In this week's episode, I talk to Cydelle Stewart, host of the Virtual Duality Podcast.

We chat about why Cydelle thought a podcast would be a good idea and how it fitted into her business plans. [3.14 min]

The research that she and her team undertook in the planning stages [5.16 min]

Fine-tuning the steps it takes to onboarding a guest on the show [6.16 min]

The tools and tech she uses to help streamline and automate her podcast [6.56 min]

Deciding on a platform to release the podcast [11.03 min]

Listener Engagement [14.05 min]

Using Squadcast to record guest episodes [16.02 min]

Cydelle offers some great advice! [22.17 min]

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About my Guest

Cydelle Stewart is an Online Business Operations expert, Virtual Assistant (VA) Mentor and Founder of VA Agency Onit! Communications.

With a passion for excellence and streamlined processes that optimise the client journey, Cydelle makes it posAble for Coaches, Consultants and Industry Experts to embed excellence in online experiences, so they can delight clients, create repeat business and referrals with ease, whilst making more impact focusing on what lights them up.

Based in London, UK, Cydelle is a systems geek, lover of Black men with beards and an avid tea drinker! 

You can usually find her sipping Cherry Bakewell Rooibos whilst watching crime dramas, yet ANOTHER online tutorial or, getting excited about something she's discovered that Airtable can do!

 Connect with her via @CydelleStewart (IG/FB/LI) or cydellestewart.com

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

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I'd love to connect with you on social!

You can find me on:

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Unknown: 00:00:07

Welcome to podcasting one on one with me your host

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Rachel. This podcast is for female business owners and

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solopreneurs that are looking to start a podcast that add to your

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own already awesome offering. I'll give you helpful advice

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that you can take away and use in your podcasting journey. I

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hope to answer those tricky questions that just keep you

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from starting. Once a month, I'll be joined by other female

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podcasters. They'll share their journey with you and offer tips

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and advice they discovered along the way. Let's get started.

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Hi, and welcome to this week's episode. Today I have with me

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Citadel Stewart. Welcome to Dow.

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Hi, thanks for having me, Rachel.

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And well, thanks for coming on. And Fidel is an online business

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operations expert, a virtual assistant mentor and the founder

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of the VA agency on it communications. And her podcast

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is called virtual duality. And yeah, it's great to have you

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here today. You want to tell us a little bit about you and your

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podcast.

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Yeah, no problem. So like you said, my name is Fidel shara,

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otherwise known as said, and I've been in the virtual online

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space now for just coming up to 13 years. And we started the

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podcast virtual reality which is aimed at aspiring and emerging

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virtual assistants, in Oh, I can't remember the date. I don't

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remember the day off the top of my head to be honest, in terms

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of when we launched it. But we're on season three, we just

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finished season three, we're on a break at the moment. And the

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purpose of the podcast is to empower people who are

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interested in being virtual assistants or are new in their

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journey like within the first 18 months, two years of their

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journey, who were really clued up on the service delivery in

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terms of what they do for clients, but not so much

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necessarily on running a business. And so that's where

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the actual duality comes in. It's like you're you're Julie

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running this business, as well as servicing your clients. And I

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think that often bas focus so heavily on client delivery and

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service, that they don't really take into consideration the

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aspects of building their business and running it at the

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same time and it gets lost. And it becomes really stressful

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because all of your focus is on getting clients and maintaining

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clients. So that was the impetus for launching it really?

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Absolutely. I would agree with that me. Starting out as a

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virtual assistant, march 21, there was a lot of focus on

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initially thinking about all of like, say, getting the clients,

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but actually when you're trying to, I ended up doing a

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copywriting course. And that looks a little bit about setting

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up your business as well. And actually, there was a lot of

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things that you don't consider, because if you're not a business

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owner before, so that is great to have something out there

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that's going to help guide you. So what did you do in the

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planning stages? So how did you decide to Why did you decide to

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target VAs and that that aspect of setting up?

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At that point, I had decided that I was going to launch a VA

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training and development arm of my business. And so the natural

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thing felt like, how do I do that? Pretty immediately,

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without spending lots of time overly perfecting and stressing

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about what I'm putting out. And our podcast felt like the most

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natural way to do that, as opposed to writing content. So

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I've always loved audio. I've done a lot of radio in the past.

