The Interview Connections Podcast | Podcast Guesting Agency for Coaches

Costantino's Venda Ravioli

How to Grow A Coaching Business with Mariko Briley

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:00:00 -0400

Interview Connections client and business consultant Mariko Briley talks with Jess and Margy about how she has grown, automated, and generated leads for her coaching business, and gives advice on what you can do to grow your own.

Resources Mentioned:

Mariko Briley

How I Made Back 8x What I Invested with Interview Connections with Tanya Conner-Green

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:00:00 -0400

Tanya Conner-Green has been a client of ours for six months and has already made back 8x what she has invested with us, and she received this ROI before her interviews went live. In this episode, she tells Alex and Nathan how she made that happen and what she does to always make sure she's the best guest she can be.

Resources Mentioned

How We Hustle Podcast

Whole Hearted Business Coach

Podcasting Killed the TV News Star with Erica Mandy

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:00:00 -0400

Erica Mandy had a career in broadcast journalism when she decided to leave it all behind to start her own podcast news network, the NewsWorthy. In this episode, she talks with Alex and Cassi about what inspired her to start podcasting and what marketing strategies she's implementing that are rapidly growing the popularity of her show. And if you're thinking about podcasting or are new to the medium, Erica gives great advice on how to get your show going.

Resources Mentioned:

the NewsWorthy

Womensplaining

Donate to the Companion Animal Foundation

The Privilege of Sharing Your Story with Nik Hawks and Lee Selman

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 13:00:00 -0400

Nik Hawks and Lee Selman (Paleo Treats co-founders, power couple, and Interview Connections clients) talk with Margy and Alex about the benefits they’ve seen from being guest experts, what makes a great interview from the guests perspective, and how they don’t get tired of retelling the same stories over and over again on multiple podcasts. They also offer some international travel suggestions, including a recommendation of a trek in Patagonia.

Resources Mentioned:

Paleo Treats

Challenges of Starting a Podcast with Charles Palleschi

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 13:38:32 -0400

Spark Shipping founder, podcaster, and Interview Connections client Charles Palleschi talks with Jess and Cassi about the trials and tribulations of starting a podcast, what he’s learning about eCommerce from his guests, and what he’s getting out of being a guest expert. Also, the Interview Connections team loves snacks; specifically, ants on a log.

Resources Mentioned:

Spark Shipping

The Business of eCommerce

Womensplaining

Tyler Sheff's Cash Flow Guys

Seltzer Life and Authority Marketing with Brett Jarman

Fri, 23 Mar 2018 13:36:46 -0400

The Interview Connections team consumes a lot of seltzer water and longtime Rock the Podcast listener/ first-time guest, Brett Jarman, joins Jess and Margy on today’s episode. Brett talks about authority marketing, how to leverage podcasts and content marketing to grow your business, and why he loves listening to RTP.

Resources Mentioned:

Brett Jarman

Womensplaining

Polar Seltzer

So You’re Thinking of Doing Podcast Interviews

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 20:42:03 -0400

Jess and Margy answer some questions written in by someone who is thinking of doing podcast interviews to grow their business and their brand. This episode covers the things you should consider if you're thinking of becoming a guest expert. Podcasting might not be the right approach for some people, but for others, it can be a perfect way to accomplish the business growth goals that you've set for yourself.

How to Interview with Tyler Sheff, Erica Mandy, and Dr. Ryan Gray

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:59:32 -0400

Jess' How to Interview panel at PodFest Orlando was full of tips from podcast hosts Tyler Sheff, Erica Mandy, and Dr. Ryan Gray. In this episode, you'll hear some common mistakes interviewers make, how to get through to non-responsive guests, whether or not to have pre-calls, and more!

Resources Mentioned:

Erica Mandy's the Newsworthy

Dr. Ryan Gray's Med School HQ

Womensplaining

Jennifer Briney's Congression Dish

Podcast Guest Etiquette with Damion Lupo, Jennifer Briney, and Tom Tate

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:56:53 -0400

Coming to you from Jess' Guest Etiquette panel at PodFest Orlando, seasoned guest experts and Interview Connections clients Damion Lupo, Jennifer Briney, and Tom Tate discuss everything from sending care packages to show hosts to the best method for hiding a sneeze on air; everything you need to know about becoming the best podcast guest possible.

Resources Mentioned:

Podfest Multimedia Expo

Damion Lupo

Tom Tate's Ask Me About Email Marketing

[Bonus Episode] Can I be vulnerable with you?

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 02:44:59 -0400

How are your fears holding you back?

Over the last several years, every time someone approached me about offering business consulting, I rolled my eyes. My dad, my business partner and multiple clients and prospects have told me I should start consulting entrepreneurs.

While it’s a huge part of what we do with our clients at Interview Connections (we spend their first month entirely on strategizing and consulting), I was afraid to offer business consulting as a stand alone service. I felt like if people said no, they would be rejecting me personally.

I’ve had a breakthrough in realizing how my fear of rejection has been holding me back from doing the things I want to do, and more importantly from providing value to my fellow entrepreneurs.

My first employee and now business partner, Margy and I have been working together over the past two years and have accomplished incredible success in the restructuring of Interview Connections by streamlining operations, increasing revenue and building an amazing team.

I started Interview Connections in 2013 and made six figures in the first year. Our revenue doubled in 2015, and again in 2016. We closed 2017 at just under a half million in revenue and standing here at the beginning of 2018, we are on track for our biggest year ever.

Since launching Interview Connections in 2013, we’ve booked over 10,000 interviews and are the most well known booking agency in the podcasting industry to date.

After growing Interview Connections virtually with a staff of 1099 contractors booking interviews, Margy and I realized that an independant remote team was not a strong enough foundation to take the business to 7 figures while delivering an elite level of service. We took a risk and made a huge change by replacing our remote team of contractors with an inhouse team of W2 employees in a 2300 sq ft building. Interview Connections now has 7 full time employees (with health and dental insurance!) and is operating more profitably than ever before.

We made the shift from a virtual business to a company locally run and operated because we knew what this would make possible for our future: empowerment, joy and the magic of having it all (we’re typing this email from a train on a Monday afternoon while our staff is in the office serving our clients!).

Margy and I are officially launching our consulting business today with 20 VIP days available! We want to help our fellow entrepreneurs achieve their biggest goals this year and experience the kind of fun and joy we have together growing Interview Connections.

Will you be our first client?

Sincerely,

Jessica Rhodes and Margy Feldhuhn

Co-Owners of Interview Connections

A League of Their Own: Realty Shares and Softball with Dave Claffey

Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:56:46 -0400

Jess and Alex talk with Dave Claffey, who is the communications and PR manager at Realty Shares. Dave discusses the importance of having multiple people from different departments of the same company be guests on podcasts, as well as his softball prowess, and experiences with company sports teams.

Resources Mentioned:

Developing Employees with Personal Transformations with Willard Barth

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 19:26:38 -0400

On today’s episode, Jess and Cassi interview an Interview Connections client, Willard Barth, and he teaches them a lot about themselves and how to better understand their co-workers and employees.

1. What topic resonates the most on the podcast interviews you’ve been doing lately?

a. Willard recently released a book called “The Anatomy of Transformation.”

b. People seem to mostly be focusing on his interesting personal journey: Willard lost one of his legs to bone cancer when he was a child, had to overcome a drug and alcohol addiction, and has even been in prison.

2. What was your time like on Broadway?

a. He released a CD almost twenty years ago and had a 17-year friendship with Les Paul.

b. Willard shared the stage with Les Paul over one hundred times.

3. What’s the connection between your life as a creative/performer and your life as a business consultant?

a. When you’re a business consultant, you need to come up with creative solutions to solve problems.

b. When he was writing and performing, people would get an escape for either a few minutes or a few hours, but now he’s giving people a life-long result with what he’s doing for them.

4. How can I create a more streamlined, but still personalized, sales process?

a. Have you identified your sales process map? Capture what’s in your head (each individual step) and get it down on paper.

b. Write down what you can automate or delegate out to someone else and what steps you personally need to be involved in.

c. Think of what you can improve upon the most to make your sales process even more effective.

5. How do you motivate and incentivize a small team when each person is motivated by different things?

a. Willard doesn’t believe in motivation because it’s short-term, but he believes in influence. If you really want to consistently inspire someone to take action, find out what inspires them.

b. Six human needs: significance, certainty, uncertainty, love, connection, growth, and contribution.

c. Understand what human needs most inspire someone through their personality profile and direct them in such a way where their needs will be fulfilled.

6. How do you identify what specific needs motivate someone?

a. Ask them quality questions that will teach you something about how they succeed, how they feel in certain situations, and what makes them feel fulfilled.

b. When you understand what motivates someone and feed it back to them, they feel like they want to take action and be involved.

7. Why are personal transformations so critical to business success?

a. After Willard meets with his team to lay out a 90-day plan, he tells them that the person they currently are will never achieve those goals because if they were capable of achieving those goals, they already would have.

b. A small/mid-size business is a complete and total reflection of the person who owns it.

c. In order to become a better leader, you need to become a better communicator and a better delegator.

d. Many people don’t recognize the areas that they aren’t strong in and therefore don’t delegate those aspects of their business to someone else on their team who is the best equipped to handle it.

e. Fears and limiting belief systems keep us from becoming successful. If you want to grow your business, you need to grow, face, and transform areas that have been limiting you all of your life.

8. Are the six human needs mentioned in your book?

a. Willard does talk about the six human needs in his book.

b. The original idea, the Six Human Needs Psychology, was developed by Tony Robbins.

9. DISC Personality Profile:

a. Each quadrant of DISC will house members of your team and areas of your business.

b. D- dominance. I- influence. S- steadiness, C- compliance.

c. A lot of companies have the right people, but they have them working in the wrong quadrant. Once you understand someone’s personality profile, you can move them to the right part of the company and better understand what influences them.

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Willard

Willard’s Book

Womensplaining

Digital Marketer Blog for podcast

Featuring Employees on Your Podcast

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 15:43:26 -0400

Margy is in the holiday spirit and Jess has some hidden dancing talent. Today’s episode features an interview with Interview Connections client, Tim Cameron-Kitchen.

Tim, what do you do in your business?

Exposure Ninja is a digital marketing agency

Why did you decide to start a podcast?

Sharing what they do on podcasts is a great way to get leads

Tell us more about what you cover on your show

Small and medium sized business owners or marketing managers are their target audience
They cover things that will be interesting to this audience
Episodes are either Tim interviewing one of his team members or featuring a guest interview with someone who has had serious success in digital marketing

What’s the value in bringing on your team members?

Exposure Ninja is so big that it’s more than just Tim (he has 60 employees!)
Tim’s employees are doing things that even he may not know how to do, so it’s great to be able to feature their expertise
It’s also great for clients to get to know the team members who make Exposure Ninja run
Tim uses the podcast episodes in his email marketing and social media
The episodes that feature employees get the most listeners

Does including employees help with employee retention?

Not sure
Some employees find it intimidating

How do you help employees practice?

Wing it!
Positive (and honest) feedback helps build confidence

What was your launch strategy for your podcast?

They read Digital Marketer Blog for how to start a podcast
Set up four episodes and launched with those
People still go back to those original episodes and they are the most popular
They made sure the topics for the first episodes would be evergreen
Email marketing for new episodes to list
Contest for ratings and reviews

What benefits have you seen from hosting a podcast?

The biggest benefit is the relationship building with current leads
The majority of sales are now made to people who love the podcast

Do you have any tips for people who want to start a podcast to grow their business?

Do it!
Quality is important- don’t air episodes that aren’t good
Guests with too clear of an agenda can sound stiff

What should you NOT do as a guest?

Guests who are outside the podcast pool are often best
Often authors are too polished and don’t sound as authentic
Really listen to the question and think about what the audience actually wants
Don’t be generic
Ask the host who the audience is and what they care about so you can tailor your message

What is your tech set up?

Blue Yeti mic
ZenCaster

Resources Mentioned:

Exposureninja.com

Blue Yeti

Zencastr

Secrets to Managing Employees with Jason Treu

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 10:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode, we are live from Dallas interviewing our client, Jason Treu. (Excuse the background noise from the Sheraton lobby!) Jason helps successful leaders overcome management and career challenges within their organizations.

What are the most common pain points you find with your clients?
1. Most of it stems from early childhood trauma.
2. These traumas are holding them back.
3. Jason helps them change learned behaviors from childhood that are no longer serving his clients.

How can managers deal with employee issues that may be personal?
1. You have to get to know people personally to help with their work performance.
2. No one can truly separate work and personal.
3. Conversations about what people really want are important, too.

How possible is it for people to overcome traumas that happened during their early, formative years?
1. You can do it quickly. Most things are just a slight shift.
2. People have be willing to change.
3. One person Jason helped was having sales issues, but it turned out to be a deeper reason of shame about her voice. He helped her overcome this, which turned her sales around!

What is the balance between being vulnerable and oversharing?
1. You have to understand the moment and the people you are sharing with.
2. People have to earn the right to hear your story.
3. You don’t have to have it all figured out.
4. Find like minded people in your life who you can relate to. That way you don’t have to explain the whole backstory.

What are some examples of questions a manager could ask to open up potential blocks?
1. If you are leading, you have to be vulnerable with the people you are leading.
2. Take advantage of ways to be honest about finances, etc.
3. When you meet new people, be honest that you expect performance at a high level but that mistakes are okay.
4. Encourage people to share their ideas before you share yours.
5. Cards Against Mundanity helps people open up and get to know each other as people. It creates psychological safety.
6. You have to create the culture in the company.
7. Psychological safety causes people to be more emotionally invested and work harder.
8. People want to show up and be seen.

How can managers show their staff that they are seen?
1. You have to work on yourself first.
2. You can’t deal with tough questions if you can’t deal with your own stuff.
3. Everyone wants to be vulnerable, but only if someone else goes first. The leader has to go first to show they care.
4. Walk around the office every day for 15 minutes and chat with people about their lives. This shows people you care.

What are some things leaders can do to work on themselves?
1. Masterminds
2. Coaches
3. Internal self audit
4. Therapy
5. You have to dig down and figure out what’s happening inside of you and what you need.
6. If you don’t deal with your issues, you will have blind spots. Your fears will manipulate what’s going on.
7. Leaders who have done the work won’t allow people who are manipulative and toxic in their environment.

Tell us about Cards Against Mundanity
1. Jason was seeking to understand how anyone can create a “Google” workplace.
2. Studies have shown that asking certain questions can cause immediate friendship and bonding.
3. Psychological safety is the only thing they found across every high performing team at Google.
4. Card Against Mundanity creates this same vulnerability which leads to psychological safety.
5. With the card asking the question, people are more comfortable than when another person asks you something.

Are there any questions that people refuse to answer?
1. The only person who refused ended up quitting shortly after.
2. People tend to want to be vulnerable because the average person doesn’t have anyone in their lives who they can share with.
3. Loneliness is higher than ever and climbing (40%).
4. Loneliness goes hand in hand with fear and can cause people to lash out.

People’s personal lives are part of their work
1. You need to learn about people’s lives and goals.
2. Helping employees through the process of moving forward personally and professionally is what leads to success in business.
3. Unhappy employees can affect your company’s productivity.
1. People want to feel fulfilled in their work.
2. Psychological safety can help people feel fulfilled.
3. People make what they spend, so no matter what they have, they always feel like they need more.
4. A lot of times outside success doesn’t mean people feel fulfilled inside. Even billionaires want more if they aren’t happy and fulfilled.
Modern workplace

Great leaders are self aware
1. Your blind spots as a leader cascade into the business.
2. Your business is always being held back by you.

What type of help do you need as a business owner?
1. You have to find people who can help with your business and with you emotionally.
2. Most coaches are too focused on the external.
3. The internal hurdles are what is really stopping your success.
4. Some people need a therapist, but a lot of people can just use a coach who can point out internal barriers quickly so they can be addressed.
5. Coaching can be faster than therapy if you don’t need long term help.

The main reason people work hard?
1. They don’t want to disappoint the other person.
2. They care about the leader.
3. This is why psychological safety creates harder working employees.

Resources Mentioned:

Jason Treu

Cards Against Mundanity

Arthur Aaron study on making fast friends

Creating Disney Magic Podcast

Personal Finance for Women with Hilary Hendershott

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Fun Personal Money Facts:

● Jessica got her first credit card to go to Hawaii at age 18.
● Hilary had almost 20,000 dollars in credit card debt in college (twice!). She is the host of Profit Boss Radio. She rebuilt her credit and net worth after debt and foreclosure and now owns a seven figure business.
● Margy doesn’t use credit, and thinks the whole concept of spending money you don’t have is weird.

1. How does what happens in your childhood affect your relationship with money?
1. a. We learn about money in our childhood.
2. b. Money is very conceptual. We think of it as solid, but it’s really just an agreement.
3. c. This conceptualism can be really tough for kids to understand.
4. d. When people have a scarcity mindset, they often spend rather than save.
1. a. Margy feels like her attitude towards money is very simplistic and possibly a little childish.
2. b. She feels a little embarassed about her lack of credit, proving that everyone has shame about their finances no matter where they are.
3. c. Money is the stage the inner critic stands on.
2. Margy, what is your relationship with money?
1. a. Hilary felt a lot of shame about her own money problems, especially as a financial advisor.
2. b. The more she shares her story honestly, the less shame she feels.
3. Money and shame
1. a. Hilary got to a point where she was really in a mess and had to be honest.
2. b. When she discovered the power of money psychology, she realized a lot of people were being controlled by their attitude towards money without even knowing it.
3. c. She realized she had been the victim of her own subconscious psychology.
4. d. The first few times she shared it was messy, but she got better at sharing her story.
5. e. Hilary shared her debt story very publicly on her TedTalk.
6. f. The more she tells it, the more people tell her how needed it is for others to hear that story.
7. g. It makes it easier to share her story because she has recovered.
4. Hilary, how did you come out of the debt closet?
1. a. Jess opened up to her dad first about her debt situation.
2. b. Her debt started when she left her job, started a business and was paying a nanny on credit.
3. c. She then opened up in front of a bunch of people at her dad’s conference, and found a lot of people could relate to her story.
4. d. Shame and secrecy are best friends, so when you are honest shame can’t exist.
5. Jess, how did you come out of the debt closet?
1. a. Women have the power to make decisions about finances and control their own money.
2. b. Culturally, women aren’t expected to be financially capable.
3. c. Mony has power, so some men may be threatened by financially savvy women.
6. Could you talk more about psychology and money, especially for women?
Resources Mentioned:
Profit Boss Radio
ProfitBossLive.com
Jason Treu
Profit Boss Facebook Group
www.hilaryhendershott.com

Never Binge Again with Dr. Glenn Livingston

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Margy and Jess are excited to be exhibiting for the second year in a row at FinCon in Dallas! On today’s episode, we feature an interview with longtime client, Dr. Glenn Livingston.

What was life like when you were obese, personally and professionally?
1. Glenn grew up in a family of psychotherapists, and always wanted to be a psychologist on the radio (like his dad)
2. Glenn started as a couples and family therapist
3. His work required a lot of presence, but he couldn’t say present because he was so preoccupied by food
4. In addition to his concerning mental obsession with food, he was also experiencing serious health risks

What role did shame play in your life when you were binge eating?
1. Shame played a big role
2. Glenn has realized that bingeing is only possible when you are also self shaming
3. This led Glenn to think about the survival role that guilt and shame play in keeping us alive
4. Like physical pain, shame can draw your attention to mistakes and prevent you from doing destructive things again
5. Glenn calls his inner destructive self his “pig”
6. Removing shame and guilt made it possible for Glenn to recover

What can we do as individuals and as a community to help people struggling with shame and disordered eating?
1. As a community, we need to recognize the economic, sociological and physiological forces aligned in the culture to create binge eating
2. It’s amazing that anyone is able to eat normally
3. Billions of dollars go into engineering super concentrated starches, sugars and other unhealthy food chemicals designed to short circuit the pleasure centers of the brains
4. When rats can directly activate the pleasure center of the brain, they will do nothing else (sacrificing things they need to survive like food in favor of pleasure)
5. The mammalian brain will engage in serious self neglect in pursuit of pleasure
6. The advertising industry also helps convince us that we can’t live without unhealthy foods
7. The addiction treatment industry gives the message of “you are powerless to resist”
8. As a society, to remove shame we can look at what’s happening in the society as a whole and have compassion for how it’s creating binge eaters
9. Glenn presents the idea that people whose drug of choice is food are more selfless, because unlike drugs addicts they don’t affect the people around them with their addiction

Who have your biggest critics been over the years?
1. Glenn is a compassionate person and is also highly educated on these topics
2. Ultimately, Glenn figured out that he couldn’t “love himself thin”
3. Glenn has developed a paradigm where you distance yourself from the lizard brain (which he calls his “inner pig”)
4. He draws clear boundaries (no chocolate on weekdays)
5. Some people believe Glenn’s philosophy and use of the word “pig” is fat shaming, but Glenn’s theory is that this lizard brain (or “pig”) is NOT you
6. This relates to the Buddhist practice of realizing that your thoughts are not you
7. What we think of as our identity is a subset of thoughts driven by our neurology
8. You can make a statement of character like “I’m not the kind of person who eats chocolate during the week,” forming an identity around that statement of will

What’s the balance between loving yourself and also wanting to be thinner and healthier?
1. Glenn doesn’t know if a happy fat person exists
2. From what he’s seen, there are a lot of health consequences to being overweight
3. Plus sized people should be loved and accepted, and because of the perfect storm, it’s not easy to get control over eating
4. Hopelessness can cause people to give up on getting thinner and healthier
5. If you can be a happy, healthy fat person, Glenn is ok with that
6. He hates to see people give up on being a thin person without really understanding what’s going on psychologically and how they can leverage that to get thin
7. Glenn is not very supportive of the notion of just “accepting your weight.” He feels people should strive for a medically healthy weight

How has being interviewed on podcasts so frequently impacted you?
1. Glenn’s goal is to help a million people a year stop overeating
2. He’s had almost 300k downloads of his kindle book
3. He is consistently in the top 5 Amazon books for eating disorders
4. He sees a spike in book sales every time a podcast goes out
5. Podcasting has also helped with Glenn getting more personal coaching clients
6. Another benefit is that podcasts are a “safe” type of publicity to hone his message before going on more mainstream media outlets

At what point in your journey as a guest did you start to see the effects of podcast interviews?
1. Glenn averages an extra 100 downloads every podcast, 10-15 opt ins and about one paid client per podcast
2. It took a couple of months for the podcasts to start coming out and then it became a very steady bump in Amazon stats
3. In retrospect, he wishes he had bought a word of mouth domain for his call to action

Are there certain types of shows that are more effective for you?
1. Glenn is against the 12 Step programs, which makes him unpopular with some mainstream addiction recovery shows
2. The best are any type of health podcasts, particularly the fitness shows because his approach is very disciplined

What is the connection with religious shows?
1. Glenn isn’t religious, but the structure of his philosophy is very compatible with religion (like separating the angel and the devil on your shoulder
2. His average review on Amazon is higher among people who buy religious books

What role does isolation play in addiction?
1. Addiction is an isolating behavior
2. “Narcissus didn’t die of self love, he died of self neglect”
3. You can fight addiction with connection, and it’s part of the process
4. What Glenn objects to in the 12 Step process is not the community, but the concept that it’s a disease and people can’t help themselves which leads to fear and the feeling of powerlessness

Resources Mentioned:

FinCon2017

Health at Every Size

Milner and Olds Studies

Jack Trimpy Rational Recovery

Jean Paul Sartre

Rat Park

NeverBingeAgain.com

Clarifying Your Message By Appearing on Podcasts

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Margy and Jess are excited about their new podcast, Womensplaining! This episode features an interview and strategy session with our client, Aaron Hendon.

Why did you start getting interviewed on podcasts?

Aaron was planning on writing a book and wanted to do interviews to promote credibility and practice telling his story

How have you grown through this process?

Aaron is a residential RE agent, and he was looking to build credibility online
He puts all interviews on his press page
Aaron has become a better speaker from doing interviews
He wasn’t aware of what his audience wanted, and found his content wasn’t as interesting to others as he thought
Through feedback, Aaron has become a better guest and better at speaking to people in his professional life
Often when an interview doesn’t go well, you learn the most from it

What are the biggest victories you’ve celebrated this year?

Aaron did his first 3 million dollar month!
The work in Aaron’s business is finding people and talking to them
Podcasts have helped him improve in his career talking to people
Aaron has been able to finish his book because of inspiration from podcasts and hosts
He has been booked on 40 shows, and will email all those hosts when his book is out
A conversation with a podcast host is what developed one of the key pieces of the book
Podcasting as a guest can be a big part of your creative process

Tell us more about the book

It’s a look at the psychology people use to approach buying their home (which is the same as how they pick a restaurant for dinner!)
To do it more rationally, you have to do different things
This book is for people in the US buying or selling who are information seekers
Many listeners of podcasters are information seekers, which is a good match for Aaron’s target market

Resources Mentioned:

@womensplaining

Joe Fairless

Aaron Hendon

Podcasting about Mental Illness with Paul Gilmartin

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess and Margy are recording live from LA Podfest. We feature an interview with Paul Gilmartin of The Mental Illness Happy Hour. This episode contains discussions about mental illness and child abuse. Listener discretion advised.

The Mental Illness Happy Hour
1. Paul started the show in 2011 because he felt it was needed
2. He didn’t know he would someday make a living off the show
3. People get so wrapped up in not laughing about this subject matter, but a little humor can be healing
1. You either have that skill or you don’t
2. It’s important to be respectful
3. Paul tells all guests that nothing is too dark or off limits, and that he will delete the episode afterwards if the guest asks
4. The things that you are most nervous to talk about are the things that are most healing to other people
5. Empathy is everything, so it’s good to stay in the moment and not prepare too much
How do you make a space to have such vulnerable conversations?
1. Paul gets emails from people all over the world who were thinking about suicide before they heard the podcast
2. The show helps people deal with shame, especially around sexual trauma
3. Paul has personally dealt with incest as a child and the podcast has helped him open up and find support
4. Paul has always felt a deep need to be told that he’s ok and to be seen as he really is- the podcast has been the perfect platform to let that out
5. Paul feels his show is less about his courage and more about a desperate need to feel heard
What differences have you seen the podcast make in the lives of your listeners?
1. It’s a personal decision for everyone how much you want to share
2. Share what you’re comfortable with and keep in mind what you are trying to achieve
3. Is your sharing of service to the listener?
4. Paul always beats himself up after sharing, and then opens up about that too
5. Nothing bad can get worse if you keep a light on it
6. Share the stuff that’s difficult to share, as long as it feels appropriate for the circumstance
7. It’s important to know when to share, and when to listen to others who are sharing (and not making it all about you) - support groups are helpful for this
What advice do you have for people who may feel vulnerability hangovers after sharing “too much” ?
1. Paul keeps the comedy to a respectful level on the podcast, and doesn’t make jokes at the expense of a victim
2. Paul started comedy in 1987 and quit standup and TV hosting in 2011
3. He never felt safe enough to discuss these issues in his standup, and he found that the podcast was the best medium for this
4. Paul started his satirical political character because he was sick of just complaining and sounding like everyone else
5. His comedy satire is his form of protest
Tell us about your comedy
1. DON’T TRY TO BE ANYTHING YOU’RE NOT
2. The most valuable commodity in podcasting is authenticity
3. People are drawn to the things that are the most authentic and the most compelling
4. Every good podcast has a host who is passionate and curious
5. You don’t have to be funny
6. People deep down think they aren’t enough
7. Most people need to let go of something deep down; shame, pride, etc.
8. Paul used to think he needed to be revered and stand out, but the more he did that the lonelier he got
9. Strive for excellence but also stay connected and be “one of many” in your daily life
How do you feel that your background in comedy helps the show, and what are your tips for people without a comedy background?
1. Being featured on iTunes
2. Going on other people’s shows
3. Having high profile guests
4. Things being written about the show
5. There is no better way to grow an audience than putting out a consistent, quality podcast
6. One bad episode can lose your audience
7. When you are doing podcasting for a living, you have to make certain decisions
8. If Paul’s podcast wasn’t his livelihood, he wouldn’t be so conscious of having high profile guests and curating episodes to break up the heavy ones
9. Paul works to balance growing the show with serving the needs of listeners and those struggling with mental illness
Over the six years that you’ve been podcasting, what are the top things that have grown your audience?

Resources Mentioned:

The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast

Mentalpod.com

PaulGilmartin.com

LA Podcast Festival

Live Panel Discussion at Dream Business Academy 2017

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:00:00 -0400

This week’s episode features Jess doing a LIVE panel discussion at Dream Business Academy!

Podcasting doesn’t just grow your business, it grows you personally

Podcasting gives you a voice

It gives you an intimate setting to speak to YOUR tribe

You become more confident when you find your voice

There’s no formula for being successful with your podcast

Be YOU

Only recently did Jess get comfortable being herself

Podcasting lets you add some fun and color to your business

Do podcasting because it’s fun!

Not everyone likes the new format of the show, but all that matters is that Jess is having fun!

Panel of Experts Featuring Doug Foresta, Ben DeCastro and Joe Kashurba:

Joe, what is the value of being a guest on podcasts (even small ones)?

Getting interviewed has helped his public speaking ability 100 fold

It has brought clarity about his message from telling his story so many times

What is the ROI of podcasting? How long does it take?

It takes some time and consistency

Interviews don’t go live right away

Can be very direct response if you take the time to set up and then direct people to your lead page (have a specific call to action)

Doug was very nervous in the beginning, but in ten years he can trace back all his clients to podcasts and many of his best relationships

Ben, tell us about your show Carpooling with Ben:

His show Wicked Rhodey is just for events in RI (just for entertainment!)

Carpooling with Ben started as a show for Cardi’s

Joe, what role does podcasting play in your content marketing?

Many potentials listen to more than one of Joe’s interviews and then are very ready to buy (because they already know like and trust him)

Using podcast content proactively is key

Joe often puts podcast content on a landing page and sends it to his email list

Joe also does facebook ads leading people towards interviews

Jess recommends recording every interview on your end in case the host makes a mistake (that way you have the content to use)

There are huge SEO benefits to podcast backlinks

Potentials google you and see all your interviews, which builds a lot of credibility

What should your goal be for creating a podcast?

Doug started with an unsuccessful show and learned a lot

You should have a reason to start

Decide what success looks like for you

It’s good to have low standards when you first start

It’s ok to change it if it doesn’t work

Know who you’re talking to and provide value to those people

Make people think in a different way

Every successful show has a script or an outline- PLAN AHEAD!

How can you podcast well?

Podcasting is much newer than TV and radio

Watch professional interviewers from traditional media spaces and learn

What Ben learned from the Rhode Show:

Cardi’s Furniture helped start the Rhode Show

After the first year, there was guest confusion, so they learned how to manage expectations and walk them through the interview process

Now, Ben gives guests an outline so they know what to expect

Help guests understand how to promote the interview to their followers

Ben breaks the fourth wall, which TV people hate, by walking guests into the set so they feel comfortable

Similar to retail, let customers adjust and relax before the interview

What are the dos and don’ts of pitching a podcaster?

Listen to the show

Fully understand the genre and why you are a fit!

Don’t focus on your needs, focus on what you can give to the host (i.e. value and great content)

No one cares about your book launch

Have fun with your pitch

Include links of you as a guest or reel (2-3 minutes)

What’s the importance of your press page and online presence?

Your bio is something you should check every 3-6 months at least to make sure it’s updated

What’s the importance of a one sheet?

Your one sheet has your headshot, contact, bio and suggested questions

The suggested questions guide the interview to position you the way you want

Questions must provide value (not an infomercial)

Helps the host so they don’t have to take as much prep time

Putting it together also helps you clarify your messaging for yourself

Final Tips:

Listen to your own show and make sure it’s good

Get audio quality good enough that it’s not distracting

Resources Mentioned:

My Favorite Murder Podcast

Setting Clear Expectations

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess has a brand new look, and Margy is spreading the gospel of bangs. Then, we discuss expectations as a podcast guest and a real-life example of a smaller show going VIRAL!

Setting Clear Expectations as a Guest:

The speed of results
1. Podcast interviews are a long-term strategy
2. It takes time to get first interviews booked and released
3. The bigger the show, the longer the wait
4. It takes time to get on those bigger shows
1. Understand that you may not be ready for the bigger shows; interview practice is valuable and being on a bigger show after you’ve had more experience is going to be more valuable
2. Knowing how to be a great entrepreneur doesn’t mean you automatically know how to be a great interviewee; it takes practice!
3. We want you to be ready for big shows before we place you there
It only takes one show (or one listener) for the strategy to pay off
1. If they aren’t a fit for you, OR you aren’t a fit for them, we should NOT pitch you!
2. Being in front of your target audience (big or small) is more valuable than a big audience who isn’t a fit
3. Don’t let ego make you lose sight of your goals for interviews
A lot of the big shows might not be a good fit for YOU

How a Tiny Show Beat Joe Rogan:

We were just discussing how to go viral on our last episode, and this week we saw a small podcast GO VIRAL!!! Here are some reasons why:

Jo (the host of Zealot) went to see My Favorite Murder live
1. If you go to see comedians (or anyone) live, they are more likely to talk to you! (SUPPORT THEIR WORK FIRST!)
2. Find your target audience, and go see them in person
1. They get lots of pitches to go onstage
2. Jo’s pitch was totally unique because she offered to do The Moonwalk
3. Show what is unique about you and how it can bring value to the host!
She gave a unique pitch
1. Everyone listening to MFM is a great audience for a comedy cult show
2. Be in front of the people who will care about your topic (the right audience is everything!)
Her topic was relevant to listeners of My Favorite Murder

Resources Mentioned:

Hair Tech

EOFire

Zealot Podcast

Congressional Dish

How to Make Your Listeners Obsessed With You

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Margy is all about hot springs after visiting the West Coast, and Jess is getting lots of flowers in the mail! In this episode, Jess and Margy discuss their favorite podcasts, what makes them SO GREAT and how to make YOUR listeners obsessed with you.

How to Make Your Listeners Obsessed With You:

Go on Tour

Meet your listeners
Conferences are a great way to do this!
When The Minimalists first started touring, no one showed up, but they kept at it!
We’re seeing My Favorite Murder live at LA Podcast Festival (EEEK!!!)

Create Other Content

Jess found The Minimalists through their documentary originally
You can build your audience on a different platform (blog, YouTube, etc)

Be Yourself

People who like you will stick around, and the sooner you repel the people who don’t like you, the better!
The Minimalists and the My Favorite Murder gals have great banter, which we love because we love THEM!
Dave Jackson has great banter with himself
It can take time to feel comfortable being yourself

Focus on Developing Yourself as a Speaker and/or Entertainer

Study other speakers or comedians
Check out toastmasters
You may not be good at this right away

Prepare!

The more you put in, the more your listeners will get
Congressional Dish hosted by Jen Briney is a great example- Jen does a ton of work for her audience and is an amazing journalist
Josh of The Minimalists said on an episode that he had 6 pages of notes

Be Unique with Your Content

Our favorite podcasts cover unique topics that they are very passionate about (true crime, congress and minimalism)
The didn’t start out to be famous, they were just passionate about their unique topic
Jen Briney covers things that most mainstream media doesn’t cover- there is a ton of original content out there waiting to be covered!

Inspire Your Listeners to Create a Community

Margy is a Murderino, the name for fans of MFM, many of whom are in a FB group together
The Minimalists have meetups in all different cities
When your listeners form their own communities and interact with each other, the show takes on a life of its own

Stop Advertising at the Beginning of the Show (unless it’s really funny)

My Favorite Murder does very funny ad reads, so they are an exception
In general, don’t ask your listeners to do something before you have given them any content (i.e. right at the beginning of the show)
Brand new listeners aren’t going to do something for you before they have gotten to know you and your show

Choose Your Co-Hosts/Guests Wisely

Co-host dynamic is everything
Don’t co-host with anyone you couldn’t spend a full week on vacation with
The Minimalists and MFM are both pairs of bffs
Sell your personality as much as your content

Invest in Your Show

If you want to succeed, you have to invest!
Many successful shows have teams to help produce the show
Have good equipment

Final Thoughts:

You DON’T have to go viral. Don’t start a podcast to be famous, start a podcast because you love it. Podcasts are passion projects!

If you are an entrepreneur podcasting to connect with potential clients, you DON’T need a huge audience to see results. You just need the RIGHT audience! It can also be a great tool for client retention as you can feature them and make content directly for them.

Episodes to Start with:

My Favorite Murder: Episode 85: Live at the Boulder Theater

The Minimalists Podcast: Episode 91: Nostalgia

Congressional Dish: Episode 157: Failure to Repeal

Resources Mentioned:

The Minimalist Podcast

@InterviewConnections

Julie Broad

Productivity with Amber De La Garza

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Margy has a fancy new title and Jess is free from her gym membership and committing to her yoga practice. Then, Jess and Margy interview one of our #RockThePodcast listeners, Amber De La Garza, who we met at Podcast Movement! Finally, stay tuned for our favorite segment: “Would You Rather... Listen To?”

Interview with Amber De La Garza:

How did you find #RockThePodcast?

Amber was in her learning phase about how to be a great host and guest
Googling these terms, she came accross the show!

How many podcast do you listen to?

Too many!!
For some shows, Amber listens to every episode, and for other shows, she downloads only episodes that are specific to what she is currently learning for her business
As a productivity specialist, Amber warns against information overload from too many podcasts
Amber also categorizes her shows (she uses Stitcher for Android)
Margy only subscribes to My Favorite Murder
Jess has cut back the number of shows she subscribes to to limit info overload

When should entrepreneurs start their day and what is the ideal morning routine?

Amber calls this “bookending your day”
She recommends FOUR routines- so you can stay on track but still have the flexibility to address the unexpected
The four routines are:
- personal morning routine
- professional morning routine (when you hit the office)
- evening routine (as you leave office)
- nighttime/personal bedtime routine
Weave little habits into these four routines
There is no RIGHT time for everyone to start the day; it depends on you, your natural routine and your lifestyle

Mindfulness practice suggests that multitasking is NOT the best way to approach tasks. How do you feel?

Amber has strong beliefs about multitasking
She used to take pride in her ability, and now realizes it’s a myth
What we call multitasking is actually “switch tasking” and is very inefficient
It can be an unconscious stress crutch and also disrespectful to people around you

Tell us about your systems for your show, Productivity Straight Talk.

Amber has been launched for 3 months
She stays a few episodes ahead
Amber uses Trello to organize her show info
Amber creates content and has her team/systems do the rest

Would you rather...LISTEN TO?!

Hostile World: Exploring Our Universe OR Science Monkey
Drugs and Stuff OR We Have Concerns
Emotional Management OR The Self-Help Podcast
Inglorious Pasterds OR Pray-As-You-Go
What She Wants OR Tinder Tales
Filthy Casuals OR No Time for Travel

Resources Mentioned:

Productivity Straight Talk

Amber De La Garza

support @interviewconnections .com

Phil@unisourceadvantageclub.com

My Favorite Murder

Trello

Pema Chodron

The Myth of MultiTasking

Headspace

@TinderNightmares

Podcast Promo Products Guide

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Margy is saving kittens on the highway and Jess is back from a very zen vacay! This episode features an interview with our favorite promo products guy, Phil Brakefield!

Jess has used a bunch of promo products companies, and they pretty much all sucked. Some were wicked expensive, others made horrible mistakes and other sites were just confusing to navigate.

Phil is a super nice guy and you can just email and tell him what you want. He gets it for you at a reasonable price, and he also knows a lot about what kinds of products get more traction in different markets.

1. Do people ever get stemless wine glasses? Can I have four?

● People DO get wine glasses- there are over 1 million items available!

● You can’t get 4 because promo products are based on quantity, so just 4 would be very expensive

● Better off doing “print on demand” for something like that

2. What types of swag are the most popular?

● Standards in the industry that are always effective are: mugs, totes and pens

● Cell phone chargers and screen cleaners are very popular now

● SO many hats

● Sometimes you will be surprised by what is and isn’t popular

3. Why should I have swag for my business?

● DONE CORRECTLY, it’s an important part of your branding/messaging mix

● You have to use the correct swag for your target audience (e.g. AARP crowd may not want phone chargers)

● 70% of people you give a calendar to plan to do business with your company within the next year

● Gain exposure through a useful, attractive and fun product

4. Do we have the cutest logo of any of your clients?

● YES!

● Good idea to minimize your logo and use a fun phrase instead (like #rockthepodcast!)

5. Why does orange look like sh*tty soda?

● All manufacturers have at least one item that just doesn’t look great

● Colors can come out badly on products if you’re not careful

● Some shades of orange look sh*tty

6. How often do your clients tell you that their swag resembles a sex toy?

● Only with Jess (LOL it was supposed to be a microphone)

7. What are the cheapest promo products that have the highest perceived value?

● It depends on what the nature of your show/business is

● Phil advises people to let him help them hone in on their message and their target audience

● Then they give Phil their budget and he comes up with the best product

● The key is NOT to go for the cheapest, but understand what is the most money you can comfortably spend reaching your IDEAL client

● Things that always work like pens and mugs may not fit the profile of your podcast

● Think about message first and reverse engineer from there

8. Is it worth it to sell your own swag?

● If you want to do that, you should go through the pain of becoming a promo products distributor, which allows you to buy things at a lower price

● Beware: it’s an involved process to become a distributor

● If you have a really fun product that’s popular, you may be able to make a profit selling it

● Can do a Shopify store and automate it

Resources Mentioned:

When Things Fall Apart

DreamBusinessAcademy.com

HeyBrakes@gmail.com

Shopify.com

Guestexpert@interviewconnections.com

@InterviewConnections

How To Rock The Podcast From Both Sides Of The Mic with Ty Crandall

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess has found a passion for antigravity yoga, and Margy is obsessed with a new podcast! Then, listen to our interview with expert host AND guest, Ty Crandall, and a new segment called Would you Rather?! Podcast Edition!

Interview with Ty Crandall:

What does Ty do for fun?

-First of all, Ty finds work FUN!

-Ty loves to go boating and he has his pilot’s license!

What does Ty watch on TV?

-Ty spends most of his free time staying active with his kids

-Ty and his wife do enjoy Big Brother and The Profit!

-He likes to be always learning or doing something productive

How does Ty stay SO positive?

-Every bad thing is an opportunity to help you level up and get out of your comfort zone

-You have to experience pain to find what makes you happy, so all experiences are GOOD!

Did Ty start as a host or a guest?

-Ty heard Jessica talking about podcasting

-He then repurposed his webinars into podcast episodes, and months later had thousands of downloads!

-Only at 6 months in did they start actually interviewing, up until then it was just webinar content

-Interview Connections started booking more guests on Ty’s show, and then booking Ty as a guest!

What are the benefits of interviewing guests and being interviewed?

-Relationships are the biggest benefit- amazing people with amazing stories

-Ty has met people who are now his good friends through interviews!

-Ty runs into people at live events who has met on interviews

-Huge SEO benefits from podcast interviews

-All the interviews establish Ty’s credibility

-10-15% of Ty’s customers come from podcasting

Would You Rather?! PODCAST EDITION!

We’re judging shows based on the title alone! Would you rather listen to…..

