The Website Success Show: SEO & Website Tips For Beauty & Wellness Businesses Who Want More Website Traffic & Conversions

089: From Zero to 6K+ Downloads: What a Year of Podcasting Has Done for My Business

• Jules White • Season 1 • Episode 89

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Jules White reflects on one year of podcasting & the surprising impact it’s had on her business, her confidence, & her visibility. She shares the story of how the podcast began, the mindset shifts she’s experienced, what she’s learned about content creation, & how podcasting has helped her connect more deeply with her audience. She also opens up about her inner critic, the messy middle, & how doing things imperfectly has been key to showing up consistently.

Key Takeaways:

  • From Live Videos to a Real Podcast: Jules shares how her weekly Facebook Lives evolved into a podcast & how she kept the process simple to avoid burnout.
  • Slow Marketing Wins: Why podcasting is a slower but more sustainable form of marketing & how Jules reached over 6,000 downloads without social media.
  • Using Content You Own: Learn how Jules repurposes episodes into blog posts & YouTube videos to build her website visibility & support long-term SEO.
  • How She Really Uses AI: From generating show notes to cleaning up transcripts & writing weekly emails, AI tools have helped streamline her podcast process.
  • Embracing Imperfection: Podcasting has helped Jules quiet her inner critic & build confidence by doing it messy, showing up imperfectly, & focusing on helping her listeners.

Most Popular & Mentioned Episodes:

  • Episode 002: Why You Don't Need To Keep Feeding The Algorithm: Use Your Existing Content Potential To Show Up In Search
  • Episode 003: What To Do If Your Webpage Has Had 100 Visitors & Zero Conversions!
  • Episode 027: Benefits of Podcasting - 3 Months That Transformed My Business
  • Episode 039: The BIGGEST Website & SEO Mistakes I See (& How to Avoid Them)
  • Episode 047: How I Use AI in My Personal Life - From Meal Planning to Mindset Coaching
    Episode 055: Growing a Podcast Without Social Media – Milestones, Lessons, & Confidence Building
  • Episode 062: Less Social, More Success! 3 Sustainable Strategies to Build Your Business Without Social Media

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Introduction and Podcast Anniversary

So, hi, happy Friday. I hope you're well. I can't believe tomorrow is a year since I started the podcast and released the first episode.

So I wanted to pop on today and just talk about how 12 months of podcasting has changed my business, changed my life, and changed my confidence levels. So I've got lots of things to talk about and how it's kind of evolved over time, and I hope you find it interesting.

So I talked in episode 27, three months after I started the podcast, about the journey and what I'd learned from podcasting for three months. I did the same at six months, which is episode 55, and then I didn't do one at nine months.

I'm not quite sure why. I think because the time just goes so quickly that it has gone by in a flash, the blink of an eye, and it's gone past.

So I can't believe we're already at 12 months. Tomorrow will be the anniversary.

So it is the podcast birthday and, yeah, I'm really excited about it. I'm really excited to just talk about how things have evolved and the difference it's made in my business and my life.

And I've had some amazing things happening this week as well, which I will talk about. It has been very poignant that it has come up at this point, really.

The Accidental Start of the Podcast

So first of all, I wanted to start off talking about how the podcast started.

It was a bit of an accidental podcast, actually. Two years ago, I started this Facebook group and I was going live every Friday morning; I was going live in the group.

And it was one of the things that I was doing consistently. There were plenty of things at that time that I didn't feel like I was doing.

Like, I wasn't sending out emails every week. I wasn't being consistent.

I mean, I'm never that consistent with social media anyway, which is fine. I'm all right with that.

But it was the one thing that I was doing regularly and people were giving me feedback that they were enjoying it, they were liking listening to me talk, listening to me ramble and hopefully give some tips that were helping them with their SEO and with their websites and making things a little bit more plain and easier to understand.

And then a conversation with a friend, actually, led to the podcast coming about. She asked me whether I knew anything about SEO for podcasts at that point.

At that point, I didn't really, but I said, 'Well, no, I don't, but I'll do a little bit of research and see what's different and let you know.'

And I quickly found out that SEO for podcasts isn't that much different from other SEO. It's not that much different from optimising posts for Google Business Profiles or for actually optimising for your website.

It's all about using the language that people are searching for when they're looking either for podcasts or looking for content in general. And one of the big things I found was that podcasts are great for not only showing up in podcast player apps but also for helping your website to show up in Google as well.

Choosing the Right Platform and Initial Challenges

I delivered a training for her programme, and it just got my mind thinking that maybe I could start a podcast. Maybe I could turn some of this content that I've already created and that I'm already creating.

Maybe I could turn it into a podcast.

So I did a little bit of investigating on what platform to use. And I wanted to have about 10 episodes before I released the first one.

I wanted to feel like people had something to go into and they could listen to a few episodes. I felt like that would keep me going, I think.

So I decided that I was gonna have it really casual and really low-key and not perfect. For me, I'm definitely a perfectionist and that was one of the hardest parts, is actually accepting the fact that it wasn't gonna be perfect.

That the mic sometimes might not sound great, that sometimes I do record it in my car. And I often find that when I sit in the car and record, I'm very much more natural.