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So a podcast just felt comfortable. To be honest. It

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was the idea of doing solo episodes was a little bit

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daunting, because we tried to consider do we do solo episodes,

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just guest episodes. And then in the end, we decided to do a

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hybrid of both. And the solo episodes, the first few like

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when you listen back to them, they're a little bit cringe

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because I was just like, What do I talk about don't want to sound

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like I'm reading. So I didn't want to write it all out. Do I

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have enough to say is what I'm saying valuable? There was all

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those kinds of considerations. So the planning was around? What

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did the audience that I'm targeting need? What are their

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challenges? And because I'm in so many virtual assistant, and

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executive assistant and personal assistant forums, that part of

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the research was quite easy. I could I could tap into what

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people were struggling with, what kind of questions people

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had about the NBA, and then turn that into episodes that I could

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answer those questions essentially, and then bring on

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experts onto the guest episodes to answer more business related

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questions but geared towards virtual assistants. Yeah.

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So you're kind of on you were on the ground. Yeah, listening to

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what Pete What VAs was saying they wanted and they needed and

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then you could turn that around to give them that I in that in

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that podcast? Yeah. What was your planning process? So how

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long did it take you to get from when you decided to write, I'm

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going to do a podcast? What kind of things did you do? Did you do

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it by yourself? Did you have a team to help you what what kind

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of things did you do?

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Kind of disciplining myself in terms of ideas? And then I

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worked with Gemma, My Online Business Manager to help me kind

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of map out the process we were looking at how do we physically

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produce this podcast? Like, what does the editing look like? And

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I did some research. When I first had the idea. I did some

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research online in some groups, asking people to share what was

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included in their editing packages, what they charge, how

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long it takes, turn it around, etc. And I got some really good

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quotes. And then I kind of em up somebody that I was going to

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reach back out to you and then did this like four months in

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advance. So I had an understanding of what it was

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going to cost to produce it, how many episodes we could do at a

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time because we were going to batch them rather than doing

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them week by week. And what it would look like internally for

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Gemma to help make the podcast actually happened alongside the

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editor. And we planned it down to I think we got down to 87

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steps that it takes for each podcast from initial invitation

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of asking somebody if they if they're happy to be on the pod

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to the final email where we thank them and share their

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assets with them for their episode. And then one more

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follow up email. So it was a lot of steps. But we've automated a

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lot of it. And so we managed to get the process down to a tee

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really

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well, that is very, super organised. I guess if you're

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having a lot of guests as well, it helps. It's helped refine

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that process along the way as well. What do you use to

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automate? It's not of interest to haha?

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Oh, is it air table? No. Actually, actually, that's not

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our table, we use air table for our planning to map our date,

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the topics and all of that kind of side of it. So we map that

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out episode per episode in our table because a table is my

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baby. And I use it for everything, as I'm sure you

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would have guessed from listening. But we use dubsado

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for automation with a few external steps, because we use

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external scheduler. So I use acuity scheduling for booking

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the actual podcast recording session, we use squad class for

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our actual platform to do our recording. We use products

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later. And then we use dubsado to kind of string it all

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together. And we use Zapier in the background for any of the

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parts that aren't like intuitively automated. And there

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are a couple of manual steps in between. But for the most part,

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especially the early part of the production, the pre pre

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production that is automated. And we actually have recreated

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that process now in actual digital products that we can

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sell to other people if they were interested in not having to

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figure it out for themselves.

Unknown: 00:08:15

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't I that's something that I hadn't

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really thought about. But I don't know, I know some people

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that use dubsado. But I don't I haven't used it myself. From

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what I can gather, it's really powerful, and really great for

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having that that type of process having everything automated

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along the way. So that saves you a lot of time. And that helps a

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lot with your your planning. Planning

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really does help, especially because we do a podcast release

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form, which I know lots of people don't do. But I am, you

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know, formally a VA and formally, executive system like

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the legalities of things are a big part of what I do. So I

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don't ever skip that that portion. So we do podcast

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release form, which is easy for us to do using dubsado as well

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as the person saying that they're up for it showing all

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the information and the links to anything else that they need.

