055: Growing a Podcast Without Social Media – Milestones, Lessons, and Confidence Building

In this episode, Jules reflects on six months of podcasting and shares her journey, including key milestones, lessons learned, and the impact the podcast has had on her business and personal growth.

Jules discusses how she achieved over 2,500 downloads within six months without promoting the podcast on social media. She highlights the value of creating a podcast as a bank of content that showcases expertise and builds connection with her audience. Jules also talks about the confidence she’s gained, the challenges of perfectionism, and how podcasting has enhanced her marketing strategy and online presence.

Key Takeaways:

• Milestones and Growth: Reaching 2,500 downloads in six months, surpassing initial expectations, and the importance of perseverance in podcasting.
• Confidence Building: How podcasting has helped Jules overcome perfectionism and grow more confident in her expertise.
• Non-Social Media Promotion: The effectiveness of networking, email marketing, and SEO for growing a podcast audience organically.
• Practical Advice for Beginners: Tips for keeping podcasting simple, including using tools like Buzzsprout and Descript.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Buzzsprout – Try it free for 90 days and start your podcast journey.
• Descript – A video & audio editing tool to simplify podcast production.
• Episode 027 – Benefits of Podcasting - 3 Months That Transformed My Business
• Episode 043 – Do SEO Plugins Really Boost Your Rankings? Understanding the Role of Yoast and Similar Tools

If you’re considering starting a podcast or want to explore a no-social-media growth strategy, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

Free Resources:

• Beginner's QuickStart Guide to SEO – Start optimising your website today!

Don’t forget to subscribe for more bite-sized tips and inspiration to improve your website and SEO!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Milestones
• 0:47 Podcasting Goals and Achievements
• 3:02 Promoting Without Social Media
• 4:50 Podcasting Techniques and Tools
• 5:44 Overcoming Perfectionism
• 9:06 Podcast SEO and Discoverability
• 27:32 Confidence and Public Speaking
• 33:10 Promotional Strategies and Future Plans
• 38:39 Conclusion and Holiday Wishes

Transcript

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Introduction and Milestones

Good morning! Happy Friday! So this morning I want to talk about six months of podcasting. It's an exciting time in my business.

So last Friday – no, last, hold on, what day is it? The 20th. The 14th of June was the day I released my first episode of my podcast.

Podcasting Goals and Achievements

Uh, so last Saturday was six, was the six-month anniversary, and I'd set myself some goals to, some targets to hit rather than goals. It was targets of what I would like to have reached in terms of numbers and in terms of the number of episodes that I had released by six months.

And my goal was to hit 2,500 downloads. The podcast and have released 50 episodes, and I hit that last, I think it was last Wednesday. I went past the 2,500 download mark, and today is episode 55 of the podcast. So I've got past those two milestones I wanted to hit. I did actually set myself as, so the, actually the goal was to hit 2,500 downloads by the end of the year.

And it's the 20th of December. So we've still got a couple of weeks. And my stretch goal was to hit 3,000 downloads by the end of the year. And you never know. I might hit that. I think when I checked this morning, 2,000, like just under 2,700. So there's a good chance. It depends. I don't know what will happen over Christmas in terms of people being off and whether they will listen or, you know, whether people are just switching off from everything.

So we shall see. But I, all I can do is I've got some episodes already recorded to go out over Christmas. I need to do some editing on some today. Today's my last day. Before I finish, touch wood, hopefully, I will get everything done today that I need to. And I'll have those episodes ready to go out over Christmas, and that will hopefully then help me to hit that, hit that goal, which will be amazing.

But even if you don't, I've already hit the 2,500 downloads within six months. And actually, that was quite, that was slightly different. I actually hit 2,600, no, sorry, 2,520 downloads. By that, um, six-month mark, which was what I wanted to do because actually the first month that I released the podcast, I only had 18 downloads.

So I actually hit 2,500 downloads within five months. So I'm so pleased for that to have happened. And part of the reason that feels really amazing is because I haven't been promoting the podcast on social media.

Promoting Without Social Media

So when I first started the podcast, I'm going to go into that in a, in a moment about why I decided to start the podcast and what my kind of my expectations were with it.

