In this insightful episode of Money Talk with Tiff, host Tiffany Grant is joined by podcast expert Virginia Elder. They dive deep into what it takes to start and maintain a successful podcast, especially for business owners contemplating entering the podcast space. From deciding if podcasting is the right medium to understanding the commitment it entails, Tiffany and Virginia cover all you need to know to make informed decisions.

About Our Guest

Virginia Elder is a dynamic and driven individual with a strong foundation in project management, client service, and strategic organization. With over 15 years of experience under her belt, she has honed her skills and is now known for her ability to make things happen. Whether it's behind-the-scenes support or content marketing strategies, Virginia shines brightest when helping entrepreneurs expand their reach and boost their revenue.

Her journey into podcast editing began with a simple 'yes' to a friend's project in 2019. Since then, she has taken on numerous copywriting and audio editing endeavors, which have led to her leaving her 9-5 job to forge her own business path. This move has not only allowed her to pursue her passion but also live her dream of walking her kids to and from school each day.

When you entrust your raw audio and video recordings, web copy dreams, weekly newsletter musings, and blog post aspirations to Virginia, you are giving yourself the gift of freedom. She takes care of the entire content creation process - from editing to publishing - so you can focus on serving your clients and growing your business.

Editing audio, video, and copy may be daunting for some, but for Virginia, it's second nature. With a dedicated content production team by her side, they work together to turn visions into reality. Don't let content creation hold you back any longer; let Virginia and her team handle it with their expertise so you can concentrate on what you do best.

Connect with Virginia

Website: PodcastAbundance.com

Instagram: @PodcastAbundance

Facebook: @PodcastAbundance

Connect with Tiffany

Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com

Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff

Twitter: @moneytalkwitht

Instagram: @moneytalkwitht

LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant

YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff

Pinterest: @moneytalkwitht

TikTok: @moneytalkwitht

Timestamps

[00:00] Consider comfort, goals, time, and integration.

[05:55] Podcasting is a long-term marketing strategy.

[09:40] Identify ideal client, structure episodes, purposeful content.

[13:35] Set clear expectations, plan and follow through.

[15:30] Consistency in releasing content is crucial.

[21:18] Efficient batching helps release podcasts consistently.

[22:17] Virginia shared valuable podcasting advice for sustainability.

Key Themes

• Deciding If Podcasting Is Right For You: Virginia discusses how to assess if podcasting suits your strengths and business needs.
• Time Commitment in Podcasting: Insight into the real time investments required and how many potential podcasters experience 'pod fade.'
• The Importance of Structure: The significance of having a clear purpose and defined structure for your podcast episodes.
• Consistency and Scheduling: Tips on maintaining a consistent release schedule and the role of batch recording in managing podcast demands.
• Understanding Your Audience: The importance of having a well-defined target audience to enhance the focus and reach of your podcast.
• Different Podcast Types: Exploration of various podcast formats, including seasonal and capsule podcasts, to suit different content creation styles.

Memorable Quote

Virginia Elder: "Podcasting is a long game. If you're stepping into this space, commit with the intention of going the distance."

Special Mention

Shoutout to the Retirement Answer Man

Retirement Talk with Roger Whitney | Ep. 76

Call to Action

Visit MoneyTalkWithT.com for more resources, and follow Tiffany on social media at @moneytalkwitht for daily updates and tips.

Remember, consistency is key! Whether you are considering starting a podcast or any other venture, regularity and clear communication with your audience are crucial to success.

Reminder

If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a rating and review on your preferred podcast platform. It helps us reach more listeners just like you!

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money,

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast.

Hey, everyone. I am so excited because I have Virginia elder on the

line now. I wanted Virginia on the show. We just

spoke at Fincon together on the same stage for a panel about

podcasting, and she is awesome. Awesome. When it comes

to helping people figure out if they need a podcast, want a

podcast, and then stepping in to help them with the production. So, hey, Virginia,

how are you? Hey, thank you. I am good. Excited to be

here. Yes, I'm excited to have you. So let's jump

right in. When people, let's say, for instance,

somebody's listening, they're a business owner, and they hear everybody

starting podcasts, and they're like, oh, I need to start a podcast. What

are some things that they should think about before they start? Or how do they

figure out if podcasts is the right medium for their business when it

comes to marketing? Okay, awesome. Yes. Okay. I know that

was loaded. Let's address

whether it's the right medium first, and then I

will talk about how to make sure it's going to work for

you. So, first up, if

writing isn't your forte, then, okay, maybe

blogging for your business is out the window. So then you have

to look at, am I comfortable speaking about my

business, or is this something that I want to pursue?

Do I want to become more comfortable speaking about my business, about our

services, about how we help people? Because those are the topics

that podcast listeners want

to hear from the business owner. They want to hear about

the solution you provide, how you change

people's lives for the better with your services or products.