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All in a really easy automated step without us having to

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manually do that each time.

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That's really helpful. With the tech side of things then did you

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did you have somebody in to help edit the episodes once you'd

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recorded them? Or did you do that? Did you manage that within

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your own team?

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No. So we one of the people that I found when I was doing the

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research a few months prior, I contacted him and then he was

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basically our editor. So he would take four weeks worth of

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episodes at a time and edit those and then send them back to

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us. And then Gemma would do all of the work that goes into

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creating the audio Graham versions, for example, and the

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artwork and show notes and then scheduling it, loading it up to

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pod bean which is the platform that we use to spare and then

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liaising with the guest, again to send them their assets and

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stuff. So they are quite a few different like, between us,

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we've mentioned a lot of tools, right? So be daunted by that.

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And I mean, you don't have to use lots of tools, you could

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literally just do your editing and then do everything by, you

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know, regular email and word documents, or Google Docs. But

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this is much simpler. Found it once you've got the process kind

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of in place, and it it works through. So

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yeah, I tend to do my emails myself, I do have a scheduler, I

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use Captivate, I really, they have like an episode planning

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thing in there they have, but they do have like a booking

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schedule. Inside the platforms, you can send a booking link out,

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which is what you've booked through. And you can add social

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links and things like that for your guests. If, if they if they

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want to. You use pod Bean as your platform. What was your

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decision? How did you? Why did you decide to use pod bean over?

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I mean, there are many other platforms out there, and there's

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no wrong platform. But I have done a solo episode about like

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choosing your publishing platform. So I'm interested to

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know what your feelings are about pod bean.

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To be honest, we looked at Lisbon, I think it's called

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first because that's the one that I'm a real geek, I mean,

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formally attack VA, I noticed the tools that people use for

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everything in ways that most people don't even notice. It's

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like, you've got an email. And I'm like, Yeah, but how did you

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get the email? Where did it come from? Who sent it like, what

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tool was use? What's that code in the corner? So I'm really

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curious like that. So I had been scoping out what other people

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use for their podcasts. And there were some people that I

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follow online, who have really slick production. And so I was

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looking, and I realised that this thing was quite popular

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with really big, well established online business

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owners. So I had looked at that, but then I was deterred by a

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cost, if I remember correctly. And I thought we're just

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starting, we can always move to a, you know, a more established

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more Pricing Platform later on. So I think Gemma did some

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research into like lower end in terms of cost platforms, and we

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just picked up on Bing for its ease of functionality. Really.

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When we relaunched podcast, we probably will move because it is

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a little bit clunky. And the aesthetic of it is not, it's not

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great. But we generally don't send people directly to there,

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we we host it on our own website. Each episode is listed

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and loaded up individually. So we kind of direct people to go

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there to listen to it. But obviously, there are the other

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platforms like Apple and Spotify, for example, where

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people will tune in. So pod bean doesn't feature too much in

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terms of the actual display page that people see.

Unknown: 00:12:45

Yeah, I think I listened to your episode, the Haley's one. Which

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is when Haley Hudson's episode where I first came across you.

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And what one thing I did like about pod Bean was that you

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could comment and like on each individual episode. Yeah. And

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know that not an apple podcast, you can leave the review down

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the button, but like in Google pot in the in the app, you can't

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do that. And I quite liked that feature on it. But I do see what

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you mean about that. The way that it looks is not as pretty,

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or as you know, it's

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not it's not sexy. So we have it on our own site, and you come in

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per episode. And that's a nice feature. Yeah, or whatever. But

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it means it picks it up on brands as well. So yeah, impetus

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for that.

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Also, I think having all your reviews in one place as well

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makes it easier for I mean, like you say, people do use the

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different apps, but having that kind of if someone's directed

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right to your website, and they've got they can see the

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comments that people have made on on your podcast there. I

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think that's a really valuable, valuable way for people to see

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the impact that it's having with with listeners. I mean, that's

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quite a challenging thing. I know I find this myself with

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getting your listeners to engage and leave reviews, how do you

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find that side of things?