It feels a lot easier, and it's funny, actually recording on my phone with it popped up on my steering wheel sometimes. Those are some of my best episodes that I've done, really.

So we started, I started, I released, I think I released maybe five or, like, very quickly, I got up to 10 episodes. I know by the end of my first month I had at least 10 episodes released and I was enjoying it.

I decided at that point that the podcast was gonna be hosted in Buzzsprout, which I love. I absolutely love it as a platform.

It's really easy to use. It gives you great stats.

You can put dynamic content into your podcast. So if I have got something going on in my business, I can record a little intro.

I can record a little mid-roll, so it goes into the middle of your podcast, and I can record a new outro, and I can just slot that into all of the episodes that are out there. So if somebody comes in and they're listening to episode three, they'll still get a sense of what's going on currently in my business.

And that's massively, massively helpful for marketing, I think it really is. And that helps me feel like I'm doing something cohesive and tangible in my business as well.

If I go in and I update my intro and outro with something that I'm currently selling and something that I'm currently promoting, I feel like I'm smashing my marketing that week.

And I was just literally turning those Friday lives, talking about social media and talking about why you don't have to keep feeding the algorithm and just generally talking about SEO and just tips and things. I was enjoying it and I am still enjoying it, very much still enjoying it.

But, it's one of the things with podcasting is it's a slower form of marketing, and that's part of the reason I like it. So you don't get that dopamine hit of posting to social and it either gets lots of likes and engagement and comments and things, or it doesn't, and you feel like you've, you know, either succeeded or failed.

Whereas with podcasting, it's very much more of a slow burn. You feel like you are just talking to yourself, and that's part of the reason why I like coming live in the group and doing it.

A, because it makes me do it. Now my goal is to try and get this recorded and finished before at least 10:30 on a Friday morning, and it then keeps me going.

That's part of my process and I am much better doing that than batch recording. I would love to batch record, but I'm just better when I just come and do it live and just talk.

I always feel like I ramble. I'm gonna come onto that in a minute about the voice in my head that tells me I'm rambling.

And so, I wanted it to be natural. I wanted it to be really, just me.

I didn't want it to be a lot more pressure and a lot more mental load in my business and a lot more time load as well. I already feel like I never get to the end of my to-do list and I didn't want the podcast then to become something else that was on my to-do list.

And it definitely does take time. You know, most of my Friday is normally dedicated to something in relation to the podcast.

I'm gonna talk about all the things that I do as well related to the podcast, but usually, Friday is my content creation day, and I'm okay with that, actually. And that again, for my brain, it works well for me to have that structure.

So I know what I do. I have a full breakdown of all of the things I do step-by-step that takes the podcast from being an idea to it being published and done and everything else that I do around that.

Podcast Growth and Listener Engagement

When I first started, I had released some episodes and I didn't think anybody was listening. I thought it was just me, my friend Claire, and that was it, really.

I thought that, you know, I obviously listened to my own episodes. I say obviously, maybe some people don't do that.

I'm gonna talk about why I do that as well. My local networking groups have been massively, massively supportive with the podcast.

They've really got behind the mission of it, and they have put up with me rambling on about it and going on about how many downloads I was getting that month, and I'm just so grateful. They've been so, so supportive with it, as everybody has been as well.

Everybody that I meet and talk to about the podcast has been so supportive and all my listeners as well. I really appreciate you.

But in the local group, I went along to a networking event and I was talking about how I'd released a podcast. People were asking me, 'How can I listen to it?'

And they were looking on Apple and Spotify and it wasn't there. And this is one of the mistakes I made first of all, is I actually forgot to go into the backend.

I must have put it on Pocket Casts 'cause I was able to listen to it, but I think I'd just forgotten to go in and set up my Apple account and set up the Spotify account and all of those sorts of things. It might have been me just maybe protecting myself a little bit and maybe being a little bit hesitant to put it out there because, obviously, we all worry about judgement and things, but they encouraged me and so I did that.

I got it live on all those platforms. I put it onto YouTube as well.

And at that point, I wasn't releasing them as video content. I was just releasing them as audio podcasts onto YouTube, and I had kind of read that, oh, there's not much point doing that and you know, don't do it or whatever.

But I just thought, well, it's another platform. It's another place that people could listen and people have listened to those episodes.

So it is something that I'm not trying to be a YouTuber. I haven't really developed a strategy around YouTube.

It's kind of something where I'm actually just putting stuff there and I will come back to that and think about strategy at a later date with that, really.

But I decided I'd put it on basically anywhere that I could. So it just automatically, when I release an episode, pushes it out to those platforms, which in itself is really great.

I love the fact that that happens. And when I looked at my download stats, the first 30 days I had 18 downloads and then I released it on the podcast apps.

And obviously bear in mind that at this point I had optimised my show notes and my descriptions, my show art, my show name. I had optimised that for searchability.

And then the next month I had something like, I think it was about 250 downloads and I was over the moon with that because that wasn't just people in my networking group that were listening.

Like my networking group have really celebrated those milestones with me. So every month that we meet up, it's like, 'So where are you with your downloads?'

And it always seemed like I just hit another milestone before a networking event and, yeah, so that's been really good.

One of the missions of the podcast, and one of the things that I decided to do with it is I deliberately decided that I wanted to grow it without promoting it on social media or paying for ads. And this has become part of the podcast, really, and I think people like it.