1. Thank God I’m an atheist OR Hugs from Heaven?!

2. Love Me OR Wolf it Down?!

3. Meditate with Mitch OR Meditate This?!

4. Laser Time OR We’re Alive: Lockdown?!

5. Flow Dreaming OR Ask the Cyber Dating Expert?!

6. Magic Animal Club Podcast OR The History of the Ottoman Empire?!

Ty’s 2016 Episode on #RockThePodcast

The Business Credit and Financing Show

@InterviewConnections

@rockthepodcast

Thank God I’m an Atheist Podcast

Hugs from Heaven Podcast

Love Me Podcast

Wolf it Down Podcast

Meditate with Mitch Podcast

Meditate This! Podcast

Laser Time Podcast

We’re Alive: Lockdown Podcast

Flow Dreaming Podcast

Ask the Cyber Dating Expert Podcast

Magic Animal Club Podcast

The History of the Ottoman Empire Podcast

How Long Does it Take? Featuring Chris Dayley

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess knows she’s fancy because she got turned away from a restaurant in Montreal, and Margy is clearing negative energy like a champ! Then an interview with Chris Dayley of Disruptive Advertising about the ROI of podcast interviews for his business. And stay tuned as Jess and Margy debut the Missed Connections segment!

Interview with Chris Dayley:

-Why podcasts are so great for content creators who dislike writing

-The reason for sticking with podcasting (even if results aren’t immediate)

-Is preparing for interviews overrated?

-Networking with hosts

-What makes a good host?

Craigslist Missed Connections Segment:

Margy and Jess read Craigslist missed connections and offer these lovesick locals their top tips on respecting boundaries at the supermarket and taking responsibility for fixing your electronics.

Resources Mentioned:

Clearing Yourself of Other People’s Negative Energy Part I

Clearing Yourself of Other People’s Negative Energy Part II

Disruptive Advertising

Craigslist

How the Horse Radio Network Produces 80+ Episodes a Month

Wed, 12 Jul 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess is going to acupuncture, and Margy is painting cat portraits! Then, check out a great interview with Glenn the Geek founder of The Horse Radio Network.

Behind The Scenes at Horse Radio Network:

-Having systems in place (like Google Sites) allows for the huge number of shows

-How to audition potential co hosts and what’s most important in a co host

-How live events can build trust with potential clients and show your staying power

In our new segment called “Winne or Losie,” we discuss podcasting trends like...

-should you ask listeners to subscribe?

-are ratings and reviews BS?

-online groups and forums

Resources Mentions:

Horse Radio Network

Google Sites

5 Love Languages

Horse Radio Network App

You Don't Have To Do An Interview Podcast

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jess is washing her walls with salt water to ward off negative energy, and Margy visits her first cat cafe in Brooklyn! They discuss the different styles of podcasts you can produce, and then do an interview with Jonathan Messinger, who produces the Adventures of Finn Caspian.

Different Kinds of Podcasts:

The style that is right for you depends on your brand, style and interest!

1. Interview: Great for connecting with potential clients and bringing a variety of expertise to your audience.

2. Solo Show: You have to be really entertaining! Examples are Grammar Girl and School of Podcasting by Dave Jackson. Dave is an introvert, which may be part of why he is such an excellent solo podcaster!

3. Co-Hosted/Roundtable: We loved Guys We F%$#@, co-hosted by two comedians. Choose your co-host wisely.

4. Fiction: More like an audio book. Takes a lot of work to write the story!

5. Journalism: Examples are Serial and Casefile (Margy loves crime shows!)

6. News/Current Events: Not evergreen, but a great way to educate yourself about what’s happening. We love Congressional Dish, hosted by Jen Briney!

7. Fan Podcasts: PLEASE do one for #Rockthepodcast. Jess has been a guest on The Walking Deadcast!

Interview with Jonathan Messinger

1. How is it podcasting with your son?

-Really fun

-He is a very critical editor!

-It’s very helpful because Jonathan can get feedback on the story before recording

2. What voice changer technology do you use? (Jonathan does all the voices in the show)

-Plug ins: Waves Sound-Shifter, little Alter boy from Sound Toys, another Waves plug in called Morphoder

3. How did you come up with the idea for the show?

-Was originally going to make a children’s book

-Had the idea to do it as a podcast so the audience could be more involved

4. What is your writing process?

-Procrastinate as long as possible

-General outline of story, but episodes incorporate kids’ ideas that they write in

5. Where do you come up with story ideas?

-Riff on elements of classic children’s books

-Kids write in with ideas i.e. what animals live in space?

6. Do you ever feel weird sitting alone in your basement making alien noises?

-Yes

7. Do people without kids listen to your show too?

-Mostly for kids, but some jokes for the parents, too!

-Geared towards 5-8 years old (Jessica’s 4 year old son loves it)

8. Tell us about leaving your job to podcast full time?

-Really optimistic about monetizing

-Audience growing steadily, at about 10,000 per episode right now

-Not a lot of advertisers that are right for children

-Created company called Gen Z Kids

-Might pitch it as a kids’ TV show (Jess and Nathan would love to watch it!)

9. Why did your election episode make Jess cry?!

-So bogged down, and his creativity felt stifled

-Jonathan realized that he was overloading his kids with politics because he was so absorbed by it

-It’s important to stay positive and creative, and let kids stay kids regardless of the political climate

Resources Mentioned:

School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson

Grammar Girl

Guys We F*&%$

Little Alter Boy From Sound Toys

Waves plug in called Morphoder

The Wild Robot

The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

http://www.kidslisten.org/

http://www.finncaspian.com/

https://twitter.com/finncaspian

http://app.kidslisten.org/

The Greatest Networker in the World

It’s Time to Sell with Chris Spurvey

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 09:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode, Jess and Margy interview Canadian business executive turned podcaster, Chris Spurvey. Chris shares how he balances his personal brand with his executive role, his top sales mindset tips for entrepreneurs and how he stays so productive by working smart not hard.

Also in this episode: Margy is getting outdoorsy with a handsome gentleman friend, and Jess has seen the light about Himalayan salt lamps (see what we did there?!)

How Chris balances in his role as VP of Business Development for KPMG with his work as a sales/personal brand consultant:

-was lacking fulfillment in a large organization

-decided to write a book, which started his personal brand

-KPMG is very supportive of everything because his personal brand is helping word get out about the company

-people already know like and trust him because they have read his articles and listened to his shows

Chris’s journey with podcasting:

-Chris always had a dream of writing a book

-He used to think sales was “pushing people” and objection fighting, but began to see sales as more relationship based

-His own book is a narrative about him becoming comfortable with sales and finding success, but writing the book made him realize he didn’t have an audience to read it!

-Podcasting is a great platform builder and multiplier to connect with people at your level and above and tap into their audiences (and also learn a lot)

How entrepreneurs can be more authentic with potential clients:

-Observe your buyer’s emotions

-Help clients feel good about themselves in your presence

-Personal branding is key! EVERY entrepreneur should write or podcast to get their personality out there

-You can hire someone to help with your writing or podcast, so don’t let a lack of confidence hold you back

-As you grow your personal brand, you find your potential clients come to YOU

Chris puts out so much content. How does he stay SO productive?

-He used to run around like a chicken with his head cut off, but now he is a well-oiled content machine

-He got a VA, and they learned to work very well together

-Chris makes a short video, and his VA writes a draft of an article from that video and creates quote cards

-For the podcast, he creates an article instead of show notes

Resources Mentioned:

Chrispurvey.com

Mach II With Your Hair on Fire

Stand Out

Chris’s Book

Podcasting with Yann Ilunga and Improv Comedy Team Building

Wed, 07 Jun 2017 09:00:00 -0400

This week’s episode is about repurposing your content and how Yann Ilunga vets guest experts for his 360 Entrepreneur Podcast. And later in the show, Jessica and Margy break down their experience of having an improv comedy workshop at the Interview Connections office.

Yann Ilunga Q & A

Yann is a successful podcast host and blog writer from the future, depending on where you call home. From his studio in Finland, he answers Jess’s and Margy’s questions about how he repurposes his content and how he determines who will be a great guest expert for his show.

Q. What are some ways podcasters and guest experts can repurpose their content?

A. Blogger, Vloggers and Podcasters often think about content at a surface level. Yann suggests approaching the topic from multiple angles.

Q. Why should a podcaster have show notes?

A. It’s a great opportunity to draw traffic to your website.

B. A listener can find all the information they need in one place.

C. Bulleted Timestamps could trigger someone’s interest.

Q. How does repurposing your podcast content expand the reach of your audience?

A. A blog post about your episode may entice your listener to dig a little deeper.

Q. How does Yann choose guests for his podcast?

A. Yann checks out their website and listens to other podcasts the guest may have been on.

B. Yann makes sure the guest is a good fit for his audience.

Improv in the Office

The team at Interview Connections recently welcomed improv comedian Melissa Bowler from the Providence Improv Guild (PIG) to their office for a comedy workshop and team building session.

The team participated in games exercises to learn lessons about:

1. Intent versus impact.

2. How to deal with unexpected change.

3. Why it’s important to listen before speaking.

4. Not to pick out other people’s failures.

5. Depending on your position in an organization, the company looks different.

Resources Mentioned:

@theyannilunga on Instagram

@MargyLilly on Instagram

Yann Ilunga

Podcast Success Academy

360 Entrepreneur Podcast

DIY Musician Blog — CD Baby

Sound Beats Blog

Melissa Bowler

Providence Improv Guild

7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey

Podcast Stats: How To Analyze, What's Normal and How to Make Them Bigger

Wed, 31 May 2017 09:00:00 -0400

This episode is all about understanding your podcast download stats. Jessica and Margy tell you how to analyze your stats, figure out what is normal and get more downloads.

Podcast Download Stats

Many podcasters don’t know which stats are relevant. This breakdown will help you better understand the data.

How to Analyze Download Stats:

1. The number of downloads you have does not equal the number of listeners you have.

2. Your monthly download number doesn’t paint a good picture of how popular your most recent episodes are.

a. The best way to analyze your stats to know how your podcast is doing right now is to look at how many downloads a single episode has after 30 days.

So, What’s Normal?

1. Podcasters don’t share their downloads, therefore no baseline can be created.

2. Listen to the official Libsyn podcast, The Feed for median stats.

3. Listen to Episode 8 of this podcast for the percentage of your subscribers who are actually listening to your podcast.

4. Have realistic expectations about how many people are interested in your niche content.

How to Get More Podcast Downloads

1. Create a better podcast.

a. Listen to Ali Brown in Ep. 9 discuss creativity.

2. Do not ask your audience to subscribe, rate and review your podcast every single, freakin’ time.

a. Edison Research data says most listeners are not subscribing. They click play on an episode they want to listen to.

3. Stop using your podcast to push your product.

a. Try entertaining or educating your listeners to gain loyalty.

Jess Found Love in a Hopeless Place

An Interview Connection’s office saga inspired today’s segment. To sum up: Interview Connections business is growing. Jess recognizes a new phone system is needed. Installation not as planned. Jess meets April. April is funny but problems persist. Jess frequently on with tech support. Jess meets Jeremy. All is right in the world.

Lessons Learned:

1. If you switch to VOIP make sure your router supports it.

2. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your own Jeremy.

Resources Mentioned:

The Podcast Producers Season 3

The Feed Podcast

The Tim Ferriss Show

S-Town Podcast

Edison Research

Nextiva

How To Get Booked with Ali Brown of Glambition Radio

Wed, 24 May 2017 09:00:00 -0400

This week, hosts Jessica and Margy welcome the amazing Ali Brown. Ali is the host of the popular professional women’s podcast Glambition Radio. She shares her strategies for weeding through pitches, handpicking guests, and what keeps her show the leader in its category. And in the new Basic Pitches for Basic B*tches segment, you’ll find out what to do (and what not to do), when you get a really bad podcast pitch.

Ali Brown

Ali Brown is the woman Business News Daily called “The Entrepreneurial Guru for Women.” She has been featured on ABC’s Secret Millionaire, and has been interviewed on many major media outlets.

What factors are in play when Ali screens possible podcast guests?

● They must be female leaders and change makers.

● They must have a decent following on social media.

● Their story has to fit her specific show.

How does Ali evaluate the podcasts she guests on?

● The host must make 7 figures.

● Or, be on the verge of breaking 7 figures.

● Their audience must be her target audience.

● She must enjoy the show topic.

● It must be an elevated conversation around great content.

Ali says she started her podcast because it was a way to get creative, and it allowed her access to the high-level women she wanted to talk to. Her advice to podcast hosts is to get clear about what you love, to speak your truth, and remember there is always more than one way to accomplish what you want.

Basic Pitches for Basic B*tches

Jessica and Margy tell you what to do (and not do), when you receive bad pitches.

When you get a bad pitch:

1. Skim through it to see if it might be a good fit.

2. Reply, even if the answer is no, and tell them why the answer is no.

3. Do not post about it on social media. You should be bringing value to your followers, not being a b*tch.

4. Send the person this link — How to Pitch a Podcaster Ep #102.

Resources Mentioned:

Rusty Chic Decor Etsy Shop

Ali Brown

Glambition Radio

Forbes Women’s Summit

Ernst & Young’s Winning Women

Bill Glazer & Dan Kennedy’s, Think to Grow Rich

Make Your Podcast Shareable featuring Perry Marshall

Wed, 17 May 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Rock the Podcast! Hosts Jessica and Margy welcome the author of the controversial book, Evolution 2.0, Perry Marshall. Perry tells us why he wrote the book, why podcasting is a great way to get exposure for your business, and the importance of adaptation.

Perry Marshall — Author

You may know Perry from his best-selling marketing guides, Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords and 80/20 Sales and Marketing. Perry says his new book, Evolution 2.0, started as a side project, and isn’t rooted in religion or biology, like many assume. It’s written from a business and technology perspective. It twists away from the normal philosophical conversation about evolution.

To spread the word about his new book, Perry enlisted Interview Connections to find him podcast hosts who didn’t mind delving into the taboo. Jessica and Margy admit it was difficult, but they stuck with it, eventually finding a niche in health-related podcasts.

Perry Says Being a Guest on Podcasts:

● Sells his books.

● Makes the most of his publicity budget.

● Introduces him to new audiences he may never have had access to before.

● Allows him a deeper connection with the audience, because he is directly in their ear.

Word of Mouth Winner

Both Margy and Jess are hooked on the S-Town Podcast. It is on the top of the iTunes charts, and has an ever-growing loyal following. Margy wasn’t going to take the time to download it, but she heard about from so many people she just had to listen.

S-Town proves that if you put in the work and make a really great podcast, it will pay off. So, check out Brian Reed’s rich stories and characters, and tell him Jess and Margy sent ya.

Resources Mentioned:

Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design

Cosmic Fingerprints

S-Town Podcast

StartUp Podcast

How To Start A Podcast Featuring Rob Greenlee of Spreaker

Wed, 10 May 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Rock the Podcast! Hosts Jessica and Margy welcome one of the founding fathers of podcasting, Rob Greenlee of Spreaker. Rob shares his masterful knowledge of:

● The value of attending live podcast events.

● Why engagement is more valuable than the size of your audience.

● Podcasting 101: The technical steps to starting a podcast.

Rob Greenlee of Spreaker

Rob says early podcasters were winging it. There were no best practices, standards or methods back in 2004. It was common place for hosts to experiment with different formats, genres and content.

Why are live events good for podcasters:

● They create a personal relationship between the listener and the host.

● They are a great place to share your podcast. (Podcasting is still a word of mouth medium.)

● Face-to-face time with your listeners can give a host insight on what content listeners want to hear.

● They bring the virtual podcast world into the real world

Podcast Statistics

For whatever reason, podcast stats continue to be a closely held secret. Spreaker makes podcast stats accessible to help podcast hosts:

● Know their audience.

● Monetize their show.

Rob says podcasting is known to be an ‘ad-free’ or an ‘ad-light’ medium. A true measure of a show’s success is how engaged listeners are, not how many advertisers a show has.

Podcasting 101 — How to Start a Podcast

Spreaker makes it really easy for anyone to start a podcast. They provide free software that works with Skype to record up to 4 people at once. The software also has auto ducking which automatically lowers intro music when the host starts speaking.

5 Easy Steps to Starting A Podcast

1. Record or live stream to create a mp3 file.

2. Find a hosting provider to distribute your mp3 to listening platforms.

3. Create album artwork, a show title and a description.

4. Submit an RSS feed.

5. Get your podcast out there!

Resources Mentioned:

Togs on Brook Consignment

@robgreenlee on Twitter

Edison Research

Rock the Podcast Ep.4 — How to Rebrand Your Podcast

What's The ROI Of Podcasting Featuring Pat Hiban

Wed, 03 May 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Rock the Podcast! Hosts Jessica and Margy welcome long time podcaster, Pat Hiban to the show. Pat is approaching the 500 mark on his Real Estate Rock Stars Radio Show. Yea, Pat! He shares the best practices he has learned from guests and his own experiences.

Guest Podcaster Pat Hiban

Pat Hiban started out as a ‘has mic, will travel,’ type of podcaster. His show has morphed from asking each guest the same questions into a deep dive of each guest’s unique abilities. He has also said goodbye to advertising. He finds focusing his podcast towards his own core business a more lucrative endeavor.

Pat understands it is not about downloads — it is about the bottom line.

Sock Opera

A fireman will put out your fire, not ignite your passion.

Resources Mentioned:

Real Estate Rock Stars Radio

Super Agents Live

Geo-Local Podcasting

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Rock the Podcast! Hosts Jessica and Margy welcome local Rhode Island business owner David Englund to the show to discuss geolocal podcasts and how a podcast can build a loyal client base for your business. And then they steal Jason Hartman away from his busy schedule to play, Swanky or Stupid.

David England on GeoLocal Podcasting

David started his business as a designer and a marketer. He moved into web design after clients requested it. He now loves working on websites, because they are a living platform. The work is never done, and if it’s done right, it is constantly moving and adapting.

David’s opinion is local business owners can benefit greatly from having a podcast. But, many shy away from it because they are unfamiliar with the media. David is familiar with the media but still hasn’t taken the leap into podcasting. Jessica helps him out with the details.

During an Interview Connections focus group, David provided feedback as a consumer of several different podcasts. He says consistency is important but it doesn’t need to be the same exact time every week.

Facebook Edition — Swanky or Stupid?

Income property investment guru Jason Hartman joins Margy and Jessica to decide which Facebook features are Swanky or Stupid. If you want to play along, click on the link. Goo.gl/forms/B16w6jy6reXDcbhr2

Resources Mentioned:

Englund Studio

Jason Hartman

Tesla Motors

How to Rebrand Your Podcast

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Rock the Podcast! Hosts Jessica and Margy welcome Corey Coates, Chief Expectations Manager at Podfly Productions, to discuss these 3 questions…

● What’s the difference between a rebrand and a tune-up?

● What does it mean to rebrand?

● How do I rebrand my podcast?

Missed Connections

This week’s missed connection is a ‘big whup’ from Corey who had never seen the moon before. Welcome to the Northeast, you wide-eyed Canadian.

What is Rebranding?

Rebranding is a complete overhaul of your podcast. The only thing you keep in place is the underlying architecture, i.e., the RSS feed, iTunes account, and your fans.

● Survey your audience and ask them what they like about your existing show.

● Consult with a professional.

● Cut out the crap.

● Do a sunset episode.

● Produce a few demo episodes before launching your new show.

What is a Tune-Up?

A tune-up generally happens at about six months in, or whenever your gut tells you your podcast is getting stale. It’s a review to figure out where some adjustments need to be made, to give your listeners the best content you can provide.

● Find someone with an objective ear who knows what they are doing.

● Pay attention to details.

● Consider if marketing is hindering your show.

● Be the best, most entertaining host you can be.

Resources Mentioned:

Audio Jungle

How Many Downloads Is Good?

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 09:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, Margy and Jessica answer common questions to dispel myths about podcast numbers, and how the team at Interview Connections chooses which podcasts they pitch their clients to. The Interview Connections team schedules 400+ interviews a month, so they are the experts!

Missed Connections

This week’s missed connection is from Margy whose ability to follow up is noteworthy.

Podcast Guest Booking FAQ’s

Jessica and Margy delve into the facts and figures behind the top questions asked by Interview Connection clients.

●What is the audience size of the show you are pitching me on?

○ It’s not about the audience size it’s about your target market.

○ Why total downloads may not be a good measuring stick.

○ How to severely limit your opportunities.

● How does the Interview Connections team choose the podcasts they pitch clients to?

○ What is the guest’s goal as it relates to their business?

○ Does the podcast have relevant content?

○ What is the production quality of the podcast?

○ How established is the podcast?

Rocking the Other Side of the Mic

How does Interview Connection help hosts find the right guests?

● Know your podcast goals.

● Finding credible guests.

● Have a ‘One Sheet’ for your podcast.

● Go offline; Don’t be afraid of the phone.

● Use a scheduling link.

Resources Mentioned:

Sephora

The Join Up Dots

Success Summit Podcast

Voxer

Feedback On Pitches and Relationships With Guests

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 09:00:00 -0400

What do podcast hosts think of your pitch to be a guest on their show?

In today’s episode, Margy and Jessica are joined by Interview Connection’s client Damion Lupo. Damion shares his essential feedback about how podcast hosts perceive the unique introduction he receives from Interview Connections bookers. And later, Adam Hommey of the Business Creators’ Radio Show gives his tips for exploiting the brilliance and passion of guests on his podcast.

Missed Connections

This week’s missed connection is more of a missed synapse! Jessica and Aaron Walker were outside just before speaking on John Lee Dumas’ panel, at this year’s Social Media Marketing World and Aaron asked Jessica “How is Interview Valet going?”

Damion Lupo Client Feedback

Damion says many hosts are impressed on how they were contacted by the Interview Connection’s team. They are engaging with the podcast hosts, and it shows they are paying attention. It’s unique, and it completely changes the dynamic. It also adds third-party validation. There is value in having someone else introduce you.

Embrace feedback even if it’s bad, because it is an opportunity to learn. — Damion Lupo

Damion also gives Jessica some advice on how to deliver her book, to make it rise above the rest.

Listen to Why Entrepreneurs are Investing in Podcast Interviews with Damion Lupo

Adam Hommey

Adam talks about relationship building, and how his intake process helps to shine a light on the guest’s brilliance and passion.

Help! How Do I Make My Podcast Guest Shine?

● Have the podcast guest supply interview questions.

● Connect with the guest on social media before the interview.

● Ask the guest for pronunciation of their name.

● Have the podcast guest fill out an intake form.

Help! I Want to Shine as a Podcast Guest

● Have your One Sheet ready, and get it to the host asap.

● Have all of your information in one place.

Resources Mentioned:

Social Media Marketing World

Headspace App

Business Creators' Radio Show

Screw the Nine to Five

Interview Valet

Damion Lupo

Before, During & After a Podcast Interview

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 09:00:00 -0400

Jessica and Margy kick off the first official episode of the Interview Connections podcast, with a new segment aptly named Missed Connections, and a recording of the live session of Jessica’s panel from the Podfest Multimedia Expo.

Missed Connections

Jessica has been pitching podcasts for over 4 years. Her company, Interview Connections, books over 400 interviews a month. She fondly remembers her favorite missed connection when a podcast host simply replied “Unsubscribe.”

Interview Connection’s Panel at Podfest 2017 — Getting Booked as a Podcast Guest

Guest experts, Marty McDonald, Dave Sanderson, and Rene Brent join Jessica on stage, to discuss the importance of a pre-call, how to get paid speaking gigs by being a podcast guest (ROI), and how they promote the show after it’s live.

The Panel

Marty McDonald — Co-Founder of Bad Rhino Inc. He shares a podcast success story in which his company gained $47K in new revenue after one podcast connection.

Rene Brent — A certified hypnotherapist in Orlando. Rene is the international best-selling author of How Big is Your But? Her goal is to speak on stage, and to accomplish this, she does four podcast interviews a month.

Dave Sanderson — Famed Miracle on the Hudson survivor. His goal is to be an amazing podcast guest which leads to paid speaking gigs.

Tips from the Panel

● Listen to the show before you are a guest.

● Become familiar with the host.

● The host is the most important audience member.

● Have the host’s name in front of you.

● Insert a podcast clip into your applications for speaking gigs.

● Show enthusiasm when promoting the podcast, by linking it on all your social media platforms, and sending it to your email list.

● Use podcasts as new content for your company’s site.

Resources Mentioned:

Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic, by Jessica Rhodes

Podfest Multimedia Expo

Bad Rhino Inc.

Rene Brent

Dave Sanderson

Why Am I Rebranding The Podcast

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Jessica takes her own advice, and closes the door on what was the Rhodes to Success Podcast. Now, if you feel like you just lost a best friend, don’t get out your black suit yet. In this case, parting is such sweet sorrow, because Jessica and team will be back next week as…. The Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic podcast!

The rebranded podcast will include:

● Amazing co-hosts!

○ Margy Feldhuhn: The Chief Connections Officer for Interview Connections who oversees client operations.

○ Amanda Doughty: A top booker at Interview Connections who has her own podcast, Great Beer Adventures.

● A new logo!

● Even more relevant content!

● The spotlight of Interview Connections clients!

Lesson of the Show: Don’t rebrand and relaunch too often.

If you know someone who wants to be interviewed on podcasts or host a podcast, share the new and improved Interview Connections podcast with them. If you enjoy this show please share it with someone who needs this content. Click the share button in your podcast app — it’s that easy.

This episode is brought to you by Interview Connections, the first, biggest, and best podcast interview booking agency and The Podcast Producers. Subscribe today.

Resources Mentioned:

Work with Interview Connections

Podcast Discoverability episode

Great Beer Adventure

Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic, by Jessica Rhodes

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os, and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How to Get Real Estate Investors with Podcast Interviews

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Successful real estate notable, Mark Walker, joins Jessica to explain his marketing strategy and describe how he turns podcast interviews into leads, and ultimately new business. Amanda Dowdy, a guest booker for Interview Connections, kicks things off by offering a free copy of Jessica’s new book, Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic. This book is a must-have for podcast hosts and guests who want to monetize their ventures.

Mark Walker Case Study

After Mark’s first podcast guest appearance, he noticed an increase in traffic to his website. This encouraged him to continue doing podcast interviews. Mark recalls how his worst interview became one of his top lead producers. The podcast didn’t have the biggest listener base but the subject matter was a perfect match for him to reach his target audience.

3 Steps to a Successful Podcast Marketing Strategy:

1. Have a free offer for the listeners.

2. Send listeners to a landing page.

3. Set up an autoresponder email sequence to nurture new leads into business.

During a guest interview, Mark sends listeners to a separate landing page on his site Luxmana. He uses website analytics to gain insights on visitors. His site is easily managed, because it is hosted at Squarespace, and his Zoho CRM software automatically sends out the free gift he promised during the podcast interview.

Podcast interviews can be list building tools!

Nurturing Leads into New Business

Mark reaches his business goals by way of podcast interviews. He has built his personal brand, driven traffic to his site, and established himself as an expert when it comes to real estate investing.

And, Jessica points out it may be time for Mark to shift his podcast strategy to meet the needs of his ever-evolving business, after he shares his biggest business challenge.

Mark’s Tip for Business Success:

● Think in terms of systems and automation while feeding your funnel.

Everyone Loves a Podcast Freebie

If you have dreams of escaping the rat race, quitting your job, and doing your own thing, you need to get a copy of Mark’s inspirational reminder 10 Things I Will Do Today to Escape the Rat Race.

Resources Mentioned:

Work with Interview Connections

Guest Blogging with Maggie Patterson

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Podcasting and blogging are great ways to get extended exposure in your target market. And while guest blogging and being a guest expert on podcasts have similarities, there are some distinct differences. Maggie Patterson joins Jessica today to discuss those differences, and shares how to make the most out of both platforms to increase your brand and business exposure.

Maggie Patterson is CMO of Scoop Industries. She is a Communications Strategist with 15+ years of experience, and co-host of the Inside Scoop podcast. She has been published in Fast Company, Virgin, and other major publications, and earned Master-Level Content Marketer status.

Guest Blogging:

Maggie says a blog has a crucial place in most businesses. There is a lot of competition within the blogging community, which makes a good guest blogging gig hard to get. To ensure your content is accepted on an established blog, it is best to plan ahead.

Guest Blogging Rules:

● Do your homework.

● Start small to build your body of work.

● Build a relationship with the blog owners.

● Learn to accept feedback from editors.

● Explain how you can serve the blog owner and their readers.

● Learn to accept feedback from editors.

Blogs that accept guest posts are particular about the content they publish, and they normally have guidelines for guest posts on their website. If there are no previous guest posts on a site they may not accept guest posts, so you will need to build a relationship with that person first.

Guest blogging spots may be hard to get!

Are Bigger Sites Better for Your Content?

Some blog writers believe guest blogging on the top media sites will increase their traffic and leads. Maggie recommends going after a source that best fits your target market, but may not be as prestigious. Your target marketing should be your focus. Guest posting is commoditized. Don’t do it for the glory.

If your request is accepted, ask the outlet for a style guide or format guidelines. Having word count, bio and link information will position you ahead of the competition.

Once you have your guest post published you should do your part to promote the post as well. Share it with your social channels.

Reusing Content

Guest bloggers can reuse the content but they should approach the subject from a different angle every time. People want original content, so be creative.

The internet has changed the standard for writing, and has relaxed grammar rules. The public digests information online differently than in a newspaper or book. Subheadings, bullets, and short paragraphs make reading easier. Bloggers should emulate blogs they enjoy reading.

Outsourcing Your Content

Maggie recommends writing your own posts, at the beginning. If you add a different point of view too early, you could damage your brand. If you are going to outsource the task of brand exposure you should be 100% confident that service provider knows what they are doing, and they do their research.

Make sure your audience knows you before adding someone else into your lineup.

Scoop Industries

Scoop Industries provides service-based businesses strategy and implementation assistance, and content and blogging strategy services for companies who want to grow more, but have done what they can on their own. It is important for new and established businesses to go to the right experts, for the right things.

Today’s sponsor is the marketing and business building Dream Business Academy Live Event, in Orlando, February 8, 9, and 10. Learn how to build a Million Dollar Marketing Platform, delegate business tasks to others, and take your business marketing seriously. The conference features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Resources Mentioned:

Scoop Industries

Scoop Industries Blog

Rhodes to Success

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os, and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Social Media Marketing for Podcasters with Marty McDonald

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Marty McDonald is a guest expert working with Interview Connections, and a master of social media marketing. Marty founded the successful Bad Rhino Inc., a full-service social media marketing agency. He has been building online marketing businesses for over 12 years. He joins Jessica today to help you harness the power of social media.

Social Media for Podcasters

A podcaster’s social media strategy should be to use as many social media platforms as their listeners are using. Tracking your downloads and points of engagement is essential. Email lists are still a tried and true way to distribute your podcast. Audiences need to be conditioned, so tell your audience what you want them to do. Send out an email to your list every day, and be consistent. Marty says it’s all about taking the time, and being consistent.

Build your podcast social media strategy with analytics!

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Podcast listeners don’t always subscribe. Your audience may go away for a while, and then binge download your shows when they come back. The key is to get inside the mind of your listener, and figure out how they consume your content.

Knowing what goal you want to achieve with your podcast, you know which metric you are trying to attain. Marty recommends starting with a baseline or control group, such as an email marketing campaign or a Facebook community, to learn and connect with your audience in a meaningful way.

Proven podcast strategies:

● Podcasts with advertisers get more downloads.

● Use Twitter to post multiple tweets every day with different hashtags.

● Search out Twitter lists with interests related to your podcast.

● Build a solid email list.

● Have a business plan and be serious about it.

● Invest in your podcast by hiring a marketing company.

Today’s sponsor is the marketing and business building Dream Business Academy Live Event in Orlando February 8, 9, and 10. Learn how to build a Million Dollar Marketing Platform, delegate business tasks to others, and take your business marketing seriously. The conference features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Resources Mentioned:

Rhodes to Success

Bad Rhino Inc.

Marty@BadRhinoInc.com

Bob Burg — The Go-Giver Melanie Benson

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Why Entrepreneurs Are Investing in Podcasts

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Interview Connections’ client case studies are the focus of today’s podcast. Damion Lupo talks about his podcast guest expert strategy, the growth of his business since he started being a guest on podcasts, and why he’s committed to this strategy. Later, Rene Brent tells how getting interviewed has sold her book all over the world, why size doesn’t matter when it comes to podcasts, and her tips for being a great podcast guest.

Damion Lupo Interview

Damion Lupo and his business partner were looking for a way to share their message with the online community. They wanted to be in listeners’ minds and ears, every day. He wanted omnipresence.

Damion told Jessica he wanted to do 50 interviews a month! She needed to scale up Interview Connections, which included dedicating a guest booker just for the Total Control Financial account.

Damion is succeeding at his hefty goal, even though for each podcast he budgets 2-3 hours per show to listen to previous episodes and to consider the audience. For him, it’s about adapting to what the host needs. He wants to get his face and voice out there. Damion believes the people we pay attention to are being vulnerable. Touching people emotionally drives buying decisions.

Damion sends the host intro material, and always asks, “How can I help you to get this message out, and how can I help you in general during the interview?”

Damien says as a guest he needs to be open to a wide range of audiences and different podcasts. It just takes one person to reach out to make it worth it. The best networking comes from 30-minute one-on-one conversations. It’s really about the relationship you make with the host.

Today’s sponsor is the marketing and business building Dream Business Academy Live Event in Orlando February 8, 9, and 10. Learn how to build a Million Dollar Marketing Platform, delegate business tasks to others and take your business marketing seriously. The conference features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Rene Brent Interview

Rene Brent is an author, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and a guest expert on podcasts, and she will be on Jessica’s panel at Podfest in Orlando, Feb 23rd-25th. When Rene was launching her How Big is Your But? book, people told her podcasts were a good idea, but she had reservations. After a friend mentioned Jessica and her team, Interview Connections ads popped up all over Rene’s screen. She decided it was a sign to move forward with her long-term strategy. Rene wanted to set herself up as an expert with a consistent message.

Tangible results Rene has experienced becoming a guest expert:

● New clients

● Increased book sales

● Connections to people who share what they learned from the podcast

Rene’s tips to be a great guest on podcasts:

● Relax and be natural

● Focus on your intentions

● Reflect your passions

Rene also says it doesn’t matter which kinds of shows she’s on or who the audience is, as she’s becoming a better guest through real one-on-one conversations. She puts the podcast on her website.

Content marketing is powerful in attracting clients and closing sales.

The Dream Business Academy Live Event Includes:

● Sessions on podcasting

● Getting booked for interviews

● Becoming a speaker

● Getting your book finished

● Working on your entrepreneurial and money mindset

● Profit seats

● Coaching and Masterminds

Speakers at the Dream Business Academy Live Event:

Michelle Prince Gary George

Resources Mentioned:

Rhodes to Success

Damion Lupo on LinkedIn

#10XThinking on Twitter

Rene Brent

Podfest

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Qualified Traffic & Leads From Podcast Interview Featuring One Click Lindsey & Adam Hommey

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Lindsey “One-Click Lindsey” Anderson and Adam Hommey join Jessica in this episode to share their proven techniques on how to get targeted visitors who opt in to your content.

Lindsey found out about Dream Business Academy when she was interviewed by Jim Palmer on his podcast, Stick Like Glue Radio.

It was powerful, and she learned so much. It changed her business. Lindsey designed, and drives traffic to, JessicaRhodes.biz and InterviewConnections.com.

Jessica, Lindsey and Adam Hommey of The Business Creators Institute will be speaking at the Dream Business Academy Live Event in Orlando February 8, 9, and 10. Learn how to build a Million Dollar Marketing Platform. The conference features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

If you are a guest on a podcast, your goal should be getting the podcast audience to your website. You want podcast content that is:

● Evergreen

● Attractive, and gives value

● Creates a path for connection

● A plan to engage listeners

Business Creators Institute Website Rules:

● Web pages should load quickly

● Web page design should be simple

● Your website should be responsive on mobile devices

● Have a strong focus on your call to action

● Your website should be hosted by a quality provider

Adam’s presentation at Dream Business Academy will be about book launches, and how to play with effective languaging and positioning on a subconscious level.

The Dream Business Academy Live Event:

● Is fast-paced

● Gets right to the point

● Includes a manual

● Is a pitch-free zone

● Includes lunch, at the Platinum level

● Includes a private dinner with Jim Palmer, at the Titanium level

Plus, Adam will be launching Jessica’s new book, Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic, on January 30th.

After a visitor opts-in to your site:

● Consistently send emails to them

● Offer them your best deal or your special secret

● Integrate a P.S. and ask them to confirm they received your email.

● Make a phone call, if they buy something.

Get experts on your team so you can focus on high-revenue activities!

Resources Mentioned:

Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic book

Journeys To Success: 21 Millennials Share Their Astounding Stories Based On The Success Principles Of Napoleon Hill (Volume 4), by Lacey Ann Moen-Rubleski and others

Business Creators' Radio Show

Business Creators' Institute

Traffic and Leads

Traffic and Leads Podcast

One Click Lindsey

Bob Burg — The Go-Giver Melanie Benson

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How to Get Speaking Gigs by Guesting on Podcast

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode, Dave Sanderson shares how being a guest on podcasts has gotten him paid speaking gigs. He describes how leveraging podcast interviews earned him 5-figure honorariums in just 9 months.

This is Dave’s second appearance on the Rhodes to Success podcast. Listen to Dave’s first interview with Jessica, when he shared the inspirational story of “The Miracle on the Hudson.” At the time, he had just launched his marketing strategy, with Interview Connections as it’s backbone, even though he was skeptical about committing to podcasting as an investment.

How Dave Sanderson Leveraged Podcasts to Get Paid Speaking Gigs

● He signed up with Interview Connections.

● He blogged about the podcasts he was a guest on.

● He multipurposes his content.

● He shared his podcast experiences on LinkedIn.

● He sent snippets of podcasts when he applied for speaking engagements.

● He consistently engaged with people who listen to podcasts, including “C-level” executives.

● He put his time in, and stuck with it.

● He occasionally speaks for free, to hone his craft, and to gain exposure.

● He became an author, and contributed his writing to others.

● He coaches people who want to become speakers.

● He sets personal performance goals designed to expand his mind.

● He speaks at conferences like Podfest Multimedia Expo.

Tweet: Podcasting gave me validation and credibility. It made me unique. @davesanderson #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

You can meet Dave Sanderson when he attends the Dream Business Academy Live Event in Orlando February 8, 9, and 10. He will be learning how to build a Million Dollar Marketing Platform, and so can you. The conference features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. Day 3 offers a live Mastermind, designed to help you with your biggest business challenge. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Share this Tweet: The Dream Business Academy Live Event is where like-minded entrepreneurs go to expand their minds. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Dave Answers Listener Questions

How do you position yourself for speaking gigs you want? - Dave’s strategy is to work many different angles. Podcasting, blogging, social media, and conferences, are a few.

How are you a great guest for specific podcast audiences? Dave has a pre-call with his clients to understand who the audience is, and in doing so, he finds out how he can add value to them and the host. Example questions are “What is most important for you, and what has to happen for us to achieve that?”

Share this Tweet: The best question you can ask a podcast host is how to be the best guest possible for their audience. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Do you write out questions for the host to ask you in advance? When Dave first started podcasting he was more spontaneous in his interviews; now he has a custom designed “One Sheet.”

*Get your customized “One Sheet” from Interview Connections.

How can you leverage being an alumnus, into being invited to speak at a University? Dave contacted the head of the alumni association and the head of the college magazine. To give back to your alma mater, offer your time to speak for free.

How effective is getting a speaking agent? Dave says, through his speaking agent he can be more selective, and get a higher price point.

Does Dave offer free coaching on his successful strategies? Yes. Contact him through his website, Dave Sanderson Speaks.

Share this Tweet: If you want paid speaking gigs, become an author. It gives you credibility. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Speakers at the Dream Business Academy Live Event:

Michelle Prince Gary George

Resources Mentioned:

Dave Sanderson Speaks

Social Media Examiner

Entrepreneur on Fire

Bob Burg - The Go-Giver Melanie Benson

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Facebook Marketing for Podcasters with Ben DeCastro

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 10:00:00 -0400

Guest expert Ben DeCastro is a Rhode Island native who dropped out of high school to play bass for Ringling Bros. Circus. When the bright lights of the big top dimmed, he became the Media Relations Specialist and Media Buyer for Cardi’s, a local furniture store. After years of perfecting his craft in social media, he ventured out on his own to create Big Ben Marketing & Consulting. Through this initiative, Ben helps businesses and media personalities take their social media game to the next level.

Big Ben’s Facebook Marketing Rules:

● Carve out 2 hours every week to focus on FB marketing.

● Make sure your posts have correct & up-to-date information.

● Do not boost posts without setting target parameters.

● “Like” posts as your professional page.

● Keep it positive, to build credibility organically.

Tweet: Social Media IS the way to get quality leads for your business. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Facebook knows who their ideal clients are, be like Facebook. Find out who your ideal client is, how to market to them and how to attract them at Dream Business Academy Live in Orlando February 8, 9, and 10. The event features speakers who excel in marketing, videos, and podcasts. There are a lot of sessions and tactical how-to’s, that inspire you to think like an entrepreneur. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Tweet: You can target your Facebook post towards your guest’s fan base. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Ben builds his fan base for his video series Carpooling with Ben with a small marketing budget and strategically targeted ads.

Make the Most Out of Your Interviews

As a host, you will be investing time and money to get your guest ‘s interview out to the world, so you need to know who their target audience is. If you don’t know who their target audience is, just ask them. Before sending a post, make a draft and forward it to the guest. Tell them you are looking forward to their feedback and if they think your post will get the best possible reaction.

Tweet: Your podcast doesn’t have to follow a certain format. If you switch it up don’t announce it just do it. #RockthePodcast @JessRhodesBiz

Create content specifically for the social media platform you are using be it Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, etc.

Be *Shure* to subscribe to The Podcast Producers. S3 starts June 1st!

A special thank you to the sponsor of this show Dream Business Academy. *Remember to get $100 off your ticket to the Orlando Live Event use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Speakers at the Dream Business Academy Live Event:

Michelle Prince Gary George

Dream Business Academy Interview Connections

Resources Mentioned:

Ben DeCastro on Facebook Benjamin DeCastro

Wicked Rhody Cardi’s Furniture

Carpooling with Ben School of Podcasting

Beatitudes of Church Social Media Glenn the Geek

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

My 2017 Travel Schedule

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 10:00:00 -0400

Going to, and sponsoring, live events has been a successful lead generator and client acquisition tool for years, for Jessica and Interview Connections. She saw so much value in attending and meeting her clients face-to-face, she now speaks and exhibits at live events. Plus, she’s an extrovert, so she finds the experience dizzyingly delicious.

Jess’s Must Attend Conferences and Events in 2017

1. Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me — Chase Auditorium in Chicago, IL

a. Along with Corey Coates, her co-host of the successful The Podcast Producers, she will be going where people who listen to podcasts will be gathering. Armed with a new sponsor, Shure mobile microphones, they plan to interview people attending the event.

Be *Shure* to subscribe to The Podcast Producers. S3 starts June 1st!

2. Dream Business Academy — Orlando, FL February 8, 9 & 10

a. Learn to be successful with the Million Dollar Platform.

b. The event features speakers who can help you become a good speaker, or help you start writing your book.

c. There will be a live Mastermind on Day 3.

d. Jessica takes the stage to educate podcasters and guests!

e. Get $100 off your ticket by using the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

3. Podfest US — Orlando, FL February 23, 24 &25

a. For podcasters who have a message, and are passionate about podcasting.

b. Interview Connections has sponsored all three previous Podfest events.

c. Jessica will be speaking and running a panel.

d. PodFusion from Elsie and Jessica of She Podcasts.

