Welcome to the Small Business big mindset Podcast, where we dive into tactical strategies to grow your business. And to make an impact on this world. A huge part of success is keeping your mindset and vision on track. So this is a major part of our process. And this podcast, let's do this. Hey, Erin here, welcome to the small business, big mindset podcast, you guys, we are almost up to one year of doing this podcast, and we have had a blast the entire time. So as we kind of get closer to the one year mark, which I think we're just a couple of weeks away from, we thought that we would sort of sprinkle in some of like, the learnings that we've had over this past year, because there were many, and kind of like our content process, the hardware and software that we use for the podcast. You know, in case one of you you guys want to start a podcast of your own, or maybe you have a podcast, but you're curious about how other podcasters produce, create and produce their own. So this episode in particular will just be about our content process. Okay, so we will do a separate one, which Joey will probably speak more of our the tools that we use the hardware, the software, all that kind of cool stuff. But for this one, I'm going to walk you through our process for the content for the guests, our well oiled process that we've come up with, and all that fun stuff. So I'll kind of go over, because we do both content, podcasts content, meaning, you know, where I teach, and then we do podcasts where we have guests, okay, so I'll kind of go over those two. And then we kind of use the same process for each of those. But I'll kind of give you the differences. And really, you know, I'll let you guys know, like, what the role is of a podcast host and kind of what I'm responsible for. So when we do a podcast where it's me teaching, so it's not there's no guest, I really take that very seriously. And I look around to see what would help our audience the most right now. Okay, so I put a lot of thought and energy into picking what I should be teaching on what I should be going over with you guys. So I kind of look at maybe it'll be a quick win in your business. Or maybe it's specific actions that are more long term that you can take to move your business forward. Some of them are bite sized training. So you might, you know, notice that some of the podcast episodes where it's just me teaching a little shorter than if we have a guest. So I want them to be easily to eat easily digestible, and something that very simple that you can implement into your own business. So I get these ideas, a few different ways. So some more from what our audience tells me directly. Some of them are questions that they've asked me on my other training. So I do two live trainings a week on our Facebook group, which is starting scaling online business, or other platforms, like questions that I'll field from people. Or it could be what I see people asking or talking about in groups I'm a part of, or masterminds that I participate in, or, or really inspiration from other podcasts or conferences, right. So, you know, we all are constantly learning. So I learned I listened to other podcasters all attend virtual conferences, and they might touch on a subject that might spur on some ideas, I can say, Hmm, I can go deeper on that. Or I can take that in another direction. So I'm constantly My ears are constantly open, my eyes are open, wherever I may be, be it online or in person conversation. I'm constantly listening to see what is out there that people are wanting to know what's going to help them the most. And then once I figure out what the topic is, then I want to formulate it in a simple, easy to understand, relatable way. So I try to connect the dots for my audience on how it could help them get closer or to achieve their goals. Right. So that's part of my job is to make it easy to digest very simple and kind of connect the dots on like, okay, here is the thing I'm teaching you and this is how you can apply it to your business and how to achieve your goals. for guests. I do some research on them. So I'm pretty picky on the guests that we have on our podcast. So ideally, I will be able to find audio and or videos of them to see how they are. I would say on camera, but that's not that's not the case. They're not on camera, but I do want to see like can they carry a conversation? Do they you know, because it's like that's very important. You want it to be a two sided conversation, not just me, you know for 30 minutes trying to pull answers out of them, right. And so I try to find some sort of evidence online, where they can they can carry a conversation. And so I'll look for that myself, we'll get referrals from other people, people will tell us, hey, you should have so and so on your podcasts. And here's why. We also are pitched quite often, guests on our podcast, and some are great, you know, and some of them like aren't really a great fit, you know, they're fine. They're perfectly fine entrepreneurs, but maybe not a super fit for what we're looking for. So, um, so I will review the websites of people, if I'm like, Hmm, maybe this person could be good for our podcast, maybe they'd be helpful for our audience, I'll take a look at their website about not just their website, I kind of look at everything, I'll look at their social profiles, cuz I want to really learn their character, right? I want to know their vibe, and I want to get to know their mission. Because we're small business, big mindset. So yes, we are about business. But we also are