People like that mission. Everyone seems to hate social media and anything where it is just showing and proving that you can actually do things without using socials has really connected with people and they seem to like that.

So I decided to grow it without socials and when I looked this morning, I had 6,315 downloads.

And even when I say that number, sometimes I still feel like it's just me. I still feel like it's just me listening, and that I don't necessarily feel like that's 6,000 downloads is real, and I have to remind myself of that.

So every time I hit another milestone, when you hit milestones, you get a badge. So my next badge is 7,500 downloads.

My next badge will be a hundred episodes. I can't believe this is episode 89 already.

And as I say, it's more like slow marketing because I don't necessarily, even though I can see those download numbers, I only realise that it's real people when people actually reach out. So when I'm at a networking event or something, or even when I'm online and networking and somebody says to me, 'I love your podcast.'

And that was one of the things that happened very early on. So within those first couple of months, probably within the first, somebody who I wouldn't necessarily have expected to listen to my podcast and wouldn't have necessarily expected for it to be helpful for them particularly, said, 'I love your podcast.'

And actually, that one comment was the thing that really kept me going. It was the one thing, just that was the first validation that actually, yeah, this is helpful, people are enjoying it, and I need to keep going with it.

And it's amazing what a difference that does make, actually. It really does.

And now, when I was looking at my stats this morning as well, the podcast has been listened to in over 75 countries. And my business is fairly international.

I have lots of clients over in the US. I've got lots of clients in Europe, worked with clients all over the world, really.

And it's not something that I really think about. But when I tell other people that, people have said 'You need to say it's an international podcast' and it's something that is funny.

I don't really think about it. But actually, yes, people in over 75 countries have listened, which is great.

I wanted to let you know my most popular episodes. So you never really know what's gonna be popular.

And it shows you the most popular over time and the most popular in the first seven days. And even with 6,000 downloads, it still is ticking along, really.

So each episode is not big numbers. When I look at the numbers, when I look at the individual episodes, it doesn't feel quite so big, but it just shows the accumulation of having that.

So it shows that an episode might not be something that one person needs to listen to, but a different episode might be, and actually it's all people connecting with me.

It's all people hearing me speak, hearing me ramble, hearing how I talk, and the fact that hopefully, it's helpful content as well.

So the most popular episodes have been number 39. That's been the top episode throughout, right from when that episode was released, it was really popular and it stayed as the most downloaded.

And that is 'The biggest website and SEO mistakes I see and how to avoid them.' So if you haven't listened to that episode, go and have a little listen.

And then number 47, which is 'How I use AI in my personal life from meal planning to mindset coaching.' And I love that episode.

And that's something definitely I would like to lean into more of, how I use AI, both for website and SEO stuff, but also for life in general. I use AI for so much and I would like to talk more about that as well.

And then episode number three, which is 'What to do if your webpage has had a hundred visitors and zero conversions.' So if you haven't listened to those episodes, go and have a listen.

They're all very popular and they're, yeah, they're all good ones.

Monetising the Podcast

So when I was talking to somebody, I was networking yesterday morning and we were talking about podcasting and talking about monetising your podcast, and they said, 'You know, how do you make money from a podcast, really?'

And I think for me, and if you are a service provider or if you're selling online courses or those kind of things, selling coaching or trying to increase your clients, your customer base, you know the customers that are coming into your business.

Then monetising your podcast might come more from actually promoting your own services. And certainly for me, it's bringing in new clients.

And that's one of the things that I'm really pleased about is I'm getting discovery calls. People are actually listening to the podcast, booking on discovery calls, buying my online courses.

And even yesterday, I had somebody who I can see from Fathom, I can see the sort of path of somebody actually coming through and buying with me. And they discovered me on Spotify and then they went through to my website and they booked a Power Hour straight away.

And that's somebody who is in another country as well. And that was amazing, you know?

It is so lovely. I always do a little celebration dance when those kind of things happen, really.

That's the goal with the podcast, is for it to bring new people into my world, whether they come in and sign up for my email list or they come in and buy from me. That's the goal.

It is marketing, ultimately. It's helping to raise my authority, helping for me to connect with people and to bring new people and existing people into my world and back into my world, really.

One of the big benefits is when people do book a discovery call with me, then they feel like they already know me.

Like I had somebody recently, we came on the discovery call and she said, 'I feel like I know you 'cause you've been in my ear for the last two weeks.' And I definitely feel like that.

I listened to so many podcasts and I've had a few where I've listened to the first episode and it's been like, 'Oh, this is so polished, this is so professional. They sound like they're amazing.'

And it's not like that goes away, but it feels like once I've been listening to them for a while, it feels like I'm listening to a friend. And I feel like it would be a lot less intimidating to go and then talk to that person because you feel like you know them and it's not necessarily that you do.

But I feel like certainly if it's not a very scripted podcast, then it is that true person, hopefully. Like this is definitely me.

If people listen to my podcast and they don't like the fact that I'm a little bit rambly, then they're probably not gonna like working with me, realistically. And that I forget my words quite a lot of the time as well.

