different

Rachael Botfield:

audience as well of people that consume content in a different way.

Rachael Botfield:

And, I think that, and as a I was listening to one of the podcast trend

Rachael Botfield:

shows I was listening to, and it is a platform for people to get to know you

Rachael Botfield:

on a deeper level as well, so if they have discovered you through maybe, I

Rachael Botfield:

don't know, your, maybe you do business TikToks, maybe you do the stories,

Rachael Botfield:

they've discovered you there but they really want to get to know you better,

Rachael Botfield:

know more about what you're doing.

Rachael Botfield:

And how you can actually help them.

Rachael Botfield:

Then they, then they go from that content, maybe the short form content they're

Rachael Botfield:

consuming, and then they're going, and that's what the hope is, is that they

Rachael Botfield:

go over and then, you know, discover you on, on, on the podcast, on audio only.

Rachael Botfield:

And then maybe they discover you've got YouTube as well, but you're doing

Rachael Botfield:

something slightly different on YouTube.

Rachael Botfield:

I don't know, but like you say, the, the possibilities are endless in the

Rachael Botfield:

way that you could connect with your audience and then, you know, build that

Rachael Botfield:

community and relationship with them.

Hannah McCormick:

There's, there's some content creators I stumbled upon

Hannah McCormick:

on TikTok, the Dumb Dads podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

And oh yeah, I have been seeing them.

Hannah McCormick:

Their TikTok content is crazy.

Hannah McCormick:

It's so on point and so hilarious.

Hannah McCormick:

It's basically become my love language to my husband, because I'll just like

Hannah McCormick:

message him a TikTok every, pretty much every day, every time they have a new

Hannah McCormick:

episode, a new little video come out.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm like, yep, send that to him because he'll get it.

Hannah McCormick:

And it's funny because it's turned him, because he doesn't have TikTok.

Hannah McCormick:

So he instead, he listens to their podcast now.

Hannah McCormick:

So he listens to their podcast and I watch their TikToks and then we make TikTok.

Rachael Botfield:

Talk about it.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah, so that's, that's great.

Rachael Botfield:

Perfect example of different people consuming different types of content

Rachael Botfield:

and that creating a variety of content, you know, for your business

Rachael Botfield:

and which can all stem from the same idea of your podcast and then go off

Rachael Botfield:

and create those different pieces.

Rachael Botfield:

So you're not having to think of the idea, but you just re purposing it

Rachael Botfield:

into different types of content that different people can consume and

Rachael Botfield:

find you and work in a different way.

Hannah McCormick:

That's what i love about it is that ability.

Hannah McCormick:

I think that's another thing that another element that it brings when you use it

Hannah McCormick:

as part of like a wider content strategy.

Hannah McCormick:

There's the It's just so many more opportunities for you to, like, slide

Hannah McCormick:

into people's lives, you know, like the drive home, like scrolling on the phone

Hannah McCormick:

when you're on the loo, you know, like, you know, the last thing you watch before

Hannah McCormick:

you go to sleep that night, you know, as you're trying to wind down and yeah, like,

Hannah McCormick:

there's, there's all these or the thing pop on, like, like pop your headphones

Hannah McCormick:

in for when you're walking the dog, like, there's all these ways to slide in, if you

Hannah McCormick:

can really leverage these different Great.

Hannah McCormick:

Thank you.

Hannah McCormick:

avenues and it's like that audio only content has some really great uses.

Hannah McCormick:

Like my husband, he, I mean, he can't watch videos when he's driving.

Hannah McCormick:

He can't watch them at work but he can listen.

Hannah McCormick:

So he, he's like, that's why he's a huge podcast.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm more likely to watch things on my phone, so I'll be more likely

Hannah McCormick:

to watch a video of a podcast, even if it's just watching people talk,

Rachael Botfield:

than I am to listen.

Rachael Botfield:

But that's so interesting, and that's part of, you know, the research that

Rachael Botfield:

you can do as a podcaster, as for your business, when you either have one already

Rachael Botfield:

or you're starting a podcast, is thinking about the different ways in which your

Rachael Botfield:

audience might be interacting with you, and how you can utilise, utilise that.