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We're just about to ask you that because we've really struggled

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with that we get the listens, and people download it. I get a

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lot of private messages, people telling me how great the episode

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was, or it resonated for them in some way. But and, and I get a

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lot of messages from people saying, Oh, it's so nice to see

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a black woman doing a podcast in this particular space, because

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it's quite uncommon. So all of those comments are amazing, but

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then private messages and don't get them publicly. They're not

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left on the podcast. So that's something that we haven't quite

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mastered is getting public review. So I'll be I'll be

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looking to you for those tips.

Unknown: 00:14:42

Well, I have some I've got to say I it's something that I

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struggle with as well. And one of the reasons why I chose

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Captivate I mean it's a paid platform, and they are kind of

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like a growth specialist platform. And they do offer some

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like subscriber like webinars and things like that. So I

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really want to start looking at, at the growth side of things

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about how to increase your engagement with the, with the

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listeners and try and get that. Because it's it's nice to know,

Unknown: 00:15:14

you know, when you're putting stuff out there that like who's

Unknown: 00:15:17

listening and how are they taking it? And yeah, it's it's

Unknown: 00:15:20

lovely to get it publicly as well so that other people can

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see it and then say, Oh, why actually this is going to be for

Unknown: 00:15:27

me. So yeah, I think I have a few ideas, but I'm not an expert

Unknown: 00:15:32

in either unfortunately, I wish. You know, hundreds of 1000s of

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listeners, that would be amazing. But I mean, it's kind

Unknown: 00:15:42

of like your social media, isn't it? Kind of like not getting too

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caught up in to bigger download numbers? Because if you've got

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like a core, a core group of listeners that are your other

Unknown: 00:15:52

listing, and if you can get them to engage, they will be like,

Unknown: 00:15:55

like your most value ambassadors? Yeah, exactly.

Unknown: 00:15:58

Definitely. Yeah. So how do you find squad cast for you? Is it a

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free platform? Or do you have to pay for No,

Unknown: 00:16:06

it's a paid platform? Yeah, I think they may have a premium.

Unknown: 00:16:09

Yeah.

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To briefly kind of come across score.

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It's really good. It's, it's been extremely reliable. I've

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had technical issues twice in all of the episodes that we've

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done. And those have mostly been broadband issues, or Wi Fi

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issues from my guests, rather than the platform itself. And

Unknown: 00:16:31

it's really easy to use, you can have up to four people per

Unknown: 00:16:34

episode, they have the option to do video, as well as audio, we

Unknown: 00:16:39

just do our podcast, we use video to record them, but the

Unknown: 00:16:43

video is not saved. So it's just audio. Yeah. But there is an

Unknown: 00:16:47

option at a higher price point where you can do videos, whilst

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if you know, you want to put your video on YouTube, for

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example. It makes it really easy to do that. And it's just quite

Unknown: 00:17:00

straightforward to use. It isn't there's just no, no issues. It

Unknown: 00:17:03

looks great on slick screen, it's just the split screen,

Unknown: 00:17:06

kinda visual identity. And yeah, it works great. And they're

Unknown: 00:17:11

quite receptive in terms of their customer service have

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given me advice or guidance from somebody and they get back to

Unknown: 00:17:16

you pretty quickly.

Unknown: 00:17:17

Oh, that's good. I must say I've only use Zoom. Mainly because I

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didn't want to initially when I was starting, I didn't want to

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pay for a platform. And I felt that Zoom was going to work okay

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for me. But I have since looked into a friend of mine uses Zen

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caster for their podcast, and I looked at that, I tried it, I

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use the free version. And so you could have the video, but it

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didn't record that you just recorded the audio. And you have

Unknown: 00:17:45

the person who you're into, as well has to have the space on

Unknown: 00:17:48

their laptop. So it can it can save like just a file while

Unknown: 00:17:54

you're recording. So she didn't have enough space that she's got

Unknown: 00:17:56

a Chromebook didn't have enough space. So we couldn't I couldn't

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get it to work. It was only afterwards, I discovered that it

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was the space. So that was kind of a bit of a barrier for me

Unknown: 00:18:05

because it felt like yeah,

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to expect to have a to have a requirement that your guest has

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a certain amount of storage space on them. Yeah, device is a

Unknown: 00:18:16

bit restrictive.