So that's been really great and that's one way to monetise your podcast. If you get past a certain amount of downloads a month, I think with Buzzsprout it's a thousand downloads a month, then you can start looking at adding ads into your podcast and actually getting sponsored that way.

I'm not sure about that. I'm not there yet.

I tend to get about 750 downloads a month roughly, which is great. You know, I have to remind myself of that fact that if, when I first started, if I had said to myself, 'Okay, in a year's time you're gonna have had 6,000 plus downloads, that's 750 downloads a month,' then I would be over the moon with that.

And I have to just keep reminding myself of that. But it's something that, there's different ways to monetise your podcast with that, really.

And you can do sponsorship. It doesn't have to be direct ads in your podcast.

You can do sponsors for each episode, those kind of things. So there are, as I say, lots of different ways of actually making money from a podcast, but for me as a consultant, as somebody who has things that I can sell, that's the sort of part of the reason that I do it as well, really.

And the things that have helped me is, as I say, being okay with it not being perfect from the start. And one of the big things with that is also, people have said to me, seeing me sort of do it messy and, you know, just getting out there and doing it has also inspired them that they could do it as well.

And that is a massive thing for me. I think if it helps anybody else feel like they're not comparing their day one to somebody who's polished and has got a team behind them, has got a full production studio, they feel like they can just get out there and just share their amazing mission with the world and share their knowledge and help people, then that is, you know, if nothing else from the podcast, then that's amazing, really.

Using AI and Tools for Podcast Production

I use ChatGPT to help me massively and Google Gemini as well with my podcast production process. I have a Google Doc and it's literally got step-by-step in there.

It's got all my, like, how to create some notes, how to take that. Like I literally don't have to think.

I mean, of actually taking the podcast, downloading it from Facebook or from my phone into uploading it into Descript. That's the platform I use to edit the podcast.

I did get a little bit too caught up in editing. And I have to remind myself that it doesn't have to be polished and it doesn't, you know, just getting the edit done is more important than it being absolutely perfect.

And as I say, that's not why I wanted it. I didn't want it to be absolutely perfect.

And then I use between that and ChatGPT to create show notes. And I have very descriptive prompts that I use, I've generated over time and I've improved them over time.

In terms of when I first started, I was writing the episode descriptions myself. So I then had some prompts that I could use that were very much my voice and this is the structure of the show notes and the descriptions and those kind of things that I need.

And just through trial and error, I realised that ChatGPT is great at that kind of stuff. It's not very good at actually creating the transcript, but I use Google Gemini to actually then break it down into better sections.

It gets rid of any spelling mistakes. It doesn't always do that so well, but essentially, it gives me a transcript that's more readable.

And one that I can then upload into Buzzsprout. And it's just a better transcript, basically.

So I use that. I then also use ChatGPT to help me to generate the outline of an email to send out to my email list.

So I email my subscribers every single week now, at least once a week. Generally, touch wood, I think I've missed a couple of weeks, but I generally do that and that has been great, actually.

People tell me as well when they meet me, they tell me they're enjoying my emails and that they are helpful as well. And that's my goal is for all of this to be helpful, really.

And help people to understand that it doesn't have to be overwhelming. The tech doesn't have to be overwhelming.

SEO doesn't have to be overwhelming and just, yeah, if I can deliver one nugget that can help somebody to make some progress that week, then I feel like it's been worthwhile for me to do that.

Content Management and SEO Strategies

I now have databases as well with my podcast. That's something I started right from the start and I would definitely recommend doing that.

To start somewhere where you keep a record of all of your podcast episodes. I have it in Notion, and I also have a Google Doc as well.

And right now that is a bit of a doubling up of everything, but it takes me seconds to do. And essentially what that means is within Notion, I have a content database and that has got everything in there as well.

It's got all the lessons from my, like the transcript from all the lessons in my membership. All of my social media post ideas, if I'm doing any social media stuff, all of the podcasts, so the transcripts of the podcast, the descriptions, the show notes and everything in there as well.

Which bucket that falls into in terms of the type of content I'm talking about, where it relates to other episodes, the links to the podcast, the links to that episode if it's on my website as a blog, the YouTube links, all of those kind of things are all there in Notion.

And then I have a Google Doc that has literally a new tab for every episode. And it's got in there, the show name, the description, the chapters, and the transcript.

And the reason I've done it that way is because in that Google Doc, I can upload it into ChatGPT. And again, it's not been very good at this right now, at actually being able to go through and look through all of the episodes and tell me every episode I've talked about social media, or every episode I've talked about AI or those kind of things.

Right now it doesn't do it very well. So it's a little bit manual, but as AI gets smarter, I know that that's gonna be really helpful having that there.

And it's something that I feel like having that database there, it just means that the content doesn't then completely disappear and I can't then come back and reference it and understand where I can link my content together. And especially for my website, actually being able to link that content together is one of the biggest things with SEO, actually, is being able to make the most of your content.

And show Google that with this episode or this article, you might also then like reading this article as well. And it just all helps to raise your authority and helps Google understand why you are more of an expert in what you actually do.

So that's been really helpful. Having that, I would definitely recommend that if you're thinking about podcasting, then start a database as soon as you start.

But the most important thing is having that standard operating procedure. So having that literally, 'this is what I do when I create my podcast,' just takes away that mental load of thinking about it every week in terms of what I actually do.