Big Investments Bring Big Returns.

4. Social Media Marketing World — San Diego, CA March 22, 23 & 24

a. Jessica will be speaking at this huge conference.

5. Guys We F@#ked: The Experience — Boston, MA April 13

a. Look for a Podcast Producer Meet-Up.

6. Podcast Movement — Anaheim, CA August 23, 24 &25

a. For podcasters, by podcasters.

b. Sponsoring this conference has tripled Jessica’s investment.

7. Fincon Expo — Dallas, TX October 25, 26, 27 & 28

a. Jessica got ROI from her sponsorship investment.

b. The conference is marketing for the Financial Industry.

Jessica’s Successful Sponsoring Strategy

Your first exhibit can be daunting. Sponsorships can be $500–$2000, so you need to be sure your investment pays off in clients, through retention or acquisition.

Tips for a Successful Live Event

● Show up early in the morning to prepare.

● Dress for success.

● Don’t do it alone.

● Never sit behind your table.

● Ask people what they do first.

● Have mints.

● Offer value-adds if clients sign up during the event.

● Close sales!

You can’t replace a face-to-face connection.

Thank you to the sponsor of this show Dream Business Academy. *Remember to get $100 off your ticket to the Orlando Live Event use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout.

Speakers at the Dream Business Academy Live Event:

Bob Burg - The Go-Giver

Resources Mentioned:

Social Media Marketing World

Social Media Examiner

Guys We F@#ked

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

For Moms...How to Stay On Schedule, No Matter What!

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 10:00:00 -0400

The Rhodes to Success podcast is for entrepreneurs, podcasters, and people who leverage the power of content marketing, or use podcast interviews to grow their business. This weekly podcast is an important tool of many listeners who use the content, tips, and real life experiences to add value to their business, and their client’s businesses.

That is why today’s podcast includes a special guest appearance from Nathan, a robot-loving, food-gnawing three-year-old with pink eye.

Jessica Rhodes Shares Her Content Schedule:

Jessica is more than a mom, a podcast host and an author. She is a content creator who strategically delegates and outsources many functions of her business so she can consistently provide content for:

● The Rhodes to Success Weekly Podcast

○ Content must be provided one week in advance of publishing so audio editing and show notes can be completed by Podfly Productions.

● Interview Connections TV, Weekly Videos

○ Jessica saved three hours a month outsourcing the video editing to Traffic and Leads.

● Blog, Ezine and Print Newsletter

○ Fresh, written content is important because Google doesn’t listen to podcasts.

○ Writing a good blog post takes time.

○ Jessica outsources this task to her VA/Ghost Writer Angela.

○ Important information is shared through the walkie-talkie app, Voxer.

● Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic Book

○ Re-purposing the book’s contents is another task which can be outsourced.

So, when life gets in the way of an important podcast interview but you still want to maintain your content schedule, don’t complain about how hard life is, adopt a problem-solving mindset and consider the pain points of your clients; then help them solve their problems with your content.

Get clear on who your listeners are, and then create episodes that address their pain points.

One of the great things about the Dream Business Academy Live event is learning about problem-solving through marketing, videos, and podcast episodes. The event also features speakers who can help you become a good speaker, or write a book. There are a lot of sessions and tactical how-to’s, that inspire you to think like an entrepreneur. *To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code ‘Podcast’ at checkout. You will learn how to be identified as an expert and to create a celebrity persona, and build a million dollar platform.

Throw in the towel or get creative?

Everyone has challenges. It’s how you deal with the challenges, that makes you the best entrepreneur you can be.

If, like Jessica, you have to cancel a podcast interview or deal with any of life’s other curveballs:

● Be open and authentic about what is going on.

● Be honest about why you canceled.

● Ask for help.

● Know that people will understand.

● People get to know you on a deeper, more personal level.

Think about how you can make the experience valuable for yourself and those around you.

This is what it is like to create a ton of content, this is how it gets done, and much like Nathan munching into the microphone, it doesn’t always sound pretty.

Speakers at the Dream Business Academy Live Event:

Bob Burg - The Go-Giver

Resources Mentioned:

Interview Connections: How to Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How to Get On the Biggest Podcasts

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 10:00:00 -0400

Do you dream of being on the really big podcasts, to boost your credibility and increase your publicity?

Josh Elledge, Founder of Savings Angel, joins Jessica to reveal how you can become a guest on the top 2% of shows in the field of podcasting.

If a podcast has more than 28K downloads per episodes per month you are in the top 2% on iTunes. ― The Feed

Are You Ready to Perform at That Level?

Everybody knows exposure is everything. But, 99.9% of want-to-be-guests haven’t acquired enough authority to be on the the show they desire to be on. The bigger the podcast, the more protective the producer or host is with their show. They like to work with higher authority guests. It’s what keeps their podcasts at the top.

Josh’s clear step-by-step process to build authority:

Have personal stories ready to share.
Build your authority online, especially through Twitter and LinkedIn.
Become a guest on other podcasts (and do it a lot).
Be authentic.
Provide value to the show and host.

Top podcasters take their interviews and guest seriously. It’s how they stay on top.

Jessica finds these tips help secure your spot:

Build personal relationships, or get a warm introduction.
Be able to pass the due diligence and vetting screens.
Sometimes you have to pay to play.
Consider yourself a peer, if you are not there yet, get there.

Today's episode is brought to you by Dream Business Academy. To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code Podcast at checkout. You will learn how to be identified as an expert and to create a celebrity persona, and build a million dollar platform.

Never underestimate the value of being on niche podcasts. Who is your target avatar?

Josh Elledge Related Goodies:

Jessica Rhodes interviews Josh Elledge on How to Get Traditional Media Exposure Podcast

Savings Angel

His Free Twitter Publicity Mastery Course

Other Resources Mentioned:

FinCon

Social Media Examiner Blog/Social Media Marketing Podcast

Entrepreneur on Fire

Mixergy

Learning with Leslie

The Feed

The Congressional Dish

*The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

So, You Want To Start A Podcast?

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 10:00:00 -0400

Thank you to today’s sponsor, Dream Business Academy! Dream Business Academy is a 3 day marketing and business building live event where you will learn how to build a million dollar platform for your dream business. The event takes place in Orlando, FL February 8, 9th and 10th. To get $100 off your ticket, use the coupon code PODCAST at checkout.

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I answer the question I often get from my clients who are guests on other shows: “Ok, Jessica, I really like being a guest on podcasts and I want to start a podcast! How do I do it?”

This episode is not about how to edit a podcast or use a mixer. This episode is for the entrepreneur or business owner who wants to add podcasting to their marketing platform, and doesn’t want their podcast to take up all their time.

Why being a guest is easier:

1. The startup costs for a guest expert are very minimal compared to hosting your own show.

2. You can learn what it’s like to speak behind a mic and get ideas for your future podcast.

3. You have the opportunity to build an audience before you start your own podcast.

4. You can perfect your content as a guest expert, so know what you want to focus on with your own podcast.

Part 1: The stuff you do once, before you launch

Come up with a name for your podcast
Write the show description and get clear on your target listener
Get podcast artwork designed
Come up with a list of roughly 10 topics that you will address in your show, that way you don’t get stuck on what to talk about or who to interview. Instead of coming up with a list of people you want to interview, come up with topics and find people who can help teach those topics.
Audio branding and/or a voice over for the intro and outro. This is not necessary but a lot of podcasters do want this for their podcast.
Submit your show to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and iHeart radio.
Get an account with a media host like Libsyn.com
Hire an editor, like Podfly.net.

Part 2: The stuff you do every week.

1. Book guests

If you want to have a successful, well-respected and highly recommended podcast, then you need to make it super easy for your guests to get booked and scheduled! After all, if your guests enjoy their experience not only during the interview but before and after the recording, they’ll become a raving fan and brand ambassador for your podcast.

First, make sure your ask is clear and specific and they have an understanding of what you want to talk to them about during the interview. A confused guest is a frustrated guest!

Next, make the scheduling process super easy. I recommend using a scheduler like Schedule Once. However, sometimes guests will not want to use a software and prefer a more personal touch. Never hesitate to call them and schedule a time manually.

Ask your guest for only what you need, not everything you want. Request the contact info you will need the day of the interview (skype name and back up phone number), a brief bio or preferred intro, headshot, and any preferred suggestions or talking points. Communicate the fact that you ask for talking points so that you can steer to conversation to focus on the topic that will best spotlight them!

If the guest doesn’t schedule within 2 business days, or they don’t send you their info, send a friendly reminder and follow up. Chances are they forgot!

Send a confirmation email before the recording with whatever info they need to be prepared for the interview (your questions, your skype name), and most importantly, connect on social media and start building a relationship.

2. Prepare for your interviews

There are two schools of thought with interview prep:

Going in with no prep and having a completely organic convo
Or doing a ton of research on the guest so your questions are super unique and tailored

Either way is fine; just avoid having a scripted show flow that doesn’t change from guest to guest

Save to Dropbox

Your editor and edit and publish it
Your assistant can write show notes
Your assistant can create a show graphic and promote it on social for you.

3. The last thing you must do is commit and be open to change. Your artwork may change, your audio branding may change, the format may change. That is all okay. Just don’t give up!

The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

The Top 10 Tools I Use to Run Interview Connections

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:00:00 -0400

This episode of Rhodes to Success I reveal the top ten tools I use to run my online business, stay connected with my team, and work efficiently. I also cover how to use these tools to implement the blueprint for podcast interview success.

Key Points:

1. Google For Work

E-Mail

This is the business account for Google.
It’s easy to set up email addresses.
You use Gmail as your email but there’s no lag time.

Google Drive

This is an easy an inexpensive way to arrange client files.

2. Highrise

This is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management software)
This is under the Basecamp umbrella.
Each client has a profile.
Within a profile you can add tags e.g prospect.
This can be linked to a Google Drive folder.
There isn’t as much storage for MP3 or PDFs.
The user interface is solid.
$20 month.

3. BaseCamp

Project management software.
This is used for each client’s podcast.
The client can have access to their Basecamp project.

4. Slack

Instant messaging for the team.
Separate and group channels.
Has phone tool.

5. Voxer

Great for verbal communication.
Walkie talkie app.
Sends voice messaging.
Good for quick notes.
There is free version and the paid version has broadcast chat.

6. Meet Edgar

Self-filing social scheduler.
This provides constant steams of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Excellent for evergreen content.

7. DropBox

Cloud-based storage.
Means you don’t have to save anything on your computer hard drive.
Folders are sharable to enable others to have access.
Accessible anywhere online.

8. Zoom

Video conferencing.
Has webinar feature.
Can record calls.
Multiple people on call via video.
People can call in and just be on audio not video.

9. Ring Central

Can set up extensions for team member.
App allows you to call from it.
Can record calls.
Allows for text messages.
Phone messages are sent through via email on MP3.

10. Skype

Must have for online business and podcast interviews.
Only the highly trained ear will hear the difference between a double-ender call versus a call recorded on Skype.

How to use these tools to implement your blueprint for podcast interview success.

Google Spreadsheets

This is a great way to track interviews.
Put in the host name, email, mailing address, when the interview is recorded.
Can be updated in real time.
More than one person can access the sheet at the same time.

Resources Mentioned:

HiRise

Basecamp

Slack

Slack Video (Interview Connections TV)

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Podcasting Goals

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 10:00:00 -0400

In order to see results from your podcast, you need to have a clear goal and a reason that you are podcasting. If you don’t, you won’t know how to track and measure your results. On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I talk with real-life podcasters about their podcast goals as hosts and featured guests.

Key Points:

Goals

There is a difference between having a ‘goal’ for your podcast and having a ‘reason’ you are podcasting.
If you don’t have a clear goal, you can feel directionless.
When you are podcasting for your business, it is important to have specific goals around getting your listeners, as well as the person you are interviewing.

S.M.A.R.T Goals

S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Achievable
R: Realistic
T: Time-bound

Example Goals

Podcast Hosts

Grow the audience.
Make money doing what you love.
Relationship building.
Make a deep connection to help someone and offer value.
Earn a listener’s trust.
Learn from interviewees.
Promote your own business.
Grow your business and establish yourself as an expert. This is focusing on your exposure and level of authority.
Market research through interviews, stories, anecdotal evidence.
SEO.
Empower others through vulnerability.
Inspire, encourage, and motivate the audience.
Make resources available.
Longevity; podcasts exist indefinitely.
Conversion tool.

Featured Guest

Provide value.
Give back and serve in advance.
Fast track network building activity.
Exposure for your book or business.
Expand influence and audience reach.
Build site authority by getting link-backs.
Permanent content marketing asset that builds relationship through intimacy of being in people’s ears.

Goals for Podcast Interviews for A Business Owner

When you podcast for your business, it is important to have specific goals around getting new listeners, people on your list, and the relationship with the person you are interviewing.
Contact host for a free session.
Be informative, put the interviewee at ease, and ask questions.
Bring value to the listener and enlighten them in some way.
Promote the business and profession.

My Goals

I don’t have S.M.A.R.T. goals as mine aren’t time-bound.

Having a Podcast

The reason is to provide answers to frequently asked questions from my clients.
My target market is my clients, so I send specific episodes to individual clients when I think it will be of value to them.
When clients see success with podcast interviews as a host or a guest, they stay as a client longer.

Doing Interviews

I interview my clients instead of guests on the show.
The stronger a relationship I have with my clients, the longer they will stay with the business.

Going on Shows as a Guest

I go on other podcasts to build my network and have a low standard of entry.

Resources Mentioned:

BoomerIncomeIdeas.com

Betsypake.com

http://magicandsteele.com/

http://steeleempire.com/

http://greatbeeradventure.com/

http://podcastfiend.com/

http://jenteague.com/

http://innovationecosystem.com/

http://www.yourwaytova.com/

http://www.mattcundill.com/podcast

www.AuthoritySellingBook.com

www.MarketingHuddle.com

http://www.emiliocorsetti.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/butterflies-of-wisdom/id1060801905?mt=2

http://www.allaboutbreastfeeding.biz/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/life-gentleman-fashion-lifestyle/id1116526004?mt=2

http://rockyourretirement.com/

http://www.taramagalski.com/

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Podcasting Best Practices & The Podcast Producers Season 3 Plans

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 10:00:00 -0400

How do you make your podcast ‘look’ good? This episode of Rhodes to Success I’m joined by my Podcast Producers co-host Corey Coates. We discuss how to make your podcast look good through audio and show notes.

Main Questions Asked

What makes a good show notes page and why should podcasters do show notes?
What should be around the player and where should it be on the website?
What are podcasters doing that make people not want to listen to them?

Key Points:

What Makes Your Podcast ‘Look’ Good

Sound.
Website.
Show notes.

Audio

The interview format is still the most popular in podcasting but has the worst sounding audio.
How can one have he ease of recording a Skype call but have a higher quality sound output?

Show Notes

Show notes provide a higher value to the podcast listener.
For a lot of podcasters it feels like an extra expense and they don’t know why they spend money on it.
You need to tell a listener what they are getting themselves into, should they decide to listen to a show.
Outbound links makes it easier for listeners to go back and find what has been referenced on the show.
Some podcast players have time stamped key takeaways so listeners can advance to specific sections of the show.
Show notes should be complimentary to the brand, the voicing, and serve the listener.
Not everyone wants to listen to a podcast but they still want the content that is taught.
Show notes shouldn’t just be a teaser, they should relay the content.
If you change your attitude to show notes you can make them part of your content marketing strategy.

Ask the Listener

Podcasting is an insular industry.
Podcasters talk to each other frequently but often leaves the listener out of the conversation.
Ask the listener what they want. Not each other.
The industry is moving toward putting together surveys and focus groups to ask the listeners what they think and want.
Podcasters are starting to survey those who don’t listen to podcasts in order to understand how the show notes can better serve them. .

Podcast Player

Never be ‘below the fold’.
Your player should be on the front page at the top.
Have a descriptive paragraph and embed the player followed by key takeaways.
This needs to be highly visible for anyone who listens to podcasts.
On your webpage add links to all the platforms for people to download and subscribe eg GooglePlay, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and iTunes.

Why People Aren’t Listening to You

In general podcasters think that people are interested in every little aspect of their lives. We aren’t.
Shows are successful because the host is entertaining and talented.

Resources Mentioned:

School of Podcasting Interview

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Call to action!

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 19:04:03 -0400

I am going to be recording an episode soon about what your podcast goals are. Please email me an audio recording sharing with me what your goal is for doing interviews! Just email me your audio clip to jessica@interviewconnections.com!

Should Interview Connections Advertise On Podcasts?

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Should you advertise on podcasts? On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I chat with Jessica Kupferman, owner of the JKM Agency. We talk about what podcasting agents do, the costs of advertising, live reads, what stats to ask for, call to action, exclusivity, and when to expect results.

Main Questions Asked:

How do you make sure the podcaster doing the live read is doing your business justice?
Is it appropriate to ask people for their download numbers when considering advertising on a show?
How do you ensure the podcaster is doing everything they promised?
What does an agent do?
What kind of call to action should the ad read have?
How long do I have to wait until I see results of advertising on podcasts?
Should I want to be the only sponsor on a podcast with exclusivity in mind?
What success stories have you heard?

Key Points:

Content Marketing

Getting interviewed on podcasts is a great way to grow your business.
Content marketing strategy is where you put out free and actionable content people can use and implement in their business.
This attracts people, as they want to ‘hang’ with you and can become clients.
This can include blogging, videos, podcasts, emails, and newsletters.

Direct Advertising

This is advertising your services and products with the goal of getting people to buy.
As a business owner, start thinking about advertising on podcasts.

Advertising on Podcasts

Who is your audience, and where do they hang out?
How much can you afford?
A $500 per month show has 7-10K downloads per month.
If you don't want to babysit your ad campaign, you need an ad agency.

Live Read Podcast Advertising

The fear is putting your business message in someone else’s hands.
Provide the host with live read copy points.
It’s okay to ask someone their download numbers if you are considering advertising on their show.

What Stats to Ask For

Audience.
Downloads per month.
Downloads per episode.
Social media community reach (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Email).

Call to Action

If the purpose is to get more sales, you need to mention the product, price, and coupon code.
If it is brand awareness, a text call to action is effective.

How Long Until I See Results

70% of people are not in front of their computer when they are listening to a podcast.
The key to results is repetition.
The advert needs to be played 3-5 in a row. 12 is a good campaign.

Exclusivity

It’s okay to be one of a few, unless what you are offering is the same as the other advertisers on the show.
At the most, podcasters aim for 4 adverts per show.

Resources Mentioned:

JKM Agency

Mobit

Midroll

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Where to Find Podcast Guests

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Where is the best place to source guests for podcast interviews? During this episode of Rhodes to Success, we discuss why you want to have guests on your show and the value that guests bring to your podcast.

Key Points:

Dangerous Mindset

A dangerous mindset is thinking that guests are a route to getting more downloads.
If you start looking at guests as tools for higher downloads, you will get agitated if they don’t share the show.

Guests Bring Value

Understand the purpose of why you bring guests on your podcast.
Guests can bring value to your show by helping listeners be more engaged with you and the podcast.
Guests bring information you can’t provide, or discussion that supports your topic.

Where to Find Guests

Your Community

Who is in your circle of trust?
If you are just starting out, interviewing people within your circle is an easy way to get practice.

Current Clients

When you interview clients, you build your relationship with them and increase retention.
This gives you an opportunity to talk to your clients in a space that is not what they are paying you to do.

Ideal Clients

A lot of people want to be speakers at conferences, so a useful strategy is to have a podcast and interview people who run conferences.
Serve first by interviewing ideal clients. This is a great way to start a relationship.

No-Names

There is huge value in interviewing people regardless of how well-known they are.
The content is what makes a good podcast, not necessarily a big guest.
Have guests on your show that listeners can relate to.

Recommendations from Guests

Ask your guests if they have someone they think you should interview.
Ensure you do your due diligence before asking for an introduction.

Ask Your Listeners

The audience will tell you who they want to hear.

Look at Other Podcasts in Your Niche

People who are interviewed on other shows are more likely to say yes to be interviewed on your show.

Amazon

There are lots of subject matter experts on Amazon.
Search for authors.
Use the keyword search, and sort by publish date.

Twitter

Click ‘follow’ on the person you want to approach, and Twitter will show you three other similar people.
Put a tweet out for people you are looking for.

Radio Guest List

Subscribe to the emails.
You can also pay $5 per month to be a member.
This provides shows that need guests.
You can also pitch yourself as someone who wants to be interviewed.

Know Your Why?

Why are you podcasting?
Know your goal before you know what guests you want.

Take A Step Back

Think about how to incorporate guests on your show.
You don’t have to choose a solo show or a guest-based show. It’s not either-or.
It is okay to change the format of your show.

Resources Mentioned:

Together Podcast

School of Podcasting

Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Your Roadmap To Podcast Interview Success

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 09:00:00 -0400

How can you evaluate what podcasts are doing for you as a podcast guest? After listening to this episode of Rhodes to Success, you will walk away with a clear blueprint on what you should be doing in order to get value and measurable activity and results as a podcast guest.

I’m not sure if and when these podcasts are being released.

Stay in the loop when interviews are being scheduled.
Create an internal spreadsheet to track the hosts, recording date, website, mailing address.
Most hosts should email the guests when the podcast is live.
If 6-8 weeks have passed and you haven’t heard if an interview has gone live, reach out to the host and ask.
As soon as the interview ends, ask when the episode is scheduled to be released.

I’m not sure if anything of value, measurable activity, is coming out of them [podcasts] for my sales funnel.

In order to get measurable activity from podcast interviews, you have to give a clear call to action that can result in measurable activity.
Give one clear and specific call to action.
Be clear on who should be taking the action. E.g. “If you are…, I invite you to set up a free 15-minute call with me.”

John Pollock’s Advice

Rather than give out the corporate site, give out a funnel, such as LeadPages, and test them.
If the people from the podcast go into a funnel and it doesn’t work, then you need to change the page.
Podcasting is marketing. Think of every podcast as a different audience, and you need to share that you are on a podcast.
Podcasting is a symbiotic relationship. Guests need to promote the podcast too.

What makes a landing page convert?

Be really specific with the headline.
Headlines are the number one thing you can change out to increase conversions.
Make sure your images speak to what is going on with your landing page.
Ensure the form has a huge call to action button.
The call to action button should not simply be ‘submit.’
Landing pages shouldn’t have menu items. There should be one specific goal.
Spend time on copywriting. This will convince someone to take action on your page.

Promoting Your Episode

Doing the interview is only one part; there is a lot more you have to do in order to leverage the interviews.
To get results from podcast listeners, you can’t just rely on the host to do all the marketing to your audience.
The strategy is to use a multimedia approach using images, videos, and podcasts.
Use Meet Edgar to republish old content and cycle in new images.
Add your podcast interviews on a media page so they are in one place.
Always tag the host when you post on platforms.

Resources:

John Pollock

One-Click Lindsey

Angelagreaser@gmail.com

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How To Be A Great Guest Expert on Podcasts

Wed, 12 Oct 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Everyone wants to be a guest but how can you be a great guest? This episode on Rhodes to Success I share my top tips for being an in demand guest and make the experience the best for both you and the host.

Key Lessons Learned:

1. Be easy to work with and help the host prepare.

Make the host’s job as easy as possible.
When the host feels you are being helpful they will be more excited to interview you.
Be easy to schedule.
Have your SkypeID, headshot, bio and potential interview questions ready.

2. Confirm the date/time with the host, show up on time and don’t reschedule.

Respect the hosts time.

3. Use a good microphone and headphones and record in a quiet space.

ATR2100: Audio Technica 2100 is a good microphone.
Always wear headphones so the hosts voice doesn’t come out of the speakers and go back into the recording.

4. Send the host a copy of your book ahead of time.

This is sending a gift as well as information to help them prepare for the interview.
Offer to send a hard copy rather than an e-book.

5. Listen to the show before your interview so you know what the host’s style is and read the host’s bio so you can connect with them better

Listen to at least one episode or part of a few episodes.
Get to know the hosts show flow.
If you listen to the show it gives you an opportunity to give them a review on iTunes.

6. Thank you!! You can’t say it enough.

7. Ask the host who their target audience and ask how you can make the interview a home run.

Most hosts will be surprised by this approach.
This demonstrates to the host you care about their show and not just promoting your own agenda.
Tailor your interview to the audience based on the host’s answer.

8. Use the host’s name throughout conversation

Using the hosts name wraps them into the interview and spotlights them to their audience.
If you spotlight the host, you will be spotlighted in return. This is the power of reciprocity.

9. Tailor your answers to them and their audience. Help make them look good. Compliment them

Make the host look good.

10. Give a ton of value. This is not an advertisement for your business.

Podcasts aren’t about talking about your services but rather about providing value to the audience.

11. Give a clear call to action for what you want listeners to do and it’s all about how you position your free gift. Make it special and make it valuable.

Only give one call to action.
Position your offer so the listener feels that only they are receiving it.
More than 50% of podcast listeners hear podcasts via the phone. So a text based call to action is a solid approach.

12. Follow up with the host and thank them again.

Find a way to help the host reach their goals.

13. Share the show and help their audience grow.

14. 20% of the work is the interview, 80% of the work is you promoting and marketing it.

Don’t just share the show once when it goes live. Put it in your social media rotation.

15. Decide to commit.

This strategy does not always produce immediate results.
Sometimes the kind of show you think you want to be on is not putting you in front of the people who most resonate with your message.
Be prepared to tweak the content.
Know you might not see a return on investment immediately.

Resources:

Mobit

Traffic and Leads

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

My Favorite Podcasts & What We Can Learn From Them

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode I’m sharing with you a list of my favorite podcasts that I subscribe to and listen to every week. In episode 103, I talked about discovering new podcasts and focused on how to discover new podcasts in iTunes but most people listen to new podcasts because their friends recommended it to them.

I want to share with you all the podcasts I listen to so you can get to know me better and so I can share the big lessons learned from these shows. All of the podcasts are linked to their iTunes page so click through, listen and let me know which of these podcasts you start listening to!

1. RED - The Marketing Podcast for influencers

The number one lesson I get from this podcast is consistency.
David Hooper is the host and when the podcast started (he’s over 200 episodes in now) he had a co-host, Laurel Staples, his now wife.
She started focuses more on other business ventures but that wasn’t the end of the show. David kind of refocused the show and kept it going mostly as a solo show with some interviews.
This podcast teaches me a couple lessons:
- Number 1- David grabs your attention with the topic of the episode before the intro song starts
- Number 2- He KNOWS his target audience and he tells you who the podcast is for every single episode.
- Number 3- His is BIG on actionable content and big lessons but I believe places entertainment value over that. In one series he talked all about the IRS phone scam and even though he didn’t see a clear business lesson come out of the first episode in that series, he continued. I subscribed because I was so entertained.

2. LadyGang

This is a guilty pleasure show for me. It’s hosted by 3 women in Hollywood: Becca Tobin, actress most known for her role on Glee, Jac Vanak, CEO of clothing line Jac Vanak and Keltie Knight, an entertainment news reporter
Each week they interview a female celebrity in Hollywood about what it’s really like to be in ‘the business’
They have total girl talk on air and are NOT lady like at all; they are snacking while they’re recording and they share super embarrassing moments like having an itchy butt after a wax or pooping your pants (I think those were both from actress, Becca Tobin).
I am in their private facebook group for fans of the show and the biggest thing I learn fro this podcast is how they also know exactly who their listeners are and their listeners are HUGE FANS. Their listeners can’t WAIT for Tuesday; they end each episode with “See you next Tuesday”.
Most importantly, they have fun recording. You can tell the three co-hosts look forward to their time together each week and listeners do too.

3. Congressional Dish

In my last episode of Rhodes to Success, I interviewed the host of Congressional Dish, Jennifer Briney so you’ll hear in that episode exactly why I like this show so much!
The biggest lesson you can take away from this podcast and from Jennifer is: She did almost no marketing for several years and has over 10,000 listeners an episode.
How much time do you spend promoting and marketing your show vs. creating a quality episode?
As a guest, I agree with Jason Swenk, who I interviewed for a client feature video. Jason said 80% of the work is promotion, 20% is the interview. If you are the HOST, I believe 80% of the work is creating a high quality show, 20% is the interview.
The more time you spend on creating a high quality show, THE MOST people will share it organically! And that is what happened with Jen. Listen and learn!

4. Sounds of the Trail

A podcast about the ups, downs and switchbacks of trail life. This podcast is an audio journal of lots of people who hike trails for long periods of time. Host, Gizmo (that’s her trail name) runs the podcast, but she has correspondents, listeners of the show who now take part by recording their story while they are hiking and send it to Gizmo to use in the podcast.
Have you ever considered having correspondents on your podcast? What a creative way to include your listeners and create more content.

5. Respectful Parenting

Oh what would I do without my virtual parenting coach, Janet Lansbury!
Each week Janet answers a listener question about a parenting struggle for those with babies, toddlers and 3-4 year olds.
The episodes are short and to the point but because they’re actual questions from real parents, you can relate to them.
The marketing lesson: without fail, at the beginning and end of every show, Janet reminds you that both her books are available on audible.com, apple.com and Amazon. It’s smart that she’s only telling you about the audio books because as podcast listeners we are MOST likely to want an audio book; we are auditory learners!

6. The Biz Chix podcast

Natalie has allowed her podcast to change and evolve over the years as her business has grown and evolved.
She didn’t get locked into a format or consistency that didn’t work for her and because of her focus on her target audience her downloads have grown dramatically.

Below are the podcasts I recommend you check out, but not podcasts that I talked about in detail on today’s episode:

The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast

Homeschooling IRL

On Air With Ella

Mostly Mom with Tia Mowry

Profit Boss Radio

School of Podcasting

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Serial

Podcast Movement Sessions

Start Up Podcast

The Walking Dead ‘Cast

The Ask Gary Vee Show

ParentCast

Glambition Radio with Ali Brown

Slate’s Working

Slate’s Mom and Dad are Fighting

My other podcasts:

The Parenting Rhodes

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Join me for my live webinar!

Text ‘rock’ 72000

The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Listener Supported Political Podcasting with Jen Briney

Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Jen Briney is a trailblazer in crowdfunding podcast journalism. During this episode, we talk about what actually goes into producing an episode of Congressional Dish, and discuss downloads, listener-based financial models, what it’s like to get bad reviews, and how you can grow a big audience by focusing on creating solid content.

Main Questions Asked:

When did you introduce the Listener Contribution Model?
Talk about the behind the scenes production work on Congressional Dish.
Do you mingle with the other podcasters in your category on iTunes, or just focus on your own thing?

Key Lessons Learned:

Congressional Dish Podcast

The first episode released in Sept 2012.
Congressional Dish involves reading and outlining a bill. It is entertaining, educational, and has opinion.
The show has two episodes per month, and Jen does all her interviews in one week.
The research alone takes a solid week.
The show is high in the Government category on iTunes, but Jen doesn’t feel as though she is in the political clique.
Jen will fire at certain people for job-related scandals but not personal scandals.

The Funding Model

The show is an advertising-free space and makes money from listener contribution.

Show Notes & Outsourcing

The show notes are the most valuable part of the show, as there are links to actual provisions.
Jen hired an audio engineer to edit the show, which saves her a day of work.

Download Stats

After 30 days, if your episode has 165 downloads, you are doing better than 50% of the podcasts on iTunes.
Congressional Dish garners 10,000 downloads per episode.

Marketing

It’s good to market your podcast from the beginning, but don’t let it replace quality content.

Point of Difference

So many podcasts are using the same ‘recipe’ and same questions. Be different.

Journalism & Journalists

There are a lot of people who call themselves journalists but are actually pundits.
The question is, ‘Are you delivering information or opinion?’
Congressional Dish also has opinion and slant, but the information is always backed up rather than made up.

Resources:

Congressional Dish

Electoral College Episode

Horse Radio Network

Walking Deadcast

Heather Havenwood: The Win

The Ladygang

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Revealing My Secrets

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 09:00:00 -0400

My biggest FAQ is “How do I do it all?” During this episode, I pull back the curtain and reveal my top 5 secrets on how I do it.

Key Lessons Learned:

Secret #1: Decide That You Want To Do It

At some point you have to decide you want to create a weekly podcast, blogs, and videos.
You have to want it enough to do the work it takes to get there.
Hire and manage a team.
Hiring your first team member is putting the cart before the horse, as you are hiring them before you truly know if it will lead to more clients and greater revenue.
Wealth rewards risk.
Wealth rewards speed.
Every time you bring in a new team member, delegate, or create a new system, you are taking a risk.
Delegate.

Secret #2: Hire A Coach

Invest in coaching.
Mastermind from an early stage.

Secret #3: Mindset

Embrace solutions, not excuses.
Live abundantly.
Make a conscious decision to have a solution-oriented mindset.
The common denominator of failure is excuses.
When you own your failure, you won’t like it, but only then can you own your success.

Secret #4: Million Dollar Platform

Video Marketing.
Podcasting.
Speaking and getting interviewed as a guest.
Become a celebrity expert (embrace your authority as a celebrity in your niche).
Social Media Marketing.
Client Retention.
Become an Author.
Masterminding.
Content Marketing.
Email and E-Zine.

Secret #5: Attend Conferences

Go to the conferences where your potential customers and clients will be.
Ask questions at the end of sessions (make sure to clearly say your name and business before asking your question).
Network and start to build relationships.
The retention aspect of attending conferences is taking existing clients out to dinner.
Invest in attending a conference, and promote it before you apply to be a speaker.
Invite the conference founder on to your podcast.

Resources:

Million Dollar Platform (Graphic)

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How to Market Your Podcast & Grow an Audience

Wed, 14 Sep 2016 09:00:00 -0400

This episode of Rhodes to Success we cover how to grow your podcast audience. If you implement all the ideas in this episode, and don’t give up after a few months, you will definitely see your audience grow. During this episode, we discuss online and offline marketing, as well as networking.

Key Lessons Learned:

Online Marketing

Good Website

Your website must have podcast show notes and links.
If your website is bad, people won’t stick around.
A fancy website and iTunes reviews can make your show look bigger than it is.

Social Media

Be consistently marketing your show on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Meet Edgar

This is a social media scheduling tool that is $50 per month.
Upload your content and set how often you want your posts shared on social media.
Other options are Buffer and Hootsuite.
Know that posts you create manually will get more views.

Graphic Design Tools

Canva
Pic Monkey
Relay That
Unsplash (stock photos)

Virtual Assistant

VAs can be used to do the following busy work:
- Write your tweets, posts, blog posts
- Create graphics
- Upload to the scheduling platform
- Monitor engagement

Facebook Groups

Create one for your podcast.
Interact and engage in groups as a member.
When you join a new group, it’s important to read the rules.
The She Podcasts group is good for female podcasters.

Promote to Your Email List

This is an action people often forget.
Test and experiment with your email list.
Regardless of how often you email, you must stay consistent.
Email open rates are typically 5-10%.

Destinations

iTunes
Stitcher Radio
Google Play
I Heart Radio
YouTube
Sound Cloud

Networking & Relationships

Go on Other Podcasts

Choose podcasts in your niche as a guest.

Interview your listeners, clients, and peers.

Celebrities on your podcast is not the secret to success.

Be Bold

Be vulnerable and say things people aren’t saying.
People share shows that move them and stand out.

Resources:

Unsplash stock photos

Biz Women Rock

Course on Facebook Groups

The Traffic and Leads Podcast

Dear Mattie Show

Get booked on other podcasts as a guest

Live Webinar:

Text ‘rock’ 72000

Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Why You Should Start A Podcast

Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Want to know how to become a marketing machine? This episode of Rhodes to Success we talk about the benefits of starting out in podcasting as a guest expert, marketing your business on multiple platforms, and the top 3 reasons you should start a podcast.

Key Lessons Learned:

Start as a Guest

Being a guest expert is an excellent first step to getting into podcasting.
There’s not pressure to produce and launch an entire podcast.
Build your network.
Every time you are interviewed you are expanding your business relationships.
Leverage the power of being a guest.

Market Your Business on Multiple Platforms

It’s important to create content on different platforms as audiences learn in different ways.
This includes audio and visual such as podcasts, videos, blogs, in person events, online and hardcopy newsletter.

Reasons to Start a Podcast

Powerful Way to Market Your Business

Having your own show is an amazing marketing tool for your business.
Provide content that is valuable and relevant to your audience.
When you provide content for your current and potential clients need they will stick to you.
Everything you do with your marketing is like adding another layer of glue to the relationship with your customers.
Interviewing guests make you as the host a peer rather than a fan.

Position Yourself as an Authority

Podcasting positions yourself as an authority in your niche, listeners, and within the community.
If you have a podcast centered around your topic, be a guest on other podcasts and create video you set yourself apart as the authority.
Every time you create a piece of content it comes up in Google search results.
Being the best at what you do isn’t enough. You have to be an authority figure who is creating content and attracting people to you via that content.

Provides Content to Share When People Ask Questions

Instead of crafting a long response in forums and Facebook groups. Leave a link to your podcast.

Use Your Platform to Highlight Your Clients and Listeners

You have a platform and space where you can bring exposure to your community and clients.
Interviewing clients and listeners on your podcast is a great way to deepen your relationship with them.

Resources:

Gene Hammett Leaders in the Trenches

Brad Baldridge Taming the High Cost of College

Dave Jackson School of Podcasting

Jim Palmer Stick Like Glue

Webinar: Text ‘rock’ 72000

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

A Fireside Chat with Joe Pardo of #MAPCON

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Joe Pardo joins us for a fireside chat on this episode of Rhodes to Success. We talk about video content, podcasting and the iTunes algorithm, how to rock the podcast from both sides of the mic, and The Parenting Rhodes podcast.

Key Lessons Learned:

Video

Not everyone listens to podcasts. (Even people who love to podcast!)
The tips and topics are the ones most obvious to you but not everyone knows.

iTunes

The search algorithm within iTunes isn’t the best, even for basic keywords that are exact matches.
Ensure you fix your descriptions, and work on your episode titles.

Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic

Getting Booked as a Guest Expert

Getting booked on podcasts is so popular, as it is easier for people to get into podcasting by starting out as a guest.
Being a guest means there is a smaller barrier to entry and you don’t have to worry about recording, editing, producing, or launching.
Learn how to write a pitch that is good and that podcasters will actually read and like.

Rocking Your Show as a Host

Have a good interview that the guest actually wants to share. If you aren’t a good interviewer, they won’t share.
If your guest is on multiple shows per week, yours might not make it into their promotion.
Big celebrity guests are mindful and strategic in what they put out to their community.
Guests are not going to email their list about an interview on another podcast.
Having guests on your show is not the key to growing a large audience. Listeners are there for you, not the guest.

Online Presence

Whether you are a guest or a host, your online presence is crucial.
Having an amateur headshot has kept people from being booked as a guest.

Why Podcasting?

Marketing strategy.
Way to get your voice ‘out there.’
Connect with people.

Resources:

The Parenting Rhodes

The Mid Atlantic Podcast Conference

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

The Audience Size Isn't Important

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400

When it comes to podcasting a lot of people wonder if people are listening and if it’s worth their time. This episode of Rhodes to Success we discuss what really matters when it comes to audience size, what’s the truth behind audience stats, how to get your ducks in row, and what it means to be a great guest.

Key Lessons Learned:

Who Is Listening to Podcasts

Even though 60% of Americans listen to podcasts, this doesn’t matter.
What matters is how many people are actually listening to the podcast you might appear on.
Not a lot of people are listening to the podcast you will realistically be interviewed on as a guest expert. This isn’t a bad thing!

The Real Audience Stats

If you publish a podcast episode and a week later you have 150-170 downloads you have more listeners than more than 50% of the podcasts on iTunes.
Download stats are not public so you never truly know what audience size a podcast has.

Niche Audiences

The audiences and listeners you speak to are incredibly targeted and niche.
Focus on whether or not the content is relevant and if the target audience of the podcast your target audience as well.

Get Your Ducks in a Row

If you want to see results you have to have all the pieces lined up before you do your podcast interview.
Ensure your content is relevant to the audience.
Have a call to action that motivates listeners to go to your website.
The website needs to be good enough so when people go there they hang out and stay connected.

Being a Great Guest

Don’t be concerned with ‘what’ instead look at the ‘who’.
Focus on relationships with the host before, during and after the interview.
Over-deliver on value and make the host look good.
Tailor your answers to the audience.
Podcasting is a great way to have a conversation with a potential client whether that be the host or the audience.
Enact the ‘serve first’ strategy.

Resources:

Text ‘Rock’ to 72000 to register for webinar

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Discovering New Podcasts

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Are you a guest who wants to find shows that are in your target market? This episode of Rhodes to Success we discuss podcast discoverability. We teach you the basics of your show being searchable iTunes and discuss why you should have good artwork, an appropriate podcast title, solid episode descriptions. During the show we also cover why you should dive right into the content and have solid sound quality but not obsess over having an amazing microphone.

Key Lessons Learned:

iTunes Store

Go to the iTunes store and search your keywords e.g “living on a boat.”
Start with a broad category and shop through all the shows and sort from there.

How to Pitch a Podcaster

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Podcasters are being pitched by potential guests more than ever before! Some podcasters love it and a lot of podcasters hate it. If you want to be booked as a guest, you need to know how to pitch a podcaster the right way. In this episode, I'll teach you the 5 skills I learned going door to door for a non profit, and how you can apply those skills to pitching podcasters

How to Make Your Podcast More Entertaining

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400

Are podcasters reporters, journalists, entertainers, or teachers? On this episode of Rhodes to Success, we investigate just that and discuss how to make your podcast compelling and worth sharing.

Key Lessons Learned:

Get More Subscribers

Brilliant copywriting starts with a question.
People want actionable content but also want to be entertained.
What story arc can you produce to get listeners to subscribe.

Shareability

You need a podcast that is worth sharing.
It needs to be intriguing and entertaining so people can’t wait to share it.
When you view yourself as not just a podcaster but as a reporter, entertainer, or journalist, your show becomes better.

Get Inspired

Listen to the procasters, not just as a fan but as a student.
Listen to what is created when there is a huge production team behind it.
Get ideas of what to do with your show and what to avoid.

How to Make Your Podcast Compelling and Worth Sharing

1. Add Depth to Your Show

Use audio clips, music, conversations, and listener voicemails.
Ensure you have rights to use the music you’ve chosen.
Use your iPhone voice memo app to get listener feedback on the go.

2. Record Audio In-Person

Lots of podcasts are recorded either solo or via Skype. However, in-person interviews can offer a lot more chemistry.

3. Record Out in ‘The Wild’

Sometimes having background noise is cool and adds depth to the show.
Ensure you describe your surroundings when you are recording on location.

4. Get Vulnerable

Get real and share personal things about your life.
Don’t try to be perfect.
People will feel as though they are more connected with you and really know you on a personal level.
Your podcast is a safe space where your listeners love you and genuinely want to get to know you.

5. Be a Teacher

If you have an interview show and are interviewing guest experts, try a solo episode and monitor the engagement.

6. Epic Rants and Monologues

When you get on your soapbox and have an epic rant, it brings a loud voice to a topic that people are thinking about but not talking about.

Resources Mentioned:

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

How to Make it to Episode 100

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success we celebrate episode 100! I talk video marketing and reveal why it took me more than a year to record my first podcast. I also share my personal tips on how to get to 100 episodes, the top 5 most downloaded episodes, and the ultimate resource list for podcasters.