Unknown: 00:18:17

Yeah, so that kind of was a bit like oh, that was a bit

Unknown: 00:18:19

disappointing. And by no submit issues riverside.fm and had been

Unknown: 00:18:23

very happy with that. So that is using a different platform other

Unknown: 00:18:27

than Zoom is something that I'm considering. And when I record

Unknown: 00:18:31

solo episodes, I record straight into Audacity. So I find that

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that is like a good quality. It's a record straight into for

Unknown: 00:18:38

myself. But obviously that's not possible to use when you've got

Unknown: 00:18:41

guests because then you're only kind of you can't Well, you

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could record at the same time I don't think it'd be too

Unknown: 00:18:49

complicated to expect your guests to like, work out or that

Unknown: 00:18:52

that tech side of things, as well as is a bit complicated.

Unknown: 00:18:57

I know that Gemma uses audacity because we bought our editing in

Unknown: 00:19:01

house. Okay, maybe the first six months. And Gemma does the

Unknown: 00:19:06

editing of the pods now and she uses them dusty. I've got no

Unknown: 00:19:10

clue how it works. But yeah, I can't imagine you've been able

Unknown: 00:19:14

to use that with guests and kind of the channels are separate,

Unknown: 00:19:18

right? So they'd be like, yeah,

Unknown: 00:19:19

that's you'd have to get them to record on their own computer and

Unknown: 00:19:22

send it to you, which doesn't seem like it's just a lot of

Unknown: 00:19:25

effort for your guests and really isn't it's the same. So

Unknown: 00:19:30

you are pretty confident around the tech relating to the process

Unknown: 00:19:33

side of things and you've brought your editing in house

Unknown: 00:19:36

now. I use Audacity to edit as well. And I do love I don't know

Unknown: 00:19:40

all of the features on it. But I do really think I really like

Unknown: 00:19:43

Audacity, my husband's a sound engineer as well. And he's going

Unknown: 00:19:46

to teach me loads of stuff, which is Yeah, it's really it's

Unknown: 00:19:50

super helpful actually. So my actual little, little Wikipedia

Unknown: 00:19:54

guide on my shoulder. And what kind of things do you do to

Unknown: 00:20:00

molecule promote your podcasts.

Unknown: 00:20:02

So we have a dedicated mailing list, which is like a VA

Unknown: 00:20:06

audience specific. We share it on social. So we have a social

Unknown: 00:20:11

account for that brand. Then I also share on my own socials on

Unknown: 00:20:15

LinkedIn and on Instagram. And then we share we do when we're

Unknown: 00:20:19

running it, you know, weekly, we share an email once a week, just

Unknown: 00:20:23

letting our audience know, like, whose episode is or what we're

Unknown: 00:20:26

talking about this week. And that's worked quite well for us

Unknown: 00:20:31

in terms of the return on investment in terms of how many

Unknown: 00:20:36

people were listening, versus how many people were reaching

Unknown: 00:20:39

for advertising, that's still being figured out. We're still

Unknown: 00:20:42

kind of finding our feet. But people are quite receptive in

Unknown: 00:20:47

but they don't necessarily listen on the day that it comes

Unknown: 00:20:49

out noticed, it tends to get better traction in the three

Unknown: 00:20:53

days after it's been published than it does on the day. It's

Unknown: 00:20:57

been published.

Unknown: 00:20:58

Well, that's interesting. Yeah, I think I get over the week, I

Unknown: 00:21:02

think I might get one or two lessons that dive in. I'm

Unknown: 00:21:04

talking I think I've got like about eight unique listeners on

Unknown: 00:21:07

my dashboard on Captivate at the moment. So I think like a few do

Unknown: 00:21:11

within the thigh. And then like the next within that week, kind

Unknown: 00:21:15

of before the next episodes, but I've noticed on a lot of just

Unknown: 00:21:19

looking at different statistics on some different podcasts that

Unknown: 00:21:22

I'm that I've managed, like they tend the episodes have tended to

Unknown: 00:21:26

like peak, and then they kind of go down a little bit, and then

Unknown: 00:21:29

they peak up again, like, but I think that it's the podcast

Unknown: 00:21:35

stats and everything are interesting and how they relate

Unknown: 00:21:37

to marketing. But I think that sometimes, if you feel

Unknown: 00:21:42

podcasting is quite a long game. Well, it's a long game. Yeah.