I also tag my traffic and that's part of the reason that I can understand when people come through Fathom. I can understand exactly how they've kind of ended up in my world.

And I have those tags in there as well. So then I can just adjust the episode number or the date that the email has gone out and those kind of things.

So that's been good to have that in there. 'Cause then I don't have to go off and generate that somewhere else as well.

Solo Episodes and Guest Appearances

I deliberately went into this with most of the episodes being me, solo episodes. And obviously from doing the lives in the Facebook group every week before that, they were all just me, realistically.

And I like that. I listen to podcasts where they have guests on every week and you don't necessarily get to know what the host's strengths are.

And so yeah, it's a different strategy. Some people, you know, it's not the same for everybody, but it's been good doing it that way.

Those coaching-style audit episodes, I really, really look forward to doing them as well and recording them. And that's been really good.

And last week I had Adele in from Super Funky Penguin and we talked about photography, and that's the first one I've done where it's actually been somebody else coming in and talking as the expert. And that was really good.

I really enjoyed that as well. Those sort of conversational-style episodes are all the ones that I really like.

It's funny because when I do an episode like that as well, part of the thing of me getting the transcript is I get the word count and it's always like maybe 2000 words more, despite the fact that it might be the same length of episode.

I talk a lot more when I'm actually doing the audits, and I think that's partly because it's something I love to do. It's what I get very passionate and carried away with.

And I absolutely love doing those kinds of things, really.

Starting on YouTube: Vulnerability and Exposure

So after about six months, I started adding videos to YouTube. That felt a little bit vulnerable, definitely.

YouTube feels a little bit more exposed, I think, than the podcast. Just being a voice feels quite safe; it feels like there's less opportunity for trolls, I think.

Whereas actually YouTube feels a little bit like—I'm not quite sure why, whether it is because it's quite a masculine space, maybe.

I don't know. There's certainly—and it is video, ultimately, isn't it?

So it is your face and there's so much expectation as well, I think, because you watch polished YouTube videos as well, where they are YouTubers and it's all cameras moving and different shots and things. So again, with YouTube, I had to embrace the fact that that's not what this is about.

This is about me coming on, hopefully helping you with some tips. And actually, if I can do that on YouTube, then why not?

Why not add that? And it has been helpful.

It's been helpful in terms of actually showing up on Google. So my videos are now showing up on Google and definitely bringing traffic through.

Owning Content: YouTube vs. Podcasts

YouTube is different because it's not content that you own. So with a podcast, I own that content.

If Buzzsprout goes away tomorrow, I can take my episodes and I can move them to another platform and it's content that I own. Whereas with YouTube, you don't ever really own your own content there.

Blog Casts: A Hybrid Approach

I've also started adding my blog casts. So this is something where it's a bit of a hybrid between a blog and a podcast, so it goes onto my own website, an individual URL, a new page for every episode.

I don't always manage to get them on there, and I've got lots of them that I need to go back and edit. ChatGPT helps to pull these things out of that transcript.

But I have the most important quote that came out of that episode, and key takeaways. If you are blogging, one of the best things you can do is have 'key takeaways from this blog' at the top.

So if people are coming through, if this blog is answering a question for somebody, if you can tell them straight away what the key things are about it, that can really help with your SEO if you're blogging.

I have other notable quotes, links to resources, links to related episodes, and an introduction. So it is more like a short blog at the beginning rather than just almost like a tweaked version of the show notes, and then the transcript in there as well.

And actually doing those, it's definitely been good in terms of actually building out content on my website that I feel is helpful.

I have the embed of both the YouTube video and of the podcast in there as well. So somebody can go onto my website, look at my blogs, and they can either listen, watch, or read this content.

And that is something that I'm definitely gonna continue doing. It's something that I feel good about.

SEO Challenges and Tips

I feel good about the fact that it's helping my SEO, apart from the fact that I realised a few weeks ago that Google actually hadn't indexed quite a few of those pages.

So I'd submitted them to index in Google Search Console. I'd been in and added the URL and asked Google to index them.

I never went back in and checked because the ones that I was doing before that, within a day they were getting indexed. And then I went in and realised that half of those articles that were on my website weren't indexed by Google.

So it'll be really interesting to see what happens with my own SEO over the next few weeks and months as I go in and make some tweaks to that content and make sure that they are properly indexed.

So big tip there, make sure that you are checking that this stuff is actually getting indexed rather than seeing if you've just requested and it has then ignored you for whatever reason, really.

And there were some really good ones on there as well. I'm so annoyed, like articles that I published probably at least six months ago that I thought were indexed by Google.

So yeah, just goes to show. And definitely the plumber with the leaky tap, I guess, for that one.

Podcasting Benefits and Confidence Boost

So, in terms of what my podcast has actually brought me and given me, one of the big things I would say is that bank of content. That's the thing that I'm probably the most proud of and has helped with my confidence.

So regardless of whether somebody wants to work with me right away, if they don't have the budget maybe to work with me right away, or it's just not quite the right time, I know that I can point them towards podcast episodes.

I can point them towards those YouTube videos or those pages on my website, and they will get some value out of that. Even with people that are clients and people in my membership, I still have that there.