Key Lessons Learned:

Video Marketing

Your first few episodes are going to suck, so accept it, just move through it, and get better.
For the majority of the videos, a Canon HD is used, and more recently an iPhone 6 without a lapel microphone.
Use music as your audio branding.
Get clear on your message.
Practice getting right to the point.
Evolve with what works for you and the audience.
It’s okay to not know the tagline and hashtag on Day One.

Tips to Get to 100 Episodes

Stay committed and keep doing it.
Start your podcast with a clear focus on the show.
Remember, you are doing your show for your listeners but also for yourself.
If you change the show or branding, let it evolve and just keep going.
Put yourself out there more and take your marketing seriously.
Don’t obsess over your stats!
Not every show needs to have a huge audience. Mine has 200 downloads within the week of release.
Remember, your listeners are listening for you not your guests. They should like them, but they don’t show up for them.
If you are bored, seek out someone who is doing a show you like and mastermind with them.

The Top 5 Most Downloaded Episodes of Rhodes to Success

1. How to Make a Career Following your Passion (Maura Sweeny) - 745 downloads

2. Video Marketing Made Easy (Mimika Cooney) - 452 downloads

3. How to Work with Millennials (Lee Caraher)

4. Virtual Assistant Support (Lyndsay Philips) - 394 downloads

5. Build Your Business by Appearing as a Guest (Tom Schwab) - 392 downloads

Stats

Stats will tell you what people are coming to your podcast for.
Look at your download stats and analyze them rather than getting sad, frustrated, or happy for the wrong reasons.

Who to Work With in Podcasting

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Steps to Take to Get Booked as a Guest Expert

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I speak on how to reach out to podcast hosts to present yourself and get booked as a guest expert.

Key Lessons Learned:

Why Podcast Interviews?

You are speaking to a targeted and engaged audience who is there to learn.
People will feel like they know you.
It allows you to create relationships with partners in your industry.
People spend more time with a podcast than they do with a blog.

Are You Ready for the Spotlight?

Podcasters want guests on the show that have content to share.
Start creating content on your own platform before going out and getting it on everyone else’s platform.
The ideal scenario is to do a trade. Be on someone’s show and have them on your show.
Personal branding is important. Make sure to position yourself as a celebrity and have a strong social media presence.
Have a product or service that people actually want.

Pitch the Right Shows

Be clear on who your target audience is and reverse engineer it by finding podcasts they would be listening to.
What are the pain points of your target audience?
Source shows from iTunes, Stitcher, and Google.
Don’t just aim to be on ‘big shows.’

Write a Solid Pitch Letter

Do your due diligence.
Figure out who the target audience is and what the goal of the podcast is.
Listen to the podcast and get to know the host so you can mirror the humor.
Articulate who you are, what your content is, and how that content will be valuable to the listeners.
The podcasters’ goal is to bring valuable content to their audience.

Contact and Follow Up

A phone conversation is the most effective way to pitch a podcaster.
Social media is a great way to get in touch as a first point of call.
Ask to pitch. It seems counter intuitive, but it builds ‘yeses.’
When you can get the host to say yes multiple times, they are more likely to say yes.
Follow up on pitches.

Interview Prep

Make the host’s job as easy as possible.
Give them everything they need and be a great communicator.
Include the guest bio in third person, headshot and Skype ID, and your interview talking points or questions.
Schedule the interview promptly.
Make sure you have a decent microphone. An ATR2100 is about $50.
Listen to the podcast before you appear on the show.

Deliver Amazing Content

Remember, you are there to add value not pitch.

You will attract people to you through your free knowledge.
Thank the host for having you on the show.
Tailor content to match the audience.
Use the host’s; name they will like you more and promote you more.
Incorporate stories into your interview.
Stories position you as being credible and have experience rather than spouting facts and scenario.
Don’t hold back; give a lot of value.
Podcasts are pitch-free zones, so plant seeds instead of sell.
Compliment and promote the host’s business. Figure out what they are trying to promote.

Have a Call to Action

The goal is to drive targeted traffic to your site and collect emails.
The best way to do this is deliver an interview with personality and compelling content.
Ensure your call to action is clear, specific, and easy to remember.
Have one call to action rather than give too much.
Ideas include a video series, free call or consultation, webinar, book, and PDFs.
The call to action must be related to what you were interviewed on.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Thinkific

Radio Guest List

5 Reasons Podcasters Do Not Want To Book You

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, we cover the 5 reasons podcasters will not book you. These tips come from my personal experience booking guests as part of the thousands of bookings completed by the Interview Connections team.

Key Lessons Learned:

1. Bad Headshot

When you are a guest on a show, you become a brand ambassador of that podcast. If you have a bad headshot, it reflects poorly on the host and the show by association.
You need to look professional.
It’s nice to have a professional photoshoot, but smart phones such as the iPhone 6 do an amazing job.
The type of photo you choose is a branding decision. It says a lot about you as a person and signals how you conduct business.
Make sure your headshot matches your brand.
When your headshot doesn’t look like you actually look in real life, it builds a level of distrust.

2. One Sheet

There needs to be an established online presence, which includes social media and a website that confirms your experience and accomplishments.
The purpose of a one sheet is to provide podcast hosts with all the information they need in one place.
The one sheet should be designed and branded as an extension of your business.
Ensure your bio is on your one sheet. This must read in third person so the guest can use it as your introduction.
Include interview topics and questions on the one sheet as a sample for the host.
Also have your contact information, socials, and Skype ID on the sheet so the host has all your details in one place.

3.Bio

If your bio is too short, the host won’t have enough information about you to decide if you are credible and a good fit for the podcast.
If the bio is too long, the host may not read it.
The best length is 3-5 sentences and written in third person.
Highlight the best part of your professional life that showcases you as a great guest for the podcast you are pitching.

4. How You Communicate Over Email

If the guest doesn’t reply to emails promptly, hosts will question if the guest is actually interested in being on the show.
Are you showing gratitude in your email communication?
Are you being a giver and asking, “What else do you need?”
Are you showing ‘diva-like’ tendencies and not trying to make the show a success?
Tone is lost in text, so communicating in email can be lost in text. Be careful with how you communicate with show hosts over email.

5. Content

Having content that is not valuable or relevant to the host’s audience will mean you get rejected.
Each email you send should be customized to the show you are pitching.
Spotlight the relevant part of your personality, expertise, or interest according to the show.
It is not the host’s job to read your bio and figure out how you would fit into their show.
It is your job to show the host how your content is valuable and relevant to their audience.
If a show is weekly, then you need to convince the host that you are one of the top 52 people in your industry.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Nice Guys on Business Podcast

Unique Ability 2.0 with Julia Waller

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Julie Waller, who has been a strategic coach since 1997. She is passionate about the Unique Ability discovery and works with hundreds of entrepreneurs and team members in one-on-one sessions, helping them identify and create a life around their unique ability. During the show, we discuss top 5 strengths, discovering your unique abilities, the four characteristics, and the naming and activity paths.

Main Questions Asked:

What is Unique Ability?
Do people use Unique Ability in their personal life, work life, or both?
What are the four characteristics?
What are the naming and activity paths?

Key Lessons Learned:

Jessica’s Top 5

1. Communication

2. Futuristic

3. Achiever

4. Activator

5. Maximizer

Unique Ability

This is what you are naturally good at and passionate about.
Your Unique Ability shows up in the activities you do every day.
When you look at your activities, you can assess where the underlying talents are.
Your Unique Abilities are who you are when at your best.
Self discovery helps you find the type of work that you do best.
It often helps looking at your Unique Ability through your business lens before your personal lens.

The Four Characteristics

1. Superior Skill

When you do an activity in your work or life, assess if you are really good at it.
Ask yourself and others what your skill level is.
Superior skills are things that you are naturally good at, and are not necessarily learned.

2. Passion

This is something you are driven and motivated by and want to do more.

3. Energy

Your Unique Ability gives other people energy when you are doing it.

4. Never Ending Improvement

This is when you are already good at something and you want to keep getting better.

The Activities Path

List all the activities you do every day starting with what you do for work.
Once the activities are listed, ask if each activity meets the four criteria.

Excellent Activities:

You don’t have passion for these activities, but still have a superior skill.

Competent Activities:

You can do this, but are average at it and a lot of people could do it better than you.

Incompetent Activities:

You aren’t good, and experience failure.

Once you have broken your activities into categories, delegate a percentage to each.
Figure out how to free yourself up from the energy draining activities.
Exponential results will come from focusing on the stuff you are really good at.

Jessica’s Personal Case Study

Create your activity inventory.
Put each of your tasks into the four categories.

Jessica’s Primary Tasks

Bookkeeping.
Checking emails.
Checking Slack.
Client calls.
Podcast.
Proofing the blog.
Training calls.
Guest booking.
Get coaching.
Producing weekly videos.

Coaching Tips

Tell the truth about your skill level.
If others would agree, you have a superior skill.
Check your passion level and mark it as your Unique Ability or excellent.
Keep your feelings about the activities separate, and focus on the skill level.

Jessica’s Unique Ability

Cold calls.
Podcasting.
Client training.

Jessica’s Excellent Activities

Slack.
Pitching and booking interviews.
Video marketing.

Competent Activities

Emails.
Blog, editing, and posting.

Incompetent Activities

Bookkeeping.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Unique Ability

Strategic Coach

Case Study: The Business Revolution Podcast with Stephen Christopher

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Stephen Christopher about his show The Business Revolution podcast. This is another in the case study series where we peel back the curtain and look at the real-life mechanics of what it takes to launch and produce a podcast. We discuss target audience, format, facing fear, why guest interviews are a better way to grow a podcast, how podcasting fits into a weekly schedule, marketing, and email lists.

Main Questions Asked:

What inspired you to start a podcast?
How did you get over your fear of podcasting?
Tell us about the format and frequency. Has it changed?
How do you see guest interviews as a better way to grow the podcast?
What were your expectations on how podcasting would fit into your schedule?
Tell us about how you have been marketing the show.
What marketing tactics are effective with regards to downloads?
What is working for you in terms of emailing your list?

Key Lessons Learned:

Target Audience

The show is for business owners who are running a business and are moderately happy with it, but are working too much and can’t figure out how to get to the next level.
Figure out who your ideal audience is and how to get in front of them.

Format

Before launching, Stephen thought the episodes would be between 12-15 minutes.
Originally, Stephen planned for the shows to just be him, thinking that no one would want to be a guest on his show. He is now moving toward more interviews.
Episodes now run between 20 to 70 minutes.

Guest Interviews

This is a way to grow the podcast, as you have access to your guest’s audience.
A lot of times interviewees have their own podcast and you are invited to be a guest on their show.
Guest interviews are a great way to build professional relationships.

Scheduling & Time Management

Stephen records a lot of the solo shows on the weekend and does the interviews during the week.
Stephen has an executive assistant and someone who produces the show.
To run a podcast, you need to be able to delegate or have money to pay people to do the behind the scenes work.

Podcast Marketing

You have to find ways to stand out in front of your ideal client or audience.
Even the people who are subscribed to your podcast and you think are listening need weekly reminders.

Email List

Email filters are increasingly getting difficult to get past.
Follow the people who are making a good living doing it do.
Stephen is taking all his email titles and reducing it to one or two word titles.
The emails are aimed at entrepreneurs, so it is sent out early on Tuesday in order to catch them before they go to work.
Keep yourself out of spam filters by not putting too many links in the email.
The Business Revolution podcast has a separate email from Stephen’s business.

Progress

The show you start with isn’t always the show you end up with.
Sometimes it’s not about download numbers but more about trending up.
It can take 6 months to find your groove and to be sure you are getting the right guests, have the right format, and are targeting the right audience.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Seequs Digital

Business Revolution Podcast

Stephen@seequs.com

Case Study: The Money and Media Podcast with Philip "PT" Taylor

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, we continue our case study series where I ask guests how they use their podcasts to market and grow their businesses. Philip ‘PT’ Taylor is the founder of FinCon and host of The Money and Media Podcast. He joins me on the podcast and discusses starting, marketing, and executing a niche conference, as well as how his podcast is an additional platform for the conference.

Main Questions Asked:

Tell us about FinCon and when you started it.
Was marketing and content marketing missing from the personal finance and investing world?
What were you thinking when you decided to put on a conference?
How did you market the conference and get people to attend before you launched your podcast?
How was the podcast introduced to the mix?
When did you introduce the podcasting track to FinCon?
Talk about having a podcast co-host.
How has the podcast helped marketing, and what have been the results with FinCon attendance?

Key Lessons Learned:

FinCon

This was founded in 2011, and is a national conference where money and media meets.
FinCon took the three pillars of finance, social media, and affiliate marketing and combined them into one conference.

Starting A Conference

It was PT’s love for the community that was the catalyst for starting FinCon.
When starting a conference, ensure the people you want to get together already want to get together badly.
Open source the conference and let the community tell you what they want, and help build it with regards to locations and sessions. This helps the community having investment and ownership with the conference.

Marketing the Conference

Prior to the podcast, there was a blog, social media channels, email list, social proof that other people from the community were coming to the event.
Use the authority of attendees to leverage ticket sales.
PT developed a print magazine that circulated leading up to the conference, and featured the agenda and list of speakers.

Podcasting

The podcasting track at FinCon was introduced in the forth year of the conference.
Live podcasting was allowed at the event since the second year.
PT started The Money and Media Podcast on his own and brought in Joe Saul-Sehy as a co-host.
The podcast hasn’t increased conference registrations. However, it provides the opportunity to celebrate conference speakers.

The Money and Media Podcast Downloads

The podcast download stats are in the hundreds and isn’t taking off beyond the existing community, which is around 1,500.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Money and Media Podcast

FinCon

Case Study: Will Work 4 Patients podcast with Frank Sardella

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Frank Sardella who uses his podcast Will Work 4 Patience a way to market his chiropractic business. This episode is another in the case study series as Frank and I discuss how important your backstory is in positioning yourself as an expert, the importance of the niche, whether or not to create a pilot episode, predictability and evolution, and monetization.

Main Questions Asked

What is your business and how do you make money?
Who are your clients and when did you start your business?
What was the turning point of getting into podcasting?
What were your expectations going in and how did your perspective change the longer you podcasted?
Why did you create a pilot episode and do you think it's a good idea?
Do you see as podcast sponsors as distracting the audience from what you do?

Key Lessons Learned

Getting Into Chiropractics

Frank got started in chiropractics after a chiropractor saved his live more than 20 years ago.
Within 3 months of taking a job at the chiropractor chain he was promoted to the role of director of marketing and learned the ropes of the industry.
Frank decided to help thousands of chiropractor help their patience in order to have a bigger impact and help millions of people.
He connected his art, advocacy and public speaking and expanded to modern wellness professionals.
Frank has a system of face-to-face marketing and e-marketing, which is the model of his business on how he generated revenue.
In 2011 Frank discovered online conferencing, which revolutionized the business and enabled him to work with people globally.

Backstory and Creditability

When you use a podcast as a marketing tool you need to position yourself as an expert and let people know what you do.
When people consider working with you they want to know who you are as a host, your backstory and if you are credible.
In order to have credibility you need to put some of yourself into your show and demonstrate passion and purpose to the listener.

Your Niche

Its not enough to say you just want to do a podcast you have to have something to give.
You have to have a niche and avoid being general.

Podcasting

In radio you do a live broadcast and it’s gone forever. With a podcast, you do an episode and it’s there forever.
Many podcasters use elements from different media in each show.
It took Frank 2-3 years of recording 20-30 episodes to just get the show well and truly rolling.
The podcast isn’t about getting coaching clients first, its about getting listeners and readers of the blog.
Podcasting is about providing so much value that it brings people into your community.

Expectations, Patience and Pilot Episodes

From the time you start to when you see the results could be an obscenely amount of time.
Pilot episodes help create the platform and enable you to figure out where you want to go from there.
Glean format from other podcast rather than content.

Format: Predictability & Evolution

After about 5 episodes you need to get into a rhythm and be consistent with the format.
Every episode should be predictable.
It’s important to evolve and let the show go where it will go.
The biggest evolution should be due to feedback.
You have to be okay with testing something and it not being a good idea.

Monetization & Affiliate Marketing

Frank had the idea of affiliate marketing before he had the idea of the podcast.
The types of affiliate relationships you want to build are those that come through you but build the relationship you already have.
If the client wins then you win.
Can you expand on your niche and make it valuable to the sponsors?

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Chiropractic Marketing Advice (Podcast)

Ready Fire Aim (Book)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - The Podcast Producers Mastermind

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:29:00 -0400

Still struggling getting your podcast off the ground?

Join us for an afternoon of pure business building content and strategies you can use and implement immediately in your podcast!

Visit: ThePodcastProducers.com/mastermind

In this ‘pitch free’ interactive seminar you will learn:

How to improve your setup, create better production workflows, and podcast like a professional
How to take your show past the first year and elevate the production quality, content and audience engagement of your podcast
The keys to building quality relationships with co-hosts, guests, listeners and your production team

Bonus: As an added bonus, you will leave The Podcast Producers Mastermind armed with an A-Z blueprint of how you can create a journalistic and narrative style podcast that sets you apart from every other podcast in your niche.

Agenda for the most powerful 5 hours of your trip to Chicago!

❏ Introduction: Who are Corey and Jess and attendee intros

❏ Behind the Scenes! Corey and Jess will reveal how they created Season 1 of The Podcast Producers, the ten episode audio series selected by Apple as a Hot to Podcast show in iTunes.

❏ The killer strategies of how Jess and Corey were able to book 28 amazing guests pre-launch!

❏ You’ll get their two month production schedule and successful launch strategy

❏ How the show was recorded and edited together

❏ Why Corey and Jess approach each season of The Podcast Producers as its own unique show

❏ Hot Seats! Jess, Corey and fellow podcasters will provide laser focused advice to some of the attendees on how to take their podcast to the next level.

❏ Round table interview recording for a future episode of The Podcast Producers

Who The Podcast Producers Mastermind is NOT for:

You don’t know what a microphone is
Your dream of a successful podcast is just that, a dream.

Who The Podcast Producers Mastermind is for:

You already know the basics of podcasting and are ready to uplevel your game
You care more about creating a high quality show more than a quick flash in the pan

By design, the Podcast Producers Mastermind event an intimate experience and seating is extremely limited. With this small group every attendee is guaranteed some focused attention and feedback on their podcast.

WARNING! The board room holds only 12 people! If you are the 13th person to try and register, you will be locked out. Do not miss this amazing event – register now.

Click here to secure your seat for $500

Case Study: The Dharmic Evolution podcast with James Kevin O'Connor

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview James Kevin O’Connor in a new mini-series of case studies on podcasting. James has a niche podcast in the music category called The Dharmic Evolution podcast, which focuses on original music. During the show we discuss connecting to your passion, using four touch points, monetization, how to get your show live, audience size and stats.

Main Questions Asked

Tell us the story of when you had the first idea to start the Dharmic Evolution podcast.
When you started, was there a business around it or was the podcast first and later built out revenue streams around the show?
What were the first steps to getting your show live on iTunes and Stitcher?
How many episodes did you lach unch with on iTunes and what is the frequency of your release schedule?
When did you know it was the right time to invest in a virtual assistant to help you find guests?
Talk about your download numbers and expectations.
What has happened in your life and business as a result of the podcast?
What things do you do with your podcast that make it high quality?

Key Lessons Learned

Do your due diligence before you offer an interview to ensure it will be a good interview rather than find out it’s not a good fit while you are recording.
Most people aren’t connected to their passion and some can’t even find it.
Podcasting leads to all kinds of opportunities that you may not be aware of or predict when you go through the process.

The Dharmic Evolution Podcast

The year before he started his podcast, John decided to educate himself online.
Four songs by the guest artist are included in the podcast episode, which gives the audience four chances to connect with the artists work.
Most musical people have found their passion, so this podcast is a great way for people to listen in and follow the trail of how others got connected.
John’s guests aren’t big stars but rather are on the cusp of getting to the next level and have been producing records and touring.

Monetization

James didn’t have a monetization strategy when he started the podcast.
Revenue streams include life transition and podcast launch coaching for individuals and small business.
The common thought for podcasters is to get a high amount of downloads and be able to sell advertising time to advertisers.
Podcast audiences can turn into a community and clients that can be monetized. Podcasting monetization doesn’t just have to be about ad revenue.

Going Live

Nothing has changed with broadcasting except technology. It’s still a microphone, audience and intimate conversation back-and-forth.
James released three shows when the show went live and had at least 30 shows recorded. He likes to be 6-8 weeks ahead of schedule.
Then plan was to go to two shows per week after 6 months and now does 8-10 shows per month.
As you learn you will get better guests, become a better

Show Stats

The podcast is just under 4,000 lifetime downloads in one year.

Sound

The way you sound is out there in perpetuity so spend at least $50 on a quality microphone.
Send .WAV files rather than.mp3 when sending files to hosts.
Start on a higher platform and the output will sound much better on compressed generations.

Guest Relations

Every podcast guest has a dedicated blog post on the website, which includes their bio and links.
Tweetable links of guest quotes are sent out in order to encourage them to send to their mailing lists and promote to their audience.
James gives each guest an autographed CD with a thank you note.
There are at least 5 different follow-ups after the guest is on the show.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dharmic Evolution Podcast

Position Yourself as an Authority with Mike Saunders

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Mike Saunders who helps position his clients as an authority in their niche. Mike is the host of the Business Innovators Radio Show, holds an MBA and is an adjunct professor. He says if you give him 60 minutes and 60 days he’ll get your book done and you will be an Amazon bestseller! During the show we discuss positioning yourself as an authority, why you should considering writing a book for Amazon, and how to publish and interview-style book.

Main Questions Asked

What has your MBA brought you that other entrepreneurs who didn’t go to business school?
Why is it important for entrepreneurs to position themselves as an authority?

Key Lessons Learned

Positioning

This is one of the 4 P’s of marketing and how you are perceived in the mind of your target audience.
Most people don’t proactively position themselves; however, if you create the positioning you win the battle.

Positioning Yourself As an Authority

You need to systematically and rapidly positioning yourself as a celebrity to your clientele and target market.
Get the media talking about you, this can be via local media or podcasting and doesn’t necessarily have to be national.
Post your ‘humble brag’ on social media.
By appearing on shows you are providing yourself with authority positioning.
The ultimate focus is to be an educator and advocate for your prospect and clients’ success.

Create your Authority Position

Google indexes content that is reputable.
87% of the time a prospect will Google instead of calling.
You don’t have to make a video to put it on YouTube you an convert an MP3 to an MP4. It can be a YouTube video of the audio.
The more backlinks you have the more your site will rank on Google.
A lot of podcasters do show notes, which is where the guest link back lives on the site.
Just because you have done one guest post or podcast interview doesn’t mean you have completed the task and can check it off the list. It has to be consistent.

Self-Publishing on Amazon

Getting your content into written word offers another level of authority that podcasting, videos and blogs don’t.
The benefits of being an author include being invited to speak at conferences events.
Experts close three times as many deals as sales people.
Sales people have brochures and experts have books.
You won’t get paid for writing the book but because you wrote the book.
Think of one problem and one solution for your target audience.
People throw away business cards and brochures but not books as they have significant shelf life.
Amazon allows you to self publish your own book and buy small numbers at a time. The cost of self-publishing can be $3-4 each so is affordable to hand out to potential clients.

Interview Style Book

The audio from an interview is transcribed and edited to create an interview-style book.
Mike says if you give him 60 minutes and 60 days he’ll get your book done and you will be an Amazon bestseller.
Once you publish the book you have to build the business behind it

Positioning Yourself as an Expert

Make sure you know the FAQ as well as the ‘should ask’ questions.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Business Innovators Radio Show

Rev

Marketing Huddle

How to Increase Your Client Retention with Frank Klesitz

Wed, 25 May 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Frank Klesitz, who is an entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Vyral Marketing. The video marketing firm helps entrepreneurial professionals in all industries increase client generation and retention with education-based video marketing. Viral marketing helps hundreds of professional clients worldwide publish over 800 client videos a month and 4 million client emails per year. Frank’s methods are directly responsible for generating more than $10M of additional client revenue, commission, and billable hours since 2009. During the show, we discuss the 33 Touch Concept, balancing new clients and client retention, weekly client phone calls and getting people to sign up, and setting clear expectations.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about your wealth expertise.
How do record via webcam and help people with lighting?
How did you take your business from zero to 60 employees?
How do you balance brining in new clients with client retention?
How are you getting people to sign up to your service?
How do you handle setting clear expectations?

Key Lessons Learned:

Reconnect with Your Database by Using Content

The 33 touch concept is touching your database 33 times per year with something of value, which works out to be every 10 days.
It’s important to be the marketer of what you do and not just the doer of what you do.

Vyral Videos

Vyral Skypes clients and does interviews on a webcam in order to create two videos per month.
The video quality you get on a webcam looks pretty great. The only issue is the audio, but it can be fixed with an external microphone.
Vyral is able to see the client by doing a Join Me session so they can see the screen.
The best topics are 2-3 minutes and are Q&A’s based on the most common questions people have been asking you.

Growing the Vyral Business

The concept of custom work is difficult to scale, so Frank created one system and one plan with a one-time, up-front fee and ongoing monthly fee.
Retaining a client is more profitable than bringing in new clients.

New Clients

New client generation is your retention.
This needs to be number one on your list as a business owner.
You can’t control what clients are supposed to do, such as if they pay on time or want to continue the service.
You can never take your eye off the ball when it comes to searching for new clients.

Client Retention

The number one thing you can do for client retention is to make sure your clients get a phone call every single week.
If you focus on weekly communication, it tends to fix most problems from a retention standpoint.
When you start getting things done through others, you have to start leveraging yourself.

Meetings

The only way to ensure the quality of the communication is by training and meeting with your people to go over the issues of communication on what you are dealing with.
Fonality allows Frank to listen to any live calls.

Getting People to Sign Up

Frank attends top conferences, and finds the people in the profession who are being put on stage and marketed as the most successful people in the profession.
The goal is to get the influencers of the profession as clients by doing whatever it takes.
Once they have the influencer on board, they market it back to everyone in the profession.
In order to get creditability, you have to get clients that people want to become.

Setting Clear Expectations

The most important call is the ‘expectations call.’
There are 40-50 things that are said in this call, which is a step-by-step recorded call.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Vyral Maarketing

The Rockefeller Habits

Fonality

Outside The Box Marketing For Your Podcast with John Dwyer

Wed, 18 May 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview John Dwyer, who is an expert in direct response marketing. John is the host of Sales for Profit, which shows people how to use direct response marketing in advertising to ensure everything is measurable. His WOW Attraction Formula has been responsible for attracting more than $15B in sales, and the strategy has been deployed across 27,000 businesses. During the show, we discuss direct response marketing, 5 components of the client attraction system, wow factor, and the secret behind repetitive trade.

Main Questions Asked:

What is direct response marketing?
What is a wow factor?
How would you recommend an online business enact repetitive trade?

Key Lessons Learned:

Businesses often do what they believe is brand-building, but doesn’t actually put money in the bank.
Direct response marketing doesn't have to be looked upon to be the poor cousin of advertising.

Stop Using Price to Attract Customers

Don’t sell on price; sell on value.
Constantly having sales and half-price specials is unsustainable.
You need to attract customers who spend more and stay longer.

5 Components of the Client Attraction System

1. Identify your most profitable target audience.

Be specific: A woman, 25-34, with 2 children, working a white-collar job, and living in an upper-class suburb.

2. Create a wow factor to take people’s eyes off the price.

3. Problem solution advertising.

Provide them with a problem, aggravate the problem, and offer the solution.
People will pay to get rid of pain in place of getting pleasure.

4. Fix your website.

How to be different online and have all the website components on your homepage that your competitors don't.
Go to a marketing expert to get your site designed.
On the homepage, have a big headline that is a problem solution headline.
Include a welcome video and tell people what you will do for them.
Offer a free download and have an opt-in to collect data.
Have video testimonials of people telling other people how good you are.

5. Repetitive Trade.

This is about getting clients to return over and over again and become raving fans.
Pull people into a loyalty program or reward scheme so people will come back and frequent your business online or offline on a more regular basis.

The Wow Factor

This comes down to the theater of the offer.
This is something your clients want that would motivate them to want to stay with you.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Sales for Profit

Wow My Business

How To Sell Your Business with Brian Church

Wed, 11 May 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Brian Church, who is a bestselling author, public speaker, radio show host, serial entrepreneur, and an expert in mergers and acquisitions. Brian is the CEO of Idea Shares, which is a company that helps entrepreneurs take their ideas from the drawing on the paper napkin to a profitable business venture. During the show, we discuss the future of entrepreneurship, ideation and testing your ideas, and beginning with the end in mind.

Main Questions Asked:

What is it about your personality that makes you want to be in so many ventures and not just one business?
Talk about IdeaShares.com and how you are helping your clients.
Are you mostly working with people who have an idea for a product or professional services?
How early in the process should you be thinking about your business as being something that can be sold one day?
What are your thoughts on service-based businesses?
What is an example of a company who is doing everything right?

Key Lessons Learned:

Future of Entrepreneurship

We are going to lose 45 million jobs in the next 10-15 years due to technology.
What we used to think of as a ‘job’ will be very different.
If you aren’t thinking entrepreneurially today, you will have to, as it will be necessary to ‘side gig.’

Solving Problems

You don’t have anything that can create commerce if you don’t solve a problem.
The current model of business incubators is actually more along the lines of accelerators.
There is a gap between the early stages of ideation to execution and no one who is helping compress the time, cost, and overall risk associated with ideation.

Ideation

Ideation is the time between when you get the idea, the catalytic action to move on the idea, and getting to minimally viable product, or proof of concept.
The process for ideas is the same regardless of whether it is a product or service, as there needs to be a prototype for both.
For proof of concept to gain traction in order to get funding outside of friends and family, you have to have a prototype.

Begin with the End in Mind

When people buy businesses, they buy enterprise value, intellectual property, or both.
Enterprise value is not a dependent business but rather an independent business someone can take on to the next level.
Multiples are usually based off the enterprise value that, if the owner walked away, it’s a viable business model.
A lot of businesses aren’t built to be sold. Some will be licensed, as they are more process-driven.
Most people burn out because the business is dependent on them.
The businesses that get the best valuations are the ones that are built in a way that they can run with the entire team being replaced.

Service-Based Businesses

Service-based businesses need to have processes that are simple, repeatable, and measurable.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Idea Shares

Brian@ideashares.com

Growing a Community for your Podcast with Yann Ilunga

Wed, 04 May 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Yann Illunga, who is a podcaster and podcast strategist who helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and creatives leverage the power of podcasting to build authority, network with influencers, generate more leads, and acquire new customers. Yann is the host of the 360 Entrepreneur podcast and the Podcast Success Summit, and is the founder of the Podcast Success Academy. During the show, we discuss podcasting as an art form, making yourself accessible as a host, auditing your website, getting listeners to engage with you, Facebook groups, managing communities, and bringing listeners onto the show.

Main Questions Asked:

What are your thoughts on looking at podcasting as an art form, as well as something that generates leads?
Talk about the power of having a Facebook group for your podcast.
What do you think about bringing listeners onto the show?

Key Lessons Learned:

Podcasting as an Art Form

Even if you host an interview-based podcast, you as the host are the common denominator.
People show up to connect with you as the host as the starting point, so it’s important to add your personality.
It’s more difficult to build a human connection through text, whereas audio is the basis of storytelling.

Make Yourself Accessible

This could be as simple as sharing your email address during the podcast or managing a Facebook group.
Let people know you are there to serve them and that they shouldn’t be afraid to contact you as the host.
Starting out as a small podcast means you are able to interact with your audience one-on-one more than someone with a larger audience.
Rather than chasing new fans, focus on the ones you already have.

Audit Your Website

How easy is it to find and contact the host?
How easy is it for listeners to engage with you?
Check your site as a ‘secret shopper’ or get a friend to assess.

Facebook Groups for your Podcast

The barrier of entry for starting a Facebook group is low.
People come for the content but stay for the community.
There will be people who are ‘lurkers’ and will get value out of it, but won’t be active.
Come up with a weekly structure so it doesn’t become the ‘wild wild west’ and people-spam without adding value.
Structure also manages expectations of how the group works.
Think about organizing the group in terms of how you can get user-generated content and become ‘core creators,’ and push the group toward the best possible functioning.

Developing Communities

Remember that it is risky to develop on someone else’s platform, as the rules may change with regards to engagement and payment.
Slack is an alternative to help start a community for your podcast.
Come up with ways for people to sign up for your newsletter as a way to get members from the Facebook platform to your own list.
Empower the community by giving them a platform to be recognized as a super fan.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Yann Illunga

Giveaway

360 Entrepreneur podcast

Podcast Success Summit

The Science of Podcasting with Vernon Foster II

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Vernon Foster, who is a podcast educator, speaker, and coach. He oversees a small army of audio engineers, graphic designers, and transcriptionists under the Pod Parrot brand. Vernon continually seeks out new ways to innovate and strategically leverage podcasting as a viable platform for small business professionals, startups, speakers, and coaches. During the show, we discuss event planning, podcasting as a tool, how Pod Parrot shifted focus, and how the industry as a whole is changing.

Main Questions Asked:

What are the biggest skills that go into event planning?
What were your biggest skillsets in podcasting that you thought you could use to launch a business?
What was the need you were filling, and how are you different from your competitors?

Key Lessons Learned:

Event Planning

When it comes to event planning, it’s all about ‘butts in seats.’
You need to start planning 6-12 months before an event.

Podcasting

This is an opportunity to interview potential customers and get real-time feedback.
If you are going to create a product and service, and you don’t even know if it’s something people want, then you are spinning your wheels.
Podcasting is the cheapest research and development you can do.
Some people will say focus on the production, while others will say to create compelling content.
Really great content is more important than having the best microphone.

Podcasting as a Tool

Podcasting is not your business; it’s a tool for your business.
When podcasting is used properly, it can be a massive generator of business by connecting you with like-minded people.
Podcasting brings you closer to your audience, and it lets you interview some of the people you might not normally have access to.
If you don’t treat podcasting like a business, then it will just be a hobby.

Pod Parrot

Pod Parrot has moved from the role of service provider into the role of educator and evangelist.
Vernon worked with clients one-on-one before he started the brand.
The challenge to overcome is people flooding the marketplace.
The market is shifting and becoming commoditized because people don’t want to pay a lot of money.
There’s a lot of people who don’t understand the podcasting business.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Pod Parrot

Mic Science Podcast

Podcasting for Serious Startup Businesses with John Maddox

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview John Maddox, who has been a serial entrepreneur and has had a few successful exits, most recently with Nashville-based interactive agency 10 Fast Feet. During this episode, John and I discuss circumventing the gatekeeper, overcoming ‘podfade,’ entrepreneurship, and looking long-term.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about being on Entrepreneur On Fire.
What was your thought process around what podcasting would do?
What have been the pain points you have overcome that have allowed you to continue podcasting?
Talk about your entry into entrepreneurship and what it’s been like.
Tell us about the last company you sold.

Key Lessons Learned:

Circumvent the Gatekeeper

John started podcasting as a networking tool in order to reach people and ‘circumvent the gatekeeper.’
Podcasting is a way to build relationships with people of significant influence.
Big name guests want to share their knowledge and help other people; however, you won’t always get the people, and they won’t always respond.
Direct messaging and tweeting is a handy way to reach people directly, as a lot of people manage their own social media.

Overcoming Pain Points

If there isn’t a direct revenue stream coming from the podcast, it is easy to lose focus on the relationship building.

Entrepreneurship

Don’t view what you are doing as big or small, but rather view it as giving you control over your life.
As an entrepreneur, you are still relying on other people to write you checks.
If you are the owner, you are the last to get fired, so if the business goes down, you don’t get laid off.
The more you grow your business, you have to balance your cash flow with the client generation.

Looking Long-Term

A lot of people in the entrepreneurial world are very short-term focused instead of looking at mechanisms to leverage the ultimate goal.
As a society, we have become conditioned to look a quarter or two ahead.
Look outside the box on how you are going to circumvent your opponents.

Shifting Focus

John wanted to shift away from the work for-hire-model to the work for equity and focus on the big picture of return on investment.

Investment Legal Changes

On May 16, 2016, new laws go into effect under the jobs act that allow non-accredited investors to be equity investors in new companies.
For the last 82 years, the only people who were allowed to invest outside of friends and family have been accredited investors.
We will all now have the opportunity to be investors in companies.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Serious Startups

John Maddox

Let’s Talk Serious Startups (podcast)

Idea Shares

The Crowdfunding Pitch Show

Quit Your Job and Build Your Brand with Brandy Butler

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Brandy Butler, an online business coach and strategist who is passionate about the power of spreading positive messages. She helps her clients magnify their message and gain momentum in their business. During the show, we discuss having an online business and working with local clients, consistency, the power of podcasting, targeted adverts, live events, how to get local news coverage, and what it takes to write a book.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about having a business where your clients are local.
How are people following you?
What difference did your live events have on your coaching business?
How do you pitch your events to the news?
Tell us about your book, Girl Just Quit. How long did it take you to write it?
How did you leverage your podcast to write your book?
What are the first steps for someone who wants to start a business?

Key Lessons Learned:

Brandy’s Butlers Business

Brandy helps her clients gain credibility, visibility, and profitability.
She focuses on women entrepreneurs who want to create influential brands.
10% of Brandy’s clients are local, and 90% are online.
When having her own local events, Brandy is diligent about using targeted Facebook adverts.

Consistency

Even if you take a break from podcasting, the good news is that episodes are evergreen content and still searchable on iTunes.

Meeting People at Live Events

You can’t beat in-person meetings. The human factor of hearing and meeting you is about resonating and connecting.
The best way to close sales with coaching clients is to get them in a room with you.
Live events increase the brand equity, as the people online also get a chance to see the ‘real’ you.
You don’t have to host your own live event, the in-person meetings can also be via other people’s conferences.
If you meet current clients in person, it makes them want to work with you longer.

Brandy’s Live Events

Brandy is based out of St Louis and has the intimate masterminds of 20 people.
Collaborations are about bringing together like-minded people. You might not be able to answer the question, but someone else might.
Last year, Brandy had more than 100 people at her third annual vision board event.
Make the event fit in with local news cycle in order to get additional media coverage.

Pitching Events to Media

Pitch your story on the news and media websites, and make sure to have a great magazine-style headline.
Use newsworthy and relevancy factors to hook your event and story.
Brandy got her vision board event on the news, as she was able to pitch it in the framework of new year’s resolutions.
Having a book will help you gain creditability and makes it easier to pitch media outlets for coverage.
Brandy used the local media coverage to sell out her vision board event.

Writing Girl Just Quit

The book is for women entrepreneurs and those searching for their purpose.
Appreciate your job as an investor, and make smart and strategic moves while you are working so you can be in a better position to quit your job.
Brandy leveraged her podcast to write her book. Some of it is transcribed from the podcast, webinars, and other parts from blog articles.
Writing a book doesn’t have to be a from-scratch New York Times bestseller; it’s perfectly fine to repurpose your content from existing content.

First Steps

Think about what you really want to do, and don’t focus on the money.
Focus on what you are good at and comes naturally.
What you should be doing might feel too grand at first, but follow the trail.
If you focus on what’s trendy and making money, you will become bored and unfulfilled.
If you can speed up the process of believing in yourself, you will save a lot of time.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Brandy Butler

The Girl Just Quit (podcast)

The Package, Podcast and Profit Show

How to Book Great Guests for your Podcast with Adrion Porter

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Adrion Porter, who is a brand builder, podcaster, speaker, and consultant, and has a background working for Cartoon Network, HBO, Cinemax, and Citi Group. Adrion’s podcast, Gen X Amplified, focuses on empowering Gen X to be stronger leaders in the new media marketplace, define their story, and lead millennials. During the show, we discuss getting big name guests on your podcast early on, networking at live events, and the value of non-celebrity guests.

Main Questions Asked:

How did you connect with big name guests and get them on your podcasts early on?
Talk about the value that non-celebrity guests bring to your show.

Key Lessons Learned:

Multi-Platform Approach

Get yourself known in a number of ways such blogging, video, podcasts, social media, conferences.
The multi-platform approach for content makes you recognizable and more approachable.

Gen X Amplified Podcast

The show focuses on the Gen X generation.
Gen X is the generation between the baby boomers and millennials, and are aged mid 30s-50s.
The goal of the show is to redefine the narrative and brand and empower Gen X.
Before Adrion launched the podcast, he went to Social Media Marketing World to test out the how idea amongst attendees.

Getting Great Guests

When you are pre-launch, it’s hard to get well known guests to be on your podcast.
Get great guests though hustle, determination, a strong purpose, brand, and vision.
Create a list of people you have in mind for your show.
You need to have a consistent clear message, purpose and target audience, and be able to articulate it.
Stick with it and don’t change your show strategy.
Be consistent in making connections, and find common pieces in conversations and optimize it.
6 degrees of separation is a real thing. Take advantage and work your connections.

Attending Live Events

Meeting prospective guests at live events in person is the most effective way.
Develop a relationship before asking your potential guest to be on your podcast.
Events such as Social Media Marketing World can be pricey. The way to look at this is that each attendee also made the investment, which brings instant respect.

Guests By Referencing

If one of your guests mentions someone in their interview, use the opportunity to reach out to that person and leverage it.
This namedropping method shows you aren’t a fan and have already been spotlighted on your show.

5 Things to Articulate

When pitching potential podcast guests, you need be clear on the following:

1. Message

2. Branding

3. Audience and target market

4. Show’s purpose

5. Staying consistent

If you are able to articulate the above, you will be more likely to get great guests regardless of whether the show is pre-launch or established.

Celebrity Guests

Regardless of what people say, celebrities will not make or break your podcast.
Every guest will bring tremendous value for someone.
Your listeners download your show because they like you, not because they like the guest.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Gen X Amplified

Adrion Porter

Lee Caraher Episode

How Improv Will Make You a Better Podcaster with Melissa Bowler

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Melissa Bowler, who is the Executive Director of a non-profit organization called P.I.G., aka the Providence Improv Guild. P.I.G. is an organization dedicated to building a community of improvisers and providing affordable improv workshops to a wide audience. During this episode, we cover how entrepreneurs, business leaders, speakers, and podcasters can use improv training to better themselves and communication.

Main Questions Asked:

What is the definition of improv?
How can people use improv into their business?
How can business owners with a virtual team engage you in improv training?

Key Lessons Learned:

What is Improvisation?

Improv (improvisation) is the art of making things up on the spot.
Live improv shows are essentially sketch comedy that is written, directed, staged, and executed in the moment based on audience suggestions.
When it comes to improv, there is a beauty in not knowing what is going to happen.
When you do improv, you go on stage completely blank and let things happen.
The human ability to improvise is innate and is something we knew how to do at one point in our lives.
Improvisation is about uncovering the idea of play that is in all of us.

Podcasters and Improv

Some questions don’t apply to all guests.
You have to go where if feels right to go and not just on the run sheet.
Podcasting allows you to do improv during the recording but edit things out.

Improv & Business Communication

Hire an expert to teach a class. The most effective is in-person.
Take a class and pass on what you learn.
Incorporate the spirit into your work.
Having a sense of humor and the ability to connect with others gets you so much further in life than knowing all the intricate business rules.
The business climate and world is changing, which allows for a connection on a more human level.