Now, lately. Then comes the

question is, do I do a video

podcast or do I just do audio?

Tiffany, you do a great job of just doing audio. You have repurposed

some video, but really, everybody's just loving the audio. So

Tiffany's a great example of just stick with what works and

what you're comfortable with, and not

necessarily what is the hot trend right now,

because there's a big push toward video right now. But I want to clarify

that that's not necessary for everyone,

especially if, for whatever reason, your lifestyle

or your comfort level makes you kind of shy from the

camera, because if there's any piece of the process

that feels hard or

you know that you're kind of pulling back from, you're less

likely to be successful in that area because you're already

feeling that barrier. So, okay, that

should help as far as deciding which

medium. So once you

decide, maybe perhaps you're not a good writer

and you're not comfortable on video or whatever it is, and you decide

you're going to podcast and you're going to use this

podcast as a marketing arm for your business, then

it's time to really look at your daily and

weekly time that you have

to add this additional task of

recording your episodes. Some people

might want to script and then record their episodes. That is going to

take more time. Again, it depends on what your goals are. If

you want to practice speaking on the

fly or if you are more methodical about it, you want to

make sure that you get things in your episodes, but it's really going to boil

down to the time you have

and how you can integrate

podcasting into your existing schedule. And that's a really

important planning piece that you have to do upfront. You

can get help with editing and production and all that. That's

not going to be your forte at this point.

But you do have to work in that time to record because nobody can do

that for you. And that is so true, Virginia, I'm

so glad that you bought up that timepiece, because people

don't realize how much time and effort goes into this.

It's definitely a labor of love sometimes, and

getting clear on how much time you actually have available

to it, because I feel like, and correct me if I'm wrong, if you really

know the data. I don't. I'm just making an assumption. But I

feel like people quit podcasting in some

cases because of the time commitment, because they get in and they

realize, ooh, this is more than what I thought it was. Absolutely. And

so they run out of time and then the show goes stale. Yeah,

absolutely. The two biggest fall

off points, which we actually call that pod fade, it's where you just

like, fade away and don't actually mean to say bye,

just disappear. So the two biggest pod

fade points are before episode

seven. So real early on in the process, like, you just

launched and you very quickly got overwhelmed. And then

the other big fade point is around episode 50.

So 50, man, like, that seems like such an

accomplishment. You did 50 episodes, right?

But when you think about if you were doing

a weekly show, that's about a year of

production. And so most people

don't realize this is another important point. Podcasting really

is a long game, even

very niched down and targeted for your

ideal client and specific topics and all that, you're

not going to get very much traction very

quickly. It is a long

term, long, long

game marketing strategy, really. You have to begin with the

intention of producing probably 200 episodes or

so. I'm not saying you won't get a customer until that point. I'm just

saying that's how long it really takes to see

the multiple thousands of download

numbers and, you know, clients calling left and right

from your podcast. So when someone

looks and they've been producing for about a year and

maybe they've gotten a couple clients out of it, it's

one of those things where they're quitting when they're so close to the

finish line, like, so, so close. If they just keep going to, like, episode

60 or 70, you start to really gain some traction there.

Yeah. And you know what? I can attest to that. In January,

I posted early January, I'll put a link in the show notes.

I had posted my chart of all my podcast downloads

from, like, when I started the podcast up until the end

of last year. And you'll

see, you could see a stark difference right around the timeframe, you're saying.

So from 2019 to, like, 2022,

my downloads were abysmal. Like, they were really

small. It's rough at first. It is,

but, and you know what? And when I was going through that data before I

took the screenshot, I was like, dang, some days I had zero listens. Like

nobody was listening to me. But I consistently kept putting out that

content. And then you just see a boom, like in

2022, somewhere up in there, it was just a boom for the

podcast. And now I look at my numbers, I'm like,

oh, I'm not doing too bad. But it took that long

to start gaining traction in this. And for

me, it draws comparison to blogging as well.

Blogging as is another long game thing. You can't just hop in and think you're

going to get all this traffic. It takes a long time to build that

up. So I'm glad you brought that up, because, you know, maybe

it'll help someone from getting discouraged when they don't see those

numbers, you know, in their first year or what have you. And

they're like, you know what? I'm already prepared for this. Virginia and

Tiffany told me about this, so I can keep going.

With that being said, what is something else? What's the next step?

So after we figure out our time, what else should we

think about? So you want to really

clarify exactly who you're speaking

to. That's one important component.