So the number of times that I've sort of said, 'Oh yeah, I've got a podcast episode around that. Let me share the link for it,' and it all helps just so that I feel like I'm delivering more value.

I feel like I've got a great bank of content there and that's been really helpful. Confidence.

It has massively increased my confidence. One of the things that I talk about quite a lot, and I've said this quite a lot when I've sort of been chatting to people about podcasting and they've said, 'Oh, I can't stand the sound of my own voice,' or 'I don't have the confidence for it.'

One of the things I will say is that podcasting has massively helped with that. It's helped with that inner critic.

It's not gone away, definitely not. But what I've realised from recording videos, then listening back to them and editing them, and also listening to the edited version as well.

It's actually just from editing and from listening to that, it's helped me to understand that that voice that is in my head every time I'm speaking, even now, it's there saying to me, 'You're rambling. You are mumbling. You are, you know, you're not clear. You are going off on a tangent.'

And it's there all the time. That critic, that critical voice is there all the time and I know that so many people suffer with this and so many people maybe don't even realise that that voice is there.

And I think that's the big thing, is that this has helped me realise that that voice is there. And it's there whether I am recording a podcast, delivering training, recording training, or delivering a live talk.

I've done quite a few live talks over the last year and realised that it's there then as well. And sometimes even just when I'm having a conversation with somebody, if I've been talking for a while and they haven't said anything back, that's when that sort of starts to chime in, that voice there, really.

And listening back to it and doing the edits has helped me to understand that it's not true. So the first time I recorded a video for my Facebook group, I was sitting in a local pub, and I thought, 'Oh, I'll just record a quick video.'

And I recorded it and I got three-quarters of the way through and I stumbled. I thought I stumbled.

So I stopped and I started again. And then when I came home and edited it, I realised that the stumble wasn't really even a stumble.

Like there was nothing, I can't even remember what I did, but it would've been fine. I could have either edited just that bit out or it didn't even need editing.

I think that was the big thing, is that I realised there that I didn't even need to edit it. It was fine, and that was a bit of a lightbulb moment.

So I think that was one of the first points that I realised that. But actually from doing that week on week through the podcast, listening to it, editing it back and realising that it is okay, and it sounds good, and I do know what I'm talking about, and I don't sound like I'm a moron.

You know, it's been massively helpful and it's been helpful in just quieting that voice down and just recognising that it's there. I'm like, 'Quietly down.'

I imagine it now as just somebody sitting on my shoulder, little Cruella sitting on my shoulder and actually just, you know, it helps me to just squash her down a little bit. You know, 'I know you are there, I know you're trying to protect me, but it's not true.'

And I think that's been the biggest thing for me, if nothing else came out of the podcast.

As I say, I am now emailing my subscribers regularly, and that's been really good.

Embracing Imperfection in Podcasting

I have definitely embraced not being perfect more from doing the podcast. I went through a time where I started overthinking it and started over-planning and started over-scripting, like not scripting as in having a script that I was reading from, but just putting too many notes together.

And I feel like then I lost a little bit of me, a little bit of that messiness, which is part of me. So that is definitely something that happened kind of in the middle.

And that was actually me thinking about whether I'm giving people actionable value each week or whether I'm sharing too much. And again, it's just those voices that pop up and say, 'You're not good enough,' basically.

That definitely helped me 'cause it helped me to think about, 'Okay, what actions can I give people to do this week?' But I don't need to, it doesn't need to be perfect.

So if I don't do that, if I don't give you one action to do this week and it's just a little episode like this, which is a little bit rambly, that's okay as well. Let me know if it's not, if you always want an action step, then I can always add that in.

But it's just that thing of overthinking it and just, you know, even when you've been doing it a while, sometimes those things do creep in as well, really.

What else have I done?

SEO for Podcasts: Course and Insights

So, I released an SEO for podcasts course as well. So I did a live workshop, released the workshop replay, and ignored it for about a year, actually.

It was before I had a podcast, so it must have been well over a year ago, actually. And I did it, recorded it, and then never did anything with it.

I never promoted it, never talked about it or anything, never went back through and actually edited it into bite-sized pieces. And I did that a few weeks ago.

I went back in and edited it. And what I realised from doing that, again, was it was a lot better than I thought it was.

I realised it was something that I need to be selling. And I'm actually gonna do a little promotion on that in relation to the podcast anniversary as well.

But I wouldn't have had that. I think this is all tied into releasing the podcast.

Maybe if I hadn't have done that workshop, I wouldn't have been more inclined to actually then release a podcast. And maybe that's part of the reason why I was hesitant to sell that.

I know that was definitely something that I had when I did that workshop, was like, 'Well, if I haven't got a podcast, am I an authority to talk about this?' And actually, I was, even without a podcast.

I knew the things that help podcasts to actually get results and to be more visible in search. And it's simple tweaks with the SEO for a podcast.

That's one of the things I absolutely love is it's simple tweaks. Tweaks that you can make in your podcast hosting platform today and that can show up straight away.

And then you can start getting more downloads straight away. And actually, one of the things, I thank you, Angela, for leaving me a message yesterday telling me that she was on that workshop.

She did the things that I told her to do and it worked. So that's amazing to hear that, really, that's really good to hear that.