‘Yes, and…’

The key rule of improv is to never say ‘no.’
You always have to accept an offer and use the ‘Yes, and…’ approach.
This means accepting and building.
‘Yes, and…’ allows you to discover a lot of bad ideas and explore them.
Focus on what you want to do with ‘Yes, and….’
In every bad idea there is a grain of a good idea within it. You have to say, ‘Yes, and…’ to get to the good idea.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

P.I.G

Melissa Bowler

How to Lose $200K & Still Rise Above The Failure with Stephen Woessner

Wed, 23 Mar 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Stephen Woessner, who is a digital marketing authority, entrepreneur, speaker, educator, podcast host, and bestselling author of two books. During the show, we discuss how Stephen used his business fail to level up, how failure in business affects family, unpaid interns, daily kick start calls, and mentorship.

Main Questions Asked:

Share your story of attending VaynerMedia.
Tell me about what your event was.
How did the event failure affect your personal life and family?
How did you get out of the stressful time and get back on your feet?
Did you get to a point where you had to declare bankruptcy, or did you have to rebuild what you already had?
What are the pros and cons to having unpaid interns?

Key Lessons Learned:

Predictive ROI Live Event

This was the challenging time and situation that could have ruined or devastated Stephen’s business.
The event had been in planning from 2012-2014, and was budgeted at $2M, including speakers and the Ritz Carlton Orlando contract.
The value proposition of the event question was never answered.
When the event opened for registration, 3 seats out of 350 were sold.
The event was scaled back and speaker contracts were cancelled, but they still lost $200K, of which $100K went to the Ritz Carlton for rooms that were never slept in.

Reasons Why The Event Was Cancelled

The Predictive ROI Live event was cancelled due the following:

Misunderstanding of the avatar.
Lack of a marketing strategy.
No clear value proposition.

Mentorship

It’s hard to be a good mentee without being defensive.
A good mentor will hold your feet to the fire and tell you what you don’t want to hear.

Next Level After Failure

Stephen was on a plateau and used it to jump to the next level.
Once Stephen worked through the depression and mourning period, he and his team got back to selling.
Failure also hits team members hard, so this needs to be considered too.
The effect on family and relationships after a huge failure is also significant.
Nothing cures the ills in a business or depression more than wins and successes.

Unpaid Interns

Predictive ROI has 2-4 unpaid interns per semester, as well as ‘super interns’ who are paid $600 per week for 30 hours.
So far, there have been 22 unpaid interns through Predictive ROI.
At one point Stephen had an unpaid intern managing six unpaid interns. She is now the multimedia producer.
The company is fully transparent about who is an intern, but doesn’t micromanage.

Daily Intern Kick Start Calls

Work is managed via Zoom video call at 8:45am, where each person reviews the following:

3-4 priorities.
What they didn’t get done the previous day.
What they need help on.
If they have spare time.

Slack

Everyone can instant message all team members.
There are channels for discussion threads.
This takes a lot of communication off email and into the tool.
There is an app for phones and computers.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Onward Nation

Predictive ROI

Stephen@predicitveroi.com

Jessica’s Interview

Unpaid Interns Episode 137

The Small Business Owners Handbook

Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking

Mompreneur Challenges and Business Success with Donna Cravotta

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Donna Cravotta who is the CEO of Social Sage PR, which is a boutique media consultancy and home of the Total Social PR system. The unique social strategy is based on listening and engagement. Donna will share effective techniques to help you connect with your perfect audience online, build relationships and possibilities into business opportunity. During this episode Jessica and Donna discuss social media as a listening tool, outsourcing to a social media manager, engaging as an entrepreneur, and know your truth and who your future team is.

Main Questions Asked

What do you do with your clients and Social Sage PR?
Talk about outsourcing to a social media manager?
Do you see people have someone internal doing social media marketing or have an expert take over?
How do you help entrepreneurs engage in social media but not let it take over their lives?

Key Lessons Learned

Social Media As a Listening Tool

Social media isn’t just about broadcasting it’s also about listening and connecting to people.
When you learn how to listen you can connect to any audience you want such as potential and past clients, journalists, podcasters, strategic partners, and vendors.
When you zero in and grow your community you can then branch out.

Social Media Manager

There is no magic pill as social media isn’t about hacks. It takes time and work.
Even though you outsource you still need to be there for the engagement.
There is a lot of value in hiring someone who is already familiar with you and your brand.
Be prepared to spend time and money.
As you get more successful you spend more money so you have more time.

Engaging As an Entrepreneur

Be selective with who you are listening too when it comes to taking advise.
Be yourself online and not a sales machine.
People want to know who they are doing business with and want to like you.
Authenticity is key.
Always present your social media in your voice even if a social media manager is pumping out the content.

Know Your Future Team

When you start out as an entrepreneur you will probably have to fill all the roles.
Know what roles you need to fill and what tasks the people in those roles need to do so when it comes time to hire you know who you are hiring and for what.
When the pieces don’t fit you have an incongruent business.

Know Your Truth

Write your truth on a post it note so when you start to get the head trash you read it.
Jessica’s truth is: “If everything is running smoothly you aren’t growing fast enough.”

Do What Works

Every audience is different so do more of what works and less of what doesn’t
Forget the tech piece and how many times to tweet a day and just make sure to show you as yourself.
Don’t get dragged down by the tactics. Do what works and ask yourself, “What is the fastest way to get there?”

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Social Sage PR

Video Marketing Made Easy with Mimika Cooney

Wed, 09 Mar 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Mimika Cooney, who is known as the Go-to Video Marketing Expert. She is a TV host, interviewer, published author, and videographer. Mimika is an international award-winning photographer, public speaker, and online marketing strategist. She has worked as a television broadcaster, and now hosts her own web TV show and helps entrepreneurs and experts harness the power of video marketing to build business brands through her online course. During the show, we discuss video and authenticity, how to make your videos look good, video platforms, and creating content.

Key Lessons Learned:

Video & Authenticity

Video is the next best thing to meeting someone in person.
You can’t fake it on video. Communication is mostly non-verbal.
People will relate to you more if you aren’t always super perfect and put together.
People can’t last in business and life pretending to be someone they aren’t.
You can mess up, and it makes you endearing.

Video

78% of website traffic is now video related.
People aren’t necessarily interested in what you look like, but are more interested in the content.
Don’t get stuck in your head and kill the idea before you have time to birth it.
Video is cheap, so start where you are and improve as you go.
Test a few platforms and see what is best for you.

Periscope

This can be done live on your iPhone.
At most, you need a tripod and microphone.
This is live TV with audience interaction.
This is connected to your Twitter account.

Blab

This is like Google Hangouts and Periscope.
Live to air, but viewable post-broadcast.
This can be consistent and a weekly appointment.
Production quality is low.
Uploadable to YouTube and WordPress.

Making Your Videos Look Good

Sound

Ensure the sound is good. This can even trump the video quality.
Buy a lavalier microphone on Amazon for around $18 that can attach to your shirt.

Lighting

Uneven light in videos crates distrust with the audience.
Test if your lighting is good, and monitor whether you can see the color of your eyes.
Face the light and make sure you have even light.
Avoid backlighting.

Camera

The camera quality on the iPhone 6S is equivalent to a 4K.
4K is 4,000 pixels. A lot of movies are recorded on 4K cameras.
Pixels are the tiny dots on a screen, and the more dots you have the clearer the image.

Creating content

Don’t just upload to YouTube and link on Facebook, as your reach will be low.
Upload directly to Facebook, and use the native feature on your business page.
Short videos of 2-3 minutes get more engagement and are seen more than longer videos.
People don’t care about you and your story; they care about what’s in it for them.
Get the best content out in the beginning in order to hook the viewer.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Mimika Cooney

Video Creators Hub

How Your Thinking Determines Your Success with Kim Ades

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Kim Ades, who is the founder and president of Frame of Mind Coaching and Journal Engine Software. Kim is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and mother of five. She is one of North America’s foremost experts on performance through thought mastery and mental focus. Kim uses her unique process of integrating online journaling into her coaching. During the show, we discuss the importance of journaling, overcoming barriers, examining thought, thinking differently, emotional resilience, and why balance is overrated.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about journaling and how you use it in your coaching.
Is there a barrier to be overcome when it comes to journaling?
Talk about the separation of a journal for personal life and business.
How do you help people think differently?
What is emotional resilience?
Talk about leadership and how you train people to be leaders.

Key Lessons Learned:

Your thinking determines what you achieve.

Kim’s Clients

Kim coaches highly driven individuals who have three things in common:
Big goals.
Make a difference in the world.
Spirited people who want to live an extraordinary life.

Journaling

This helps get to the source of beliefs, values, behaviors, and patterns.
If you are not working with a coach, then journaling is a vehicle for personal awareness and insight.

Barriers to Overcome

The contents of the journal are an entry point to starting a dialogue and going deeper.
Even if what is presented is a rosy version and not quite the truth, it is able to be drilled down to get to the heart of the matter.

Personal Versus Business

There is no separation.
The way you think in one area of your life will affect how you think in another area.
Journaling looks at how your thinking impacts your outcomes.
When your thinking aligns with your goals, your behavior follows.

Examining Thought

This is less about managing behavior and more about shifting thought.
If you always think what you always thought, you will always get what you always got.
The belief lays the foundation.

Thinking Differently

Are your beliefs leading you toward your goals?
Beliefs are inherited from our parents, environment, friends, peers, and the media.
With gradual shifts and beliefs, people can experience extraordinary outcomes.

Emotional Resilience

This is the ability to bounce back from adversity with great speed and agility.
This is about leveraging adversity and doing something positive with a negative experience.
People with a higher degree of emotional resilience will be more likely to succeed at anything they do.

Leadership

Leaders need to understand the role they play in the organization and that their thinking impacts their team more than any other factor.
Reinforce leaders with coaching skills.
Leaders are adept at punishing when there is a problem and promoting when there is a success. This creates inequity.
It’s important to coach your team and not manage it.
The way a leader sees their team is how they will show up.
Leaders tell stories about those who are around them. Don’t bring your story into the dynamic of the team.
There is a correlation to how someone was parented to how they lead.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Frame of Mind Coaching

Employee Empowerment with Shawn Casemore

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Shawn Casemore, who is the author of Operational Empowerment. Shawn is an internationally recognized speaker and writer. He is also the Principal of Management Consultancy at Casemore and Company Inc. After a 17-year corporate career in operation and sales roles, Shawn launched his company in 2008 with the intention of helping CEOs, executives, and business leaders to enable individuals and teams to be more productive, engaged, and participate to accelerate the growth of the organization. During this show, we discuss workplace communication, empowering employees, how to deal with new employees, and the entrepreneurial lifestyle movement.

Main Questions Asked:

What made you leave the corporate world and become an entrepreneur?
What do you mean by ‘empowering employees?’
How will empowering employees increase your competitive advantage?
How do you have a structure where there’s no manager, but make sure new employees have a direct superior, to have someone to go to?
Is there a movement toward entrepreneurial lifestyle and independent contracting jobs?
Why did you decide to write a book that slams operational excellence and leadership as we know it?

Key Lessons Learned:

Your employees are most important, as they are the ones operating your company.
If you can’t get your employees engaged, then you will never be able to grow your business profitably.
We have a 1 in 3 million chance we will run into an employee, boss, customer, and supplier that thinks and behaves the same way we do. This explains why there is so much conflict and poor communication in the workplace.

Empowering Employees

The empowerment of employees is all about autonomy.
The management hierarchy that most businesses are built on was derived from the military, and is now out of date.
Today’s employees are the most highly educated that have ever been in the workforce throughout history.
Employees today don’t like being delegated down to, and are smart enough to not have to be.
Zappos is an example of a company that has changed the structure so there are no managers.

Achieving Empowerment

Put people in cross-functional teams. This helps improve their experience, morale, and communication.
Get rid of formal management and have team leaders who are self-selected by the teams.
Create a community of people on the front line, and create the tools to get the communication from those teams to the people that matter.

Operational Empowerment

Every business has a series of operations such as the sales process and marketing systems.
Empowering people is the key to a competitive advantage because it is the best way to service your customers.

New Team Members

Integrate team members into the interviewing process.
Skills can be learned, but you can’t train people to ‘fit’ and force people to have the right dynamic.
Hire for ‘fit’ relative to the community and culture of the team.
Building a team of people who work well together matters more than them working well with the boss.

Entrepreneurial Lifestyle Movement

The entrepreneurial lifestyle is more attractive to employees, as there is more independence.
This movement allows people to have multiple streams of income.
The millennials want the autonomy and variety that is offered by this lifestyle.
Millennials are resistant to fit inside a mold.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Casemore & Co

Free Chapter

Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Michele Summers Colon, who is a physician, surgeon, yoga health coach, author, and overall health expert. Michele is known as the Holistic Podiatrist, and combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to treat the whole patient and create individualized treatment plans, yoga sequences, and meal plans for her clients and patients. Michele is the creator of the Body Wisdom Coaching Program and believes food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and mediation are the keys to perfect health. During this episode, we discuss entrepreneur cycles, natural rhythms, breaking the cycle, setting your daily intentions, and how to get healthy again.

Main Questions Asked:

At what point did you decide to expand your entrepreneurial ventures to include health and yoga coaching?
How does being a holistic podiatrist set you apart from other podiatrists?
Are you seeing entrepreneurs trying to fuel their bodies with unnatural treatments?
What are the natural rhythms of the world?
Talk about the ideal breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
What is your recommendation for turning your mind off at night so you can sleep?
Talk about yoga and Ayurveda.
What is the Body Wisdom Coaching Program?

Key Lessons Learned:

Entrepreneur Cycles

Entrepreneurs often get into cycles where they need to use one drug to balance another, such as caffeine to wake up and other drugs to fall asleep.
There is a shift in medicine where patients know what they want with regards to natural treatments.

Natural Rhythms

People in general stay up far too late and need to get back to the natural rhythms of the world.
The natural rhythms involve the light, darkness, and eating at the right times of the day.
People often eat too late, which means they stay up later and can’t sleep well due to their bodies still trying to digest food rater than spending time rejuvenating in order to have energy for the following day.
If you eat at the right time, you will go to bed at the right time, and in turn wake up at the right time.

Breaking the Cycle

Breakfast should provide energy, but not be too heavy.
Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day and eaten between 12pm-2pm, when digestion is at its strongest.
Dinner should be lighter and not include greasy foods, and be eaten before the sun goes down, or 7pm.

Set Your Daily Intention

As soon as you wake up, take a couple of minutes to set your intention for the day.
Keep your eyes closed and practice deep breathing.
“Today my intention for the day is to_________.”
Get a mental picture of how your day will run, and see it happen smoothly.

Go To Bed Earlier

10pm is the optimum time to go to sleep.
Turn off all electronics and mind stimulus 1 hour before bed.
In the last hour, set up a routine. E.g. Having a cup of hot tea, take a bath, or talk to your partner.

Getting Healthy Again

For the majority of us, we were born healthy and knew when to go to sleep and eat.
We need to get back to being healthy again.

Yoga and Ayurveda

When starting yoga, it is all about breathing properly not necessarily about the complicated poses.
Going to a class is best, but if you don’t have that option, check out a YouTube video.

The Body Wisdom Coaching Program

This is for women entrepreneurs whose health has been put on the backburner.
The program is for anyone who doesn’t have enough energy and isn’t feeling the best and is stuck in a rut.
This is a 10-week program that goes through the process of changing one habit per week.
The same 10 habits are for everyone, but each person starts in a different place.
The first habit is “earlier, lighter dinner.”

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dr. Michele

How to Get Sponsors For Your Small Podcast with Glenn The Geek

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Glenn the Geek, who is known as America’s Horse Husband. Glenn is a full time podcaster and the founder of the Horse Radio Network. During the show, we discuss starting a podcasting network, sponsorship, challenges, consistency, show length, and pitching sponsors.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about your journey from zero listeners to landing big sponsors.
How long did it to make your first sponsorship dollar in podcasting?
At what point should someone approach sponsors?

Key Lessons Learned:

Sponsorship

The first sponsor came in about 3-6 months after the first podcast.
When selling sponsorships, you aren’t selling download ‘numbers;’ you are selling the 20% of people who are actively engaged in a niche topic.
Podcast sponsorship is not a quick fix, but rather about building a brand over time.
The audience still needs to hear a product or service being spoken about multiple times before they engage.
In order to get a sponsor, you have to be consistent and never miss an episode.

Challenges

‘Horse people’ are 2-3 years behind people in technology.
It took 3 years before Glenn was able to quit his job and podcast full time.
Podcasting isn’t the best way to grow your list or get effective sales, but if you do it right, you will build your brand and increase your creditability.
The biggest misconception about people who work for themselves is that they are able to work less. Glenn puts in 60-80 hours per week.

Consistency

The only reason listeners continue to listen to your show is because they like you. If they don’t like the host, they won’t listen.
When you start a show, there is an unwritten contract between you and your listener.
If you miss episodes, you have broken the contract you made with the listener in the first episode.
Listeners feel personally violated when you break the consistency contract.

Show Length

You are also contracting with the listener for the length of time your show is going to be.
If your show is good enough, people will allot the time for it.

Approaching Sponsors

Glenn doesn't sell based on CPM but rather a flat rate per episode.
When going after a sponsor, it should be the mid-size and smaller companies who need your help to grow.
Include the sponsors as part of the content in your show, and offer them an interview, regular segments, or a way to provide tips.
Tradeshows in your niche are a great way to approach sponsors.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Horse Radio Network

Stable Scoop Radio Show

How to be a Great Interviewer with David Ralph

Wed, 03 Feb 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview David Ralph, who is a financial trainer-turned-full time podcaster. During the show, David and I discuss podcasting philosophy and freestyling, the art of the interview, releasing average shows, self-editing, new and noteworthy hype, and longevity in podcasting.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about your podcasting philosophy and why you like ‘freestyle.’
Do you have any ‘I don’t know what to ask next’ moments?
What are your tips for staying inspired and keeping up with the podcasting workload?
Talk about the concept of the ‘Avatar.’
Talk about how you introduce your podcast guests and how that affects the show.

Key Lessons Learned:

Conversational Podcasts

Conversation develops into relationships, and then into business and sales.
The true value of a podcast comes not just from talking but building relationship bridges.
As a podcaster, you should treat interviewing as an art.
To have a conversational interview, you have to really listen.

Taking Control

As an interviewer, it is not just about asking questions but also taking control of the interview.
Consider making a lengthy introduction in order to tell your guest’s story before they get to it.
Guests often tell stories that they have told hundreds of times before. If you tell the story for them, then they have nothing to ‘hide behind’ and are forced to provide new content.

Releasing Average Shows

Releasing an episode you aren’t happy with shows the journey.
The end product of a show is different for every listener.
Listeners will still find value in every episode, even if it isn’t a home run.

Self-Edit & Improve

It is possible to train yourself to speak in a fluent and engaging manner instead of taking the ‘ums and ahs’ out in post-production.
Fine-tuning your super-talent will separate you from the masses.
David listens to each of his shows twice in order to improve his presentation.
If you want to get better at your own podcast, you need to listen back to your own shows and pick out the faults.
If you’re happy with your first podcast episode, you probably waited too long to launch.

New and Noteworthy

This is overhyped in iTunes and often gives new shows a false boost.
A successful podcaster is someone who continues to podcast past the first 8 weeks.

The Avatar

There’s a lot of work in finding your avatar, but not a lot in understanding yourself.
The key failing is that people are trained to go for the ‘avatar’ character.
A lot of podcasters don’t look at themselves, and instead create content for others, which leads to them being bored as a host or without subject breadth.

Introducing the Guests

Introducing the guest sets the tone for the entire interview and shows that the host is in control.
The last two words of an introduction should be the guest’s name.
Take the bio and replace with ‘he’ or ‘she,’ and make it exciting.
Think about how the professional late night talk show hosts introduce their guests.

Common Problems

Podcasters sounding bored and formulaic.
Podcasters seem to base their presentation on new media rather than old media.

David’s Tips

Make your show as generic as possible so it doesn’t date. Can it be listened to in 5 years and still be relevant?
You have to gain the skills of becoming a host before you gain the skills of becoming a guest.
Hosts lead the conversation. Guests leave gaps the host can step into.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Join Up Dots

Podcasters Mastery (Advanced)

Being Career Hearted with Jeffrey Goodman

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Jeffrey Goodman, who has a long history of business successes including life as a fashion advertising photographer and developing a private practice in energy medicine. During this episode, we discuss the four communication styles and the four seasons of business.

Main Questions Asked:

What are the four communication styles?
Talk about the four seasons of businesses and the psychology.
Why does more money and success happen in the fall season?
Talk about businesses as ‘living beings.’

Key Lessons Learned:

The 4 Communication Styles

Visual
Audio
Kinesthetic
Read/Write

Communication

In seeking to understand, we need to know how a person best likes to communicate.
People have a natural tendency toward a primary and secondary communication type.

Communication and Business

Often, employer/employee misunderstandings are due to different communication styles.
Figure out how people communicate and how people learn.
Just because a certain type of communication isn’t your natural way of doing something doesn’t mean you leave it out; it just means you need better tools or to outsource assistance.

The 4 Seasons of Business

The seasons in business don’t match with the season of the year. This is philosophical rather than literal.
Knowing the seasons help you leverage based on what season you are in.

Spring

This is the period of getting a business started and planting the seeds.

Summer

This is when you see the results of planting the seeds in spring.

Fall

This is the harvest season, when business becomes successful.
This is when all the money and success comes in.
Just because it’s fall for your business doesn’t mean it’s fall in someone else’s business.

Winter

The last thing to do when you’re on snow and ice is to have your foot on the pedal.
Business is slow, so there is more time to relax and trust in your business and that you have done enough work to carry you through.
Take time off from harvesting to take stock of the last three seasons.
Leverage the quiet times to rebuild.
This is a great time to give your website an annual makeover.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Career Hearted

It's Not Woo-Woo, It's Science with Katy Bray

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview professional clairvoyant, Katy Bray, whose direct and loving approach has been game-changing for those seeking to achieve the next level of success, greater confidence, and authenticity. As a clairvoyant, Katy is exceptionally well-versed in transformative techniques for accessing information and fast-forwarding growth for her clients. During this episode, Katy and I discuss being a Vedic Master, clairvoyance, Kundalini Reiki, integrative nutrition, how intuition increases sales, and why some people stop at a certain level of success.

Main Questions Asked:

What is a Vedic Master?
Explain what it means to be clairvoyant.
What is Reiki?
Talk about being an integrative nutrition practitioner.
How does intuition increase sales?
Why do some people stop at a certain level of success?
Talk about your business and how you work with clients.

Key Lessons Learned:

A Vedic Master is someone who is certified in Ayurveda (science of life), yoga, and meditation.
Some of the events we go through are not solely so that we overcome them but so that we can have deep compassion for others.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyant means ‘clear seeing.’ Katy’s ability is to see in the sixth sensory world.
When working with a client, Katy is able to see things in the past that hold them back, as well as see predictions.

Reiki

This is the energy of unconditional love that uses a healing modality.
Kundalini Reiki comes from the earth.

Integrative Nutrition

This is not a clinical study of nutrition but rather the study of a variety of diets and ways people eat.
Integrative nutrition is also the study of different bodies in comparison to each other with regards to diets.
This is about seeing yourself as a whole person and intuitively listening to your body.
Our bodies are wise, but we spend a lot of time shutting off the signals instead of listening.

How Intuition Increases Sales

This is a ‘knowing’ you have on some level such as a ‘gut feeling.’
Sales is about building relationships so when you can intuit where a person is on the following positions:

1.Feeling like an expert.

Having a level playing field.
Dumbing it down.

Once you figure out what position a customer takes, you can engage in the appropriate way.
Intuition shortens the listen-learn-love process and speeds it up.

Stopping at a Certain Level of Success

A lot of people feel guilty about achieving a certain level of success.
Many people have a mindset of ‘tribal energy’ such as family of origin in your family’s money DNA.
Our unconscious brain tells us that if we move outside the accepted level of success you can start to feel like an outcast in the ‘tribe.’
Beyond the mindset is where the set point starts, and unravel it from the whole body’s energy system.

Katy’s Business Model

Most clients are one-on-one via Skype, as well as corporate coaching.
Katy does everything from psychic strategy to assisting in the hiring process.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Katy Bray

Lead With the Lights On

Listen, Learn, Love (book)

Using Business Credit to Start and Grow Your Company with Ty Crandall

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Ty Crandall, who is an internationally known speaker, author, and business credit expert. Ty is the CEO of Credit Suite, where he created, and continues to grow, one of the biggest and most credible business coaching operations in the United States. Ty brings to the table more than 16 years of financial experience and is an authority in business credit building, business credit scoring, and business credit repair. During this episode, Jessica and Ty discuss business credit, business applications, how Walmart uses credit, why you shouldn’t disclose your social security number, and how to build a business credit profile and score.

Main Questions Asked:

What excites you about credit?
What do you say to entrepreneurs who don’t want to use a credit card?
If your business doesn’t have a big history, will they check your personal credit score?
What are the steps to build a business credit profile and score?
What mistakes do entrepreneurs make when taking out business credit?
How do you help people get over the mindset of not wanting debt?

Key Lessons Learned:

Business Credit

We are conditioned to think that debt is bad. Ty agrees with this on the personal side, but not on the business side.
Don’t use your own personal credit to build your businesses.
Anyone, even as a startup, can obtain business credit and can start to get money immediately without the personal liability, and use it to build and fund the business.

Business Applications

You don’t need to provide your personal social security number to get a business credit check and obtain business credit. What you need is a foundation.
When you put your EIN on an application and leave the social security number blank, you are forcing them to pull your business credit. This means you will be approved on business credit if that is established.
You need a foundation from vendor accounts who will give you credit, even if you have none.
These vendors report to the credit agencies so you can get real credit you can use.
Pay your bills on time, then they report the credit, so you now have an established business credit profile and score.
This can be used as a springboard to get store and cash credit.

Walmart

The most successful companies that exist are good at using other people’s money. For example, Walmart.
80% of what Walmart has stocked is bought using credit. When customers buy, Walmart uses that to pay off the credit.

FICO Score

Almost 30% of your FICO score is utilization.
If you start to use a personal credit card to fund a business, and utilize it too much, your credit score will start tanking.

Building a Business Credit Profile and Score

Business credit is the same as consumer credit.
You start with no credit profile, and get some accounts that report.
Keep in mind you are not starting with secured or lower-limit credit cards like you would in the consumer world.
Business credit fundamentally starts with vendor accounts.
With vendor and Net 30 accounts, you have 30 days to pay back that balance.
Business credit scores are only based on how you pay. If you pay early or on time, you are immediately awarded with a good score.
Most major retailers will offer you business credit once you have your profile and tradelines established.

Common Mistakes

People apply without having a credible business. To avoid this, make sure what is on the application reflects that you are a credible business.
Don’t skip the vendor step. Make sure you get at least 5 vendor accounts, then move into store credit, then to cash credit.

Providing the Social Security Number

The biggest mistake is people putting their social security number on the application.
When you provide the social security number, and you default, they come after you personally.

Using Credit and Financing

You are either going to fund the business from the profits, or you can get a cash or credit injection and do it at a faster pace and higher level.

Business Credit Scoring Model

Paydex runs 0-100 points.
For the main scores, it is only based on how you pay. This is why you can build business credit fast as opposed to consumer credit.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Ty Crandall

Free Download

Credit Suite

Perfect Credit (book)

Business Credit Decoded (book)

Mastering Your Mind & Setting Realistic Intentions, Not Goals with Rob Scott

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Rob Scott, who is a master coach known for hijacking people’s minds, rewiring their limiting beliefs, and leaving them completely transformed. During this episode, Jessica and Rob discuss authenticity, transparency, privacy, mastering mindset, and goals versus intentions.

Main Questions Asked:

Why is it important to be authentic and transparent about your story?
Why are people more likely to post only their highlights as opposed to their struggles?
How can people master their mindset?
How do you break the news to someone going for a goal that they should reevaluate?
What is identity shifting?

Key Lessons Learned:

Authenticity & Transparency

If you are going through ‘stuff,’ it doesn’t mean there isn’t a possibility for you to overcome it and move forward.
Being authentic and tending toward transparency is an important concept, especially since ‘privacy’ is essentially gone.
Living authentically makes us feel better and happier.
Lying and misrepresenting one’s self long-term erodes the trust and the value of your word and brand.

Posting Highlights

An average level of consciousness is interested in what others think of us. We often post the wins on Facebook, but not the struggles.
Facebook and social media is an inauthentic history of people just showing their best moments.
Social media essentially gives us all our own reality show. We all have our personal and business personas.
Before we post we ask, “What do I want the public to know about me?”

Steps to Mastering Your Mindset

We are not our ideas or thoughts.
Thoughts are tools we use.
Protecting your mindset is crucial.
How we run our mind matters.
Our mind and attention are our most valuable assets.

Awareness

Don't be a victim to whatever the moment is.
You have agency over your attention, and notice what you feel.
Just because you ‘think’ something doesn’t mean its true.

Challenge

Mindset is survival-based and ingrained so we have stories of ‘I can’t’.
Challenge what you believe to be true.

Replace & Repattern

Replace what you think to be true in your mindset.
Think a more useful thought.
In order for things to become not true, you have to stop thinking like that.

Goals and Intentions

There is a difference between goals and intentions.
Goals need to be related to the things that you control.
People often set intentions that they don’t have control over, and when they miss it, it starts to affect their mindset.
g. You can’t control how many downloads you get on your podcast, but you can control emailing your list and social media activity.
Take your intentions and ask yourself, “What can I control, and what can I do that will make this happen?”

Wins

Success builds on success.
Start the day with getting things checked off your list.
Give yourself credit for the things you are doing.

Coaching

Coaches don’t critique the person but rather the idea.
It’s important for clients to get a coach’s authentic thoughts and best ideas.

Authenticity

One to one.
One to many.
One to ourselves.

Identity Shifting

Identity is a persistent story you tell yourself that includes qualities and habits that make up who you are.
Your identity changes all the time, and for most people, it isn’t a conscious process.
Most people want to keep all their ideas, habits, and all of who they are but still get a different result. The reality is you need to think different thoughts and take different actions.
The process of getting different results in your life requires an identity change.
The persistent sense of yourself, if full of limiting beliefs, can be moved away from to create a different self concept.
You can consciously change your identity.
Our habits form our identity, but it can also be the other way around, where our identity shifts habits.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Rob Scott

Trademarks, Teamwork & Marriage with Nellie Akalp

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Nellie Akalp, who is a small business advocate and CEO of CorpNet.com. Nellie has formed more than 100K corporations and LLCs across the US, and has been building companies for more than 18 years. In 2008, Nellie sold her first company to Intuit for $20M, and got straight back in the entrepreneur game. During this episode, Jessica and Nellie discuss trademarks, common law rights, how to get started, working as a couple, and managing a successful team.

Main Questions Asked:

How did your law school education impact what you are doing in business?
When is the best time to trademark a business name?
What is the investment for securing a trademark?
What are common law trademark rights?
What are your tips for younger married women with kids in the early years of their business?
Talk about managing and growing a successful team.
What is an example of one thing you have done that contributed to upleveling your business?
What percentage of million dollar businesses are owned by women?

Key Lessons Learned:

About CorpNet

CorpNet provides legal document preparation services to small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to start a business.

Trademarks

Businesses need to protect their name, brand, logo, and tagline, as well as completing trademark and copyright registration and searches.
Trademarks are about protecting your brand from anyone else using it, diluting it, and creating confusion in the marketplace.
Trademark protection is about preventing others from using your name, tag line, brand, and logo.
If the business is making money, is profitable, and you are planning on building out the business, you should consider trademarking.
Having a trademark is one more step to giving you brand recognition and loyalty.

Getting Started with a Trademark

Prices start from $149 for the application preparation (in addition to the fees paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office).
Do a free trademark search at the federal level.
A nationwide trademark search is $199. If you are doing name and logo, it is $299.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office fees range from $325 per class to $375 per class.

Common Law Trademark Rights

Common law rights are based on first use of the name.
Just by using a name in the marketplace, you are applying rights to that name under the First-use doctrine.

Family & Relationship Tips for Entrepreneurs

In running a business with your partner, you have to be linear rather than a hierarchy.
You always have to be unified as a couple in front of your team.
Mandate date night, and keep it intimate rather than simply just business.

Managing a Successful Team

When working with remote team members, their mindset has to be one of an entrepreneurial nature. Whereby everyone is working toward a common goal.
A big company is a result of the sum of its parts.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

CorpNet

USPTO

info@corpnet.com

1-888-281-7111

Opening Up About Mindset & Head Trash with Rick Martinez

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Rick Martinez, who is a veteran, registered nurse, writer, and successful entrepreneur. Rick sold his company, MedTrust for seven figures, and during this episode, discusses BizAcademy Online, money mindset, winner’s mindset, masterminds, and the 4 business fundamentals you won’t learn in business school.

Main Questions Asked:

Why are people, passion, and profit the keys to greater impact and more reward?
What are your thoughts around money mindset?
How do you define and develop a winner’s mindset?
How can people strengthen the winner’s mindset?
What are the 4 business fundamentals you need to know about, and why won’t you learn them in business school?
Talk about entrepreneurs and follow through.

Key Lessons Learned:

Money Mindset

Work less, make more, live with passion, and make money.
We need to have a different internal conversation about money, because it’s okay to make money. It’s not about the money, but rather what you do with it.
Being happy for people who have more will put you in an abundance mindset.

Winner’s Mindset

Whether you own your business or are an employee, you need to get your mind ready to attack the day.
This mindset starts with how you approach the day, starting from waking up to perception.
When you know ‘why’ you are going to do what you do, it makes things easier.
Rick starts his day with a ‘power hour,’ which includes reading something inspirational, clearing out his inbox, and reading his mantras.
Our minds can quickly go to negative places, so it works to have positive mantras actually written down.

Tips for Winner’s Mindset

It’s often difficult to keep energy flowing on our own and the power of accountability.
Masterminds don’t always have to be for business owners. There are local Meetup groups.
If you don’t have a mastermind group, then either seek one out or create one. Be the change you want to see.

Challenging Days

Wondering what you are doing, what your purpose is, and if you are on the right path happens to everyone.
We all have days where the mindset goes off the deep end and negative mind chatter creeps in.
Have an accountability partner you can call when you need a ‘mindset check.’

The 5 People

We are the average of the 5 people we surround ourselves with. These don’t have to be people we aspire to be, but can be people we lead.
Regardless of whether you are a business owner, you need to have mentors and trusted advisors in your life.
Think of your advisors as a board of directors, as not everyone can give advise on every challenge.
It’s not just about business; it’s about the balance of life.

The 4 Business Fundamentals

People

Understanding vendors and clients.

Strategy

What is the long-term 3-5-year plan?

Execution

How are you putting what you know about people and your business into action?

Cash Flow

Cash is king.
Gross revenue is for vanity, and net revenue is for sanity.

Entrepreneurs & Follow Through

Fail fast, fail cheap, and ask, “Is what I’m going to do a benefit in the long run, or am I doing this to satisfy my entrepreneur ego?”

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Hustle Blueprint

Biz Academy Online

Rick Martinez

Embracing the Marketing Grind with Matt Miller

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Matt Miller, who is an Air Force veteran that bought one gumball machine and turned it into a franchise business. School Spirit Vending provides hassle-free, year-round fundraising for schools, and during this episode Jessica and Matt discuss business for families, the vending business model, adding value, and long-term commitment in podcasting.

Main Questions Asked:

How has being an Air Force veteran helped you in business?
Do you think that everyone should have to go through the military at some point?
Talk about multi-generations in business.
Walk us through the School Spirit Vending business model.
How has using podcasting helped to grow your business?
What would it take for someone to get started in School Spirit Vending?

Key Lessons Learned:

Business for Families

Matt spends time fostering an environment where families can build their business together and kids can learn by helping parents.
This is not only a way to make money but also a responsibility to teach and help foster growth and inspiration in the kids.

School Spirit Vending Business Model

The business is based on hassle-free, year-round fundraising for schools by placing sticker machines in the school.
Spirit stickers are custom designed with school colors and mascots.
The goal is to reinvent school fundraising and let professional companies do all the work rather than kids going door-to-door.
This is a passive fundraiser for the school.
This business takes a couple of days per month to get started as a vendor, but over time it will be a passive income.
Each vending machine is a building block of income.

Marlin & Percy

Comic book series developed to start inspiring kids through the sticker machines.
This increases the value of the service that is offered.

Adding Value

Look at what you are already providing your clients and ask yourself how you can make it better.
This doesn’t mean adding more products and services, but rather making what people are getting more valuable.
If you create a win/win scenario, your ‘churn rate’ and the need to create more business constantly will be smaller.
Provide more value than people expect and continue to innovate, surprise, and amaze clients.

Podcasting

Having someone pitch you as a ‘celebrity’ and having ‘your people’ contact ‘their people’ is big.
The main investment in podcasting is in time.
Matt has found that the people reaching out to him with interest in franchising are pre-qualified, as they have already heard his story.
By the time someone contacts Matt, they have already listened to multiple interviews he has done and are 75% of the way there.
Matt has found the upper-middle class to be in the podcasting space as listeners.
A lot of people don’t know about podcasting yet, which means, if you get in now, you will be ahead of the game.
Podcasting is a vehicle to create evergreen content.
The ROI of a podcast episode isn’t necessarily realized as soon as it goes live.

Podcast for Backlinks

Backlinks from show notes are directing people to Matt’s site, the SEO is rising, and people have been contacting Matt through online searches.
The more backlinks you have the better. Google likes it and boosts your site in searches.

Long-Term Commitment

Podcasting is a long-term marketing strategy, and people will discover your podcast over months and years.
Matt’s goal for the next several years is to be a guest expert on a show at least once a week.
There are always new audiences, shows, and people looking for new content and solid interviews.
In the process, there is plenty of opportunity, but you have to commit and, overtime, it will pay huge dividends.
Most people will do their interview or podcast a few times and think that it's a failure and give up before there was enough time to gain traction.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Live Your Dreams

School Spirit Vending

Marlin & Percy

From Getting Fired to Getting Paid with Caitlin Pyle

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Caitlin Pyle, who is a former freelance proofreader turned entrepreneur. Caitlin is a millennial who used to earn $3-5K a month doing part-time work, but tapped into the power of the internet and built her online business from zero to over $500K in 12 months. During this episode, Jessica and Caitlin discuss making mistakes and entrepreneur traps, the transition from the trenches to entrepreneur, taking stock of success, and dealing with online business and haters.

Main Questions Asked:

Tell us about your big failure.
What were your next steps after the big failure?
What do you think about ‘follow the passion’ versus ‘follow the money?’
What was the transition from proofreader to entrepreneur like?
Who inspired you when you first started your online business?
Talk about your businesses and how you are helping people.

Key Lessons Learned:

Making Mistakes & Entrepreneur Traps

Everyone teaches you how to get a job, but no one teaches you how to quit a job
Sometimes you think and work as an entrepreneur before you are one.
Weigh up whether you want to get paid for the value you offer or paid by the hour.
When people want to become an entrepreneur, some fall into the trap of asking ‘what looks sexy?’
Many budding entrepreneurs look at what they think they want to do and their passion rather than where the money is.
Follow the money, figure out how to make it work for your life, and enjoy it.

Transitioning from the Trenches

When you become a successful entrepreneur, most likely you are not still doing the thing your business does.
Ensure the level of service to your clients is like none they have ever received before and remain active within your client community.

Look How Far You’ve Come

Entrepreneurs often only think of what’s next and do not look at the progress.
Take a moment to reflect on what you have achieved in the past week, month, and year.
If you’re not embarrassed by the first e-book, video, or podcast, then you waited too long to release it.

Online Business & Haters

Prepare yourself for haters. This is magnified when you do business online.
Be careful how you treat your staff, clients, and customer relationships online.
People that leave reviews are those who love it or had a horrible experience, but not those who just had a good experience.
Avoid the ripple effect with clients and manage the issue quickly to avoid them spreading negative opinions.

Proofread Anywhere

Online course: Transcript Proofreading Theory and Practice.
Multimedia course with downloads and worksheets.
The full course takes 2-4 months with more than 50 practice transcripts and 3,000 pages.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Proofread Anywhere

The Work Anywhere Life

List Building and Email Marketing for Podcasters with Jeremy Montoya

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Jeremy Montoya, who is a self-proclaimed internet scientist and serial, lifelong entrepreneur. Jeremy found a pain-point podcasters have and built his business around it. During this episode, Jeremy will school us on how building an email list is the key to a successful business and podcast. There is much actionable content in this podcast!

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about newsletter open rates.
What are your tips for building an email list?
How often should people mail their list?
What are copywriting tactics for subject lines?

Key Lessons Learned:

When there is a pain point, you can build a list around it and make money off it. The money is in the list.

Open Rates

These are lower than ever before, and on average is 20-30%.
The way to increase the open rate is to focus on the experience of signing up.
If you do have your list sign-up set the right way, users will be busting to open the email from day one.

Unsubscribers

Don't’ be discouraged when you get unsubscribes.
People who unsubscribe aren’t your target audience, as they don’t see your value.
If people unsubscribe, this will mean your open rate will skyrocket, as the disinterested people have taken themselves out of the pool.

Personalizing

People love the sound of their own name.
Have users opt-in with their first name, then use that in the emails.
Embed a name code in the middle of emails to reference users by their first name. This will catch their eye.
Use the email to give subscribers a shout out.

Tips for Building a List

Begin with the end in mind.
Find other places where your audience hangs out and build the relationship with the community leaders.
People won’t hear you on a podcast and immediately become your client. You have to get them on your list to keep talking to them.
Make sure you ‘ask’ and don’t assume the audience will know what you want them to do.
If you don’t have your audiences’ contact details, then you can’t stay in contact with them directly regardless of what you have on social media.

Give Value Beyond the Episode

Tell your audience you have an email list and give them a reason to get on it during the podcast.
Make something custom for each episode such as an e-book or video series.
When you interview people on your podcast, ask if the guest has something to offer and make a deal to share the list.

How Often to Mail Your List

There is no set number or best practice on the frequency of sending emails to your list.
Most people resort to a weekly newsletter.
Be sure you are cultivating the relationship, even if it’s biweekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Keep an eye on the stats and open rate.

Content Strategy

Think about the content you like receiving.
Test your tone, style, intro, sign off, and imagery.
Use a story to lead into the point you are trying to make.
Making emails look like they are from you (using your name) and making them personal is a great strategy.
If you operate as a business, you might like to use a header.

Who is the Email From?

Who the email is coming from is more important than the subject line.
People open emails based on who it is from.
If people don't respect or feel comfortable with you, they won’t even give your email a chance and won’t open it.
Think about your legacy with the end in mind. This is what will make people a fan of you.

Subject Line

Play around with the subject line in order to get people to open.
Write your message and pull a subject out of that.
Being straight to the point gets the job done.
Being abstract and fun allows the audience to not get in the same pattern.

Example Subject Lines

I felt like a fraud… (Good)
My secret to getting it all done. (Too general)
What are you doing this weekend? (Sounds like it wants to sell)
AHHHH!!!!!! (Useful trick but not too often)

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Jeremy Montoya

Jeremy on Periscope

The Suitcase Entrepreneur

How to Make a Career Following Your Passion with Maura Sweeney

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Maura Sweeney, who considers herself an ‘accidental entrepreneur.’ Maura is an author, podcaster, international speaker, and Huffington Post contributor. She guides others on the path of living happy inside out. During this episode, we discuss homeschooling, involving children in business, giving and not getting, following your passion and living happy.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about your experience homeschooling.
Talk about how you involved your daughter in your business and how that affected your family.
What do you say to people who follow their passion but make no money?
Where did you get your business savvy and marketing expertise?

