AMY PORTERFIELD: “For all my loyal listeners, I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes and share how I really feel about this podcast because, after all, I've been at it for nine years now. I've been hosting this podcast for nine years, and I think it's safe to say I have a few feelings about it.
“Okay. First things first. Want to know what I absolutely love about it? I don't think this will be a surprise to any of you who know me well. I love that it is not video. I mean, let’s be honest, right? I don't have to get ready. You know, the ladies know what I mean when I say ‘get ready,’ but I don't have to be camera ready in order to create really amazing content.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-seven-figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget, and the time to focus on growing my small-but-mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started.
AMY: I wanted to take a moment and share my newest podcast obsession. It's called the Female Startup Club podcast, and it's hosted by Doone Roisin, and this podcast is also in the HubSpot Network with me. Now, every episode is bite-sized and bingeable, with insights and learnings from the world's most successful female founders and entrepreneurs. I loved her interview with Glossier's community lead, Kim Johnson. They chatted about the five steps to build an impactful community, and you can bet I took notes and I am implementing these strategies. It was so good. So I know you're going to love this show. You can listen to the Female Startup Club wherever you get your podcasts.
Well, hey, there, friend. Welcom back to another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. I am so excited for this week, and here’s why. We created a fun, brand-new quiz that you can take—it's totally free—to get a curated, Online Marketing Made Easy playlist that is specific to where you are on your entrepreneurial journey. Maybe you're just getting started. You've got a dream, but no email list just yet; I've got you covered. Or maybe you're hustling your side gig, still working your nine to five. You've got an email list, maybe it's a small one, but you really want to go full time into your online business; I've got a podcast playlist for you as well. Or maybe you're an old pro at being your own boss. You've got your email list and your business dialed in, but you're looking to grow in scale. Well, surprise, surprise. I created a playlist for you as well.
So, this is a really fun quiz, and I love it because it takes less than two minutes to create, and seriously, all you have to do is answer four questions and you've got your personalized playlist. Think of it as one of the most important resources that you can tap into to keep your business moving forward. So head to amyporterfield.com/playlist to take the quiz and download the episodes that will speak directly to where you are right now as you grow your business. Amyporterfield.com/playlist.
So, since we have this quiz available now, I thought it'd be fun to do a little Shorty episode all about podcasting and the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast specifically: what I love about podcasting, the lessons I've learned, and the struggles. If you've got a podcast, you'll totally be able to relate to this episode and, hopefully, walk away with some new insights, maybe some things I'm doing that you're not doing yet that you can apply to your own podcast. And if you've ever thought about podcasting, this is also the episode for you because I'm breaking it all down. I'm revealing it all, and I'm really glad you're here for the ride because I feel like this is going to be a fun episode.
And for all my loyal listeners, I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes and share how I really feel about this podcast because, after all, I've been at it for nine years now. I've been hosting this podcast for nine years, and I think it's safe to say I have a few feelings about it.
Okay. First things first. Want to know what I absolutely love about it? I don't think this will be a surprise to any of you who know me well. I love that it is not video. I mean, let’s be honest, right? I don't have to get ready. You know, the ladies know what I mean when I say “get ready,” but I don't have to be camera ready in order to create really amazing content.
I also love that it reaches people that I would never have access to. So my podcast over time is being pushed out to people who may not have found me any other way, and my podcast opens up a whole new world to them. The cool thing is that when someone lands on a podcast feed, they can scroll through all the episodes really easily, which makes all the work you put into an episode worth it because its life span can be much longer than some other content that you put out there.
It's also—this one's a big one—it's an amazing list builder. Truly. Online Marketing Made Easy has filled up webinars, promoted lead magnets. We recently put a pre-roll on all of our episodes for a promo we were doing—so an ad that I recorded at the beginning of the podcast—and it went from Sunday to Wednesday. We doubled our organic leads and hit our weekly revenue goal by Wednesday. So this is for one of my evergreen digital courses that I have, so I think that's pretty cool.
It also encourages people to check out things in my world. So maybe they were introduced to me through the podcast and then they explore my website or my social media or my free resources and eventually enroll in one of my programs.
Another thing that I love about it is it makes money. HubSpot is our brand-new sponsor as of December 2021. And not only do I believe in their product, but I also love that something we put so much time and energy in is able to be monetized. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know how I feel about sponsors. I love that you can get a sponsor and monetize a show. I also love that I can be my own sponsor, promote my own programs, my own lead magnets, and they will eventually generate into revenue as well. So the revenue potential on a podcast is incredible.
It's also one of the easiest ways to share thoughts and insights, strategies and tips. I'm always thinking, “Oh, I got to put that on my podcast.” Like, I never wonder where I'm going to share something. It's almost always first on my podcast.
But above all that, I love that my podcast is a free resource that can support and change the lives of those who listen. I've heard from people in real life and through the reviews left on Online Marketing Made Easy that the episodes that we're putting out completely changed how they thought or how they did something. And that, that's what makes me show up time and time again, even on the days when it feels like a grind. And sometimes it does. But hearing from people, knowing that the podcast actually changed how they did business, that's awesome.
And here's the thing. A lot of people who listen to my podcast have never purchased anything from me, and some people never will. But they still walk away with value, and I think that's pretty cool. I mean, of course, I want people to engage with my programs and be a part of my courses and my membership and all of that, but even those who don't, if they get value and they change their business because something they heard here, I love that.