But I, when I first started, I was, I decided that I didn't want to promote it on social media. I wanted to be my own success story just in the whole of my business, and when I'm working with clients and when I'm talking to people in general, there's so much expectation that if you don't use social media, then it's not possible to build a business without using social media.

And I just wanted to say, it was kind of an experiment really to see whether I could grow a podcast without promoting it on social media. And it has happened. 2,500 downloads might not in some, you know, in some podcasters' minds that might not be. And when I look at the individual download episode download, sometimes I'm a bit like, nah, but actually, it's 2,500 downloads.

That's 2,500 listens of my podcast. So I think that's amazing. I'm so pleased with that. It's beyond anything that I could have expected. Like you've said to me when on day one of releasing the first podcast within six months, you're going to have 2,500 downloads. I would be over the moon. And I am over the moon with it really.

So. I think it's a, it's a really good indication of the fact that it is possible to do it without social media. And that in itself has become kind of part of the podcast. So talk about that a little bit as well. But yeah, I think it's just been, in general, it's been fantastic. It's been really good for my business.

I talked about this back in episode 27, which was three months of, and how it's transformed my business, but it's made such a big difference. I love it. I really enjoy doing it.

Podcasting Techniques and Tools

Anyway, I enjoy recording the podcast. They always start as a live as I am right now in my Facebook group. Usually, on a Friday morning, usually live, sometimes if I've got something going on on a Friday morning, like next week, I've recorded an episode that will then go out as, as, as a post on my Facebook group next week, and then that will go out as a podcast as well.

But usually, I start them with live. I find I'm so much better doing it live rather than trying to actually record something and knowing that I can stop. I'm so much better just to keep going, not worry about the, the bloopers and if I am stumbling my words and, you know. Forget what I'm going to say. I just don't worry about it because if I'm live, I have to keep going.

That's really, really, I think for me, is the best way to approach it really. It's much better than me just trying to sit down and actually record something. I would say.

Overcoming Perfectionism

Some of the big things that have happened is it's helped me to get over, helped me to work on getting over perfectionism. I was going to say help me to get over perfectionism.

I'm still not at that point. I'm still working through that process. If it doesn't have to be perfect. And that was another big goal of the podcast for me to, do it as an imperfect thing. It doesn't have to be perfect is a really good way for other people to also feel like that as well, but that they don't have to have a perfect podcast.

If you're comparing yourself to some of the big names who've been podcasting forever and have got amazing podcast studios with all the sound Barry, what's it called? Not barriers, sound, sound. I can't even think what it's called, soundproofing, and all the things like

I don't have that. I'm here in my office, which is our spare room, and it's quite a big room. There's not a lot of soft furnishings in here. It does have a carpet on the floor, but quite often when I do come to edit the episodes, there are, you know, I don't know why my microphone clicks every now and again, but it does that.

There's things that I will, I want to improve that. I want to make that better, but I don't want to let that stop me from actually getting the content out there. And I was watching a YouTube video from a guy who, like, helps people, he's involved in podcast production and helps people to create those kind of perfect podcasts, really.

And he was in this video, he was talking about all the things that you have to do if you want to start a podcast, and you need to, you know, get everything perfect, get the perfect backdrop, get the sound studio, get the microphone, get blah, blah, blah, all of these things. And at the end of the video, it was kind of like, so yeah, if you're not going to do that perfectly, then you might as well not bother.

And obviously, the goal for him is to get people to use his services to create their podcasts, but I firmly believe that if you are a small business and if you're not at a point where you can afford to then pay for a produced podcast in a studio, which a lot of businesses can't or just don't have the bandwidth and the capacity to do that.

So actually go somewhere and record as opposed to hitting record on a Facebook live or going live. Somewhere and just, and turning that into a podcast. I firmly believe that you can still get your message across to your clients and to your audience in a way that that will be really helpful to them without having to be perfect.

And so that was one of my big goals was that actually, by me doing this and me showing that you can do it without it being perfect and still deliver value, then that's so important. And it's been one of the biggest things. It's been one of the things I'm most proud of about the podcast is that sounds a bit weird.

It's one of the things I'm most proud of is the fact that it's not perfect, but actually, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with it being something that can hopefully inspire other people. I've got a couple of really good friends who I'm hoping are going to start their podcast next year. We've had a few conversations about it, and I know that they would be amazing on podcasting, and I'm really hoping that actually.