Unknown: 00:21:44

And I think that it's hard to quantify it sometimes into how

Unknown: 00:21:52

how beneficial because you could have like, like, say like a

Unknown: 00:21:54

really small ng ng, but they're super engaged with your content.

Unknown: 00:21:59

And yeah, it's not taking they're not getting too

Unknown: 00:22:04

disheartened, I think to begin with as an important thing to

Unknown: 00:22:07

kind of, to say to people out there that are starting a

Unknown: 00:22:10

podcast, you know, don't be worried if you don't get like

Unknown: 00:22:13

1000 downloads, or anything like that. So

Unknown: 00:22:17

yeah, definitely, I think it's worth finding a way to track

Unknown: 00:22:20

stuff. So using Google Analytics where you can and then having a

Unknown: 00:22:24

spreadsheet set up to track your listened or your download at

Unknown: 00:22:28

some point. But I think it's, I would suggest that people just

Unknown: 00:22:32

don't look at their stats for the first three months. Like

Unknown: 00:22:35

just focus on the content, and what you're saying and sharing

Unknown: 00:22:39

and focus on the engagement that you're getting, or not getting,

Unknown: 00:22:44

and try and work on building that rather than focusing on the

Unknown: 00:22:47

stats, because, like you said, the stats are going to take a

Unknown: 00:22:50

while to build up. And if you're focused on them, it's gonna feel

Unknown: 00:22:52

really disheartening. And you're like, why am I buffering, and it

Unknown: 00:22:55

will start to eat away at your enthusiasm for it. When really,

Unknown: 00:23:00

you really just need to put your gusto behind getting it out

Unknown: 00:23:03

there. And not worrying about how many people are aren't

Unknown: 00:23:06

listening to straight away? Yeah, absolutely.

Unknown: 00:23:09

It's yeah, making sure that your content is that you go back to,

Unknown: 00:23:14

who are you doing your podcast for? And what do they need? And

Unknown: 00:23:18

making sure that your content or your podcasts fits that bill?

Unknown: 00:23:22

Then you know, that you don't, you know, you are putting out

Unknown: 00:23:25

there what people want to listen in, which is the most important

Unknown: 00:23:28

part of doing your podcast, obviously. How would you feel?

Unknown: 00:23:35

Has it helped you as a business had you? Do you feel that it's,

Unknown: 00:23:40

have you enjoyed adding podcasting to your, to your

Unknown: 00:23:43

selection, like for your marketing and everything?

Unknown: 00:23:45

Yeah, I felt like it is, like you said, it's a long game. And

Unknown: 00:23:49

I was very clear that that would be the situation from the

Unknown: 00:23:52

beginning. Because I think if you thought you're gonna do a

Unknown: 00:23:54

podcast and scuze me for like, a couple of months, and it's going

Unknown: 00:23:58

to have a major impact, then, you know, be in for, you know, a

Unknown: 00:24:02

rude awakening. It is a long game. It is also a combination

Unknown: 00:24:07

of doing your podcast, but also appearing on other people's

Unknown: 00:24:10

podcast is a great marketing mix. Just doing your own in it

Unknown: 00:24:14

in isolation, I think is powerful, but not as powerful as

Unknown: 00:24:18

also being on other people's podcasts. And really using it in

Unknown: 00:24:25

a way that you're getting your voice out there, you're showing

Unknown: 00:24:28

your expertise, but you're also inviting other people to do the

Unknown: 00:24:31

same. It's a really rewarding feeling having other people come

Unknown: 00:24:36

on, share their expertise and their insights that potentially

Unknown: 00:24:39

then go on to help other people and you're facilitating that

Unknown: 00:24:41

process. So that feels great. And from a marketing

Unknown: 00:24:44

perspective, it's just helping to raise your visibility, like

Unknown: 00:24:48

it's never going to do any harm. Having yourself out there unless

Unknown: 00:24:51

you really don't know what you're doing, in which case then

Unknown: 00:24:53

don't do it. Don't set yourself up, but also just focus on the

Unknown: 00:25:00

fact that what you take for granted in terms of your

Unknown: 00:25:04

expertise other people are dying to hear. And sometimes we can

Unknown: 00:25:08

convince ourselves, we don't have anything valuable to share.