about mindset and kind of a holistic view of growing a business. And we also look for a variety of backgrounds and experience, it's really, really important to me, and we are not there yet. When you look at the guests we've had so far, I try very, very hard to get a variety of backgrounds and experience. Of course, you know, we're only at this not even a year yet, almost. And so we have a ways to go. But that's really important to me that we cover people from all walks of life in our podcast. So it's just a little bit on how I, you know, choose the topics that we cover, and the guests that we invite on to our show. As far as the process goes, it's a really a well oiled machine at this point, because we do produce one podcast per week, and has to be because between the podcast and the live trainings that I do, and we have some client work, and we're always developing free content for your resources for people to download, and then we're creating our digital courses. I mean, there's there's a lot going on, and then then you layer on family into it as well, right. And so everything that we do has to be a well oiled machine. So I have an outline that I follow. So I've created a workflow of what I follow each and every time. And so it starts with outreach copy. And I've documented all of this because we're trying to be very organized here. And that was to say, we, I can't do it that week. So Joey has to do some outreach, or let's say like, as we're growing our team, I'm asking somebody else to do this, we're, we're documenting, documenting all of our processes, so that as our team does grow, it'll be easier to delegate these things. So when I do outreach copy, when I reach out to people to be a guest on a podcast, I know exactly what I'm going to say I'm not making it up every single time. Of course, it is customized to their situation. But I will write, you know, a one liner about us in the podcast, I do not go into it in detail. And this first message. Typically, it's a Facebook message, or LinkedIn, you know, it's typically how I'll reach out to people first. And so I really just give them a one liner about what we're about and the podcast. And then I'll give them a link to previous EPS episodes on our website, so that they can check us out and see what we're all about to see if they want to participate. And then I kind of leave it up to them anyway. And I let them know, like, this is why I would love to have you on as a guest. And this is why. And then I'm like, you know, hey, you know, if it seems up your alley, you know, let me know, I'll send you an email with more info. So it's very short and sweet. And when I first reach out to a potential guest, and if they respond like, hey, this sounds great. Yeah, here's my email, then the second step is that I send them invite copy with more info. So I give them more of a background of what the podcast is all about. I let them know who our audience is. And I send them bullet points of what we're going to cover. But I also let them know it's an organic conversation. So while these are the bullet points we might go through, we will stick to its organic, right. And so I hope that comes across in the episodes as you guys listen to them, because if something comes up, I'm like, Oh, we need to go dig deeper on that then we will. But the bullet points are really important because they set the stage and it makes the guests feel at ease to know what's covered beforehand, right? Because some people haven't been on a podcast before. Or even if they have it's still nerve racking, right? So I like to set them at ease as much as I can. I'm like, here's what we're gonna cover, you know, and I do let them know it's organic. So we might go off on a tangent, that's fine. But just so that they're really well prepared beforehand kind of take stress out of the equation. Also in that email, I will I have a calendly link to book a slot So I've always used a booking platform, that really, there's no back and forth, I've had knock on wood, I've had zero issues with that. And so I send them a link, they pick their time, there's only been once or twice for one of the times we had didn't fit. And we've came up with that with another one and booked through calendly. So, so that's really great. And I will tell you this, this is kind of a key learning. So we used to do events in the evening. Well, and I will tell you, when we first started doing this, we were like, pretty much opened up our calendars in the evening, like every night, you know, within these hours, let's do it. And then it was like, Okay, let's only do these evenings. And now we don't really do evenings at all, unless we need to, right unless there's like a the time zones are way different, or nothing else is going to work. Not only that, now we just dedicate, like Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoons. So between the two hour timeframe is what we offer people because it just it's a sanity for us. And it kind of keeps our schedules more cohesive, and we just know, okay, Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, that's when we might be recording a podcast and it's just even much easier for us. And for guests as well. So but I want 100% use a booking platform. And and really do just kind of like, separate out your calendar of like this is when we're gonna record a podcast. And then the last parts of this outline that I follow and outreach is that if their podcast is the next day, so I I send I email them a link to their podcast the day before it goes live. So they have a sneak peek of