Just letting go of that perfectionism and just thinking, yep, you can get my message across. I can deliver some value. I can connect with people in this way. I'm really hoping that will help to inspire, inspire them as well, really.

Podcast SEO and Discoverability

Some of the things that have happened since starting my podcast,

I've started getting discovery calls for one-to-one clients through people who've found me through the podcast. And that is the ultimate goal is to bring, you know, as much as I love recording, and I love creating content here, and I do want to help people. I want to help people understand how important their websites are and how it doesn't have to be difficult to actually get more traffic and sales through your website.

But ultimately, it's about bringing more business in. That's the reason I'm doing it as part of my marketing and marketing strategy. That's really good to start getting those discovery calls coming through, start getting people reaching out to me in my email list, and they, they're telling me that they actually found me through the podcast, and they found me through podcast player apps as well, which is great because that podcast SEO.

Doing that for my own business, and I feel like actually, there's loads of stuff. I've been doing a few audio episodes recently, and I did one with Donna, which is coming out actually this, it's gonna, it's coming out on Monday, so it will be the next episode that you, you can listen to after this one. And just talking through Donna's podcast SEO was a really good reminder for me that I need to go back in and look at mine again.

Things have changed. I want to change my show art. I want to just change my description slightly and doing those kinds of things. But it makes a difference. People are already finding my podcast when they're typing things like improve website traffic. Or SEO websites, they're finding it. They're telling me that they're finding it, finding me that way.

So that's amazing. That's the, the whole point is just to get more visibility to, to deliver value and just really help. And I think it helps massively when people come onto a discovery call, and they've already heard you through the podcast. They've been listening to you. I definitely feel like it helps me.

When I'm listening to podcasts, I listen to loads of podcasts. And I do feel like I know the people when I'm listening to the podcast. I feel like I get to know them. And it's really, and it's a bit weird, you know, that you don't actually know them, but you just feel like you know them a bit better. You know what to expect when you get on a call with them.

You know, like you just know their style, you know how they talk, you know the way they deliver things. And that in itself is really helpful when people are coming into discovery calls with you as well. And I've had that a lot with people I've listened to you. On a podcast, and the first episode, I think, wow, this is amazing.

They're so like, they're just fantastic. What they, what they do is amazing. Like, you know, also almost just sort of being a bit of, I don't know what the word is that I'm looking for. Like, I want to say out of your league that you couldn't like to just have a normal conversation with them or whatever. And I know everybody is just a person, but you know what it's like if you're listening to somebody, then I think sometimes you.

Immediately get like impressions really of what that person's like. And if they've got, if the podcast is fantastic, and they're delivering really great advice, and they, it just is really polished and, and yeah, it's, it's great. 

Then once you've listened to a few more episodes, you feel like you get to know them more, and you feel like actually, it does feel like talking to a friend then. So I think that's in a roundabout way of just saying that actually, you discover people, and then the more you listen to them, the more you think actually, yeah, they're amazing, and you talk to them on a, on a call, and it's, it just, it just relaxes everything a little bit really.

So that was a bit of a strange way of explaining that. But basically, yeah, it helps people to understand who you are when they come into a discovery call. So, one of the big things that I, I have found, and I think not comparing my stats to other people's stats, it has been, it's kind of a double-edged sword really, because it depends who you're comparing yourself to, it depends where you look, like I've googled it a couple of times of what's a good number of downloads for podcasts, and I didn't do that before I started, and I think I didn't even do it before.

I got to like three months. So it's when I started getting some downloads when I started um, getting to that point where people were telling me they were finding the content helpful, and I was just feeling a bit more confident about what I was doing. I was just had a little look and I can't even remember what stats.

I've looked at so many different stats in terms of if you are, if you're getting this many downloads per episode within seven days, and you're considered in the top 50% of podcasts, and even that was different depending on where you look. So I, I use Buzzsprout, which is amazing for podcast hosting, and I can't even remember what their stats were now off the top of my head.

But what I have to remind myself with stats is that I. I'm glad if it's, if it helps anybody. I thought I started this podcast thinking it would just be me and my friend Claire listening. So I started it partly because my friend doesn't enjoy being on Facebook. So she wants to hear my content. She needs to, she needs help with her website and SEO, and she wants to listen to what I'm saying.