Okay. So here's some things that I've learned. I found that my podcast allows me to learn what my audience wants and what they don't want. So we pay attention to a lot of the metrics, maybe sometimes too much. But that does help us to hone in on the topics and themes that get a lot of traction and downloads, such as content creation, and money and finances, and step-by-step processes, list-growth strategies, and real and raw topics about what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
And when we don't see the traffic we had hoped for, and there's many episodes where we're like, “Ooh, that didn't do as well as we thought,” it actually teaches us what's working and what's not working, for the most part. And the reason I say “for the most part” is that with this podcast, we also see how what's going on in the world is affecting people's personal and professional lives.
So, for example, at the start of the pandemic, we as well as the whole podcast industry—like, I have talked to so many people about this, and they all said the exact same thing—we saw a dramatic drop in downloads, and I really do believe it's because people were essentially trying to figure out what was going on and their lives had changed. I mean, think about the beginning of the pandemic. People stopped commuting into work. People stopped going to the gym. People stopped doing the things they did every single day that included their daily habit of podcast listening. So things got really disrupted. So it was just interesting to see how the habits shifted. Now, thankfully, the downloads have started to go back up, but it was something that we were like, “Whoa, the world is shifting right now,” and I just think that's really interesting that we were able to see that.
Another thing I've learned is that I just know that having a process for anything makes a huge difference, and so we’ve really worked on the process we use for the podcast, and we have it running like a well-oiled machine to produce every single episode. The more dialed in, the better. And it's taken us a while, let me tell you. I’ve had a lot of different owners of the podcast, people coming into the business, leaving the business, some people were just crushing it, others were struggling to manage it, so I’ve had some ups and downs with internally managing the podcast. But we’ve gotten it to a really great place, so I’m so glad I stuck it out.
And also, because running the podcast is one of the processes that is constantly running in my business, it's a great one to try to simplify it more and try new things from time to time so we can make it easier. So we’re always kind of tweaking it because it’s probably the most solid process inside of my business now.
I also love that we can easily experiment with podcasts, and it's not going to bring down the entire business. So, for example, in November, we started releasing two consistent episodes per week: a Tuesday Shorty and then a longer episode every Thursday, which, Thursdays, I've been doing for years and years. So this is allowing me to share a more personal side with my audience, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. So I love that I get to do these Tuesday Shorty episodes. They just feel a little bit lighter to me. They're not as step by step by step, which I know you all love, but I think you also like the kind that go behind the scenes and just kind of see what I'm thinking and what I'm working on. So, I love that I get to do both now on the show.
Now, here are some struggles we've had. I mentioned we had some struggles with, like, finding the right people to manage the podcast on the team. That's something that we've dealt with. But, also, in the early days of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast, I felt like I was always on the hamster wheel. I've talked about this before, but I felt like I was always researching a topic or always recording audio or editing, and it felt like it was taking over my business, and we had to really hone in and change that. What we found is that for me, if I can batch six episodes at a time, I can be more creative and really pour into each episode.
Another struggle is definitely the tracking of the metrics. So in the grand scheme of things, podcasting is still pretty new, and the metrics we get aren't totally transparent. So we're seeing them improve all the time, but they still leave us hanging, especially for the level of metrics my team personally likes to have. They get a little wild over those metrics. And so sometimes it's like, “Oh, I wish podcasting in general had better metrics,” but I think it's improving.
At the end of the day, I come back to this. If my free content can positively impact and change the trajectory of one person's life, then it's totally worth it. I have big goals for my podcast, but I also have to remind myself of the impact one episode can make and how that becomes a ripple effect. If you've ever thought about starting a podcast, do it. Just do it. If you're in my world, if you're in Digital Course Academy or List Builders Society, you know that I believe you need to have original content that you put out every single week, and you got to choose your platform. Is it going to be a podcast? Is it going to be a blog or a video show? Or you could do a live video every single week as well. But if you made me choose between all of those, I would always choose podcasting. Hands down. So if you’ve thought about it, if you're thinking maybe you want to play around with this idea, do it. Absolutely do it.
Okay. So, be sure to go grab that quiz. It's something new and really fun. Get your curated playlist so that you'll listen to the episodes on the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast that are going to be specifically for you, where you are at in your season of business growth, whether you're just getting started or you've been at it for a while. So, amyporterfield.com/playlist. Go take the quiz. I can't wait to hear about your results. Share them with me on Instagram in the DMs. I want to hear from you.
All right. So, I'll see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness. Same time, same place. I can't wait.
Time for a quick break. It's January, meaning you might still be taking down holiy decorations, heading back to work, or maybe contemplating how you can make a lasting impact on your business and customers all year round. After all, making a lasting impact is part of what turns a good business into a great one. A HubSpot CRM platform helps you put your customers first every step of the way. Reach your customers whenever, wherever, and with ease, thanks to HubSpot's intuitive visual workflows and bot builders. Create scalable, automated marketing campaigns across email, social media, web, and chat so your customers get your messages loud and clear. The HubSpot CRM platform also adapts your content for multiple device types, so your customers have a great experience no matter what device they're using—one less thing to worry about on your end. Learn more about how you can transform your customer experience with the HubSpot CRM platform at hubspot.com.