it. And the only thing that I asked of the guests is a certain size image so that I can use them for different promotional plate placements, I have found the images that are like really close up like a headshot. It's not very usable and multiple placements. So I like a an image that's a little bit further out from the camera. And then the last thing that I do is I'll send them an email out the day the podcast goes live. And I'll say so excited your podcast is live. And I'm going to give them all the links and the tools to make it super easy to share. So I give them the links like it's live on, you know, our Facebook page, our Instagram page, I went, we promoted it through our weekly email like all this stuff, and I give them the links to everything I even the day before. And my day before email, I'll give them a link to our newsletter and be like we're gonna promote it on our newsletter if you want to see it subscribe here. It just tried to try to make it as simple as possible and as easy as possible for them to consume the episode but also for them to share the episode with their audience as well. And so when before and when I'm prepping for the episode, right? So this is like, you know, the day before a few days before, I will do light research of the guest. As I said, my schedule is crazy. I don't have time. It's all it's me. Right? So I we don't have a huge team right now someone who can research a guest and give me notes and stuff. It's all that's you, ma that's me. So I do really like research if the guest I go through their website, and their social channels, you know, some of that I already did before when I was kind of quite pre qualifying them as a guest. But I'll also do a Google search to see like, how is their company been in the news as they've been any recent press releases so I can get an idea of their story? And what's current with them? Okay, so I don't walk into it blind, I do have a basic foundation of what of what they're they're going through. So I can be some of my questions on that. And then as far as the content goes, so as mentioned, I send them a bulleted list of what we will go over beforehand. So they're not taken by surprise, though, they are aware that the conversation is organic, and could go in another direction if it's appropriate, right. So depending upon your industry, your audience or topic and objectives, it depends on what your content will be. So Ours is a mix of it's for entrepreneurs, right? So ours a mix of how they started when they made a shift the strategies or specific actions or takeaways that listeners could implement in their own business. And we also go over mindset and lessons learned, and vision and goals for what's next in their business. And of course, where people can find them online. So it's a mix of their story like their journey but with also tangible strategy and action. So as a host, what you shouldn't remember if you're going to be doing this as well. So it's all about making the guests feel at ease like that is my responsibility. I want them to feel good. I want them to feel pumped up. So my job as a host is to get the best out of the guest for our audience. Okay, that is my job. It is not on the guests like I'm the one who has to make them shine and kind of frame What they're saying and the best way possible and to correlate it to our audience. And they want to make sure that the guest feels heard. And that they are they feel valued, okay, because we're honored to have them here. So another tip, before I close this out is to host the episodes on your website, I see some podcasters, where they don't do it, it's just on the different platform. So even though your show and our show, we're on all the podcast platforms, you want to drive traffic to your podcast on your website, so they can see what you're all about, right? So if they just like land on the apple podcast app, that's great. They're gonna listen to your podcast, but they may never see like, Oh, they do this service, or I could learn this from them, you know, that kind of thing. And so, while many of them might listen to us on the podcast platforms, we're still going to, when we promote it, we're gonna link them to our websites, they can they can get on there, see what we're all about, they can subscribe to our newsletter, they can grab one of our other free resources, get information about what we offer. So that's, that's a big tip. Maybe I'll do a separate episode on all the tips that I have for podcasting. But for this one, I just wanted to make it get sort of a shorter training and kind of go over our process because as you're doing this, it's like you really do have to have, it has to be a well oiled machine. It has to be a pretty consistent process that you do all the time, especially because it's very consistent, right. So hoping that this is helpful. Send me a note at Hello at Muscle Creative comm if you have any questions at all about podcasting, I am here to help. So thanks for listening, and we'll I'll catch you guys next week. Thanks for tuning in to the Small Business big mindset podcast. To keep the fun going. Check out our Facebook group start and scaling online business For even more free trainings and resources from fellow entrepreneurs. If you haven't already, head on over to Muscle Creative calm and click subscribe and join our email list for weekly updates. And if you've enjoyed this podcast episode, check us out on your favorite podcast platform to follow us and give us a review. As always be authentic, bring an insane amount of value and keep crushing it