She, you know, she's, she's told me that she does enjoy my lives, but she doesn't like being on Facebook. And so, I had had that sort of, I thought in mind of I probably should create something like a podcast, which is something that then builds a bank of content somewhere outside of social media and, and it's content that I own.

And so I kind of, that kind of went into it with that of thinking, well, actually, if all it is, is it allows her to listen to my lives without her having to log into Facebook, which I know she hates doing. Then that's great. That was kind of the, it was, you know, there were other goals behind it, but that's what I was thinking, well, if only Claire, if I listen, Claire listens, then at least that's a couple of downloads each week.

So that was, that was kind of how we, how it started. And then within, so the first month, actually, I should mention what I did in the first month. The first month I, the reason I had 18 downloads within the, in the first 30 days is because I forgot to submit the podcast to the podcast player app. So I forgot to, to submit it or not forgot, just didn't realise I had to do that to, Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

YouTube, all of the things that now just happen automatically, I hadn't set that part of Buzzsprout up. And maybe it was a little bit of, uh, something that I, I did, I didn't do it deliberately, but in terms of maybe subconsciously, I maybe did that. Because I kind of wanted to get at least 10 episodes out there before I started promoting it, so I hadn't really told, I hadn't told my networking group locally about it.

Until I had sort of 10 episodes, and then that was how I then started promoting it was I was having conversations with people. So I went, went networking one day having conversations with people, and they said, oh, so can we find it? And, and I, I said, oh yeah, you should be able to. And they were like, oh, where is it on Apple Podcasts?

And we realised then that it wasn't visible. And then I came home, got it on there. And immediately then the difference between that and. 30 days after that, I didn't look at my stats for how many downloads I got in the second month, but basically, between the second month and now where we are now six months in, I got two thousand five hundred downloads. But what I was actually trying to say was that even though I have now almost 2,700 downloads each individual episode, I still am not at 100 downloads for an individual episode.

And you could look at that and think, oh, well, that's, you know, how many people actually is actually listening? You know what? And you could, you could certainly feel a bit despondent about that, about the fact that actually each individual episode is still not getting that many downloads, but it does take time.

And it takes time and definitely getting to that point where I'm, I'm crossing over to over a hundred downloads per episode. And whether that is within seven days, within 30 days, within 90 days, because I definitely see that I, I'll see different episodes will suddenly have a little uptick in the number of total downloads that it's had.

Once I get past that point, which I'm hoping that will happen next year, it seems to be things are growing. I've got a few ideas for different ways that I can promote the podcast next year and just trying different things really to see. But even that, I think you have to, you have to just keep going. You have to have that perseverance.

You have to just think, OK, even if all I'm doing is creating a bank of content that I own, and I'm getting 10 downloads each episode, as long as those downloads are people who actually really enjoy your content, they're telling you they're enjoying it, that they are getting value from it, they're then maybe spreading the word about it, then that is all beneficial really, and it takes time.

I think that's the big message there was that it's, that growth is probably slow, and I'm okay with that because hopefully, then it means it's sustained growth. It's not just like going viral and then people then never listen again.

One of the things I didn't realise when I started is that podcast download numbers are often seasonal as well. So, October had a really big spike in October, and I didn't know whether it was because I was doing guest expert talks, or because I was just being particularly good at talking about the podcast, or, or, yeah, I'm not quite sure why when I'm looking at my, my growth curve, October is one where it had a real spike, and then November it dropped off a little bit.

So I still was, you know, still getting downloads still, but just not as many downloads that month as I had had in October. So I. I googled that just to see whether it is kind of seasonal. I'd heard that, that it is, it can be seasonal. And I looked, apparently, October is the top month for podcast downloads, which was a bit random, and obviously, I haven't done a year cycle yet.

So I'm not sure, you know, maybe see that in other, other places, but that does make sense really, because November people start to get very overwhelmed with, uh, Black Friday deals and get loads of emails and just loads of stuff going on, and people start to think about Christmas and then obviously December.

There's so much stuff going on in December that yeah, people are just, people have just got a lot going on. So I. And obviously, this November as well with the US election and all there's just been so much going on that I think people, I can understand why download numbers could potentially be down a bit.