And of course you can say, oh, potential clients, of

course, but you have to really define

those clients. And I'm not talking about age or

gender basics like that. It's going to be

extreme specifics. For

example, business owners making 250k

or more who also have a

podcast marketing their business, right? That's

my ideal market for my

show that's launching soon. You have

to really identify

those deep niches. You could go even further to the

example than what I just said. But once you identify

that ideal client, maybe they live in a certain area,

perhaps they visit coffee shops three times a week or

something like that. Like, it can be the craziest thing. But the

additional features, you list niches down your

target listener even more. So then,

what I want you to really concentrate on is the

actual structure and makeup of your

episodes. Is it going to be interviews? Is it going to be

solo? Are there going to be different segments? Are

you going to play a game with your guests? There's so

many things you can do, and you want to be really clear

about that structure. And of course, for that

structure to have a purpose, whether that

is helping people become more familiar

with you or your business or because you want it to be

entertaining, there has to be a purpose to

that ideal client or ideal listener and

the structure of your episode. So if you notice, we

haven't talked about anything about like microphones or software, anything like

that. It's all in the place, planning and the vision for

the show. That's where the hard work is. Yes,

I agree with that. And as someone that did not do that when I

started, I didn't do any of that. Most movies don't.

Cause nobody tells them, right. I didn't do any of

that. And I was like, oh, I just want to talk to everybody, and

I just want everybody to get all this information that I'm putting out because it's

so important. Everybody needs to know. And like I said,

my download numbers were really

low. It wasn't in till I actually

did an episode where I said, this is the premise for the

podcast. And that is when

I really dialed it in on what are we here

for? After that is

when everything started taking off, so. And that wasn't until like,

episode, I don't know, 100 something hundred.

So I wish I would have done that earlier, but I say that

to say, it's so important to know who, who you're talking to when

you're creating your podcast and what is the purpose of even doing the

podcast. So I'm glad that you brought that up.

Now one thing, now that we're talking about structure, right.

Some people, they're like, well, you know, weekly sounds good, but

I don't have that in me. What are some other cadences when it comes

to, like, what can podcasting look like? Because I've heard of capsule

podcasts. I've heard of seasonal

podcasts. What are the different types? Yeah,

okay. That's a great one. So as far as a long

term ongoing running show, I mean, let's

just top this with there are no rules, okay. You can literally do

whatever you want. Whatever you do, though, it needs

to be defined from the beginning. So you've got long

term podcasts and then you've got the capsule podcast like you

mentioned in the long term podcast

space, do whatever you want to do as

long as it's consistent. So if you can't do weekly, do every

other week or monthly or sometimes

quarterly. Now, the longer you go between

episodes, the slower the traction is going

to occur on your show. You

mentioned seasonal. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say I can attest

to that as well because I told my audience I would do

weekly and there would be a couple of months before they get a new episode.

And then it was like I had to start from scratch. So I just wanted

to tag onto that to say, yes, that is, that is

real, but go ahead. Yeah, yeah. And that goes

back to your listeners knowing what to expect if

you start from the beginning and go, listen, this is going to be a

once a month show. Look for me every month on the

15th, you know, for whatever, whatever updates

you're doing and at least you're telling them so they aren't going to

be driving in their car on the 16th looking for

your episode because they know you already dropped one on the 15th and they got

to wait. So just be clear with your

intentions and then follow through. Now, if

an ongoing show isn't in

you but you want to do seasons, for

example, again, there are no rules. You could do an eight

episode season. You could do a 20 episode season,

and there is also no rule as far as how

long you should wait in between seasons.

So again, look at your

calendar, look at your lifestyle, your plans for your business,

your travel, your kids schedules, all those things,

and map out when it makes sense

for you to record so that you can see

how many episodes you might could record within, let's say, a

month. Then from there you'll

be able to say, okay, when's the next time that's

possible? Maybe that's three months down the road.

So maybe

seasons are great for you. Maybe you can do

a five episode season and tell your audience,

hey, we'll be back in three months with another five episode season.

You can do anything as long as it's defined and

people know what to expect, because then the trick is you're

not letting them down. And that is the

big thing for me. So people will

look for you when you say you are going to

release, because, you know, people that knew me, they were in my inbox, like, where's

my episode? Like, where is it at? But

one thing that really stuck with me, that

changed, you know, that whole waiting and all that

stuff that was kind of stagnating my growth was I was at

Fincon one year, I think it was 2021, and

I was sitting at the bar next to the retirement

answer man. So check out his podcast. Shout out to

him. I'll put a link to his show in the show

notes. But he said to me, tiffany, and

mind you, he had gone seven years, releasing once

a week for seven years, never missed. And he said,

tiffany, when you like someone, let's say

you like this guy, y'all are going on dates, hitting it off, everything's

going well, and then he stands you up.