I feel like I have just scratched the surface with this as well with my podcast. I feel like there's so much potential in terms of it actually helping me to grow my business, and in terms of getting the word out there about it.

I feel like I've just scratched the surface.

Guest Podcasting: Expanding Your Reach

One of the things I would say if you're thinking about podcasting, but you don't wanna start your own podcast, is really think about getting on other people's podcasts. If you can be a guest on other people's podcasts, then it's a great way to introduce yourself to podcasting.

It's a great way to get yourself out there as the expert. And as I say, I think if you are the expert going on somebody else's podcast, you actually then are the expert rather than the host.

So I think that's a really great way to do it and you can be very strategic about the kind of podcast that you want to get on and thinking about just growing those relationships.

And it doesn't even have to be specifically what you're selling, if you're just getting on there and having a chat. I was recently on the Digital Dominators podcast with Sooz Young and we were just having a chat.

We were just geeking out about AI and websites and SEO and it was so lovely. But those kind of things can really help with your visibility.

One of the things as we move more into AI search is that we need to be seen across the web as the authority in what we do and actually being on other people's podcasts can be really helpful.

And it's content that sticks. It's content that doesn't go away.

It's not like social media content, which is often either buried behind a login or it's something that just disappears. But I had a client last month who found me through being on Adam Chatterley's podcast, which was the first podcast I went on.

And that was more than two years ago, and I got a new client from that literally within the last month or so. And so those kind of things, you never know how that's gonna then bring you visibility and bring you clients and, you know, help your business from now onwards, really.

That's why I love that, really.

Podcasting Strategies and Reflections

One of the things I think is really important if you are thinking about a podcast is being clear on who you're talking to.

So understanding who your listeners are, and that doesn't mean that you won't get people outside of that, and you won't get people outside of that that find your content valuable. But if you are really clear on who the podcast is for and how you want to help them, then that can make a big difference when you're starting.

I would always say, as I said, listen to your own podcast as well. It's something that helps.

It helps you to understand that yeah, you do know what you're talking about. The things that I want to do differently and want to be better at.

I would love to be better at planning episodes relating to what I cover. I think it's something that quite often I haven't decided what I'm talking about until literally the night before or Friday morning, and you know, it's worked so far.

But it does put the pressure on, really. Quite often it is things that have happened in the week and I just come on and talk about that.

But I would really like to make sure that I'm covering what I need to so that you are getting as much value as you can out of the podcast, really. I would love to embrace the rambles more.

I feel like letting that come through and letting even more of my personality come through would be helpful. I feel like actually this is where doing it live... I would like to batch some episodes, but I feel like doing them live is so much better.

It keeps me going and it is just a lot more natural, I think, really. I would like to also have a bit more strategy about people listening and then coming into my world, either becoming subscribers, joining my membership, or joining me as one-to-one clients.

I feel like actually that part of it is where I feel like I've just scratched the surface, really. I've got some ideas for things like a weekly website checklist, a website scorecard, those kind of things, which I think could actually help just to help people to go beyond just listening to the podcast.

Not that that matters, because people can be listening to a podcast for a long, long time and then decide to actually, you know, take that next step on the journey, really.

If I was starting again now, starting the podcast again now, what would I do differently? My big one would be to make sure I was listed everywhere in the first month.

Because the sooner you get yourself onto those platforms, the sooner that people can start discovering you. I would've added YouTube sooner.

I think it was something that I kind of made into a bit of a big thing, and actually just adding videos in from those early episodes probably would've been good as well. I would definitely have created the blog cast episodes sooner.

I would've done them better sooner as well. But it is hindsight, you just don't know.

You have to try things and be okay with them just being, you know, it is fine. It's just the transcript on there.

But I would've done that sooner. And maybe with those, as part of that planning, I would've actually planned a bit more of where I have got some gaps in my SEO.

Where have I got some gaps in my authority on my website? What episodes are the most important with that?

And then making blog cast episodes around that, really. I think I would do more summits, guest posting, guest podcasting, and shouting about it.

Talking about the successes in communities. So I don't promote the podcast on social media, but when I've hit a milestone in some of the private communities I'm in, I will then, if it's weekly wins, say 'Yeah, I've got to 5,000 downloads with my podcast.'

I don't actually share the podcast there or anything, but just those kind of things. I would do more of that and definitely the promoting it outside of social.

I think it makes me more aware that I need to promote it. Whereas maybe if I was creating social posts, I wouldn't necessarily be so aware of every time I'm networking, every time I meet new people, I always try and mention my podcast and it seems to happen naturally.

I think that's the thing is I'm not forcing it. It seems to happen naturally, but actually yeah, that's something that I would definitely do more of.

One of the things I was thinking about is would I promote it on social media? So if I was going back to day one, would I do it differently?

Would I still keep that mission of not promoting it on socials? And a hundred percent I can say I would not do it differently.

I've loved doing this as an experiment. I've loved the fact that it's helped people to get behind the podcast.

You know, people love the fact that I've got to this number of downloads without social media, and so, yeah, I definitely wouldn't do that differently.

If I wasn't an SEO consultant and I was trying to grow a podcast, I probably wouldn't recommend doing that. What I would probably recommend is that you do have it on your bios, you know, you do have occasional posts and those sort of things.