But even with that, it's still, I think my downloads for November was something like, like almost 600 downloads, and that is still, I just need to keep reminding myself of that still 600 downloads. That's still 600 times people have listened to the podcast, and I'm happy with that. So that's, it's really good.

So I use some different tech. I wanted to talk about the different tech that has helped me to create a podcast. I, as I mentioned, I use Buzzsprout. I will definitely put the link to Buzzsprout in the show notes, and I would 100 per cent recommend it. If you're thinking about podcasting, Buzzsprout is a really great platform.

You can try it for 90 days. You get a free account. You can upload a certain amount of minutes per month, depending on what plan you're on.

And then you, it, basically that will stay there for 90 days. So you, 90 days to, to decide before that. First content starts getting deleted, and I would say if you're planning to do a podcast, then always think you want your content to stay there.

I'm still getting sort of downloads from episode one and episode 10 and everything. So I, you definitely don't want it to be like a rolling thing that you just have the latest episodes on there. ‘Cause there's so much value in the older episodes as well. And as much as you might think, oh, this, they're just like, they might make you cringe because, because you, you get better as you do it.

More supposedly, um, then you. It is definitely worth doing that if you're thinking, okay, yeah, I'm gonna go through it. With podcasting, it's like 12 pounds or $12 a month. I think it's for Buzz, Buzzsprout, so you can make that decision. So I think I was on about day 60, and I was like, yep, I'm definitely all in with podcasting.

I'm gonna start paying for it. And there's some great features in there. I haven't used the AI features within Buzzsprout very much, but there's a lot of that in there. I use D Script to edit my podcast. So I use a lot of the AI in that. And I use chat. You would see a lot as well. Listen to the last few weeks.

I've been talking about how I use AI in my business, my personal life. So if you've missed those episodes and go back and have a little listen to those. But yeah, I love it. I think it's fantastic. I think it's, it's. I love the stats in there. That's definitely been helpful for me. They have these little badges and milestones that you can celebrate when you get to a certain amount of, uh, downloads and a certain amount of episodes released.

And just help to gamify it a bit more and keep you going.

But yeah, I definitely recommend Buzzsprout. I used to Descript as well. And that's another one. I haven't. Love, love, love, love, hate relationship with Descript. I mostly love it, but it does annoy me sometimes as well. There's certain things with it, like, it's got studio sound, which is great, because it makes everything sound a bit better, but it also makes me sound like I've got a bit of a lisp, and it occasionally cuts some words off and things like that.

So, it saves me much time. Essentially what it is, it's like a video editor, and you go in and you, and it gi, it gives you a transcript of your video, and then you can edit that transcript as if you were edit editing a Word document. So a, if I say, um, then I can highlight that in the script, in the actual text, delete it, and it will delete it from the video.

Does it, it does it well in general. Occasionally, it will get out of sync. The transcript to the video, and I've, I've got, I've got a few tips, the more I'm using it, the more I'm learning about it, the more tips and things I've got, and the more sort of standard operating procedures, procedures I've got in place for it, better it is for me, the more I'm using it.

And yeah, so I, but I definitely recommend that as well. I could not do the podcast without using that. I believe it, it, there's so much with that. And then I used obviously ChatGBT. I use Google Gemini as well. And I use that for creating the show descriptions for making the transcript. It used British English and and breaking it up.

So it's a bit easier to read. I use Google Gemini to do that because ChatGBT is not very good at transcripts right now. With Google Gemini. I tell it, I check the word count before and after, and Gemini is better at getting it right and not, not cutting big pieces. Pieces out of it and things like that.

And I use it for then making that into emails that I can then edit. I use it for creating. What else do I create, use? I use it to help me before I create the podcast as well. So I use it, if I tell it the idea of what I want to talk about for the podcast, I then ask it to let me know what related episodes I've got.

You know if it is keeping in with my top, you know, with my main themes and my core topics of SEO, content optimisation, conversion rate optimisation and websites in general, and that's that in itself, the brainstorming part of it as well has been really helpful. So, I mean, I, again, could not play the podcast without AI without having AI to help me. Definitely.