Key Lessons Learned:

Homeschooling

Do what works well for you from the inside out.
Do what you love, follow your passions, and your career path will follow.
Some children aren’t suited to homeschooling, as they aren’t self-directed and need the teacher to assist.
Homeschooling doesn’t have to be a permanent decision; you can take it year by year and see what works for you and your child.

Follow Your Passion

This is about living from the inside out.
Instead of trying to fit yourself into institutions that may not have a place for you, make your own path.

Give, Don’t Get

Give out as much as you can.
Get as much influence as you can.
Eventually, the money will follow.

Don’t Give Up

Most people don’t succeed because they give up too quickly.
Things that are important to you are worth learning, pursuing, and honing.
Take everything from your background and group it together in your own unique way to share and inspire.

Maura’s Story

She left law school because she wasn’t happy and had a background in sales, management, and writing.
Maura walked away from her business in order to have a mid-life career that allowed her to travel, use skills, and positively impact people.

Branding

Don't just ‘work it’ from one angle; work it from many!
Become synonymous with your brand and passion.

Humility

Recognize what you don’t know and don’t be afraid to ask people to show you.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Maura4U

Living Happy Inside Out (Podcast)

Maura Sweeney (Huffington Post)

Tampa Bay Business Owners

Florida Podfest

How to Create, Market and Sell an Online Course with Greg Smith

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Greg Smith, who talks about launching an online course so you have an additional stream of revenue in your business. Greg’s company, Thinkific, is a software platform that makes it easy to create, market, and sell online courses. If you are tech challenged, or if you always wanted to create an online course but get overwhelmed, then this is an episode you can’t afford to miss!

Main Questions Asked:

How much work goes into making a course?
What do successful courses look like?
What are the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make with online courses?
What are the price points for courses?
How do you market a course?
How do you decrease the rate at which people request refunds?
What is Thinkific, who is it for, and how do you use it?
What is the difference between Thinkific and Udemy?
What is the first step to creating an online course?

Key Lessons Learned:

Getting Started

If you have just one stream of revenue, and that stream goes away, then you are in trouble.
Avoid the mistake of, ‘If I build it they will come.’
Everything is colored by how you will market, distribute, and who you will share your course with.
The bulk in the online course space is on-demand.

Successful Courses

It comes down to the value you provide people and showing your customers how you will make their life different once they have completed the course.
The delivery method of your course can be via a number of ways, including PowerPoint with voice over, live, or pre-recorded video.

Biggest Mistakes

Obsessing over content but not thinking about how best to distribute the content.
Don't focus on perfection, or you’ll never launch. Just dive in and experiment.

Price Points

Price on trust.
Avoid pricing content based on hours of content or size of course.
Price based on the value you are giving the customer and the change you are making in their life.

Marketing

Find leads via PPC, Facebook, AdWords, and niche groups.
Present a webinar and sell the course at the end.

Refunds

The rate of refunds is low when it comes to online courses.
Refunds can be avoided by having customer service to deal with any issues.

Thinkific

The platform is for people who have a course or knowledge to share but don’t have the technical expertise to enact it.
Thinkific offers hosting, delivers videos, makes everything mobile, is easy to set up, includes the ecommerce aspect, and enables customers to brand their course as part of their own website.
Thinkific takes a 10% commission when customers use the free plan.
The $50 flat fee option on Thinkific allows unlimited students and courses with no commission.

Create the Webinar First

Get the audience to enroll before you create the webinar.
Once you have the audience, then customize based on buyers.

First Steps

Start with your chosen topic.
If you don't’ have a chosen topic, then survey your potential audience and find out what they most want to learn from you.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Thinkific

Yammer

Finding Happiness In Your Career with Dr. Joanie Connell

Wed, 11 Nov 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Dr. Joanie Connell, an author, organizational consultant, and leadership coach who helps people achieve their highest potential. Joanie works with companies to develop and retain top talent and improve their success and happiness in their careers. She is also the author of Flying Without a Helicopter: How to Prepare Young People for Work and Life. During the show, Jessica and Joanie discuss helicopter parenting, generational differences in the workplace, what makes a great leader, how to help employees be resilient, and how to find a career that excites you.

Main Questions Asked:

What are the pros and cons of helicopter parenting?
Talk about millennial and generational challenges in the work place.
Comment on how different generations figure out how to be happy in their career.
Do you think the transition from employee to contractor jobs help people find a work/life balance?
What does it take to be a successful leader?
How do you teach employees to take on leadership roles?
What can we do to help our employees be more resilient?
How can people find a career that excites them?

Key Lessons Learned:

Helicopter Parents

The choices you make as a parent are both good and bad, and it’s a matter of weighing up the pros and cons of different methods.
Helicopter parenting is ‘hovering’ over the kids, watching everything they do, and doing things for them.
The Lawnmower approach is paving the path ahead of the kids so they don’t make mistakes or fall down.
The consequence of helicopter parenting is that the kids never learn how to do things on their own and make their own mistakes.

Generational Differences in the Work Place

Millennials have different expectations and have been brought up where they have been protected and their self-esteem has been boosted.
Baby boomers have a harder time working a flexible schedule and have the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, 40 hour workweek ingrained in their belief system.

What Makes a Great Leader

Being a good leader is all about being flexible and thinking about the individual needs of each worker.
Leadership comes down to having a vision and bringing followers along.
If you don’t have followers, then you’re not a leader.
A great leader has people skills to interact, motivate, and inspire.

Helping Employees be Resilient

When things go wrong, are you able to stay strong, positive, and bounce back?
As managers, in order to help people build resilience, you have to let them fail. This is essentially the opposite of being a helicopter parent.

Finding a Career that Excites You

Figuring out what makes you happy takes a lot of self-awareness.
Ask yourself if it’s the content of the job, the environment, the company, having challenges, or helping people that makes you happy.
Figure out what energizes you and lifts you up.
What makes you happy doesn’t necessarily have to be in a different job; it can be in your current job.
The question shouldn’t be, ‘what should I be doing?’ but rather, ‘what makes me happy?’

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Slack

Flexible Work Solutions

Sales Secrets for Higher Profits with Heather Havenwood

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Heather Havenwood, who is known as ‘Sexy Boss’ and is an expert in marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, and dating. In 2006, Heather started, developed, and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over a million in sales in less than 12 months. During the show, Jessica and Heather discuss sales, rapport, the psychology of the sales funnel, and contractors in the on-demand economy.

Main Questions Asked:

What contributed to you reaching a million in sales?
How do you get over the fear of asking for what you want in sales?

Key Lessons Learned:

Choosing Business Models

Choose an evergreen niche that will never go away and is adaptable to business environments.
Make sure you’re building a business that isn’t reliant on other platforms or subject to regulations.
If you are an entrepreneur, you’re in sales. You have to be confident asking for what you want.

Creating Multiple Products and Services

Don’t just sell one thing to your current clients. Create multiple things and sell to the same person multiple times.
Who are your current customers and clients, and what more can you sell to them?
Sell more to people who know, like, and trust you.
Good sales people love to be sold to.
The best sales conversations are when clients come ‘pre-sold.’

Rapport & Connections

Sales is all about rapport and building connections.
Part of the connection is:

A) Showing the client that the product of service will help them get the desired result.
B) You are trustworthy enough, that you are the person who is going to fulfill that need.

The Psychology of the Sales Funnel

There is the self-selection process where the client has either seen an advert, e-mail, or been referred.
The client has self-selected themselves for the conversation and from there will choose to buy or not.
Just because people self-select doesn’t mean they are closed.
People need to be exposed to your brand on average 7 times before deciding to buy.

Women in Business

Women are the number one underutilized resource on the planet.
Females are taught to ask ‘around the corners’ and hit rather than ask directly.

Contractors and the On-Demand Economy

The on-demand economy and contractors are promoting entrepreneurial mindset, as people now have multiple streams of income.
Being an independent contractor can be a path to entrepreneurship for a lot of people.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Heather Havenwood

Sexy Boss Inc

The Soul of Money

From Starting to Selling: How to Grow a Business with Erin Smith

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Erin Smith, who is a serial entrepreneur and has built and sold multiple businesses. She is the woman behind The Starters Club podcast and the author of Master the Start. During the show, we discuss motherhood and business, building business to sell, investing in real estate, delegating and getting out of your own way, and lessons learned from writing a book.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about your perspective on motherhood and business.
How do you prepare yourself mentally and logistically to sell?
How did you finance your real estate investing?
How much time is spent managing property investments?
What is your advice on how to brand your business?
Share your wisdom around hiring people.
Tell us about your experience in writing your book.

Key Lessons Learned:

Working Yourself Out of a Job

As an entrepreneur, your goal is to ‘work yourself out of a job.’
Get yourself to the point mentally where you can build your business so you get out of it.
Trust and hire the right people so your business can continue to grow without you.
In order to set up your business so it will run without you, a good test is to go on a vacation and see what happens.
There is a difference between having a ‘business’ and a ‘service.’ If you are away and nothing happens, then it’s a service.

Real Estate Investing

Erin uses property management companies for her out-of-state properties.
The best things Erin ever did were manage her own properties and having a handy man on her team whom her tenants can contact for repairs.

Branding a Business

Deciding on whether to go with a business or personal brand is a balance and a decision as to where to put your marketing dollars.
If you are promoting your business and your brand, then sometimes it’s best to separate the two as a person and as a brand.
If you want your business to be sellable, it’s best to go with the brand and not the personal name.

Hiring and Outsourcing

When hiring, go with your gut.
Any employee should be bringing a return on investment, which should be reflected in their paycheck.
Make sure employees are qualified and make them do some kind of test before hiring them.
In the job description, write very specific instructions to test that the applicants are reading the directions.
Take your time in hiring, otherwise it will cost you far too much to train someone who leaves after a few months.
If your trust is broken with an employee, then get rid of them.

Lessons from Writing a Book

Writing a book is such an ‘inner game.’
Just because someone else has had the idea for a business doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It just means the business model has already been proven. You have to find an ‘in’ and do it better.
We limit ourselves by the notion on what we grew up with and our own mindset of what we are capable of.
Everything is a matter of ‘how bad do you want it?’

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Starters Club

Master the Start (book)

The No B.S. Management of People and Profits (book)

Entrepreneurial Fatigue with Dr. Carri Drzyzga

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Carri Drzyzga, who is known internationally as the functional medicine doc and go-to expert on finding the root causes of health problems so you can feel normal again. Carri is a chiropractor, naturopathic doctor, host of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, and author of the hit book Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again. She is the creator of Entrepreneurial Fatigue: How to fuel your brain and body for entrepreneurial success. During the show, we discuss sleep, entrepreneurial fatigue, food and fatigue prevention, Carri’s Ultimate Smoothie recipe, and office strategies to get moving.

Main Questions Asked:

Talk about the importance of sleep environment.
What is entrepreneurial fatigue, and how do you know if you have it?
What are some of the causes of entrepreneurial fatigue?
What can we do to prevent entrepreneurial fatigue?
Why is eating at our desk so problematic?

Key Lessons Learned:

The Importance of Sleep

Even if you don’t have insomnia, you can still have sleep problems.
It’s important to have your bedroom as dark as you can get it (as dark as a cave).
The light in your bedroom stops your brain from producing the maximum amount of melatonin.
If you can’t darken your room, then try using a sleep mask. You may not get more sleep, but the quality will be better.

Entrepreneurial Fatigue

If you feel that you or your brain aren’t on point, then you are probably suffering with entrepreneurial fatigue.
Rate your average energy from 0-10. If you aren’t at 8 or higher, then you are suffering from entrepreneurial fatigue.

Food and Fatigue Prevention

Pay attention to taking care of the number one business asset, which is you. This means taking care of your health.
Small things will have long-term impacts such as business, health, relationships.

Carri’s Ultimate Smoothie Recipe:

Organic spinach
½ cup blueberries
1-2 Tbsp coconut oil
1-2 Tbsp clarified butter
1-2 Tbsp nut or seed butter
1-2 Tbsp raw cacao powder
3 raw organic eggs (or 20-30g of whey isolate protein powder)
Coconut water or milk

Exercise Get Moving

Sitting for prolonged periods of time is worse than sitting.
Interval training, which is short busts of exercise to get your heart rate up, move the body’s lymphatics, and get oxygen to your brain.
Booking-in appointment times to perform 5-10 minutes of exercise during breaks is a great strategy.
Great office exercise breaks include running in place, squats or lunges, commando crawls, and planking.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dr Carri

The Functional Medicine Radio Show

Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again (book)

Functional Medicine Ontario

The Slight Edge

How to make Ghee (Video)

Unique Relationship Challenges for Entrepreneurs with Susie Miller

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:59:12 -0400

Far too often, marriages and families suffer in the pursuit of business, profit, and growth. On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Susie Miller, who is the better relationship coach, author, speaker, and dedicated to helping create better relationships in 30 days or less. Susie equips high-potential entrepreneurs and executives with ways to reduce stress, improve communication, and not bankrupt relationships in the pursuit of profit and success. Susie is also the bestselling author of Listen, Learn, Love, and during this episode discusses the concept of the entrespouse, relationships and business, the 5 Love Languages, and the Profit Method.

Main Questions Asked:

What is an ‘entrespouse’?
What unique challenges do entrepreneurs face in their relationships?
Talk about The Profit Method.

Key Lessons Learned:

Entrespouse

This is someone who is married and also has a business.
As an entrepreneur, you have two loves: the husband or wife and the business.
We tell our spouses to ‘wait’ and that we will get to them, which puts them on the backburner and wrecks marriages.
When you spend time investing in anything other than your business, your business will suffer because it doesn’t have you 24/7.
If you are working to grow a strong marriage, you can’t be 24/7 in your business.

Relationships & Business

The biggest key is to invest in your marriage before the crisis hits.
When we are having relationship issues at home, we are distracted, burdened, and aren’t firing on all cylinders.
If the marriage ends, the business will be impacted by the separation of assets.
Having a better relationship frees up energy and creativity, so you have more of yourself present in your business.
Susie is on a crusade to have relationships talked about at business conferences because better relationships increase a businesses bottom line.

Entrespouse Communication

The level of unpredictability for entrepreneurs wreaks havoc on relationships.
We get so busy trying to stay on top of things that we forget to have discussions about it with our spouse.
If you don’t have conversations, then far too much gets assumed, which is where the problems start.
Entrepreneurs have a different mindset, so it’s important to develop a common language to enable spousal discussion with your non-entrepreneur mate.

The 5 Love Languages

If you want to know your spouse’s love language, just watch how they give you love.

Words of affirmation
Physical touch
Acts of service
Quality time
Gifts

The Profit Method

Priorities - Make time in your schedule.
Rekindle - Don’t live like roommates.
Open Up - Don’t let things build up.
Focus - When you are with your spouse or family be 100% with them.
Intentional Interactions - This isn’t quantity time. This is developing a strategy for engagement and interaction.
- This could be putting in a reminder to pick up flowers or send a text.
- In the midst of life, it’s the touch points of communication that keep us going.
Tactical - Strategic and preemptive things to help your relationship grown.

Mindset

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get wrapped up in what other people think, do, and say.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Susie Miller (First interview)

Susie Miller

How to Warm Up Your Voice with Joe Naab

Wed, 07 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Joe Naab, who is the founder and president of Vocal Nebula, which is a learning community online for those who love to sing. Joe has been an entrepreneur for more than twelve years, and during this episode explains why we should focus on our voices, talks about how to use your voice as an instrument, and teaches you vocal warm up exercises.

Main Questions Asked:

What makes the voice an instrument?
Why should we warm up and focus on our voice?

Key Lessons Learned:

Podcasting and Your Voice

As a podcaster or public speaker, it is important to take your voice seriously.
Treat podcasting as a craft and not simply a marketing tool.
When people are listening to your voice through headphones for prolonged periods of time, you want it to be an enjoyable experience.
Warm up your voice.
Remember to save this podcast and go back to the vocal exercises!

The Voice as an Instrument

The voice is an instrument because it makes music, but we tend not to think of it as an instrument.
When you see the voice as an instrument, it helps accelerate your progress as a singer, speaker, podcaster, or voice actor.
People are both the ‘player’ and the ‘instrument.’

The Three Parts:

Aerator

This is everything below the vocal chords.
Lungs, diaphragm, abdominal muscles.
The aerator provides air pressure to the intonator.
This is where we make sound that is projected into the resonator, where we shape the sounds.

Intonator

The voice box and everything it contains.
Larynx and vocal folds.

Resonator

The top of your neck and your head.

Focusing on the Voice

When we focus on the voice, we replace inhibitory behavior with exhibitory behavior.
Since early childhood, we are always taught to dampen the sound and lower the volume of our voice.
When you are about to podcast or do a speech, you need to warm up your voice to ensure you aren’t pushing too hard.

Benefits of Vocal Exercises

When you do these exercises, you are driving sonic energy into your brain.
While you sing, your brain produces dopamine and other feel good neurotransmitters.
Focus on a kinesthetic awareness of the feeling of the instrument. This is the secret to fast vocal development.
The student that learns how to do vocal exercises correctly will develop much faster than a student who just does them.

Four Vocal Exercises

Lip trill or lip bubbles
Closed Mouth Vowels (CMV): humming
Fricatives: Th, Z, S, (consonants with vowels behind them)
Articulators: The scale where you have a sound for each note of the scales.

Joe recommends: 1x lip trill, 2x closed mouth vowels, 2x fricatives, and 2x articulators.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Vocal Nebula

Serious Business Growth through Niching and Authority with Gene Hammett

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Gene Hammett, who proves no failure is big enough to keep you from success, even a failure that costs you millions of dollars! Gene is a business strategist who brings with him the experience of running two multimillion dollar businesses. He is fiercely committed to working with high-achieving leaders who want to lead with confidence and achieve financial freedom. Gene is the host of the Leaders in the Trenches podcast and, during this episode, talks podcasts as marketing tools, downloads and frequency, guest pitches, discovering your most profitable customers, niching down, and getting out behind the curtain.

Main Questions Asked:

What kept you going, and what has kept you from ‘podfading?’
How did you come to figure out who your audience is, and how do you bring them what they want?
How has the podcast been a successful marketing tool for your coaching business?
How important are podcast downloads to you when you know the podcast is producing results in your business?
Talk about the decision to go from three episodes a week to a weekly show.
Why is knowing the most profitable segment of your business so important?
Can you niche down too much and exclude people?

Key Lessons Learned:

Leaders in the Trenches Podcast

Prior to launching his podcast, Gene put together an executive roundtable of people he thought would be great coaching clients and spoke to them about what they wanted in a podcast.
After his research, Gene was confident on what he was here to do, who he was going to interview, the show’s structure, and how long episodes should be.
When things got tough, having the research prevented Gene from ‘podfading.’

Podcasts as Marketing Tools

The podcast has been a successful marketing tool to grow Gene’s business and extend it to people who aren’t reading the content or seeing him speak.
The podcast was designed to bring clients into the business, and Gene had his first client within 3 months.
The turning moment was speaking at Podcast Movement.
Podcasting has raised Gene’s authority level, as he is seen as a peer and not just a fanboy.
You can absolutely start a podcast for business purposes.

Downloads & Frequency

Gene was falling into the trap of more content is better.
More content isn’t better. Better content is better.
When Gene’s podcast moved from a three episode a week show to two, his download numbers didn’t change much. However, there was a shift when he downsized to one episode per week.
Download numbers only mean as much as you put into it.
It’s hard to maintain a high-quality of show when you are churning out so many podcasts.

Guest Pitches

When you get to the point where your podcast is more than a year old, you will get 1-2 email pitches per day requesting to be a guest on the show.
A lot of pitches are going out to podcasters where there isn’t a good fit between the guest and the host.
As a podcaster, if you don’t feel curious about someone’s story or expertise, then it’s best to say no to them as a guest.
If you record an interview that you don’t feel good about, then it’s best not to release them.

Who are Your Most Profitable Customers?

Most people only aim at the people they ‘can serve.’
If all of those people want to do business with you, then who do you want to do business with? Who inspires you? That becomes your niche!
John Lee Dumas says if you’re going to have a niche, you have to have it three levels deep.
The profitable niche is the people who get the highest value from what you offer.

Authority Approach

This involves getting out from behind the curtain, niching down, and becoming an authority figure.
Speaking gigs can be lucrative in building your business, as people are attracted to leaders.
Position yourself as the expert and speak in rooms, and create content that is directly in alignment with your most profitable customers.

Can You Niche Down Too Much?

This is a mindset issues of FOMO (fear of missing out) and not wanting to exclude people.
Uber did not start in every major city in the world. It started in San Francisco; Facebook started in Boston.
We only pay attention to what is specific to us and directed to us. If you aren’t willing to create the content that speaks directly to the heart of where someone is and connect, then they will ignore what you have.
Is your goal to reach millions with generic content or build a platform and transform the lives of those that get the highest value of what you offer?
A powerful way to niche down is to have people apply to your service so you can review them before they pay you.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Leaders in the Trenches Podcast

Leaders in the trenches (Jessica’s episode)

7 Steps to Getting More Speaking Gigs (Video)

Top 3 Pitfalls When Leading Virtual Employees

Holistic Time Management with Julie Gray

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Julie Gray, who is a holistic time coach. Julie goes beyond traditional time management to guide time-stressed executives and entrepreneurs through a powerful process that results in more guilt-free time, focused productivity, and the rejuvenation of your mind, body, and spirit. She is the author of Digital True For You Time Management Workbook and co-creator of the 21-Day Time Makeover Program with Self Magazine, as well as a featured time expert in the Washington Post’s Time Hacks section. During this episode, we discuss to-do lists, work hours anxiety, finding your anchors, email management, productivity tools, and external triggers.

Main Questions Asked:

What is holistic time management, and how is that different from a time management expert?
What are your thoughts on to-do lists?
What are your tips for entrepreneurs who work from home?
What are your email management tips?

Key Lessons Learned:

Holistic Time Management

Includes a traditional approach.
In order for systems to ‘stick,’ it is necessary to look at the whole person.
Time management is not just how you manage your time. It is also how you manage your energy, emotions, relationships, and communication.
There is no such thing as a cookie cutter time management system.
Every person behaves differently and has a different preferred work style, flow, and rhythm to his or her life.

To-Do Lists

There are a lot of different ways that are helpful, successful, efficient, and effective to use to-do lists.
Drill down to 1, 2, or 3 things you can do today.
Feeling overwhelmed is an indicator that you need to get stuff out of your head and onto a list, as you have too much backlog.
Make sure to separate your to-do list from a reminder list.
People will do a ‘brain dump’ and feel overwhelmed, but this is often a list of things you don’t want to forget rather than a to-do list.
What makes a to-do list is that you actually know you have the time to do those items.

To-Do List Tips

Draw a horizontal line across your to-do list.
Everything above the line is what you have to get done and you have the time to complete it. This forces you to prioritize at a high level.
Everything below the line are things you’d love to do but don’t have to be done within your time frame.
Think of this as have to/want, now/later, or to-do/reminders.

Work Hours Anxiety

What are the activities you need to do that make it feel okay to work less?
You are going to be more productive when you take breaks.
Schedule your work hours when you know you are at your best for client calls, interviews, and writing. This is an element of mindfulness that will inform your schedule over time.

Find Your Anchors

Anchors are the activities and times in your schedule you consistently adhere to.
Let your anchors inform your schedule as a framework and arrange your work around the anchors.
Everyone falls somewhere along the continuum between spaciousness and structure.
If you are not fitting something in, then it’s not a high enough priority in your to-do list.

E-Mail Management

Cut the cord when it comes to notifications. This is really distracting and energy draining.
It can take your brain 15-20 minutes to get back to the level of concentration it was at prior to interruption.
Any time we can an email or text, we get a boost of dopamine and the pleasure of someone communicating with us.

Batching

When you are on email less, you get less email.
Processing and checking email is not the same thing.
The managing of email takes less time.
Examples: Check email at 9, 12, 5, or check email once an hour for 15 minutes.

Manage ‘Off’ Email:

Shut down the notifications and sounds in order to be ‘offline.’
This naturally pushes email to where you can process it in batches.

Productivity Tools

We are at the saturation point of productivity tools.
The system behind the tool is what is more important than the tool itself.
People get caught up in the ‘perfect tool’ trap.

External Triggers

A compelling external trigger is when other people are dependent on the fact you get certain things done.
It’s possible to bookend high-priority tasks with external triggers.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Profound Impact

How to Give & Receive Feedback as a Business Owner with Jamie Sussel Turner

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Jamie Turner, who is the Less Stress business coach and leadership consultant. Jamie worked in education for more than twenty years, of which the last twelve were as a school principal. During the show, we discuss providing and giving and receiving feedback from your team, coaching versus compliance leadership, how the 80/20 rule applies to feedback, and the five words you need to know when it comes to providing feedback.

Main Questions Asked:

§ Why is feedback the lifeblood of a healthy business?

§ How do you help business owners receive feedback and not get defensive?

§ Talk about what a coaching style leadership is and how that is different to compliance leadership?

§ What are your tips on how to structure one-on-one check-in calls?

§ Talk about providing feedback to your employees and having difficult conversations.

§ Why is it important to focus more on the positive feedback than the negative?

Key Lessons Learned:

Feedback

- Without feedback a business can’t be healthy and grow.

- Feedback allows change to happen and new ideas to surface.

- If leaders can create a safe place where the team can tell them what they truly think, those ideas can improve the business in ways that haven’t been imagined.

- Feedback has to be two-way and not just the leader giving feedback to the employees

- The leader of the team has to be the person to invite and encourage feedback.

Accepting Feedback

- The natural inclination when receiving feedback is to defend your point of view. If you do this, people will stop providing feedback.

- Often, leaders invite feedback but do nothing with it. If nothing happens as a result, people will stop providing feedback.

- Learn how to be less defensive and let the feedback in.

- “Thank you so much for that feedback.” This shifts the brain into gratitude mode.

- Stay curious. Try and understand what the feedback is about.

- It’s okay to not respond in the moment and offer to reconnect the following day.

- Learn to recognize the signs of emotions and hit the pause button and give yourself time to process.

Coaching Vs. Compliance Leadership

- Coaching is about helping the employee solve the problem rather than providing the solution.

- It’s a mix of asking great powerful questions and providing information.

One-on-one Check-in Calls

- 80% of the conversation should come from what your team member needs to talk about.

- “What is most important for us to talk about today,” and take the lead from the employee. This will uncover the challenges they are facing.

- The aim of the conversation is to help the employee do the best job that they can.

- We want to create a safe place where our employee can let us know when things aren’t going well.

- Make it clear what the purpose of the time is, as well as the expected outcome.

- It’s important to end the call with a plan and next steps.

Providing Feedback to the Team

- Don’t let too much time go by before you have the difficult conversation.

- Make sure you have at least two concrete examples and are clear on exactly what the issue is.

- Have the conversation when you aren’t feeling emotional about the issue.

The Five Words

When
You
I
Feel
Because

- Example: “Jessica, when you come in late a few times a week, I feel really frustrated and upset because we’ve talked about how important it is to be on time for work and how our customers are here…”

Positive Feedback

- Many employees need to hear positive feedback and really benefit from knowing they are on the right path.

- Often, leaders don’t need positive feedback as they are self-driven.

- Positive feedback needs to be specific and letting the employee know what they did well. This enables the employee to repeat that behavior.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Less Stress Business

Bonding Over Food with Ronsley Vaz

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Ronsley Vaz, who is the chief food sharer at Bond Appetit, a company that unites people over food. He is the host of Australia’s number one food podcast on iTunes and the author of the upcoming book Fuel: Uniting Peak Performers Over Food. During the show, we discuss sharing meals, entrepreneurs and gratitude, essentialism, podcasting, and ‘soapboxisodes.’

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about sharing food and the impact that has on families and relationships.

- How did you come to take Bond Appetit and niche it to entrepreneurs?

- What bad habits and traits do you see with the entrepreneurs you cook for that are holding them back?

- Talk about podcasting, what it has done for your business, and how you’re leveraging it.

- Tell us about Podcast Revolution.

Key Lessons Learned:

Meet Ronsley

- Ronsley cooks for entrepreneurs and provides them food, but sees it more as a service to provide time.

- He has been cooking professionally for more than nineteen years and started to run his own fresh food restaurants specializing in uniquely flavored food.

- Ronsley focuses on entrepreneurs and people who are high achievers but don’t have the time, mental space, or energy to focus on cooking and eating well.

Sharing Meals

- The importance of sharing can be seen with the move toward the sharing economy. E.g. Uber, AirBnB.

- We forget the connection made around the table when sharing a meal with someone.

- When sharing a meal, it is important to keeping the distractions away and keeping the conversation focused on each other.

- When we stop to eat, our body gets ready to digest.

- Based on a study of families that ate together at least once per week, there was no sign of depression with teenage kids in the family.

Entrepreneurs and Gratitude

- High achieving entrepreneurs often write daily in a gratitude journal.

- Exercise: make a list of 100 things you are grateful for.

Essentialism

- This is the discipline pursuit of less and doing the things we are good at and love to do, while not doing the other things and pretending to be busy.

- We are always taught to look at our weaknesses and make them better, but not taught to recognize our strengths and focus on them.

- Focus on your strengths and delegate the rest.

- Figure out what you don’t like to do and takes up your time so you can outsource and use that time to either work on revenue generating business activities or spend time with your family.

Making Change With The Auditory

- The auditory sense is the first sense we develop in our mother’s womb and is how we communicate with our parents.

- All change in human history points back to a point in time when a speech was made that changed a group of people’s minds.

- Today, we have the ability to create our own personal movements on passions and have the hardware to create change in our pocket.

Podcasting

- As a PR tool, Ronsley finds podcasting to be more effective than spending thousands of dollars on a PR campaign.

- It’s important for businesses to go to where people are looking at your message.

- Create a podcast, get guests to talk about things you’re interested in, become the center point where the information is gathered.

- Podcasts are great for analytics, as you can trace how many people have been on your show and how many people listen to it.

- Podcasting is speaking to a niched audience and can be done with very little financial investment.

- Relationships formed through podcasting with guests and listeners are extremely powerful.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

How to Be Happy Now with Dr. Nedd

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Dr. Ken Nedd, who is a medical doctor and internationally renowned keynote speaker. Dr. Nedd specializes in behavioral sciences and stress management and serves as the president of the International Stress Control Center. During the show, we discuss awareness, focusing inward, trimming the stress, and happiness.

Main Questions Asked

- What impact does doing something that doesn’t make one happy have on them?

- Do entrepreneurs have a bigger ability to be happier due to the flexible lifestyle?

- What can we do when we get past the point of stress prevention?

- Can different personalities be affected by these activities in different ways?

Key Lessons Learned:

How to Beat Stress

1. Awareness

2. Focus inward

3. Learn to listen for deregulation

Awareness

- The 50 trillion cells in the body have to be in a state of harmony.

- Build up levels of internal awareness and assess how you are feeling, thinking, and what you are doing.

- Awareness can be practiced.

- The greatest obstacle to health is not knowing and feeling where you are.

Focus Inward

- One way to enhance happiness is to prevent disease. The greatest source for the prevention of disease is awareness and focusing inward.

- Remember, too much fire means you’ll end up burning out.

- As an entrepreneur, you can adjust your schedule and work in a way that makes you happy.

- Institute a physical and mental health preventative program.

Trim the Stress

T - Tense your body and breathe

R - Relax

I - Inwardly sweep tension out with awareness

M - Mantra (Ex. “My arms and legs and legs are heavy and warm.”)

What is Stress?

- Deal with stress by using happiness.

- Stress is not an event or being tired; it is your response to an event.

- Raise your perception by saying, “I can handle that.”

- Use the stress to do certain things such as TRIM.

Happiness

- When you are happy, you have the secretion of certain chemicals in your body.

- By changing the outer action of your body, you can change the inner singles of the mind.

- Decide to be happy.

- Sleep for 7-8 hours per night.

- When you are angry at someone, write down 5 things you like about them, and the stress will dissipate.

Women who live long have three things:

1) Exercise

2) Passion

3) Mastery of emotion (happiness)

GREAT

G- Give

R- Relax

E- Empathize

A- Act as if you are happy

T- Thankful

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dr. Nedd

Feng Shui for Entrepreneurs with Cathi Hargaden

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Cathi Hargaden, who is an internationally acclaimed expert in the ancient art of Feng Shui. Cathi has over twenty years experience in consulting and teaching Feng Shui and has worked with more than one thousand clients around the world. She is the host of the Feng Shui Mastery podcast and has helped clients increase revenue, reduce stress, resolve conflicts, and build health. During this episode, we discuss the five elements, the importance of balance, how to Feng Shui your office for wealth and success, and the importance of color.

Main Questions Asked:

- What is Feng Shui, and what does it mean?

- What is the tangible application of fire in our environment?

- Is there an assessment or quiz people can take to figure out their elements?

- How can we Feng Shui our offices to make us wealthy and successful?

- What are your thoughts on the color of the walls?

Key Lessons Learned:

What is Feng Shui?

- Feng Shui is a 4,000-year-old Chinese spiritual philosophy for Taoism that has been a secret form of knowledge not available to the masses.

- It is all about what to change in your life and when to change it.

- This has to do predominantly with your environment and involves the understanding of movement, change, and the five elements.

- Feng Shui is symbolic. Through the use of color, aroma, or shape changes can be brought.

The Five Elements

- Fire: Dynamic and taking action.

- Water: Deep and emotional.

- Wood: Austere and rigid or adaptable.

- Metal: Discipline and clarity.

- Earth: Still and calm.

- Each element has extremes to them, which are Yin and Yang.

- Yin and Yang are opposites such as male/female, up/down, and black/white.

Fire

- This is an element needed for those in the area of entrepreneurship and business.

- One way to bring this element in to an environment is by using images of action.

Earth

- This is epitomized by ceramic pots, which are about receptivity.

- If you have so much going on inside of you, then how is it possible for anything new to come into your life?

Wood

- This element can be represented through the use of plants or in images such as a picture of a tree.

Water

- Water is synonymous with money and wealth.

- The flow can be brought into a room with fish tanks or fountains.

Metal

- We have an overuse in the west, as it has a lot to do with the mind and intellect.

- Our heads are activated but don’t know when to shut off.

Having Balance

- Your environment can mean the difference between aspiration and failure.

- Feng Shui is all about balance, so if people have too much action (fire), then they will burn out.

- Having too much earth means that people will be fixed and not able to move forward.

How to Feng Shui Your Office

- If you are the director off the company, then you need to sit diagonally opposite of where the door is. This is called the power point of the room.

- Ensure you have a wall behind you (not a window). On the wall, have a picture that is strong and has a supporting energy.

- On the wall in front of you add an inspirational picture that feeds subliminal images of why you are doing what you do (ex. nature, people, or a vacation destination). It can also be a feeling of harmony or health.

Choosing A Wall Color

- There needs to be a sense of space and neutrality, but you also have the ability to put color on the wall in the form of pictures.

- The colors in the Google logo are of the elements: Yellow- earth, Blue- water, Red - fire, Green - wood.

- Red and orange of fire get people going; yellow calms people; blue helps people move and flow.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Feng Shui Mastery Podcast

Feng Shui Mastery

Solutions for Burned Out Working Moms with Tracey Marks

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Dr. Tracey Marks, who is the author of Master Your Sleep: Proven Methods Simplified. She is a psychiatrist with eighteen years experience and helps women jump off the hamster wheel and manage life so it can actually be enjoyed. Dr. Tracey is the creator of Beyond Burnout: A Resource for Working Moms website and the Beyond Burnout Working Moms podcast. During this episode, we discuss how to quiet your mind, nurture your body, revitalize relationships, and enrich your soul.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about Beyond Burnout and how you help working moms.

- Is meditation something you have to do when you are alone?

- How do you help moms compartmentalize?

Key Lessons Learned:

- Lifestyle management are the things you are doing and things you can change about the way you think, eat, sleep that make a huge difference in how you feel, perform, and function.

- The point is that the answer can’t be ‘just quit your job;’ it is ‘how do you do all the things you have to do better?’

- Tracey’s focus is helping working moms perform better by addressing four main areas.

Mind, Body, & Soul

1. Quiet Your Mind

- This is about being in the moment and blocking out your ‘to do list’ and all the other things you have to do.

- When your mind is trying to manage everything, it creates more stress and angst.

- There are many types of meditation. It’s about thinking intently about something specific.

- Compartmentalize your thinking and focus on what is happening in the moment.

- You often can’t see the result until you do it.

- Take one day where you ‘chunk out’ your tasks and thoughts, and see what you get done.

2. How to Nurture Your Body

- Sleep and diet are the two biggest nuances that can make a difference.

- You have to have a routine when it comes to sleep, so ensure to set a regular bedtime.

- Tracey suggests that our day should be conceptualized with everything leading to bedtime, so you should start with the end in mind.

- What you do in the daytime matters as to what you do in the nighttime.

- When it comes to food, if you put in junk, your body won’t treat you well.

- Strive to have most of your meals in line with a diet that works for your body.

- To get a clean diet, start with eliminating sugar and hydrogenated oils.

3. Revitalizing Relationships (Interacting With Others)

- Relationships are the currency of today. This is the only thing that really matters.

- Your life is all about the people, so it’s about the modulation of what you are doing and nurturing the relationships.

4. Enriching Your Soul

- This is about how you feel towards yourself and ways to enhance those feelings.

- Losing the victim mindset and not wallowing in failures.

- The way you think is affected by what you say and the things you hear other people say.

- It is possible to get rid of negative thinking by infusing positivity.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Master Your Sleep

Beyond Burnout: A Resource for Working Moms

Beyond Burnout Working Moms Podcast

Batched Inbox

Preventing Entrepreneurial Fatigue (previous podcast)

Marks Psychiatry

Financial Freedom Defined with Todd Tresidder

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Todd Tresidder, who has been a serial entrepreneur since childhood. He went on to build his own wealth as a hedge fund investment manager before retiring at age 35 to teach others. Today Todd provides advanced investment retirement planning education at Financial Mentor.com, showing you what works and what doesn’t based on a depth of proven experience. He is the author of five financial planning books, including How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?, Don’t Hire a Financial Coach, and Variable Annuity Pros and Cons. During the show, we discuss unconventional insights into wealth building.

“Happiness is connected to goal-oriented activity that is grounded in your personal values.”

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about your website and all the content and resources you provide.

- Share your experience of getting interviewed and how that has impacted your business.

- Explain what is unconventional about your coaching and viewpoints.

- What is financial freedom?

- What do you recommend to people in their 20s and 30s for getting their financial house in order?

Key Lessons Learned:

- Todd’s business started with him wondering if he could help ordinary people achieve extraordinary financial results.

- Coaching is a ‘trust sale,’ as people will establish trust via your content such as podcasting and blogs.

Podcast Guest Interviews

- The podcast interview is like a guest post on steroids.

- The relationship as a podcast guest is deep, as you are an implied expert.

- There is a relationship with the host, and the audience is listening to your voice for 30 minutes as opposed to scanning a post for 30 seconds.

Being Unconventional

- If you want a path of personal growth, there is no better one than building wealth. The development you have to go through to achieve the goal is huge.

- When you pursue wealth and financial independence, it is reflecting your value on freedom.

Financial Freedom

- Freedom isn’t about having more stuff. The more stuff you have, the more it ties you down.

- Most people are vague around their definition of financial freedom.

- Todd’s definition of financial freedom is when cash flow exceeds expenses.

- The millionaire myth is: “When I have a million dollars, I’ll be financially independent.”

- If you want to never work again, it takes a lot more than a million dollars.

- Happiness is connected to goal-oriented activity that is grounded in your personal values.

- It’s not about having enough cash flow to last you the rest of your life; it’s about having enough to bridge you to your next achievement.

- Generally, everything costs twice as much and takes twice as long as planned.

- Most entrepreneurs are people who don’t picture themselves stopping working.

Birth – School – Work – Fulfillment – Death

- In the fulfillment phase, you don’t have to make a lot of money. You just have to make enough to pay your bills and allow your wealth to compound in the background over time.

- You don’t need a lot of money if it doesn’t have to support you over a long period of time.

- Rather than building a life you want to retire from, why not build a life so meaningful and satisfying that you never want to retire from it.

Three Paths to Wealth

- Paper assets – Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

- Real estate – Direct ownership.

- Business entrepreneurship – Owning your own business.

Getting Your Financial House in Order

- Base savings.

- Owning home.

- Pay down the debt.

- Basic acquisitions for a comfortable life.

- Monthly expenses in a structure.

- Figure out how to leverage what you bring in and what you pay out so it’s not all your time that go into it.

- Plot your residual income against expenses until the business carries it.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Financial Mentor

Eventual Millionaire

HARO

Leadership & Communication Lessons with Dave Sanderson

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Dave Sanderson, who is an inspirational survivor, author, and nationally sought out speaker. When US Airways Flight 1549, or ‘The Miracle on the Hudson,’ ditched into the Hudson River in January 2009, Dave Sanderson knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be; the last passenger off the back of the plane on that fateful day. He was largely responsible for the wellbeing and safety of others. During the show, Dave and I discuss leadership and communication.

Main Questions Asked:

- Who was Dave Sanderson before The Miracle on the Hudson?

- Share about how you connected with Tony Robbins.

- What did you like about sales?

- How has your view of leadership changed since the day when you were the last person off the plane?

- How did you build this new business for yourself?

- What are some of your communication tips?

- Talk about how you help people and your upcoming webinar.

Key Lessons Learned:

- Put yourself around a peer group of people you want to be like, and it will elevate you and raise your standards.

- Immediate gratification is a pipe dream. You have to put the time in to get your outcome.

- The most successful people are those who started with nothing and had to grow.

Leadership

- When you are in a crisis situation, you realize that the people who you didn’t think were leaders all of a sudden are those who step up.

- People who step up and focus on the outcome are the ones that become leaders.

- Leadership is about people taking direction and/or giving action so people can survive or thrive.

- When leaders stand up, they give certainty and direction.

- When leadership steps up, you have to use skills you’ve learned, employ them, and give direction.

- The people with the most uncertainty will go to the people with the most certainty in any situation.

Building A New Business

- First it was about the story, and then it translated into the lessons from that day.

- Dave started speaking for free at churches and started working his way up. He has now spoken more than 650 times.

Communication Tips

- Sensory accuracy is being able to use all the different modalities you have including auditory, kinesthetic, visual, and factory.

- It is important to understand your own communication as well as how someone communicates back to you.

- Everyone has a story that will impact someone else’s life.

- To the right person, you are exactly what they need to hear.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dave Sanderson

Webinar Link

Finding Your Purpose in Life with Rick Martinez

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Rick Martinez, who is a veteran registered nurse, writer, and successful entrepreneur. Rick has been named by San Antonio Business Journal as one of the city’s 40 under 40. His first company was named as one of the US Small Business Administration’s top 100 companies. During the show, we discuss purpose hacking, the ‘bink’ moment, life pivots, and what Rick learned from his recent book launch.

Main Questions Asked:

- How did you come to decide you wanted to help people discover their purpose in life?

- Do people find their purpose in life through the work that they do?

- What do you mean by the ‘bink’ moment?

- How is Project Bink structured, and what does the business look like?

- What is a purpose hack?

- Tell us about the marketing for Project Bink, Purpose Hack, and Life Pivot.

- What were some of the successes and lessons learned from your book launch?

Key Lessons Learned:

Have you found your purpose in life? Do you recognize those moments that steer you towards it?