Rachael Botfield:

For your business and to be able to connect with those different people

Rachael Botfield:

in a different way, but achieving the ultimate goal of bringing them into your

Rachael Botfield:

world and hopefully You know, either they become a client and you're helping them

Rachael Botfield:

or they become a superfan and they come and recommend you, whatever the goal is.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah,

Hannah McCormick:

superfans are like, this doesn't have to just

Hannah McCormick:

become a monetary, like, return because superfans are wonderful too.

Hannah McCormick:

They talk about you and they share, you know, I literally gave your

Hannah McCormick:

business card out to someone I met.

Hannah McCormick:

at a network, at an event.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm, I'm across an ocean from you.

Hannah McCormick:

I nabbed when I saw you in person earlier this year.

Hannah McCormick:

I found your business cards in my handbag.

Hannah McCormick:

I was like, Oh my gosh.

Hannah McCormick:

I have them right here.

Hannah McCormick:

I have some of them and I purposely, I've got them.

Hannah McCormick:

And I purposely put them in my handbag for this event.

Hannah McCormick:

And I had a conversation.

Hannah McCormick:

Someone was like, This is my podcast manager.

Hannah McCormick:

You need to give her a call.

Hannah McCormick:

I don't know if they did, but like, just the fact that like, I, like that

Hannah McCormick:

super fan level where I'm like, this is the person you need to talk to.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Absolutely, I think that you can, those kind of personal recommendations are

Rachael Botfield:

just everything, I think, because the same, you know, you think about when

Rachael Botfield:

people ask for book recommendations, podcast recommendations, film ones,

Rachael Botfield:

business, you know, when it comes from somebody you already like know and

Rachael Botfield:

trust, you are far more likely to take what they say or recommend on board

Rachael Botfield:

because you already, you know, You're already invested with that person.

Rachael Botfield:

So having, yeah, not underestimating those relationships that you

Rachael Botfield:

make with people as well.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, exactly.

Hannah McCormick:

Like that, that, and again, that's the, that's the power of podcasting

Hannah McCormick:

is that, that community building, that connection building, that feeling

Hannah McCormick:

that you really know someone and you can get to like them quite quickly.

Hannah McCormick:

I had someone pitch to be a guest and I was like, Oh God, another guest.

Hannah McCormick:

But they said what they did, which was really smart is they sent in an

Hannah McCormick:

episode where they'd been a guest and I listened to it and I only had to listen

Hannah McCormick:

to them speak for like two minutes before I was like, yep, I like them.

Hannah McCormick:

I can already tell.

Hannah McCormick:

By the way, is that Chelsea?

Rachael Botfield:

Yes.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh my God.

Rachael Botfield:

See?

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh my God.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm listening to that episode.

Rachael Botfield:

It's a very good one.

Rachael Botfield:

I'm editing that one.

Rachael Botfield:

And I was just like,

Hannah McCormick:

I can tell that we're going to be great on an episode together.

Hannah McCormick:

And, and where else would you get that kind of connect?

Hannah McCormick:

Like, where else would you find that?

Hannah McCormick:

You don't find that through like, blog writing.

Hannah McCormick:

I mean, you can hear someone.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

If they're really good at what they do, then you can, yeah, you can like, okay, I

Hannah McCormick:

like this person, but it's not the same.

Hannah McCormick:

Like you don't get that instantaneous, like, yes, we are going to vibe.

Hannah McCormick:

Let's get on.

Hannah McCormick:

Let's

Rachael Botfield:

get on

Hannah McCormick:

the call together.

Rachael Botfield:

Let's just talk.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

You know?

Rachael Botfield:

Wow.

Rachael Botfield:

So everybody listening, the power, Hannah, thank you so much for sharing

Rachael Botfield:

your insights into how podcasting has been going for your business.

Rachael Botfield:

And I really hope that, I mean, there's lots of advice and insights

Rachael Botfield:

there for everyone to take away.