One of the big things that's happened is now the Website Success Show is now like a branding branded term for my business. So if you Google the Website Success Show, my website shows up. It, you know, it's definitely increasing my online presence for the Website Success Hub and for the Website Success Show.

And that's great. The more I can do that, the more I can tie that into everything else that I do online and just increase my authority within that space, then that's brilliant. It really helps with SEO, helped me just to, just to solidify everything together, I suppose, really. It increased my online presence, it's definitely made a difference there.

Just having those links coming in from the podcast player platforms. Having, you know, 55 episodes that are then all individual web pages on those podcast player platforms, in a Google search, those kinds of things. It's actually all of that content. And especially because I am using my podcast SEO.

Techniques, such as having the transcript there, having a descriptive show description, those kinds of things all make a massive difference actually, and that's just generally increasing my online presence, increasing my searchability. 

I am also getting people reaching out to me who I have then talked about, so I did back in episode, 43, where I talked about SEO plugins and whether they really helped boost your visibility, where I talked about Yoast and Rank Math. If you're using, WordPress and talked about SEO space, which is if you've got a Squarespace website, and the guy that created that plugin, SEO space is a plugin for Squarespace that helps you.

It's, it's kind of like the equivalent of Rank Math or one of those other tools that helps you to, helps to make your SEO easier through WordPress. And it does. They definitely are helpful. But I think I, well, listen to that episode if you wanna sort of understand more about that, but, the, he reached out to me a few, few days later, a few days after that episode went live.

He reached out to me on LinkedIn and said he'd enjoyed the episode and that it'd come up on his Google alerts that I had talked about SEO space in a podcast. And the same thing happened. I did an episode with Jane, the Oxford calligrapher. We did a Google business profile audit, and she sent me a message a couple of days later saying, oh, look, Google has just told me that you've been talking about me.

And I love that as well. It's all about just increasing that visibility and increasing the searchability of everything you're doing really. So, and it's fun. I think that's nice when that kind of thing happens as well.

Confidence and Public Speaking

I, one of the things I've definitely learned about this is it's helped me to become more confident.

It's helped me to become more confident in speaking. It's helped me to become more confident in what I'm delivering. It's helped me to understand that no matter when I'm speaking, no matter what I'm doing. And actually, I've noticed this is even if I'm having a conversation with people, I always have a voice in my head telling me I'm rambling.

I always have a voice in my head telling me you're not making sense, what are you talking about? It's just there, it's just there all the time. And that voice is that voice always, every, every time I go to start recording, I feel a little nervous, I feel a little butterflies in my stomach, and it is getting better.

It definitely is. But I think the big thing that has come out of podcasting and the big thing is that has come out of me editing it every week and listening to it myself as well. ‘Cause I do listen to my own podcast. I want to, I want, you know, I want to increase those download numbers. And also. I think it does remind me that I do know what I'm talking about, and that I'm, that it's not true.

Sometimes I ramble, but it's not true that I'm not making sense. It's not true that I'm rambling. It's not true that it's, you know, not helpful. And actually, that has been really good for me. It's been good for me to know, to be aware of that fact, to be aware of the fact that that voice is always there in my, my mind, that negative committee is always there.

Telling me what I'm doing wrong. And actually, when I look at the evidence, when I look at what I have actually produced and what I have recorded, it's not true. And now I've actually started trying to, like, just quiet that voice so I can hear it. I hear it when it, when it's, when it's coming up. I notice it more.

I notice the fact that I am being critical of myself. I notice that more. And actually, I now am at the point where I'm, I'm actually just going, and then just kind of almost brushing that voice off and just. Just, just putting that barrier up and saying, nope, that's not true. Not, not true. Not helpful is one that I'd say quite, quite a lot is to, to silence my inner critic really.

So that has been really, really helpful. Podcasting has definitely helped to increase my confidence. I went to a networking event on Monday night. And I hadn't been along before, I got invited along by a friend, and she said, you know, probably some great people to meet there. So I went along, and when I got there, before I took my coat off, the host said that the person who was doing the talk had, was poorly, and she was going to talk about SEO.

And my friend introduced me, had already introduced me, and said what I do. And she said, oh, well, if you fancy. Then, you know, that'd be great. And so I did, and I, I stood up, no, no preparation or anything. I stood up and talked about SEO, and it was fantastic. I enjoyed it so, so much. I, we, it was more, it was like a conversation.