Purpose

- Finding one’s purposes is often perceived as finding the meaning of life. Purpose is simply living the life of deeper meaning.

- Rather than going through imposter syndrome and thinking ‘Who am I?’ instead make the choice of thinking ‘Why not me!’ and change the action to ‘I’m going to do these things.’

- Purpose isn’t a thing we have to go and find; it is something that is within and grows within us.

- We shouldn’t go chasing after our purpose, but rather chase the things that mean the most to us.

- Purpose doesn’t have an age limitation. There are younger people with their lives together, and older people who don’t.

- You don’t have to be a monk or climb mountains to find meaning in your life.

- Purpose isn’t about one thing, but about taking many things that fulfill us and make us whole.

The Bink Moment

- This is essentially an “ah-ha” moment when you discover the purpose and reason for wholeness in life and the things that fulfill you.

- Involves asking the question ‘What does this mean’ during critical and pivotal life moments.

- Rick offers a simple systematic way for people to find their ‘bink moment’ and purpose quicker.

Purpose Hacking

- Hacking is a way to do the things in your life that matter the most to you.

- This is about a bigger picture and a way to create more meaning and value in your life.

- People are into the ‘hacking’ lifestyle because they want to serve something bigger and greater than they are.

Marketing & the Book Launch

- Rick approached his marketing efforts from a startup perspective and built a website, established a presence, and added an opt-ins, and pop-ups to capture leads to build the list.

- The biggest mistake in his book launch was taking too long to get the book out, which was two years.

- The book is self-published straight to Amazon and had a release that was pushed out to friends and people within the circle of influence for a free launch copy.

- It’s important to decide on the goal of your book. Is it about being a bestseller or promoting the message?

- The strategy was to allow people to get the book for free by using landing pages in order to promote the message.

- Being a bestseller is an ego boost, but if your book is a marketing tool for your business, then it’s about getting into the hands of potential clients.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Project Bink

The Power of Bink (Free book)

She Podcasts (Episode)

Manage Your Cash Flow or Go Out of Business with Joan Sotkin

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Joan Sotkin, who is an author, coach, and business woman, and has helped thousands of people understand why they do what they do with their money and how to alter their financial behavior. Joan is the founder of Prosperity Place and author of the award-winning book Build Your Money Muscles. Her passion is helping people improve their relationship with their money and themselves. During the show, Jessica and Joan discuss business and bookkeeping, why we do what we do, money, and shame.

Main Questions Asked:

- What brought you into working on money issues with people?

- Should everyone learn how to do his or her own bookkeeping and manage cash flow?

- What are the characteristics or personality traits that cause some people to have better relationships with money?

Key Lessons Learned:

Business & Bookkeeping

- It’s possible to have someone in the bookkeeping role, but you have to know what the numbers mean.

- The first step is to make a decision to take care of your business.

- Business isn’t something you go into where you love everything you do every minute.

- Taking care of your finances isn’t about knowing numbers; it’s about data entry.

- Managing cash flow isn’t what a bookkeeper does. They just keep the books.

- Mental math is a useful way to turn the left part of your brain on.

- Your business is an extension of you, and if you’re still in financial fear, you won’t look at your numbers if you feel shame.

Why We Do What We Do

- In the beginning stages it’s important to understand why you do what you do with your money now and how you can get to a point of being more functional.

- Recognize the kinesthetic experience in your body when you talk about money.

- Count your money and spend less than you earn.

Money, Shame, & Feelings

- If you feel shame about your finances, it is never about money. It is about relationships and how you feel about yourself and your relationship with others.

- Don’t stress and worry about the past; take action for what you want to happen in the future.

- When you love, accept, acknowledge, and appreciate yourself, the world will mirror that back to you.

- Our need for touch determines so much of our business and financial outcomes. We weren’t meant to ‘go it alone.’

- The longing for money is the same feeling as longing for touch.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Prosperity Place

Freedom From Struggle

Build Your Money Muscles (book)

Hiring and Coaching a Virtual Team of Freelancers with Bill Watkins and Robert Mallon

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Robert Mallon & Bill Watkins, who are the co-founders of the Rusty Lion Academy. Bill is a WestPoint graduate, army officer, and world-class athlete. Meanwhile, over the past 25-years, Robert has worked for several nationally known corporations as a leader and manager. During the show, Robert, Bill, and Jessica discuss training and developing virtual teams, how to have productive team meetings, leadership, on-boarding, and team building.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about training and developing virtual teams.

- What are examples of the behavioral questions you asked?

- Talk about ‘Slack’ and how you’re using the platform in your team.

- What are your tips for having productive team meetings?

- What are your recommendations on motivating teams?

- Talk about the difference between training somebody and coaching and motivating them.

Key Lessons Learned:

Interviewing & Core Competencies

- In any organization, the process is recruit, hire, develop, and retain.

- When developing a team, go to the place where people with the expertise you are looking for hang out.

- Determine what the core competencies you are looking for.

- Behavioral competency questions identify skills and expertise.

- Robert and Bill narrow down core competencies to 8 per role and give each a score of 1-5. At the end of the interview, calculations are made, and whoever scores the highest gets the job.

Behavioral Questions

- An example of a behavioral question is, “Everybody breaks the rules sometimes. Tell me about a rule that you broke recently and the company you last worked with.”

- Behavioral based interview questions are, “Tell me about a time when you ______.”

- Make your interview questions open-ended and ask the interviewee to tell you a story.

- It is encouraged to have two interviewers, as they will each interpret differently.

- Robert and Bill developed value-based questions that unpack the interviewee’s values without them knowing.

- It is critical to understand the ‘shared values’ that the company revolves around.

Slack

- Slack is a tool to anchor your team in the identity of the organization.

- Having multiple communication channels mean that getting clarity quickly can be problematic.

- Use Slack for communication, values, vision, and what the team is doing on an ongoing basis.

- Slack is an effective tool for 7-minute daily standup meetings saying what you will achieve in that day. E.g. Daily and weekly goals, how I’m contributing, issues, and share relevant revenue metrics.

Productive Team Meetings

- Meetings allow team members to have input and ownership.

- Plan weekly meetings but don’t make them hour-long.

- Be respectful of people’s time and always end the meeting on time.

- Robert & Bill use Trello and have a standard meeting with a to-be-discussed checklist. Any team member can add talking points to the list prior to the meeting.

On-Boarding Process & Motivation

- Have an on-boarding checklist, information folder, and communication channel such as Slack so new team members feel important when they start working.

- Map out your expectations for the team members and ensure they are trained so they can do the job.

- Feedback and motivation are incorporating LBs & NTs, which are ‘liked best’ and ‘next times.’

- Business owners need to set an example and not simply engage in a one-way conversation.

Training Vs. Coaching & Motivating

- After a team member has been in the company for a 90-day period, Robert and Bill ask the following questions:

1) What should we continue doing that you think is valuable?

2) What do you think we should stop doing and that you don’t think is valuable [LN1] ?

3) What should we start doing that you know is valuable?

4) Are you satisfied now that the honeymoon is over, that you said yes to us?

- The above shows the person that you value their opinion as well as you’re not assuming that everything that is going on is the way it needs to be.

- Allowing someone to work out a problem on their own makes them a better leader and own the process.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Rusty Lion Academy

Rusty Lion Academy (Free gifts)

Fascination Advantage

[LN1]This should be indented to line up with the numbers, but word won’t let me.

Behind the Scenes of The Podcast Producers with Corey Coates

Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I explore the art and business of podcasting with Corey Coates, the co-founder of PodFly Productions. During the show, Corey and I have a conversation about the Podcast Producer series. We’ll discuss how and why we created the series, the topics covered, and what we came to learn about podcasting.

Key Lessons Learned:

Origin of Podcast Producers

- The aim was for a chaptered approach and covering the bigger topics on podcasting.

- Rather than interviewing a person on their opinion on a single topic, Corey wanted to have a topic and interview multiple people on it.

- There are so many opinions and approaches to podcasting that there is no right or wrong way to podcast and use podcasting.

- Corey was looking for a way to ‘soften’ the information, especially for rookies entering as new podcasters.

- The long form of the series is a reminder to people of what podcasting is.

10 Hours of Podcast in 2 Months

- Corey sent Jessica a one-sheet proposal of the show of what he wanted it to sound like along with a sample pilot.

- The goal was to have open ended conversations about the industry as a whole, what people are doing within the space, brainstorm topics and ideas, then start arranging them in a story.

- The constraint was set around the project before work started.

- When parameters are decided, then a timeline can be built around that.

- When you are overwhelmed by a project, it is easy to shut down, but if you have a timeline, it is much easier to trust in the system.

Establishing A Launch Date

- Establish your launch date fast and stick to it.

- Having a pre-determined launch date helped with the Podcast Producers workflow.

- There was a chart that laid out the workflow so it was clear on when activities such as brainstorming, recording, and editing were going to happen.

- A launch date is critical for being accountable to yourself, your team, and your listeners.

- Knowing you have an end date is motivation for you to finish.

Passion & Power of No

- The overarching theme has to be an enjoyment of the process.

- If the process itself isn’t a reward, you might want to consider not launching a podcast.

- It’s so easy to say yes to opportunities, but there is a lot of power in saying no.

- Ask yourself what the ROI is and how making a podcast will improve your business.

- Podcasts are evergreen and will continue to be discovered on a daily basis by new people.

- The more interviews you do, the more you improve as an interviewer and host.

The Podcast Producers’ Ten Topics

1. Is anybody out there?

- This episode is about podcasting from the perspective of the listener.

- Who is actually out there listening to these shows?

2. Hobby or Business?

- John Lee Dumas sparked a surge of entrepreneurs in podcasting.

3. The Podcasting Community

- How open and friendly the community is in sharing information.

4. The Psychology of Podcasting

- Why are we doing this in the first place?

- What happens psychologically with the audience when people listen to a podcast?

- Should people stop listening to experts?

- If you become an expert, should you worry about the imposter syndrome?

5. Stats

- Experts explain the facts about stats.

6. Isolation

7. DIY or Outsource

- More people are entering the space and providing services to podcasters.

8. Podcast Networks

- What goes into being in a network?

9. Monetization

- The Dumas affect.

- Do you understand what it means to make money in a podcast?

- Knowing the expectation of advertisers.

- Is it a viable source of income for you?

- The CPM model.

10. Radio Migration

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Corey’s previous episode

PodFly Productions

This American Life

Build Your Business by Appearing on Podcasts as a Guest Expert with Tom Schwab

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success In interview Tom Schwab who has discovered a marketing strategy that converts traffic to leads at a rate of thirty percent. During the show Jessica and Tom discuss podcast guest best practices, how being interviewed as a podcast guest leads to results in business and why landing pages and making an offers are so important.

Main Questions Asked

- What made you decide to invest your time and services in getting booked as a podcast guest?

- Talk about the process of getting a listener to visit your site.

- When you are being interviewed as a guest on a podcast, what do you have to think about and say to actually get someone to want to go to your website?

- How should a landing page be set up to easily convert people onto a list?

- How long does it take before you start seeing results?

- What are your thoughts on getting someone’s first name during a list opt-in?

- What is the appropriate way to make an offer in a podcast?

Key Lessons Learned

Content

- Content is king but context is God. You are what you publish.

- Content is what drives the modern marketing engine online.

- On average it takes 6-9 months to get traffic traction with a blog.

- All content is aimed at getting the audience to know, like, and trust you.

- Ensure you get the most out of your guest interview by creating a show transcript and repurposing it as multiple sources of content.

Podcast Interviews

- Podcasts are a long term strategy and compounding effect

- During a podcast people get 30 minutes or more to hear you. They either love you and go to your site to learn more or they move on.

- The quality and quantity of context comes from listeners turning into visitors.

- Continually promoting the podcast on a consistent basis helps keep you top of mind with the host.

- Maintaining a good relationship with the host is the beginning of a long-term professional relationship and improves your chances of getting booked again.

- After the interview consistently share the podcast on socials and keep it in mind as a resource to share with others.

Conversion

- When listeners visit your site looking for the offer you made on the podcast and average of 25-50% convert.

- The system needs to involve finding the right podcast, giving a clear message, providing an offer that drives the listener to your website then having a system that converts a visitor to a lead.

Landing Pages

- During your podcast interview offer listeners something that gives them value, has context and is directly tied to what you are talking about.

- Direct listeners to a specific landing page and provide a specific giveaway in addition to an opt-in list.

- Ensure you include the logo from the podcast you were interviewed on to show the listeners that they are in the right place.

- Focus on getting ideal customers not just growing and email list.

Metrics & Results

- Results depend on the metrics used such as number of listeners, website visitors, emails received, and conversions.

- If you are getting heard on good quality podcasts and listeners are not coming to your site then you have to figure out where the ‘leaks’ in your system are.

- The reason listeners may not visit your site is that they don’t find value in visiting.

- If listeners are coming to your site but not opting-in then your landing page could be confusing.

- If people come to your site and opt-in but don’t become a customer then the problem may be in your nurturing sequence.

- Every day customers are voting with their dollars, time, and actions. If you are not getting the results you want then you have to figure out why.

- You don’t necessarily need a lot of traffic but rather the right traffic (target clients.)

The List

- If you want to funnel down and segment customers from the beginning.

- Ask for feedback via open ended or optional questions e.g ‘what is your biggest frustration about the product or service?’

Making An Offer

- An offer shouldn’t feel like a pitch at the end.

- Reference the offer during the podcast so it doesn’t feel like a surprise.

- Make sure you offer two things and explain to the listeners where the offer is and what it is.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Tom Schwab – Inbound Marketing (previous podcast)

Tom’s Landing Page

Decide - The Ultimate Success Trigger

Adam Hommey (previous podcast)

Help My Website Sell

tom@inboundforecommerce.com

Podcasting Tips From Doug Foresta After 800 Interviews & Counting

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Doug Foresta, who first got into podcasting five years ago and has since interviewed eight hundred people. Doug is the producer of Creating Change, The CoachZing Show, and coaches entrepreneurs on how to podcast and be a great podcast guest. He also helps service professionals expand their reach and attract their ideal clients. During the show, we discuss how to get celebrity interviews, why podcasting isn’t all about downloads, and how to be a great interviewer.

Main Questions Asked:

- How did you learn how to start interviewing people?

- How did you land interviews with big guests when you were so new to podcasting?

- Talk about your philosophy of ‘It’s not all about the download numbers.’

- What are your recommendations and do’s and don’ts for being a great interviewer?

- Talk about your philosophy and how you approach coaching entrepreneurs.

- How do you bring in the marketing and business side when working with entrepreneurs?

Key Lessons Learned:

Podcasting

- Podcasting is still in its infancy as a form. Radio is mass market, and podcasting is a niche.

- Podcasting is about ‘tribe building’ and pushing the form.

- You don’t have to have a classic broadcasting voice; you just have to be ‘you.’

Getting Celebrity Interviews

- Don’t approach interviews with a ‘what can I get’ attitude but rather ‘how can I serve and help people.’

- Don’t think about ‘getting’ a guest, but think about ‘having a conversation.’

- If you give a famous person a platform to talk about something they can’t talk about anywhere else, they are more likely to accept your invitation to be on your podcast.

It’s Not All About Download Numbers

- Podcasting is not just about the download numbers but about the experience you create.

- An affective way to have a really good show with longevity is to serve your listeners by finding out what they like, make more of it, and turn them into raving fans.

- Rather than focusing on downloads, look at how good your podcast is. Do your listeners e-mail you? Are they joining your e-mail list? Are they part of your tribe and community?

- If you don’t create a good podcast, then people won’t come back to listen again anyway.

- Podcasting is about the quality of relationships you build with people that can’t be measured in downloads.

Interview Tips

- Take improv. classes and get skills in ‘being in the moment.’

- Don’t always worry about the next question, but dig deeper with who, what, why, when, where, and how questions.

- Being a great interviewer is a great networking skill and means making the guest shine rather than yourself.

Entrepreneur Podcast Coaching

- Find what you most need to say in your voice.

- Discover your point of view and what is unique in your voice.

- Monetizing your community is about creating raving fans, building an email list, then making offers.

- The brand that starts around your podcast often becomes a new brand for your business.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Doug Foresta

Creating Change

The Coachzing Show

How to Work with Millennials with Lee Caraher

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:16:15 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Lee Caraher who is an entrepreneur and CEO with more than twenty years experience building great high producing intergenerational work teams that get a lot done and have fun at the same time. Lee is an acclaimed communications strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She is the founder of Double Forte and has figured out the secret to working well with millennial clients and staffers. Lee is the author of Millennials and Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work. During the podcast Jessica and Lee discuss the profile of millennials, negativity surrounding the term, and the secret to working with millennials and teams.

Main Questions Asked

- How do you define and what are the characteristics of millennials?

- Talk about your struggle with hiring millennials.

- What was the point where you figured out how to work with millennial clients and staffers?

- What is the secret to working with a different generation?

Key Lessons Learned

- Everyone wants his or her process to be better but no one wants to have it discounted.

Profile of Millennials

- Millennials are the 15-35 year old age group also known as GenY.

- The midway point for this generation was the year 2000, which is why they are called millennials.

- Even though your age can be in a different generation your mindset can be that of a millennial.

Negativity of the Term Millennial

- The term millennial is often seen negatively and a lot of millennials don’t even want to be known as such.

- Millennials can be seen as entitled, job hoppers, expecting rewards just for showing up, and lazy.

- Lee believes that millennials are conditioned by the way they grew up.

Working With Millennials

- If you don’t have millennials in your business your business doesn’t have a future.

- Lee went back to the basics of leadership management by reading a number of management books.

- Things that work for other generations don’t work for millennials.

- If you do things to help millennials get engaged and stick with you, everyone benefits.

- Boomers are the ‘wait my turn’ generation but millennials have never had to wait as they’ve always had instant access.

- Millennials have grown up with amazing access to information and people, the ability to make a change, expectations of access and no hierarchy.

- Millennials require a lot of context and ‘just do it because I said so’ won’t work. The more you provide context the better.

Two Key Tips for Working With Millennials

- 1. Bring the context of your project to the forefront of the conversation and ask for people’s input.

- 2. Do a project the established way first and then improve it.

Teams & Strengths

- Know what personality types are within your team and don’t be afraid to conduct MBTI and Strengths Finders tests.

- Figure out the dynamics within your team so you can accommodate them.

- Regardless of age, discover how people optimize their engagement and how they will work with others.

- WOO is the ability to keep talking until someone comes to your side and believes in you.

- Often when you are young on a team you don’t get the creditability for having strategic ability. Strategy isn’t earned it is a strength.

- It takes 30-60 days to get used to new processes.

- If you’re not easy to work with then you don’t have a business in the client service economy.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Lee Caraher

Double Forte

Millennials and Management (book)

The Art of Conversation (book)

Blogging, Branding & Personalized Content Creation with Kelly Glover

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Kelly Glover, who is an Aussie gal living large in Hollywood, California. She is a plus size blogger, podcaster, and virtual assistant. Kelly has recently taken her personal blog, Big Curvy Love, and launched a podcast. During the show, Jessica and Kelly discuss how to come up with a good brand name, what it takes to start a blog, the art of personal content creation, and tips for podcast interviewers and guests.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about choosing a good blog, website, and podcasting name.

- How long did it take to get an episode live on iTunes?

- What’s it been like building out a blog?

- Where did you find a designer to do your logo?

- Is the blog something that generates revenue or a personal passion project?

- What do you do with the Facebook page, and how do you use it to engage with your community?

- Talk about your themed days on the blog.

- Are you incorporating 50 Fat Dates into your podcast?

- Do you think more podcasters and bloggers need to be doing more creative things like this to make their content more interesting?

- Do you prepare questions ahead of time, or do you bring people on who you really like?

Key Lessons Learned:

Branding

- When choosing a brand name, select something that is niche, has keywords, and explains what the brand is.

- Create a list of brand names, search the internet to see if the domains are available, and see what names competitors in your field are using.

- If your brand name isn’t searchable in iTunes as the actual podcast show name, change it in Libsyn to incorporate keywords.

- Choosing your brand’s logo is the gateway to your color palette and branding across all media.

- Decide on the domain name, create the logo, lock in the color palette, then select a WordPress template for the website.

Blogging

- Template Monster and Theme Forrest are good sources for WordPress templates that are customizable on self-hosted WordPress sites. These are usually up to around $75.

- The Hex code is the color code that designers use for exact colors e.g. #000000 is black. These can be used when you design on Canva and other platforms to ensure you are matching the exact color.

- Blogs can earn revenue a number of ways, such as through pay per click ads, advertising, affiliates, speaking engagements, and sponsored posts.

Personal Content Creation

- People tend to get caught in boxes where they only create content around what their podcast is about and keep the business and personal life separate.

- When you decide on what part of your personal life to share, you need to be able to ask yourself, “If an employer or client saw my content, would I be happy with that?”

- These days there is no ‘business life’ and ‘personal life;’ it is just ‘life.’

Being Yourself & Communication

- Readers and listeners want to know about the person.

- If your audience trusts you and likes you, then they are more likely to do business with you if they believe in you.

- Improvisation classes help develop quick thinking and decrease self-doubt.

Podcasting

- Record a fake show, listen back to yourself, and transcribe your script to hear what your crutch words are.

- Learning to speak slower will improve your communication.

- If someone can answer ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ then that is a bad question. Also, if that is their only answer, they are bad guest.

- There is an art to being a good interviewer and also to being a good guest.

- Learning not to talk over others and cut people off during an interview is another great skill to learn.

- Have at least three questions prepared for your interview.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Big Curvy Love

Become a Marketing Beast by Preventing Entrepreneurial Fatigue with Dr. Carri Drzyzga

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Dr. Carri Drzyzga who is known as ‘The Functional Medicine Doc’ and the go-to expert on finding the root causes of health problems. She is a chiropractor, a naturopathic doctor, the host of the Functional Medicine Radio show, and the author of Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again.During the show, we discuss entrepreneurial fatigue, the affects of coffee, how much water you should drink, and what the best diet is.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about marketing and what you are doing to grow your business.

- What inspired and motivated you to take your marketing online and work to reach people internationally?

- What are the things that entrepreneurs do that cause fatigue?

- How much water do people need to be drinking? Why? How does that affect our energy levels?

- Is there one kind of diet people should strive for, or does it depend on your body?

Key Lessons Learned:

- The medical profession doesn’t take fatigue that seriously.

- Dr. Carri has noticed that over the past decade, people are really looking for answers and getting much more involved in natural medicine.

- Within the traditional medical systems there are a lot of limitations, and people are discovering online health summits where people can learn and get answers quickly.

- Your number one business asset is your health.

Marketing Online

- Get your story on paper and include it in your business.

- Being an author means you have a huge amount of creditability.

- There are only so many people you can help in your local community. So by taking your business and brand online, you’re able to reach a global market instantly.

- When your brand exists online, you never really know how far reaching your words will go.

- When you provide value, you attract more business.

- The top 1% is the top 1% because they are willing to do work that others aren’t.

Entrepreneurial Fatigue

- This is the brain-based fatigue that business owners and entrepreneurs suffer.

- Entrepreneurs end up at the point of fatigue through stress, working long hours, and not getting enough sleep, water, or eating properly.

- When you feel as though your brain is starting to slow down or your thoughts are getting fuzzy, that is when you should drink a large glass of water.

- Coffee is a short-term energy boost that in the long run drains the body of cortisol, which is the body’s main stress hormone.

- If you are draining cortisol, you will be less able to deal with stress.

How Much Water Should We Drink?

- To figure out how much water you should drink on a daily basis calculate your body weight in pounds and halve it. That is the amount of ounces of water you should drink every day.

- A typical glass of water is 8oz., and most people need around 10 glasses of water per day.

Paleo Diet

- A broad-based generic diet such as the paleo diet, aka the caveman diet, is the best.

- This is high in healthy fats and protein, low in carbs, and has lots of fiber.

- On the paleo diet, you aren’t eating grains, dairy, or legumes.

- This diet has removed the foods that are known to be the most allergenic, inflammatory, and bad for our health.

- People who often don’t do well on the paleo diet have a difficult time metabolizing the sulfur.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Dr Carri

The Functional Medicine Radio Show

Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again! (book)

Branding, Messaging, and DIY Public Relations with Rachel Olsen

Wed, 27 May 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, Jessica Rhodes interviews Rachel Olsen, who is the founder of Best Mom Products, a media strategist for mom entrepreneurs and number one bestselling author of Shark Tank Mompreneurs. Rachel is also the co-founder of Getapplr.com, a social network to discover your friends’ favorite apps and share yours too. During the show, Jessica and Rachel discuss branding, messaging, mompreneurs, and what it takes to get on Shark Tank.

Main Questions Asked:

- How did you get started in entrepreneurship, and how did you become an expert in your field?

- How do you help mom entrepreneurs do their own PR, and what do you teach them?

- Tell us what your book is all about and where we can grab a copy.

Key Lessons Learned:

Messaging

- Messaging is made up of branding, marketing, and public relations.

- Your message will change depending on the audience you talk to.

- An investor talk will be different to speaking with the media.

The Problem with Messaging in Social Media Age

- A lot of entrepreneurs struggle with messaging because it’s so transparent in the social media age.

- How do we talk to all people at once?

- What do we put out there from a media perspective?

- How do we tailor the message for multiple audiences at once?

Your Brand

- Everyone has a personal brand.

- Others tend to think about the person and then what they do, rather than the brand first.

- Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not around.

- Start listening to what people say about you, and curate photos that capture that personality.

- Ensure your branding photos communicate your personality.

- Mastermind with people who see you from the outside and can provide feedback.

- If you have brands and sub-brands, you have to figure out the overarching message.

Branding

- This is how you communicate yourself, your business, and your message online.

- You need to know what message you are communication through your design.

- It is better to outsource your personal branding, as you are too close to it.

Doing Your Own PR

- Anyone can do their own PR, but it takes a while and you need to be educated about the process.

- It is common to pay a PR firm $2K per month for them to just pitch you to outlets.

- Look at what is trending and think about where you fit with that.

- When it comes to PR and media, there is only so much in your control.

- The best pitch is only good if the other party is interested.

- It is beneficial to do a full website audit and assess where your messaging and branding is on each page.

Shark Tank

- The sharks don’t have profiles on the entrepreneurs prior to on-air recording.

- Each 7 minute segment can take more than an hour of filming in order to ‘wear down’ the entrepreneurs and get the best reality TV content.

- People rarely say anything negative about Shark Tank, as they fear no longer being a ‘friend of the show’ and getting a second chance.

- None of the women in the Shark Tank Mompreneur book said going on the show was the best thing they did in their business.

- A lot of people want to go on the show just to get the Shark’s advice over the hour period.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Best Mom Products

Shark Tank Mompreneurs (book)

Getapplr.com

Learn to Love LinkedIn with Josh Turner

Wed, 20 May 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, Jessica Rhodes interviews Josh Turner who is the founder of Linked Selling, a B2B marketing firm specializing in fully outsourced LinkedIn lead generation campaigns. Josh’s company represents clients, such as Neil Patel and Microsoft, and also operates Linked University, which is an online training program for LinkedIn marketing. During the show, Jessica and Josh discuss how to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile, how frequently you should update your feed, and the do’s and don’ts of connecting.

Main Questions Asked:

- How did LinkedIn become your main platform and area of expertise?

- Tell me about LinkedIn ads.

- How is LinkedIn different to Facebook, and how should you be interacting with people?

- In order to send someone an Inbox message on LinkedIn, do you have to have a mutual connection?

- Is there a feature on LinkedIn that shows you mutual contacts?

- What types of things should you post on LinkedIn updates, how often, and is it a running feed?

- What are the do’s and don’ts on setting up and maintaining a LinkedIn profile?

Key Lessons Learned:

- It depends on your business as to whether LinkedIn ads are great or not.

- LinkedIn ads or a sponsored update will see a higher cost per click.

- Click cost isn’t what matters. It is about the cost for a lead and cost for a sale.

- For a campaign that is working well on LinkedIn, you can expect to see $6-10 per lead for a webinar opt-in or free report.

LinkedIn vs. Facebook

- LinkedIn is more professional and used for business.

- It’s the template stock scripts inbox emails that give LinkedIn a bad name.

- If you take the time to develop the relationship first, then the success increases.

- People spend more time on Facebook than they do on LinkedIn.

- LinkedIn’s data says that 40% of its users check in at least once a day.

What Works on LinkedIn

- Make messages personal and informal so that the receiver feels as though you only sent the message to them.

- Be personal and avoid talking in marketing speak.

- Before you earn to right to send someone a message you have to get his or her attention first.

- Stay top of mind in a way that provides value, and position yourself as a resource and authority in the market.

Connecting on LinkedIn

- Free LinkedIn accounts grant you access to people within a certain degree of you.

- Higher-level premium accounts allow you to find anyone on LinkedIn and message them.

- Another way to message someone is to contact them through a common group.

- A frequent mistake people make is not including a personal message when sending a connection request.

- If you include a personal message when asking someone to connect with you, then 50-75% will say yes.

- Using ‘shared connections’ is a great way to prospect, as you can leverage common connections you have.

LinkedIn Updates

- This is a running feed, so you should post content daily in order to stand out.

- People will get quickly turned off if your content focuses on your own business, so be sure to also include curated content.

- Share a balanced mix of resources in order to become a trusted authority.

LinkedIn Profile

- Focus on making a solid profile so that when you get views it entices people to take the next step.

- Structure your profile headline or summary section with a call to action.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Linked Selling

Linked University

Josh’s LinkedIn

Connect (book)

Dramatically Improve Your Relationships with Susie Miller

Wed, 13 May 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, Jessica Rhodes interviews Susie Miller who is an author, speaker, and known internationally as the Better Relationship Coach. Susie’s goal is to help you create better relationships in thirty days or less, even if you are the only one making the effort. For more than twenty years Susie has helped people reduce stress, improve communication, increase intimacy, and have better relationships with each other, themselves, and God. Susie believes relationships are the currency of today and is the author of Listen, Learn, Love. During the show Susie discusses communication in relationships, business, and as an entrepreneur.

Main Questions Asked:

- What are the ‘how-to’ steps of being open in your communication with staff?

- Why did you decide to write your book, Listen, Learn and Love?

- Why are you focusing on people in business when you are talking about relationships?

- Talk about the Listen, Learn, Love skills.

Key Lessons Learned:

You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home is in shambles- Zig Ziglar.

Inner Circle Communication

- Everyone needs an inner circle who they can be their raw, real selves with. This will give you a sense of security.

- Different people will always fulfill communication needs roles.

- Your spouse isn’t necessary the person you tell everything to.

- Your husband is not your best girlfriend.

Staff Communication

- Set up expectations from the beginning of how management communication will be delivered.

- Be willing to be uncomfortable and give people permission to ask the hard questions and give feedback.

- Employees often don’t feel free to give feedback on communication when there is an issue. A great question to ask your staff is, “What are you not telling me?”

- Communication is difficult as it’s not just the words but also the tone and non- verbal expression.

Relationships

- Every relationship can get better quickly.

- Relationships are what cause us to get up in the morning.

- Our schedule is based around the people in our lives, so if those relationships are going well, then most of our lives go better.

- When relationships are successful, every aspect of your life gets better.

Entrepreneurs

- You can be in massive action or start up mode and think of your relationships as a ‘drip’ campaign.

- Set up an intentional action plan to foster relationships that will produce great rewards.

- Entrepreneurs often feel they are in massive action with their business and don’t have any time for their relationships.

- There aren’t a lot of people talking about how to be successful in relationships while you are growing a business. It’s either business advice or relationship advice but not both.

Listen, Learn, Love

Listen

- We don’t often listen but are actually busy thinking about our response or hoping that the other person will finish sharing.

- When you listen to people, make sure you clarify and validate what they are saying.

Learn

- Know people and go on a treasure hunt to discover their dreams, struggles, and quirks. This will help you connect more deeply.

Love

- What does it mean to love well?

- It’s more about the short-term sacrifice for the long-term game.

- To love well is to put the other person first.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Listen, Learn, Love (book)

Susie Miller

A Podcasting Keynote with Paul Colligan of The Podcast Report

Wed, 06 May 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, Jessica Rhodes interviews Paul Colligan who is a YouTube expert, the Director of Content Marketing for InstantCustomer.com, and CEO of Colligan.com. Paul hosts The Podcast Report, and on today’s show discusses twitter bombing, the importance of getting listed on New and Noteworthy, and how the podcasting conversation is moving away from tech and toward content.

Main Questions Asked:

- What do mean when you say, “It’s not a massive play but it’s a deep one?”

- Talk about ‘Twitter bombing.’

- Do new podcasters need to worry about New and Noteworthy?

- What are the best things you see podcasters doing?

Key Lessons Learned:

- Podcasting is new media, so you don’t have to try and fit it into an old media format.

- The conversation is moving away from tech to content.

- A lot of people’s main goal is to be all over iTunes; however, there is also Stitcher, and TuneIn, so your goal should be to be everywhere.

“It’s not a massive play but it’s a deep one”

- People think that the revenue in podcasting is downloads x CPM, but chasing downloads is not as smart as going niche.

- The more niche your audience is, the better you are going to be able to serve them. If you are doing it right, you will be able to make more money simply via downloads.

- As a podcaster, you want to bring your audience products and services they are looking for.

- When you have a deeper audience, they are more likely to act on the hosts’ recommendations in purchasing products.

- It is better to be on someone’s weekly ‘must listen’ list than on someone’s top 100 podcast list.

Twitter Bombing

- Because the only metric people care about is downloads, people are cheating the download game by Twitter bombing.

- Twitter bombers register hundreds of Twitter accounts and use popular and trending hashtags to trick people into clicking and downloading a podcast.

- An example of a Twitter bomb is “New song by Justin Bieber, click here! [link] ” The link goes to a podcast, which when clicked will count as a download.

New and Noteworthy

- Getting listed on New and Noteworthy will defiantly drive traffic to your show, but you need to ask yourself, “Where is New and Noteworthy on the list of things I should do?”

- If you have a show and get more than a dozen downloads, you will probably hit New and Noteworthy. That exposure might bring you some downloads, but there are things you can do that will bring you more.

- New and Noteworthy is not the normal path for normal people when finding podcasts.

- Most podcast listeners hear about shows from recommendations rather than searching New and Noteworthy listing.

- Do people listening to your show care about what you have to say, or do they care that you are listed on New and Noteworthy?

- When it comes to the New and Noteworthy algorithm, ‘subscribers over the last 24 hours’ seems to make the most impact on getting listed.

Do you need 3-4 podcasts to launch?

- No. You don’t need to have 3-4 shows before you go public.

- People tend to listen to the most recent episode, so any content loaded prior to that will have significantly less downloads. Therefore, you are more likely to get more downloads if you release episodes individually.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The podcast Report

How to Podcast (book)

Instant Customer

Paul Colligan

The New Art of Conference Networking

Mastering the Art of Podcasting & Marketing with Joel Boggess and Dr. Pei

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, Jessica Rhodes interviews Joel Boggess & Dr. Pei Kang Boggess,who are the hosts of The Relaunch Show. Joel is also the number one bestselling author of Finding Your Voice, and Dr. Pei has the experience of successfully running both online and brick and mortar businesses. During the show you’ll find out one of the biggest mistakes podcasters make, how to get podcast guests to open up, and why content is no longer king.

Main Questions Asked:

- Did you record Chris Brogan at a conference?

- How do you work together successfully as a couple?

- How do you divide the roles on the show?

- Share your thoughts on high quality interviews and great content.

- Talk about podcasters thinking star guests will save their show.

- If star guests aren’t the ticket to a huge audience, what is?

- How can a guest help build your show?

- How do you decide what interviews get released on your show?

- What do you do in your show to get guests to be comfortable opening up and keeping the conversation flowing?

- Talk about what’s next for Relaunch.

Key Lessons Learned:

- Relaunch is Joel and Pei’s fifth podcast, which shows that sometimes you have to go through trial and error before you find success.

- You become a better podcaster when you take the art and craft of interviewing seriously.

- Every touch point matters, so it’s important to check in with your guest and keep them updated on what’s going on and where they are in the process.

- As a podcaster, you need to position yourself directly to who matters.

- Content is no longer king; it is a commodity. This means that no one person owns the market.

- Podcasting is all about connection, relationships, and showing your personality.

- Always place the listeners time as a priority.

Podcasting Guests

- Your guest does not drive your show, you drive your show.

- Often, guests can be heard on a variety of shows, but only you can be heard on your show.

- The big mistake podcasters make is thinking that the star guest is a ticket to a huge audience and will save their show.

- Remember, it is the podcaster who is the difference maker, not the guest.

- When you bring a guest on your show think of them as a co-host rather than a high and mighty expert.

- Your guest needs to understand who your audience is, what their greatest challenges are, and how the guest can offer the most value.

- When your guests feel like they have a strong relationship with you they are more likely to share the show and recommend people listen to it.

How to Get Guests To Open Up

- Create a safe space very quickly and do a pre-show chat before taking the guest live.

- Even if guests have listened to your show, it’s a good idea to give them a 30 second ‘crash course’ explaining how it works and your expectations. This will put them at ease.

- If a show isn’t going well, sometimes it’s not you as the host, it could be that the guest isn’t the best conversationalist.

- As a guest, it’s better to share a story than a theory as stories are much more entertaining.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Relaunch Show

Finding Your Voice

Turning Online Relationships to Offline Ones at Conferences #HashTagstoHandshakes with Mike Bruny

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:00:00 -0400

Networking is not collecting contacts; networking is about planting relations. On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Mike Bruny who is a speaker, author, certified life coach, and an alum of the Boston-based Leaders of Color Development Program Inc. Mike believes we are all ambassadors and stand for ‘something,’ so he is on a mission for individuals to discover and live their ‘something.’ Mike’s runs The New Art of Conference Networking, which helps conference organizers create the kind of environment that fosters people to make great connections. If you want to know how to make meaningful connections at your next conference or event, then this podcast has some awesome tips for you.

Main Questions Asked:

- How did you come up with the idea of becoming a networking ambassador and helping people make connections at conferences?

- What is the ‘pivot’?

- Talk about how to deal with collecting business cards at a conference.

- Should we be strategic in who we take a business card from?

- What are your tips of the best kind of business card to have and what information to include?

- What are the ways people can be memorable at conferences?

- Where do you recommend people fall in the spectrum of how to dress for conferences?

- Share your tips for entrepreneurs who are running their own events and what they should do for networking and relationship building.

- What do you think about setting up a group for people who will be attending a specific conference?

Key Lessons Learned:

- If you put in the work before you go to the conference there is a greater chance that you will connect with people.

Alone At the Conference

- When you are at a conference and you aren’t taking to anyone, don’t panic. Be happy to have a moment to yourself.

- When you look confident and make eye contact, people will approach you.

- If you are alone and focused on your phone or laptop, people will avoid you as they will think you don’t want to talk or be interrupted.

The Pivot

- When you are at a conference and find yourself in a conversation clique, make sure to keep your eyes open for people who also want to join the conversation.

- The way to let people into a conversation clique is to let them know there is an open space for them to join the conversation.

- If you are on the outside and are looking to insert yourself into an existing conversation, take in what is going on and look for an opportunity to make a point to add to the conversation.

Business Cards

- Having an idea of your personal goals at the conference makes collecting business cards a different process.

- Before you decide to ask for a card, get a good idea about the person, what they are working on, what’s their biggest challenge, and if can you be of assistance to them.

- Ideally the best strategy is to take other people’s cards because it gives you the power to take action and contact the other person.

- When you get a card, make sure to write a note on it to remind you of who the person is and why you want to stay connected.

- Receiving a business card is also an opportunity to think of whom within your network you can help other than yourself.

Tips For Your Business Card

- Mike says stay away from glossy business cards as they are difficult to write on.

- Use high-quality heavy stock and use a professional printing service.

- Having a photo on your card is great for after the event, as the person receiving it will have a better chance of remembering who you are.

Dressing for Conferences

- Dress for your comfort level as well as what you are going after.

- Women have the advantage when it comes to accessorizing as our eyes are drawn to the color contrasts.

- For men, you can have a strong pocket square game and forgo the tie.

How to Handle Networking At Your Own Event or Conference

- Get information on the people who will attend your event and find out what they want to get out of it.

- Ask attendees who they would most like to connect with.

- It used to be that attendees wanted to connect with people in their physical geographic location, but now people prefer to connect with others in the same industry.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Mike Bruny

Brand Inside a Brand

Move the Crowd: 30 Days of Hip Hop Affirmations to Change Your Life (book)

Google Mobile Friendly Test

How To Launch Successfully & Use A Facebook Group for you Podcast with Katie Krimitsos

Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Katie Krimitsos, who runs The Tampa Bay Business Owners group and is the host of Biz Women Rock, which is an amazing podcast that features business and entrepreneurial women. Katie’s team did everything right in launching her podcast and today we talk about leveraging the power of a Facebook group for fans. In this podcast find out how Facebook groups can help you engage with your listeners.

Main Questions Asked

Tell us about the Biz Women Rock podcast and why you’re passionate about it.

Talk about your Facebook marketing efforts.

What was the investment in your Facebook ad campaign?

Talk about your Facebook group and how you’ve grown it.

Talk about building your list by having people opt in so they could join the Facebook group.

What is the purpose of your group and how do you make sure people know and understand what is and isn’t appropriate to post?

Talk about how you used the group to promote the podcast.

Key Lessons Learned

Biz Women Rock Podcast

Facebook pages allow your listeners to interact with you. Groups allow your listeners to interact with each other.

The Biz Women Rock podcast is an opportunity for savvy businesswomen to share their journey. This isn’t topic specific show but rather is story related.

Katie wanted to build a solid community rather than a high number of listeners.

Facebook Marketing

Katie paid for adverts and started a page before the podcast launched.

Within two weeks of advertising she had 2,000 likes on the Biz Women Rock page.

Katie was spending $300-$500 per month.

You need to spend money on Facebook ads so you can get your page in front of the right people but you need to be active in order for this to work

If you have 100,00 people on your page but no one is engaging then the high number doesn’t mean anything.

Katie’s Facebook content strategy was to post 3-5 times per day.

Quotes with a photo of person’s face get a lot of engagement than just the text on its own.

The majority of what Katie posts is curation and not just her own podcast content.

Facebook Groups

This is an opportunity to talk to the whole group and the members get to talk back and forth to each other.

Katie marketed the group to the page, and created a specific graphic for the group.

Katie personally reached out to 10-15 people on the Biz Women Rock Facebook page and invited them to brand ambassadors within the group.

The ambassador role was to ask questions, respond to posts, making their own posts.

There was a general Facebook ad for the group as well one that specifically targeted people who already like the page.

Always provide different content or messages to the group than you would provide on the page.

Anytime an individual in a group feels like you are talking to them directly, your group will multiply and engage more because they will feel like you really care about them.

If you can make 2,500 people feel like they are the most important person in the group then you have done your job well.

Facebook Online Group Culture

The more structure you give the group better behaved people will be and the better the outcome you want to create will happen.

The guidelines (rules) of the BWR group were posted in the group description as well as in the form of a graphic.

The idea of the rules is the keep the group spam free as a way to retain members.

In the beginning the rules graphic was posted weekly or kept as a pinned post.

If someone goes against the rules Katie will contact them personally and if they continue with rogue posts Katie will delete from the group.