How would you feel? And he said, that is

how your audience feels when you miss an episode. I

said, no. Like, I don't want to break their

hearts. Oh, my gosh. Right? But that

difficult conversation that he had with me really changed

my viewpoint about my podcast and how important

it was to be consistent. And like I said, in 2022 was when everything took

off, because, you know, all of those conversations. So

I can really attest to how important that consistency

piece is, regardless of whatever you choose. I have friends that

do once a quarter. You know, they do a couple of releases and

then they're done, but they have a good following. People are

watching and they're listening. So it really

just depends on what you want to do, what you

have time for, and then what you communicate to your audience. I

think that's the most important thing. And even if, you know, you

start at a cadence, let's say, once a week, and you're like, oh, this is

too much. Communicate with your audience and say, hey, y'all,

I'm going to do once a month because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. You know, make sure you communicate whatever changes you make to the

show, because it really goes a long way as well, in my opinion. What do

you think? Yeah, absolutely. And that's part of

the statement where there really are no rules. It

is your show. You can do whatever you want. You can pick your own colors.

You can pick your own music, right?

So you can change what you're doing. Even if you identify, like, we were

talking about structure a while ago, and you say, okay, well, I want to

do an interview and I want to play games with my guests, like

at the end, like ask them five top questions or something,

and you decide, this is lame, or, I don't like this, or

whatever, you can change it, it's okay.

And even then, if you feel like you need to announce it, that's fine, you

can. But same thing with your publishing

schedule, you can make that adjustment, say, hey,

we're going to back down. We're going to go to every two weeks, we're going

to go to once a month. You know, it's winter break, it's summer break. Like,

whatever the reason is, that's fine. And you can turn around

and increase the consistency later

if you feel energized. I will

say something I want to point out, and Tiffany, I know

you're so good at this, so you can back this up.

You don't produce a weekly show

by recording one episode every single week. That's just

not how this works. You always, always

want to record more

than what you need in the coming week. So

if you're doing a weekly show, really look at batch

recording. So I would say record

three episodes every two weeks at

minimum. Right. And so you always have that one extra

that's recorded. So when you're scheduling them to

go live on future dates, you're already a week ahead each

time. So explore

something like that. Some people do five recordings

once a month, and that takes care of all

the episodes they needed to record. Tiffany, I know, is

a master batch recorder. So

just for that clarity, yes.

Consistency in your schedule may be important. So you

may look at this, say, oh, well, I need to record one episode every week.

That's fine. Make sure that there's

wiggle room in there and that sometimes you get

two or three recordings. Because here's the deal. People are going to get

sick. You need a vacation, you're going to be tired, you're going to

have a client emergency. Different things are going to happen.

And guess what? The one time you have to cancel

your recording appointment, you don't want to be without a

show next published date. So you always want to be

working ahead. Yes. Yes. And like Virginia said,

I am a master batch recorder. I'll give you all just a

little behind the scenes. Now, in this episode. Since we're talking about it, we're

recording this on January 4. You'll probably be hearing this in, like,

April because that's where I am in my batch. So, and I'm

closing my calendar in a couple of days, and I won't record

until April again. So that's how I'm able

to keep my sanity when it comes to running

the podcast. And, you know, people are like, how are you able to, you know,

release twice a week and blah, blah, blah, blah? Well, it's because of

this, I'm able to batch pretty

efficiently, and then I don't have to touch it for a whilst. I

get a break, and then I'll get back to it later on. So I'm so

glad you mentioned that and to give y'all a little behind the scenes, that's how

we operate over here. So with that being said, because we can't

give it all away, Virginia, I know we could be here forever

talking about podcasting because we both nerd out on it.

But if people were interested in learning more about you

about podcasting, how you can help them, where could they find

you? Yeah. Thank you, tiff. I

am@podcastabundance.com dot. There are

several blog posts and various pages. You can

check out all our services and just lots of good advice there. And

then on Instagram, same thing. It's

odcastabundance. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll make sure I

have all of that in the show notes for you all. So if you're doing

something else while you're listening, because it's not a video,

make sure you check out the show notes and it'll definitely be

there. Thank you so much, Virginia, for spreading so much

valuable information and dropping these gems on the money talk with TIFF

podcast today. I definitely look up to you when it comes to

podcasting because you know about all the equipment and stuff. But like you

said, we don't even have to talk about equipment when it comes to

starting a podcast. It just starts with getting the structure and

getting everything comfortable for you so that way you can

have longevity and sustainability.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I loved this. Thank you so

much. Yes, no problem. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.

Bye. Thank you for listening, joining, and being a part of the

Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check Tiff out every

Thursday for a new Money talk podcast. But if you just can't wait until

next week, you can listen to previous podcast episodes at

Moneytalk with tea or follow TIFf

on all social media platforms at moneytalkwitht.

Until next time, spend wise by spending less than you

make. A word to the money wise is always sufficient.