We, we had a chat about the people who were there, had a chat about their issues with, with their SEO and challenges and why people don't necessarily see the value in it. And. It was great. I was absolutely buzzing all the way home and for the week, the whole of the week, really, I've got some such, such lovely feedback about it.

And I don't know whether I would have done that six months ago. I'm not sure whether I would have been confident enough to actually just go for it and just not, not worry. ‘Cause, even then stood up, stood up in front of those people. I still have that voice in my head of like, oh, you're rambling. Stop it.

You know, but actually knowing that that's not true and knowing that it probably is okay. And even if it's not, even if you do ramble, it's fine. It's fine. People, I think connect with that. And if people don't like it, then that's fine. They're not going to listen to you again. Or they're going to have their own opinions.

You can't change people's opinions. So it's, it's no good, you know, it's no good worrying about that, really. So, yeah, confidence is definitely a big thing that's happened for, for the, within this time.

It's helped me to be really good at emailing my list as well, emailing my subscribers. I, I wasn't doing that, so I had started to grow my email list, and I wasn't emailing, and it had been too long, and it was just like, oh, it's going to be a big thing, and I hadn't emailed between February and when I started the podcast in June.

I thought, well, I'm going to get loads of unsubscribes, aren't I? So I started the podcast, and I literally, that week, I sent out an email. Email about the topic and if you want to find out more, listen to the episode, and I've emailed every week since, and even with that first email, I don't think I've got any unsubscribes email and it's fine.

If I did, then that's fine, but I did it. I emailed them and and nobody died. Nobody came back and told me off, and nobody, you know, nothing bad happened. And a reminder of that, well, the fact that actually other people aren't really paying as much attention to what we're doing as we think they are really.

So that has, that again, is one of the things that I feel I'm so glad about with the podcast is that it has helped me just to start keeping in touch with my subscribers. And I had somebody add into the emails every week I add in a top tip of the week, and I was networking, met somebody, and they said, oh yeah, I to that.

I love your top tip of the week. And I'd only just started adding it in a few weeks before. And you do get a bit like that. You think, oh, where are people reading my emails? Are people finding this helpful? And actually, just having somebody say to me, yeah, I really enjoy that. It's, it makes it enough to keep going. It's enough to just, you know, understand that actually, it is, it is helpful really.

Promotional Strategies and Future Plans

So if I'm thinking about how I've actually, how I've grown the podcast without, without using social media, without promoting on social media, I think the main things I've been doing is talking about it, like literally talking about it to the point that I feel like I don't stop going on about it.

Like when I'm networking and in my networking groups, they've all been so supportive. And I think part of that is because of that mission of wanting to grow it without social media. I think everybody would like to have a little bit less reliance on social media. So actually, people kind of have got me, got behind me with it as well.

And I've had a few people have said, oh yeah, I was going to share your podcast and social, you know, share about it. But I didn't want to because I didn't, I wasn't sure if I should, and I'm fine with it. If other people want to share it, that's fine. But it's quite nice to say that they kind of got behind me with that as well.

And they were like, well, no, I don't want to spoil it. But actually, I feel like now I'm at six months and have done kind of done that. I'm, I'm not, I'm not planning on promoting it on social myself, but I feel I've had some results, and that's what I wanted to show is that it is possible.

And if somebody else, if you're there, you're thinking about starting a podcast or you've got a podcast, then I wouldn't say that not promoting on social media is the best way to go. The only reason I'm doing it is because I just want to show that it is possible. I think actually having it on your profiles on social media, talking about it, maybe talking about if you, if you're getting good feedback or if, if you can then tie it into the topics that you're talking about and then mention the podcast rather than having to spend a load of time creating bites and those kinds of things, actually, if you can use it, then all the better, really, I'm sure.

I'm sure if I had promoted my podcast on social media in some way, I'm sure it probably would have grown quicker. But I just, as I just wanted it to be that, that proof that it is possible that you can do it without it if you want to. Really.

Where else have I talked about it? So mainly telling people about it.