Rachael Botfield:

But what I'd love to leave everybody with is, I don't know if you have

Rachael Botfield:

like, I mean, you've already offered so much advice there, but like maybe

Rachael Botfield:

your top piece of advice if somebody is thinking about launching a podcast

Hannah McCormick:

Have a partner in crime, that's my advice.

Hannah McCormick:

It is, I know it's, it's, it's, it's, I say it every time, I think, but

Hannah McCormick:

if you can get someone there to help you, it's going to be a huge help.

Hannah McCormick:

I mean, it's going to be huge, having some built in accountability,

Hannah McCormick:

having someone to bounce ideas off of, having someone to help.

Hannah McCormick:

keep you on task.

Hannah McCormick:

Basically, get like a Rachel if you can.

Hannah McCormick:

Because, like, especially if this is the first time you've done something, like,

Hannah McCormick:

I didn't know what I didn't know and, and you saved me so much trial and error.

Hannah McCormick:

I probably would have given up on the podcast if I'd tried to do it myself.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, that's just the truth.

Hannah McCormick:

If I tried to do this all by myself, I probably would have given up.

Hannah McCormick:

If, even if, like, Nicole and I decided to do it and we'd figured it

Hannah McCormick:

out ourselves when she left the show.

Hannah McCormick:

I had to give it up.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, I, I wondered if I had to.

Hannah McCormick:

I think we had that conversation.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, we did.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

I don't know.

Hannah McCormick:

But, but having you there, having you, like, As like a partner, like

Hannah McCormick:

partner in crime has enabled the show to keep going and, and it's getting

Hannah McCormick:

to the point where like, I have people say, yeah, I listened to your show.

Hannah McCormick:

And I'm like, oh, you do?

Hannah McCormick:

Not because I sent you a link.

Hannah McCormick:

You actually listened to it.

Hannah McCormick:

You found me.

Hannah McCormick:

And, and so it's so worth it.

Hannah McCormick:

Like, like you said, like 65 episodes in, like, that's mad.

Hannah McCormick:

It's amazing.

Hannah McCormick:

Thanks.

Hannah McCormick:

It's like, that's, that's brilliant.

Hannah McCormick:

We're not that far off of the hundred episodes.

Hannah McCormick:

It's just like,

Rachael Botfield:

oh my gosh.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Will it reach?

Rachael Botfield:

I just want to think you'll have to think of something mega special

Rachael Botfield:

to do for the, I know, right?

Rachael Botfield:

Like I did

Hannah McCormick:

a big

Rachael Botfield:

50th

Hannah McCormick:

episode.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh, I

Rachael Botfield:

wonder if it'll line up when I'm planning my holiday to Canada.

Hannah McCormick:

Yes.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh my God.

Hannah McCormick:

Yes.

Hannah McCormick:

And then we'll just have to have like a huge.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah,

Rachael Botfield:

yeah, we'll just preempt it if it's not and then

Rachael Botfield:

we'll just like pre record it.

Hannah McCormick:

I know what we'll do, okay, so people who don't know, there's

Hannah McCormick:

this, there's this mountain in Vancouver called in North Vancouver called the

Hannah McCormick:

Grouse Mountain and, and there's this thing called the Grouse Grind where you

Hannah McCormick:

have to like walk up, you basically walk upstairs up the mountain, like you walk

Hannah McCormick:

up the mountain on these like Stairs.

Hannah McCormick:

We'll have to do the ground scrawling and then we'll do the slide paths.

Hannah McCormick:

I'll just like die on the stairs

Rachael Botfield:

all the

Hannah McCormick:

way.

Hannah McCormick:

It's part of the

Rachael Botfield:

mountain.

Rachael Botfield:

Dragging all balloons and cupcakes with us all the way.

Rachael Botfield:

Exactly.

Rachael Botfield:

Exactly.

Rachael Botfield:

And then we can just

Hannah McCormick:

take the, we can take the gondola back down.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh yeah,

Rachael Botfield:

because I can't ski.

Rachael Botfield:

I hate it when I went.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh no, I can't ski either.