What I wouldn't do is have it as a big part of your social media strategy that you've got to, every time you release an episode, do a load of promotion. You've gotta do this, you've gotta do that, which seems to be where it gets very heavy for people, really.

So I would say if you weren't an SEO Consultant who was doing an experiment to show that it is possible to grow a business without social media, then I would talk about it a little bit, probably.

So ultimately, this podcast is all about helping people to understand how to make their website work for them. So I would like to just make sure that I'm spending more time thinking about that and making sure that that is what's happening.

That is how I'm helping people. But also I want it to be entertaining.

I want it to be about not just tech and websites. I want it to be about being a woman in business, about how beauty, wellness, and purpose-led businesses can embrace technology.

And actually not get left behind, and can help to make a difference for themselves and their families. It's everything in my business is all about that.

It's all about helping women to earn more money so they've got more freedom and more choices for themselves and for their families. And ultimately, if the podcast is helping with that, then I'm doing what I set out to do as well, really.

Future Plans and Audience Engagement

I love using AI and I would love to talk more about that.

I'd love to help people to use that more, both for their business and for their personal life. Certainly in relation to SEO and websites, but life and business in general and just how we can embrace it, not be scared of it, and also not let that take away from us.

And really embrace that human connection, which with the industries I work with, that human connection is never gonna go away. People will always want that, definitely.

I would love to talk more about the tech platform that I use. So I use Fathom, which is part of HighLevel.

I would love to talk more about that, so let me know if you want to hear more about that. I thought about maybe doing a miniseries around that.

Maybe it would be as a separate sort of miniseries. That would be quite cool to do if people like it.

I love geeking out on that kind of stuff. I had a client this week, we did a power hour, and it was literally, we were diving into her—she's using another HighLevel white label, I can't remember what it was called.

But it's essentially the same platform. And we were diving in, looking at some of the things that always trip people up with SEO with that platform.

And it was great. I love doing that kind of stuff.

And also there are new features coming out all the time and so yeah, maybe what I will do is just do a miniseries, see how that goes.

We'll see what happens. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Are you, what platforms are you using? What tech are you using that you would like me to sort of discuss as well, really?

Final Thoughts and Personal Reflections

So one of the big things with podcasting is we're creating content that we own, and I've got a few episodes around this and around the sort of anti-social media, or not anti-social media, but not feeling like we have to do social media and that's the only way to grow a business.

And it's the conversation that I have time and time and time and time and time and time again with people where actually they've got this notion and this theory that they have to use social media, otherwise they can't exist. They can't have a business that's successful.

First and foremost, for me, before anything, before SEO, before websites, before social media, before anything else, it's the relationships that can grow your business. And so I think if you are not sure where to start, you're not sure what to do to increase your business, increase the visibility of your business, start with that.

Start with your relationships, building relationships with people you know, local networking. If you're a local business, networking online.

Getting yourself out there and building relationships with other people who've got podcasts or who've got visibility or communities that you can actually then become part of. Focus on that first and then focus on content as well.

Content that you own, really. So a couple of episodes you could listen to.

So episode number two was 'Why you don't need to keep feeding the algorithm and how to use your existing content potential to show up in search.' And then episode 62 is 'Less social, more success, three sustainable strategies to build your business without social media.'

So go and have a listen to those episodes as well. And there are quite a lot of my episodes that I haven't actually got on my own website.

As I was looking through and looking at the episodes this morning, I was thinking, 'Oh, that's a really good one.' I need to get that on my website.

There's so much there that really speaks to the things that people need help with. That actually, that's something I need to go back and do, and actually just creating more of a plan of how to make the most of the content I've already created, as well as then be strategic about the content I'm creating moving forward.

And just helping for me also to move away from using social media. I don't use a massive amount of social media in my business, but I do feel that pull.

I feel that thing of, 'Oh, well maybe if I just post on LinkedIn a few more times, then I'll be a millionaire.' And I know it's not true, but I feel that pull as well.

I feel that thing of 'you have to do it.' That's part of the thing of moving forward, of actually how can I get visibility?

How can I get my podcast and my website more visible outside of social media as well? And part of that is working on my own SEO.

It's something that I don't need millions and millions of visitors to my website, and it's the same for my clients as well. You don't need millions of people.

You just need the right people finding you at the moment they're actually searching for a solution to their problem or for what you sell. And that's all part of it, really.

So let me know what you would like to hear more of. Let me know if you have any questions or if you've got things that you would like me to cover in the podcast moving forward, let me know.

And if you want help getting your website to work for your business, visit my website or send me a message and we can explore the ways that I can help you, whether it's booking a Power Hour or joining my membership or working with me for one-to-one consulting. I'd love to chat and just see if I can or where I can help you to get unstuck and ultimately to get more traffic and sales through your website.

So it's a beautiful day. It's really lovely out there today.

I'm definitely swimming tomorrow. Last week the water was 17 degrees, which is like a bath for me.

It's really not. When I get in, it still feels cold, but it's very different to 3.6 degrees in the middle of the winter.

But either way, I still need to get in that water. I need the cold.

I really enjoy it. So whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope you have a great one.

And thank you so much for listening today and over the last year. I appreciate every one of you.

Thank you. Bye.

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