So if I do any networking online or locally, I try and mention it, and that's something I think if I, if I was promoting it on social media, I maybe wouldn't be as focused on promoting it in other places. Maybe wouldn't be as focused on actually telling people about it. But because I don't. I, I do. I make sure that I always, you know, if I'm in a networking chat, and people say, I'll drop your links to, to where people can connect with you.

It will now be the podcast page of my site that I will share that. I recently did a local business expo. I made sure it was on my banner, my pull-up banner, which, um, took a big chunk out of my finger, and I'm still recovering three weeks later. But yeah, um, had it on there with a QR, big QR code that people could, one for my website, or I think it was for one of the freebies on my website, and one for the podcast.

I had it on the table as well, that people could scan that and talk to people, just tell people that I've got this podcast. It's also a really great way, if people are asking me advice and they're not at the point where they're ready to book a session with me or they've got a particular problem that they need help with, and I've got a podcast episode about that now.

It's brilliant because I can send them there, and they can listen, and then they go and binge my content and love it, and it's, it's, that in itself, having that bank of content there has been really helpful. I've also added it into my welcome sequences as well. So if somebody books a discovery call with me, they'll get an email a couple of days later letting them know a little bit more about me and some of the top episodes to listen to.

And that's in itself is a bit of traffic over through to the podcast. I've been in some bundles and done guest expert slots. I've been, you know, taking part in, in different things in other people's communities. And it will be the podcast that I share when I finish talking, talking about how you can connect with me.

It's the podcast that I share there as well. I feel like it's the, it's the, quickest way for people to get value and to understand what I do and to get to know me really. So that's kind of how the main ways that I've been sharing it so far. I am thinking about introducing Pinterest into the strategy. Oh, I also share it on my Google Business Profile.

So every week I, when I create an episode, I create a post for my Google Business Profile, and that in itself, it's helping me to update my Google profile every week, which is really important keeping content there. And it's just something else that shows up in a search results page. So if somebody googles something in relation to what I do, then potentially that can show up there in that search results page. But I'm thinking about doing the same sort of thing but with Pinterest. Maybe I'm not sure.

I'm still not 100 per cent sure on what I'm going to do in terms of promotions. I would like to use my YouTube channel a bit more. I'm now I've got regular audit episodes that I'm doing, which are a little bit more visual than I'm going to try and get YouTube into that as well. But I don't want to do anything.

The whole point of the podcast was it didn't add loads of stress and loads of extra work to my business. And actually, I'm enjoying the process. So Friday is my content creation day. And I know how long things take now. I have a step-by-step thing of how I do it, and actually, that in itself has been great.

Just having that SOP for this, you know, I always get to the end of Friday, and as long as I've got the main things ticked off of my list, I feel really accomplished, and it's a nice way to finish the week. And so I don't want to add anything in that's going to add too much stress and video editing certainly is more stressful.

But I'm going to see how it goes. So if the episodes, like the audit episodes, if they work well, then I will definitely add YouTube in as well. I think it's a great, great thing that you can do as well.

Conclusion and Holiday Wishes

So I really hope that has been helpful in terms of my first six months of podcasting. I'm excited for the next one.

Who knows where we'll be when I get to my first nine months and my first 12 months. But if you're thinking about starting a podcast next year, my advice would be to think about the ways that you can do it that make it simple. So if it is just going live and turning that into podcasts, then it's worked for me.

It's been amazing. Absolutely changed my business, increased my confidence so much. I think that is the biggest thing. Even just talking about it now, it reminded me how much this has just helped my confidence. And I'd love to know if you do decide to start a podcast, I'd love to have a listen. So send me a text, you can text the show, you'll find that in the show notes.

Or if you're over in the Facebook group, then let me know, just pop a little comment under this post. And I hope I inspire you to do that I would love your audience to get your knowledge and get your expertise and be able to connect with you through podcasting. I think it's so powerful and I think most businesses would benefit from having a podcast.

So have a lovely week and lovely season's greetings to you. If you're off, Christmas coming up next week. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to have a couple of weeks off, which I haven't done since I left my full-time job. So I'm really looking forward to just having some time off.

Hopefully, the weather will be just nice and bright and crisp, and you'll be able to go on lots of nice dog walks and just spend some time with family and just enjoy some downtime.

 So I will see you soon and take care.