Unknown: 00:25:11

Maybe the why is anybody going to be interested in that? Or

Unknown: 00:25:14

doesn't everybody know that? No, they really don't. And if it's

Unknown: 00:25:17

not their expertise, they probably definitely don't. And

Unknown: 00:25:21

you sharing that it's going to open somebody else's eyes or,

Unknown: 00:25:24

you know, lead them to find out something that they didn't

Unknown: 00:25:27

already know, that could potentially benefit them. And

Unknown: 00:25:30

just just do that with with gusto. And with some pride.

Unknown: 00:25:34

Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice. Is that your kind of top

Unknown: 00:25:38

tip for somebody who's starting out podcasting?

Unknown: 00:25:41

Yeah, just just go for it. Like, what's the worst that can

Unknown: 00:25:45

happen, but give yourself a timeline and say, Okay, I'm

Unknown: 00:25:47

gonna do this for three months. And if you're going to do do for

Unknown: 00:25:49

at least 12 weeks, because you need to give yourself the

Unknown: 00:25:53

opportunity to get into a groove with it. And I think sometimes

Unknown: 00:25:58

people think, Oh, God, you know, I do free episodes, or I do a

Unknown: 00:26:01

month, and then I'll see how I feel. And it's like, you've got

Unknown: 00:26:04

to give yourself a chance for success. So did three months,

Unknown: 00:26:09

and then see where you're at? Take a break, and then come back

Unknown: 00:26:11

to it? Yeah,

Unknown: 00:26:13

I planned out 12 months of this podcast to say I decided I was

Unknown: 00:26:17

going to do it for a year. So I planned out. I've not like in

Unknown: 00:26:21

detail planned out every single episode yet. So I kind of do

Unknown: 00:26:24

more than a full weekly basis. I think that having whatever that

Unknown: 00:26:28

plan is, whether it's a season or whether it you know, you

Unknown: 00:26:30

have, it's important to have that planned out. Because

Unknown: 00:26:34

otherwise, you will lose enthusiasm, you'll find it if

Unknown: 00:26:38

you're, you might find an excuse not to do it. And I think you've

Unknown: 00:26:42

got to be consistent. However, that is for your audience,

Unknown: 00:26:44

whether it's weekly or monthly, or however it is you want to

Unknown: 00:26:48

show up. And we all know that from our marketing as well.

Unknown: 00:26:51

Don't worry from everything. Yeah, trying to be consistent.

Unknown: 00:26:54

Key word consistency. Yeah. But I think with podcasts as well,

Unknown: 00:26:57

it's the same thing. And the planning element is not

Unknown: 00:27:02

something although you kind of sometimes want to skip ahead and

Unknown: 00:27:04

get into the dive into the exciting part of the podcasts.

Unknown: 00:27:08

But you need to think about that you're reaching your ideal

Unknown: 00:27:10

client and your content is going to do that for those people.