Hannah McCormick:

We'll do it in the summer.

Hannah McCormick:

Oh, that's fine.

Hannah McCormick:

We'll do it in the summer.

Hannah McCormick:

It's lovely.

Hannah McCormick:

There's a lot we can actually talk to in the summer, so.

Hannah McCormick:

We'll do it in the summer.

Rachael Botfield:

Awesome.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, you heard it here first guys.

Rachael Botfield:

That's what's going to happen on the showing up solo for the 100th episode.

Hannah McCormick:

Maybe we'll have to have like a big subscriber count by

Hannah McCormick:

then too, big celebration or whatever, but we'll do like a big You know,

Hannah McCormick:

podcasting 101 meets showing up solo.

Hannah McCormick:

Yes,

Rachael Botfield:

I love that.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, Hama is definitely a long time collaborator of mine.

Rachael Botfield:

Like I mentioned, I love us working together and collaborating, collo

Rachael Botfield:

if I can say it, collaborating together on projects and stuff.

Rachael Botfield:

So it's been so great being in each other's worlds.

Rachael Botfield:

And thank you so much for coming on again and sharing your insights.

Rachael Botfield:

And I'm sure you will be hearing from Hannah again

Rachael Botfield:

because she has so much to give.

Rachael Botfield:

And where do you just lastly, where do you hang out the most?

Rachael Botfield:

I will leave all the links and how to get in contact with

Rachael Botfield:

Hannah and in the show notes.

Rachael Botfield:

But if people really want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do it.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah, so, I mean, showingupsolo.

Hannah McCormick:

com is the website.

Hannah McCormick:

You can find our YouTube content on, at our channel, which is at showingupsolo.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm also at showingupsolo on Instagram.

Hannah McCormick:

But where I have been spending a lot of my time most recently is LinkedIn.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm really enjoying, like, releasing a bi weekly newsletter

Hannah McCormick:

with every episode that comes out.

Hannah McCormick:

And like, I'm not, I don't know.

Hannah McCormick:

I'm really enjoying hanging out on LinkedIn.

Hannah McCormick:

Again, at showingupsolo or Hannah McCormick.

Hannah McCormick:

But yeah, we're, we're there.

Hannah McCormick:

We're on TikTok.

Hannah McCormick:

But We've got to improve our TikTok and of course, Patreon and everything, but.

Hannah McCormick:

Pretty much

Rachael Botfield:

showing up solo.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh yeah, I'll put the, showing up solo everywhere.

Rachael Botfield:

Nice and simple.

Rachael Botfield:

And yeah, I'll put the details for Patreon in the show notes as well.

Rachael Botfield:

And for the merch, obviously.

Rachael Botfield:

And hopefully I will get my Batshit Crazy t shirt.

Rachael Botfield:

Haha,

Hannah McCormick:

soon!

Hannah McCormick:

When you come to Canada, I promise, I'll get like a, we'll have like

Hannah McCormick:

a custom shirt made for the event.

Rachael Botfield:

Okay.

Rachael Botfield:

That would be so awesome.

Rachael Botfield:

Oh my God.

Rachael Botfield:

We'll

Hannah McCormick:

get a custom Coming Up Silo Podcasting 101 merch.

Hannah McCormick:

Yes.

Hannah McCormick:

It's exclusive.

Hannah McCormick:

Yeah.

Hannah McCormick:

One minute time release.

Rachael Botfield:

That would be awesome.

Rachael Botfield:

So watch out for that in the next two years.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Keep your eyes peeled.

Rachael Botfield:

Yeah.

Rachael Botfield:

Well, thanks again, Hannah.

Rachael Botfield:

And we'll cut.

Rachael Botfield:

Thank you, everybody, for listening.

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And, if you haven't already subscribed, I would love for you to hop on

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over to your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you hear when the

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next two episodes are coming out.

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So thank you Hannah and we'll catch everybody soon.

Rachael Botfield:

Thanks for listening to the show.

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

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

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review in your chosen podcast app.

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Your feedback is much appreciated.

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See you next time.

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