Unknown: 00:27:14

Yeah, definitely. And also the top end of that, that's the,

Unknown: 00:27:18

that's the output. But the the actual, the client experience

Unknown: 00:27:23

that people have, when they're going to be a guest on your

Unknown: 00:27:25

podcast is majorly important. And a lot of people overlook

Unknown: 00:27:28

that side of it. I say that as somebody who focuses on client

Unknown: 00:27:32

experience as as my role in my day job. So outside of

Unknown: 00:27:37

podcasting, so it's easy for me to focus on that element. But

Unknown: 00:27:41

it's been really rewarding to have people come in and remark

Unknown: 00:27:44

at how easy or have slipped in process words, for them being a

Unknown: 00:27:48

guest. And when somebody has an experience that feels

Unknown: 00:27:51

delightful, prior to recording with you, they come up with

Unknown: 00:27:56

particular type of energy, until your podcast is naturally just

Unknown: 00:27:58

going to be a really great conversation too. Because they

Unknown: 00:28:01

realise that, you know, this is this this top shelf like top

Unknown: 00:28:05

shelf, maybe not the best expression. But it's high end,

Unknown: 00:28:08

you know? Yeah, it's a, it's been a great experience is going

Unknown: 00:28:13

to be a great conversation. And then and then they're going to

Unknown: 00:28:16

be proud to share the end output as well would their audience,

Unknown: 00:28:19

which is obviously what you want. When you do recording,

Unknown: 00:28:22

right. You want people to share it with their own network.

Unknown: 00:28:24

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that that is important. If

Unknown: 00:28:27

you've not sent a link or not remind you know, all those

Unknown: 00:28:31

little things they do they do matter to people, don't they?

Unknown: 00:28:33

And they turn up and then it's not not a great experience.

Unknown: 00:28:36

They're not they might they're not going to think back on it

Unknown: 00:28:38

with fondest memories, are they? Yeah, that's

Unknown: 00:28:41

right. And so by the time it goes live, which is often you

Unknown: 00:28:43

know, a month or longer after you've recorded, they forgotten

Unknown: 00:28:46

about it, and then they're not fazed and suddenly the assets

Unknown: 00:28:48

and then they might not share it, and then that can feel

Unknown: 00:28:50

disheartening.

Unknown: 00:28:52

Yeah. I've really enjoyed chatting to you today said, I've

Unknown: 00:28:56

really felt you've given our audience, however small they may

Unknown: 00:29:00

be real insights into the way that you do your podcast. And I

Unknown: 00:29:06

do want to just let people know where we can find you and where

Unknown: 00:29:09

we can listen to your I know you mentioned, your podcast is

Unknown: 00:29:11

housed on your website. And if anyone would like to work with,

Unknown: 00:29:14

you're getting in touch, where's the best way to do that?

Unknown: 00:29:17

Okay, so the podcast virtual reality is available on all

Unknown: 00:29:21

major podcast platforms. And it's also on our website, which

Unknown: 00:29:25

is from PA to va.com forward slash podcast. And you can find

Unknown: 00:29:31

all of the episodes there from the three seasons that we've

Unknown: 00:29:33

done. Like I say, the first few seasons are focused on business

Unknown: 00:29:38

professionals across the board in all different industries,

Unknown: 00:29:41

teaching virtual assistants how to level up all of that way to

Unknown: 00:29:45

put it. And and the last season is a combination of sub vi

Unknown: 00:29:52

diaries. So hearing from people who have who obviously

Unknown: 00:29:55

transitioned from business support roles in employment, to

Unknown: 00:29:58

running their own businesses. And it's also a series of people

Unknown: 00:30:03

who booked VAs who, who found joy in having a VA in their

Unknown: 00:30:07

business and what that journey has looked like what kind of

Unknown: 00:30:09

things they were looking for. So that's been a really interesting

Unknown: 00:30:13

season. In terms of finding me, I'm on all socials, at eight all

Unknown: 00:30:19

socials, I use Instagram, predominantly. So you can find

Unknown: 00:30:23

me at Citadel, Stewart, and also on Facebook. And if you're

Unknown: 00:30:27

looking for a VA, or you're interested in that side of the

Unknown: 00:30:30

world, or you're interested in becoming an associate VA, then

Unknown: 00:30:33

it's onic communications.

Unknown: 00:30:35

Brilliant. I will link all those in the show notes so people can

Unknown: 00:30:38

have easy access to all your details. Thanks again for coming

Unknown: 00:30:42

on said

Unknown: 00:30:42

thanks for having me.

Unknown: 00:30:46

Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed today's episode,

Unknown: 00:30:48

please like share and subscribe. Your support means so much to

Unknown: 00:30:52

me. If there's a question or topic you'd like covering then

Unknown: 00:30:55

I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Instagram at

Unknown: 00:30:58

Rachel Botfield and drop me a DM till next time bye