Building Your List Via Facebook Groups

Instead of the opt-in on the website, Katie changed it to ‘join our private community,’ which takes them to a button to join the group.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Biz Women Rock

BWR Connect (Facebook group)

Tampa Bay Business Owners

Entrepreneur Support Services

Interview Connections TV

How to Book Podcast Guests & be a Better Guest With Jessica Rhodes with Guest Host Jason Hartman

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I’m pleased to share an interview I did as a guest on Jason Hartman’s podcast. On the show we discuss how to book great podcast guests, what it takes to be an awesome guest, and how to pitch yourself and get interviewed on podcasts.

Main Questions Asked:

Tell us about getting good guests for a podcast?

Elaborate on getting famous guests who have a lot of interview experience versus booking guests who are new.

How do we get interviews, especially with famous people who get a lot of requests?

Do you have a ratio you think is ideal of how much someone should be a guest on podcasts versus interview guests?

What does it take to be a good guest?

What does it take to put yourself out there and be granted interviews? How hard is it to get chosen?

How do you pitch yourself?

How does a podcaster define their market and show?

Key Lessons Learned:

Getting Guests

Know the goal of your podcast and what kinds of guests you want to feature.

Look for someone who has experience behind a microphone and has been interviewed before.

A good way to check if someone has been interviewed is to search iTunes, then listen to interviews in order to hear how your potential guest sounds.

Check that the guests social media and web presence are active online and will add value in the form of sharing.

People who have been interviewed a lot are great guests because they have experience, but there is a risk of them sounding rehearsed and scripted.

When reaching out to prospective guests, you need to personalize your request and be specific as to why you are interested in interviewing that particular guest.

Remember, unless you get a ‘no,’ it’s not a ‘no.’

A lot of guests want to be booked on shows with a track record so they are confident that if they record the interview it will be published.

Being a Guest

If you have your own podcast, then you are a much more appealing guest because you have credibility as somebody who produces their own show and knows what it takes to produce a podcast.

Focus on your verbal communication skills and work on getting rid of your ‘crutch words.’

The more you know what you are talking about, the less you will use ‘crutch words.’

Have a one sheet, speaker kit, or press kit that shows the host your bio and suggested speaking topics, as well as interview questions. Then know what you will say if asked those questions.

Make sure your answers aren’t too long or too short.

End your answer in a way that creates a follow up question in the mind of the host.

If you like the interview you did, there is potential to run that interview on your own show.

Getting Interviewed on Shows

In order to get yourself booked as a guest on other shows, it is helpful to use a service, broker, or virtual assistant to pitch you.

There will be a point where people start requesting you to be on their show; however, in the beginning you will need to pitch yourself.

There are so many podcasters who want to get pitched, so you just start doing it.

How to Pitch Yourself

It is vital to have a one sheet or media kit that summarizes you as a guest.

Know what makes you different to all the other guests in your niche.

Narrow your expertise down and be specific to the podcast you are pitching.

Make sure you read the show description and understand how they explain their show.

When a podcaster is being pitched they will be thinking, “Is this of value to my audience, will they want to listen to this interview, and is this something they will like?”

When you pitch a show, it should read something along the lines of: “This guest would be a great person to interview because your listeners will get x value from it.”

Follow and connect with podcasters on social media so you can get a lot of value.

Define Your Market and Show

You must have a target market and be really clear.

Don’t be afraid to leave people out, otherwise you are in danger of your show and content being broad ‘general’ area.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Jason Hartman Podcast

Conversion Cast

Interview Connections

Entrepreneur Support Services

Interview Connections TV

All About Backlinks - A Special Episode for Podcast Guests with Lindsey Anderson

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:03:08 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Lyndsey Anderson who is a web strategy expert and works with business owners to help them grow their businesses. Lyndsey is the founder and CEO of two companies and knows how to utilize web technologies to help business owners find their dreams. If you’ve ever wondered what backlinks are and why they are so important, then this is a must listen episode.

Main Questions Asked

- What are backlinks?

- What are other ways to earn links back to your website?

- How do you leave a comment and link on a website and not look spammy?

- What is the best way to find new places to find high quality backlinks?

- Is there a difference to creating a hyperlink in a blog post and a backlink?

- What is PageRank and what does that have to do with link earning?

- How does PageRank work if the source is a podcast host or app?

- What does effect your PageRank if web traffic doesn’t effect it?

- Can you talk about website conversions?

Key Lessons Learned

- A backlink is a link from another website to your website. The purpose of which is to increase your website in search engine rankings.

- Backlinks are now known as ‘link earning’ (this is the new approach of building links back to your website.)

- Google takes into account more than 200 factors when you type in a keyword to search. One of the main factors is how many links you have back to your website.

- If you are a guest on a podcast the podcaster links to your site in their show notes then that is considered link earning as you provided value to the audience.

- People used to buy links, use link farms, and comment on blogs, however, Google started recognizing these tactics and made changes.

Earning Links

- Make relevant comments on industry specific blogs with a link back to your website.

- Don’t just provide a link back to your website, you need to provide excellent information and answer a question. If you can expound on that information then link back to your website with a specific tool or resource.

- The best way is to build an audience and get other people linking back to your website.

Finding New Backlinks

- The best way is to spy on your competitors by going to Google and typing in your keywords and see what first few websites come up.

- There is a way to search what backlinks your competitors have such as moz.com or majestic.com.

- Take the competitor backlinks list and see where you can offer content or help and reach out to the owner of the website and see if you can also get a linkback.

How Google Views Backlinks

- Google no longer wants links on a resource page or amongst hundreds of others in the footer but now prefers links surrounded by content.

- Google is smart enough to recognize legitimate link backs and see natural links in the middle of a post with your name highlighted and a link.

PageRank

- Google has an algorithm that will grade a page based on how many incoming backlinks there are ranging from a scale of N/A to 10.

- If you are getting a lot of backlinks from websites with a page rank of 1 then Google will think you are spamming as pages with low numbers are easy targets, and don’t have quality content.

- Go to Google and type in ‘what is my page rank’ and Google will show you PageRanks.

- Before you go on a link earning campaign, you need to investigate and not go for all 7s. In the natural realm you will get links from 2s and 3s too.

- PageRank doesn’t necessarily have to do with traffic but is more of a general way of checking if a website is legit or spammy. If it is a 1 or a 2 then don’t aim to put your link on there.

Website Conversions

- Remember that a huge percentage of people will visit your site on a mobile device.

- From April 21, 2015 Google is incorporating whether a website is mobile friendly or not into the algorithm.

- Use the Google mobile friendly test to check if your site is mobile friendly.

- Make sure you have a call to action to get on the list and let visitors know what they will get for opting in on your list.

- Go to an outside source and have them do a full review your site.

- Always know where you are driving people once they open your site.

- Ensure you spend money on professional images and well-written content to make sure they are kept up to date.

- Visitors want to get to know you and see you speaking, which is why video is an essential element. It doesn’t have to be a huge production and can be 30 seconds or less.

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Lindsey’s Webb

Moz

Majestic

Marketing for Musicians with Bree Noble

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Bree Noble, who is an entrepreneur, musician, and speaker. Bree is the founder of Women of Substance Radio, an online radio station that promotes quality female artists in all genres. She also launched the Women of Substance Podcast that ranked number four overall on iTunes New and Noteworthy. Bree draws on her extensive experience running her own music business, both as a solo musician and industry professional, to train and mentor other female musicians.

Main Questions Asked:

What do you do 9 to 5, and what is your business made up of?

Is consulting, coaching, and creating courses how you generate revenue in your business?

Tell us more about your life as a musician.

Is that what you help musicians with most? Finding their voice, what to tell, and how to tell it?

How does someone create a bio that is going to stand out?

How is marketing a musician different from marketing a business, product, or service that is not the identity of the person selling it?

Why is marketing hard for musicians, and why don’t they like it?

Tell us more about the Women of Substance radio station.

How did you grow your audience and what marketing was involved in building the community?

Talk about the relationships lifecycle that you build with the musicians.

Are you mainly focusing on musicians who don’t have a record deal or manager? Is it strategic to build your consulting and courses?

Key Lessons Learned:

Bree does five podcasts a week, and tries to fit it all in one 8-hour ‘podcasting’ day.

If you don’t figure out how to make money in the music industry, then you are not going to have a career.

Writing a Non-Generic Bio

There are hundreds of thousands of independent female artists, so don’t be generic! You need to find a unique angle.

When writing your bio, start with your super fans, even if they are your family members, and find out what resonates with them and stands out in your story.

Most people think that their life isn’t that special, so work with an outsider to write your bio, as they can draw things out that you can’t see.

Marketing and Musicians

Nowadays businesses are becoming more about the identity of the person that sells it.

Musicians have the mindset that if their music is good, people will listen to it.

Regardless of how good your music is, the truth is that people aren’t always going to find it. That’s why record labels exist, as they will do all the promotion for you.

You need to be like a record label and become a promoter for yourself. This often involves building a team around you.

A lot of musicians feel that the ‘business stuff’ dulls their creativity. If it does, get a team.

Women of Substance Radio Station

The mission is to make well known and indie artists equal.

The thing that helps most with marketing is that every artist has their own set of fans.

Bree leverages the artist’s fans, and has a mailing list of around 4,400.

Relationship Lifecycle

Bree uses platforms that are built for radio, such as Noise Trade and Airplay Direct.

The Woman of Substance shows are planned a few weeks in advance.

Bree then contacts the artist two weeks before the podcast goes live.

On the day of the show, the artist receives an email telling them they are live, and Bree publicizes the artists on social media and is very specific with hashtags.

The target market finds Bree so she no longer worries about building it.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Women of Substance Radio

Women of Substance Podcast

Female Entrepreneur Musician

Interview Connections

Entrepreneur Support Services

Your Business is NOT Your Identity with Aaron Walker

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 09:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Aaron T. Walker, who is a businessman and life coach who has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. After 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage, Aaron believes experience is a great teacher and has examined and grown from them. In this podcast, Jessica and Aaron discuss winning at home, as well as winning in the office.

Main Questions Asked:

Why did you decide to put 35 years of marriage in your bio?

Talk about coaching a male only mastermind group.

What are some of the most common things that hold men back from growing their businesses and growing personally?

What do you mean when you say you help men to discover their identity?

Key Lessons Learned:

If we make money at the expense of our families, then we have failed.

When your relationships are strong, your business grows.

Most men are ‘sprinters’ in business, but Aaron teaches them to be ‘marathon’ runners to stay in the game longer.

Motivation is an exhaustible resource, but what really works is a well thought out plan.

Fear and Failing

Fear is what holds men back, as they just don’t want to fail.

Aaron’s life mantra is that he fears missing an opportunity more than he fears failure.

Failing is in “not trying” and not necessarily in “not succeeding.”

Identity & Personal Assessment

Aaron has created a ‘personal assessment’ form where he discovers a person’s identity, including skill sets and abilities.

Don’t tie your identity into your career, as one day it will be gone and your identity will be as well.

If you have no relationships, then you have no business.

When men introduce themselves, the first thing they generally ask is, “What do you do?” Whereas, women often ask if someone is married and if they have children.

You must identify your ideals and things in life you want to accomplish. This includes goals and personal ideals.

We all have physical, emotional, and financial needs so Aaron offers a detailed plan to find out your needs.

Work is a tool to provide income but it is not your life. Family and friends are your life.

What Do You Want?

Most people don’t actually know what they want and live every day reactively rather than proactively.

You can’t live on purpose; you need to live intentionally so there is a need to establish goals and dreams.

Aaron’s discovery questions seem elementary until you try and answer questions such as, “If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and there were no limitations geographically or financially, what would you do with your life?”

A dream is something we think about but a goal has metrics and is measurable.

A lot of the time we miss opportunities in teaching children to participate in activities that have meaning for our lives.

Steps to a Productive Day

The third of Aaron’s documents that gives you a chance to practically apply the lessons learned.

This has 30 line items, and is a ‘to do list on steroids’ that maps out your entire day.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

View From the Top (Free documents)

Iron Sharpens Iron

Interview Connections

Entrepreneur Support Services

Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger with Jim Palmer

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 09:00:00 -0400

This is a special episode of Rhodes to Success as I interview Jim Palmer on his podcast Stick Like Glue Radio about the launch of his new book, DECIDE- The Ultimate Success Trigger. We cover many of the mindset challenges and hurdles that entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them.

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business-building expert, host of Newsletter Guru TV and is the founder and CEO of multiple six-figure businesses including the Dream Business Academy. Jim is known internationally as the Newsletter Guru and Dream Business Coach.

Main Questions Asked

- Why did you decide to write this book?

- Talk about the experiences you went through early on and the lessons learned.

- What are people going to learn in this book that they can apply to their journey now?

- Talk about ‘head trash,’ what it is, and how it holds entrepreneurs back.

- When and why should we raise our prices?

- Talk about delegating or staying small.

- Expand on the lesson ‘good is good enough.’

- Why do you need to be immune to criticism?

- How does wealth reward risk and speed?

Key Lessons Learned

- Inspiration is as important as information and education.

- It’s not just about knowing how to do something but also what the person went through to get where they are.

- Growth happens when you take action and do things outside your comfort zone.

- Don’t do what the pros do now. Do what they did when they were where you are now.

What Is Covered in ‘DECIDE – The Ultimate Success Trigger’?

- Head trash.

- Deciding to survive.

- How to be authentic.

- How to invest in yourself.

- The difference between an entrepreneur and a small business owner.

- Imposter syndrome.

- Unwillingness to delegate and get help.

- The need to be perfect.

Head Trash

- Everybody has head trash. This is all the thoughts, feelings, and how you think. This is often made up of self-limiting beliefs.

- Head trash affects how people make decisions to invest, go forward and start a business.

- When we have a fear issue, we tend to make up excuses.

- At some point you have to stop being an impediment to your own growth and take care of business and do things that successful people do.

What Successful People Do

- Become a speaker, author, create videos, work with a coach, join a mastermind, and do your own live events.

- Instead of growing your business 1:1 becoming a speaker gives you a chance to grow your business 1:many.

Raising Prices

- This is featured in the ‘Decide To Be Profitable’ chapter.

- A lot of people struggle with charging fees that they are actually worth.

- You must be appropriately rewarded for the value that you are deliver to customers and clients.

- Fees should be based on the value you are delivering rather than on an hourly rate.

- It’s also not the immediate hourly value but rather the years of learning, training, and experience leading up to that point that you are charging for.

Outsourcing

- There is a point in every business where you start gaining momentum and doing more of what your core services are. At that point it should translate into your high revenue generating activities.

- Most entrepreneurs think they can do it cheaper, faster, and better than anybody.

Good is Good Enough

- Perfection is the enemy of progress.

- If you strive to get everything done to perfection then nothing will get done.

- Good is good enough doesn’t mean you put out crappy work. It just means you push the ‘go’ button sooner and ‘get it done.’

- Wealth rewards risk and speed. You just have to start and get better as you go.

Criticism

- Criticism can also be a business crippler as everyone has an opinion and people aren’t shy about sharing theirs (especially on social media.)

- The only people who aren’t criticized are people who aren’t doing anything.

- The filter Jim uses is by asking himself, “Do I know this person, trust them and do I value their opinion?” as well as “Is this someone who has earned the right to share this opinion?”

- There will always be people who don’t resonate with who you are and what you offer. You are not meant to do business with everyone.

Wealth Rewards Risk and Speed

- Your business loves speed. When things happen fast there is associated growth.

- The faster you get things done and put out content the more able you are able to attract people to your business.

Three Types of Risk

- i) Savings account entrepreneur

- ii) Stock Market entrepreneur

- iii) Casino entrepreneur

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Decide for Success (book)

Dream Biz Academy

tom@inboundforecommerce.com

What is Inbound Marketing with Tom Schwab

Wed, 04 Mar 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Tom Schwab who is the leader of the e-commerce Hub Spot user group and knows how to build and online business with an inbound strategy. Tom led the growth of Goodbye Crutches, a direct to patient private pay e-commerce business from a regional player to national leader in fewer than three years.

Main Questions Asked

- How did Goodbye Crutches come to be?

- What was the journey from Goodbye Crutches to inbound marketing?

- What is inbound marketing?

- What do you have to say about the relationship that inbound marketing has with content marketing?

- Why is it so important that your marketing focus on the customers pain points?

- What do you say to a business owner who is not taking care of a pain point but is offering something that makes life more pleasurable?

- Talk about your strategy to boost the lifetime value of a customer.

- How is your company helping e-commerce do more customer nurturing?

- How do you go from being self-employed to having a salable business?

Key Lessons Learned

Inbound Marketing

- Inbound marketing is permission-based marketing. You are basically asking, “How can I be helpful to people who have a question and make it so I’m the thought leader there to answer?”

- The difference between permission-based marketing and content marketing is life, “Fishing for Sharks and only using Chum.” Sure, it will attract them but how do you get them on the hook?

- Inbound marketing is about listening to the customer and figuring out the tests to improve so you can give the customer more content.

The Decision Process

- 70% of the buying decision is made before you contact the company (research via asking friends, referrals, Google etc.)

- A person will go through the entire sales process and be attracted by great content and offers.

Inbound Marketing vs Content Marketing

- Inbound marketing is a strategy and content marketing is a piece of that strategy.

- You need content in order to communicate with people (blog, videos, podcast) but still need the engine behind it.

- Social media is there to amplify your blogs, testimonials, responding to Tweets and LinkedIn.

- The ‘real’ customer feedback not found in a survey or comment but via looking through your analytics and seeing what people actually do on your site. They may say they love your e-mails but are they actually opening them and driving sales?

Podcast Guests

- When you are a guest on a podcast that is the content.

- Every piece of content should have a purpose so you need to always have a call to action at the end.

- If you are on a podcast just to be there then that is content marketing. However, if you drive the audience to a sale then that is an inbound strategy.

Focusing on Pain Points

- Nobody wants your product or service they just want the relief or solution.

- If you only focus on the product you won’t connect with the customer.

- You need to identify the ideal buyer persona (the person you want to serve) including the demographics, psychographics. Basically you want to know who they are and what they need from you.

- Even a pleasure point is a pain point (how can I spend more quality time etc.)

- Always focus on the reasons not the product.

- The challenge is making the customer feel the pain point so their urgency to buy.

The Lifetime Value of a Customer and Boosting Sales

- It has never been easier to make a dollar online but it has also never been harder to make a profit.

- The profit of any company comes with the lifetime value and the brand.

- Starbucks sells coffee for $4 a cup but the lifetime value of the average customer is around $40K.

- Getting a customer is just the first step. What can you do to nurture the relationship so they continue to buy and become brand advocates?

- You need to focus on the lifetime value.

- It’s much easier to keep a customer and raise the value of them than it is to get a new customer.

From Self-employment to Salable Business

- Put systems in place to allow you to do things without trading dollars for time.

- Remember, content is king and context is God.

- Ask, “What could I take that I currently do that I can package together and put a price on and give as an easy download?”

- Figure out how you can monetize long term and offer things like downloads, courses, and checklists.

- Making these changes will take you from a self-employed hourly worker to running a business.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Inbound for E Commerce

Inbound Movement (Interview Connections offer)

Hub Spot

Goodbye Crutches

Brains@walkingdeadcast.com

How to Have Fun Podcasting, Grow an Audience and Interview Celebrities with Jason Cabassi

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Jason Cabassi who is the host of the number one fan podcast for AMC’s hit TV show The Walking Dead. Jason’s show The Walking Dead ‘Cast has 25,000 listeners per episode and this week we pick his brain on how to grow an audience for your podcast, have fun with your show, and get a ton of downloads.

Main Questions Asked

- When did you start podcasting?

- What was your vision for the your Walking Dead ‘Cast show?

- Where does your desire to have an audience come from?

- Did your show start out with segments and sound effects or just a conversation between you and Karen?

- Did you teach yourself postproduction and editing as you went?

- How do you get people to engage?

- What is the reason your show became so popular over the years?

- What is the process of getting featured on iTunes?

- How did you make the celebrity interviews happen?

- How did you get into Walker Stalker Con?

- Talk about your vision for the future and how you see this being a career.

Key Lessons Learned

- The Walking Dead ‘Cast started a few months before The Walking Dead TV show actually aired.

- The show modeled itself of the Jay and Jack Lost podcast, which had segments like show recap and listener feedback.

Engagement, Downloads, and iTunes

- Jason chose not to address that the show had a small audience in the beginning and acted as though they had a good size audience from the start.

- In the beginning he asked his friends to leave reviews, write and call in to jumpstart engagement.

- Jason has an eye on trying to reach people who might not find the show on iTunes. In the early days he would get involved in message boards and mention the podcast in forums.

- Jason wrote to Apple and said he’s the number one Walking Dead podcast and would love to talk about any promotional ideas. Apple wrote back!

- There is no secret to high downloads, it’s all about producing great content.

- Jason made friends with other Walking Dead podcasters (rather than avoiding the completion as many might do.)

- He often does collaborations and guests on other shows.

Making Celebrity Interviews Happen

- Jason reached out to all the publicists of the actors on the show in season one in order to get celebrity interviews.

- New actors are more likely to do interviews than more established actors.

- When you reach out to more people, make sure to tell them who you’ve already interviewed and use that as leverage.

- Be persistent. If you don’t get a response just keep writing back every month and always be positive.

- Publicists generally respect persistence and often really do keep your contact details for a later date.

Preparing for Interviews

- Be prepared for your podcast interviews and think what you would genuinely be curious about if you were just sitting with the person having a drink.

- Write 12-15 questions beforehand and try to keep it conversational and not sound too polished (not sounding like a real person.)

- The questions are as a safety net but let conversations go into other areas

- Let the interviewee speak and don’t step on their answers.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Walking Dead ‘Cast (Facebook)

Walking Dead ‘Cast (podcast)

Jay and Jack (Lost podcast)

Podcasting Good to Great

Walker Stalker Con

Midroll

Under the Comic Covers

Jeannie Spiro’s Free Cheat Sheet

Create Your Signature Talk and Build Your Business with Speaking with Jeannie Spiro

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Jeannie Spiro, who is an online business coach and speaker specializing in helping coaches, consultants, and small business owners design, sell, and profit from their signature talk. As the founder of the profitable Create Profitable Signature Talk Systems, Jeannie teaches her five step formula to getting clients from speaking. If you want to know how to craft a magnetic talk to attract clients and sell your product, programs, and services then this is a fantastic podcast for you!

Main Questions Asked

- How did you get into business and learn about the underground world of being an entrepreneur?

- Did you ever say, “I want to be an entrepreneur” or was it more about “I want to create a life that is best for my family”?

- How did you decide to make speaking the main part of your business?

- What was the journey of starting the business and doing it on the side, to now where you have programs, courses, presentations and are teaching people?

- What are your thoughts on teleseminars, webinars, and podcasts?

- What is the best way to start speaking?

- Go through what someone should have prepared in their speaker kit to send to a host.

- Why is it important for bios to be written in third person?

- How can you find speaking opportunities online?

- How can somebody prepare for speaking on a webinar and what are some communication tips on sounding engaging?

- How do you take speaking opportunities and turn them into paying clients?

- Draw a simple outline of what that funnel would look like.

- What is the ‘free offer?’

Key Lessons Learned

- A lot of people earn their living in their ‘excellence zone’, which is just under the ‘genius zone.’

- The genius zone is when you are living in your total creative zone where anything can flow to you.

- Whatever you do make sure you ‘talk your walk!’

- A lot of people are moving into webinars because the audience is engaged. However, the learning curve is bigger than with other mediums.

- It’s important to get your voice ‘out there’ through a teleseminar. This is your starting point and is effective but need to be specific (subject or target audience.)

- The more refined your subject or target market is the more you can get people to be actively engaged.

Getting Started As a Speaker

- Getting interviewed and speaking is a great way to grow your business. You need to figure out how to establish credibility to people talent bookers.

- The best way to start is by getting interviewed and come up with a couple of questions you can be asked on your topic.

- Ask people who have a similar list and community to yours to interview you.

- Get yourself ‘out there’ and let people know you have an expertise. Provide them with your list of questions and get the word out.

- The key is to have your link to your free offer and get listeners onto your site and mailing list.

What’s in the Speaker Kit?

- Create a word document with an introduction note including information on your socials and Skype.

- Include one or two professional promo photos of yourself, a short bio, a long bio, your talk title, and interview questions about your talk title.

- Make sure your questions include action oriented, result oriented, benefit oriented bullets that connect back to what your talk is about.

- It’s important to do your bio in third person so someone else can read it out.

- Third person bios also give the perception that you have a bigger business that you might actually have.

Finding Speaking Opportunities

- Look at your competitors, what shows and formats are they are being interviewed on and where they are speaking.

- Set up lists in Twitter and segment to see where they are speaking.

- Pay attention to your Facebook newsfeed and sponsored posts (take screenshots as reminders to follow up.)

Preparing to Speak on a Webinar or Teleseminar

- Provide your presentation to the host of the webinar or teleseminar (pretend as if its your own show.)

- To stay engaged, you as the speaker need to have an elevated voice with more volume and energy.

- Prior to getting on your webinar or teleseminar get your energy going (this will improve your performance.)

- To keep people engaged, strategically design your presentation to pull people in.

- You can ask engaging questions after you’ve presented your information e.g “pick up your pen.”

- To keep people on promise them something at the end of the presentation e.g a piece of free content or link at the end.

- Sit up straight and smile when you are being interviewed or presenting.

Speaking to Get Clients

- Your ‘talk funnel’ starts with you presenting or doing the interview and getting people to your mailing list.

- Cultivate that relationship to the next level (your own presentation, workshop, webinar, live event etc.)

- The interview is the beginning of your talk funnel and the rest is up to you.

- What the funnel looks like:

- A) Opt in - Get free gift (leads to conversation/ consultation)

- B) Invite them to an evergreen presentation or webinar.

The Free Offer

- Needs to be directly connected to your presentation and what you offer in your business.

- This is the first taste of free information.

- When they get to know you better give them even more information.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Jeannie Spiro (website)

Business Girlfriends Online (podcast)

The Big Leap (book)

Melanie Benson Strick

The Longevity and Bio Hacking Show

The $10 Million Dollar Podcaster with Jason Hartman

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 11:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Jason Hartman, who has generated more than ten million dollars in income without any sponsors or advertisers. Jason has interviewed more than two thousand guests across his nineteen shows at Hartman Media. In this episode, he reveals the behind the scenes of podcasting in preparing for interviews, dealing with difficult guests, knowing your audience, and monetizing.

Main Questions Asked:

- How many shows do you have?

- How did you come up with all the different show ideas? Are some specifically business shows to generate income, and are others passion and hobby?

- Talk about becoming a good interviewer, and why you don’t do a lot of small talk.

- What do you do when a guest is difficult?

- Have you ever had a guest ask you to not air their interview because they didn’t think it was good?

- How do you prepare for your interviews?

- Do you write questions, or does it all come up based on what your subject says?

- Have you ever had a time when you didn’t know what to ask a guest, and what did you do?

- What is the funnel that happens from the podcast into your business?

Key Lessons Learned:

- 25-30% of Jason’s guest interviews are reused.

- Every tenth episode is a general life success topic.

- The best way to learn something is to teach it.

- As a member of the media, you can offer guests exposure to your audience.

Know Your Audience

- As a podcaster, it’s important to understand who your customer is.

- The audience gives you their time (the most valuable commodity any of us have), and small talk is not beneficial to the listener.

- Remember the customer is the listener, not the guest.

- It’s all about producing great content, building relationships with listeners, and funneling them into the back end for offers.

- If you do too many sponsorships, it will turn people off. All sponsorships should be relevant and curated.

Act As A Media Outlet

- Take the position of a media reporter and a watchdog (not a lap dog).

- If a guest glosses over something, sometimes it is important to ensure they answer the question.

- If you take the approach of being an investigative reporter, you will deliver a lot more value to the customer (audience).

- As a host and outlet, your role is to be a gatekeeper and save the listeners’ time.

Difficult Guests

- If the guest is bad, Jason says he simply won’t air the show.

- As a media outlet, you get to make the choice on what media you want to air.

- It is your choice whether you want to edit it or not air the show at all.

- As a guest, it’s not your chance to do a commercial but rather to provide high quality editorial content that provides real value to the listener. In doing this, the listener will view you as credible, and they will check you out.

Preparing for Interviews

- If you are willing to be controversial and disagree, you can still have a great interview.

- Podcasts are there to report on things and not just promote.

- Hosts will often ask their guest prior to interview, “Are there any questions that are off limits?”

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Hartman Media

Jason Hartman

The Creating Wealth Show

Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (book)

A Dream Business Coaching Call with Jim Palmer

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Jim Palmer who is a marketing and business building expert, host of Newsletter Guru TV, Stick Like Glue Radio, and is the founder and CEO of multiple six figure businesses, including the Dream Business Academy. Jim is also the author of five books and known internationally as the Newsletter Guru and Dream Business Coach. This podcast covers business coaching, what being a successful entrepreneur involves, and purchasing speed of growth. If you’ve ever wondered what the Million Dollar Platform is, then this podcast is a must listen.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about the first time you experienced a business coach.

- What are your thoughts on people wanting to wait until they get to the next level to hire a business coach or people who say they can’t afford it?

- What is the Million Dollar Platform?

Key Lessons Learned:

Working With a Business Coach

- If you are working with a coach, it has to be a person with a successful track record.

- The right coach is someone who is going to push you, tell you when you aren’t doing things right, and when you are making stupid decisions.

- You don’t need a friend, you need a coach who will tell you what to do and hold you accountable.

- Ask yourself, “Am I growing a business or friendships of likeminded entrepreneurs?” The answer should be business.

Being a Successful Entrepreneur

- A successful entrepreneur is someone on the move, who is climbing and taking people along with them on the journey.

- As an entrepreneur, if anyone is going to slow you down on your journey, you have to cut the rope.

- Ego often gets in the way for entrepreneurs. If it is not the entrepreneur’s idea, then they often don’t buy into it.

- Will you be more hung up on ‘whose idea it is’ or who actually gets the credit?

Focusing on Revenue Generating Activities

- If you want to ‘do it all by yourself,’ then you are creating a job for yourself.

- Entrepreneurs come to the table with a skill or talent. However, a successful business needs accounting, marketing, and administration as well, but at a certain point you have to be focused on the skill that bought you to the table.

- That skill is your revenue generating activity. You need to focus on that skill and outsource all other skills.

Purchasing Speed of Growth

- As an entrepreneur, you have to put money out before you get it back in.

- There are two types of ‘you’:

1. Current you/You that you want to be.

2. Business you have today/Business you want to have.

- The only way to get where you want to be is to invest.

- You can purchase speed of growth by getting connected with a coach or mastermind group.

- These are people who have been there and done what you are trying to do. Getting involved and following good advice will give you a shortcut.

- It’s only an expense if it fails to produce a return on the investment.

- Green Eyeshade Thinking: An accountant will make a decision on the numbers ‘today.’ Entrepreneurs think of the numbers you can ‘make.’

- There are so many ways to get a return on investment with a coach and mastermind group.

- This comes on from ideas and implementing what you do right, as well as saving money by not implementing things too.

Tough Love and Defending Your Position

- Don’t make rash decisions after you get ‘tough love’ as the ego can help and hurt you.

- Sometimes we get so emotionally tied to something, even when you get feedback from lots of people saying ‘no,’ it’s hard to do.

- Defending your position often helps you to really think your idea through.

- When someone challenges, you’ll either defend it saying it’s a good idea or start to question yourself.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Insider Podcasting Secrets with Corey Coates

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Corey Coates, the co-founder of Podfly Productions LLC. Corey began his career in broadcast media, music production, performance, and instruction. He is also a pioneer in podcasting and an in-demand freelance guitarist, as well as an audio editor for terrestrial radio production houses. This podcast covers podcasting, post-production, and outsourcing tasks in your business.

Main Questions Asked:

- Where did you learn how to start and run a business?

- Share some of your insider secrets on podcasting.

- Why is it important that entrepreneurs who want to podcast focus on outsourcing extra tasks?

- What are your tips on the post-production process to improve the quality of a show?

Key Lessons Learned:

- The podcast listening community is still small. It’s like reading books, in that you end up telling your friends about it, and that is how podcasts become successful.

- If your first goal is to ensure that your podcast is SEO optimized, then you are probably not going to get the results you anticipate.

- You are competing for the time and attention of an individual who doesn’t have a lot of time and attention to give you in the first place.

Content is King

- There is no formula that will make you successful. The primary goal needs to be having amazing, valuable content that people love so much they share it with their friends and family.

- Focus the majority of your time and attention towards creating content that is compelling and of value to the listeners, and that motivates them to share.

- The top 20 podcasts aren’t employing any of the ‘techniques’ people are using, and are just producing really good shows people talk about and share.

- Look into the space of what you are entering, and if there are already 10 or 20 podcasts that are doing it well, then don’t bother competing.

Developing Audience Intimacy

- Develop a relationship that translates into credibility and authority.

- Create a private relationship between yourself and the individual listener.

- Podcasting is more compelling than broadcast radio is, as it has a lot more human experience.

- The beauty and value in podcasting is that people hear the way you talk, your sense of humor, and your opinions. The more produced and formulaic you become, the more you will alienate people.

- Microphone technique, equipment setup, and using the voice as an instrument are all-important, but relatability is a key component.

- Podcasting is about making yourself sound relatable and training your voice to be pleasant to listen to, but never lose the personal touch.

- Sit up straight and smile – you will come across with energy that is phenomenal!

Outsourcing Tasks

- If you can afford to, give the task to someone who does it all day and does it well.

The Post-Production Process

1.) Don’t undervalue the quality in pre-production and source audio.

· If you do a bad recording, there’s only so much you can do in post.

· A good microphone, quiet room, and clean recording will make for a better sounding podcast.

2.) Learn about how compression, normalization, and equalization work.

· The plugins, compressors, and workflow in Adobe Audition are conducive to radio and podcast production.

· When bringing in raw content, if you have a nice clean signal, use the built-in multi-band compressor in Adobe Audition. It fattens up and evens out all of the levels.

· Learn about compression and experiment to find the magic setting, and use it as an applied preset.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Podfly Productions LLC

Back to Work (podcast)

Hartman Media

Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend (podcast)

Alec Baldwin – Here’s The Thing (podcast)

The Importance of 'Matterness' with Allison Fine

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:25:57 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Allison Fine who is among the preeminent guides to the social media revolution. She remakes organizations by the least expensive and most profitable means available; connecting with others! Allison is the author of Matterness and the award winning book Momentum as well as co-author of the best seller The Networked Non Profit.

Main Questions Asked

- What are the key characteristics of the ‘big small town’ we live in online?

- Do you think it’s a bad thing that we are more connected online?

- How can entrepreneurs connect with each other in business online?

- What made you interested in the social media revolution?

- What was your transition like from non-profit political work into being an entrepreneur?

- Did you have any internal struggles of making the mindset shift?

Key Lessons Learned

- The online ecosystem means a lot of us feel guilt over online connections and lack of in person local connections.

- We are at the beginning of an entire revolution of connecting with others.

- There is no data suggesting people are ‘meaner’ or more narcissistic because they are online. They just have a chance to express it so we see it more.

- Being online never substitutes for being on land with people.

- How we choose to connect with people is one of the biggest choices entrepreneurs make in their business.

- You‘ll never have the marketing dollars to sell yourself to people. You need them to do some of the heavy lifting for you.

- There is a larger merging of nonprofit and for profit sector where a lot of businesses have dedication to social responsibility.

- The way we work has to match our values because we spend so much time doing it. We are now able to shape our business life much more than before.

- It’s important to think ‘how’ your business can serve the world and not just ‘be’ for you.

- Think about how you want to use your influence in the world. We are all holding our own megaphone and have connections with people.

- Leadership is about being something before doing something.

- We need to think about how to be generous and fill up our networks with good things and make other people better.

- The greatest players make the other players around them better.

- Don’t just sell a product or offer a service but rather stand for something.

- Figure out what your philosophy is and stand by it. This will attract people to you.

- Principals should win out over plans. Principals don’t change but plans do.

- The world is moving quickly so you have to be agile. The only thing you can hold on to are your foundational principals.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Allison Fine

What’s the Big Idea (podcast)

Matterness (book)

Momentum (book)

The Networked Nonprofit (book)

The Art of Storytelling with Maggie Patterson

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview communications strategist Maggie Patterson, who works with entrepreneurs and corporations to help them craft intelligent communications strategies. Maggie believes that all the marketing in the world won’t get us anywhere if you don’t have the right message in place, which is where stories come in! Maggie helps her clients figure out what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. She is the host of Moxie Marketing podcast, and has more than 15 years of experience. If you want to know why stories work in selling your product or service, then you must listen to this podcast!

Main Questions Asked:

- How do stories help us sell our products and services?

- How do you weave stories in when you are giving valuable information?

- How do you help people figure out what stories are relevant and will help them?

- How do you tell a story that is average and doesn’t seem relevant?

- Do you have any thoughts on social media flaws and saying too much?

- Talk about your Moxie Marketing podcast and building that platform.

- What is your experience in growing an audience but not obsessing over it?

Key Lessons Learned:

Storytelling

- There is a definite science behind why stories work.

- A story activates multiple parts of your brain. Your imagination fills in the blanks, and turns a story into a memory.

- If you hear about facts and logic, only two zones are activated, which are rational areas.

- Stories stay with us longer than facts and figures.

- A micro story is adding something memorable that creates a connection with the audience.

Entrepreneurs and Stories

- As entrepreneurs, we get stuck on the idea that the story should be about us.

- Ask yourself where you can start to share your personality (social media or blog posts?).

- Start to look at how your experiences fit into your personal story.

- We have a tendency to get stuck in the ‘Hero’s Journey,’ which gets tired.

Finding Your Story

- No matter how average or boring we think our story is, we all have defining moments.

- Due to the stories we consume, we now expect them to all be inspirational.

- Implicit egoism is people liking and wanting to connect with people just like themselves.

- Never underestimate the power of the relatable story.

- Define what your story will be and how you will show up in the world.

- You don’t have to expose all your ‘dirty laundry.’ Storytelling is always done on your terms.

Vulnerability, Social Media and Business

- We have been trained on the idea that we need to be vulnerable and transparent. However, this can go too far and put you in ‘victim territory,’ which can be a bad thing for your business.

- If you are sharing too much online or stories that are not appropriate to your business, you could attract the wrong type of clients or alienate existing clients.

- If you are ‘free and loose’ with telling your stories, start to think and post about what is impactful.

- Remember that you can’t own every issue and niche.

- Everything about you online reflects on you as a business owner.

Podcasting

- If you are looking at a podcast as a marketing tool, then get focused on the purpose and mission of values rather than the downloads.

- Make sure you know where your podcast fits in with your business.

- Success comes in so many different ways and can only be defined by you.

- Remember every download is someone letting you in.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Maggie Patterson

Marketing Moxie Podcast

How to Grow Your Podcast with Mobile Marketing

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Greg Hickman who is an entrepreneur, mobile marketing consultant, and creator of the Mobile Mixed podcast. If you want to know how to build your email list, increase webinar conversion, and drive sales with text messaging then this is an absolute must listen!

Main Questions Asked:

- Why is SMS marketing so powerful for podcasters?

- How does SMS marketing work, and how do you get people to opt in?

- What is your take on high downloads versus people who listen to every episode?

- What should lead magnets be?

- What are examples that will get people to opt in?

- Talk about your video training series and all the different ways you are putting out content.

- What is your business relationships philosophy?

Key Lessons Learned:

- If you are a podcaster and don’t blog, there is little reason for listeners to visit your site.

- Connect with listeners where they are (on their mobile device).

- Podcasts are great for authority, getting yourself on other shows, and creating relationships with people, but blog posts, such as tutorials, are what gets shared.

- It is much more difficult to create a viral podcast episode, as sharing is not as easy as blog content.

Two Types of Shows:

- 1) Passive listeners - E.g 20,000 passive listeners who are not going to show notes or opting in

- 2) Active listeners – E.g 500 active listeners who download every episode and offer a high conversion rate

SMS Marketing:

- 65% of podcasts are listened to on a smart phone.

- If you can’t get people to your show notes, then the odds of getting someone on your email list is low.

- Listening to a podcast is something people do while they are doing other things.

- The odds of people listening to your podcast from in front of their computer are low.

- You need a solid call to action and reason for listeners to participate, such as registering for a webinar, free content, or event registration.

- Text message marketing software is available, such as Call Loop.

- Only a few software platforms have two-way interaction that allows you to capture email addresses.

- Example – Podcaster announces “text ‘lead pages’ to 38470.” The listener will receive a bounce back text “to confirm your registration, reply with your email address.”

- Once you have the email address, the listener is on your list and you can add to platforms, such as Mailchimp or Infusionsoft.

- By offering this text opt-in option, you are giving the people who want to take action the ability to join your email list no matter where they are listening.

- Look at SMS marketing as a new opportunity to capture people that might be audio-only listeners by enabling text call to action.

Downloads Versus Loyal Listeners:

- As a podcaster, you have to ask yourself “what is my goal?”

- Is the goal to get a high number of downloads in order to gain sponsorship, or is the goal to use the podcast as a lead generation tool?

- Most podcasters aren’t going to make a living from sponsorship so it is best to use the podcast as a lead generation tool.

- Focus on repeat listeners and people who are going to join your list.

Lead Magnets & Content Upgrades:

- Lead Magnets - webinars and free courses work well, and is something that provides the listener a lot of value.

- Content upgrades – creating a unique piece of content that is pulled from each episode, e.g screenshots, checklist, or process flows.

- Content upgrades are something you will want to download, and is heavily promoted. This helps increase your opt-in and conversion rate.

- Most podcasters and bloggers constantly promote the same lead magnet; however, if someone isn’t interested, then they will never opt in.

- By having unique lead magnets for every piece of content, you are giving yourself an opportunity for people to opt in.

Business Relationships:

- As long as you put yourself out there, engage with people, and try to deliver value, then it will come back to you.

- Often, you may not find people in your area who are also entrepreneurs, so you may want to create opportunities to find them.

- Meeting face-to-face is important. Going to conferences and live events is a great way to engage.

- Once you create relationships with people, you need to actively stay in touch and continue to deliver value.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Mobile Mixed Podcast

Convert From Anywhere

Call Loop

Text ‘convert’ to 38470 to get started with Greg’s free video training

Profit Hacking and Marketing with Steve Daar

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Steven Daar who is the founder of the Conversion For Good marketing agency that serves businesses and non-profit organizations with a mission. As an entrepreneur, Steven started his first business at age twenty-two before working in the corporate world of advertising and marketing for Fortune 500 businesses. He is also the author of Profit Hacking, so if you want to know how to double your business, then this is the podcast for you!

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about what kind of coaching and training you invested in, and why that was crucial for you to now have a successful business?

- What do you mean by ‘investing in your network?’

- What are some of the things you have advised people to do differently?

- What are common mistakes that are bringing people’s conversion rates down?

- How does improving client retention lead to higher profits?

- What are other ways business owners can double their profits?

- What is the secret to getting more traffic to your website?

- Why did you decide to write a book so early on in your business?

Key Lessons Learned:

- You can invest in your network by following up with people and giving.

- Make your call to action specific to what the audience is going to get, and a reinforcement of what you are giving them as opposed as to what they are giving you.

- Nobody wants to ‘submit,’ but an option to ‘get the video that will change your business’ is far more compelling.

- When anyone visits your website, they are subconsciously thinking ‘what’s in it for me? What can I do here? What is the value of this page/ website to me?’

- If the value or ‘what’s in it for me’ isn’t obvious within seconds, the odds of a person bouncing from your site are high.

- Remember your website exists to serve the audience/customers and to be of value to them.

- Your copy, design, layout, and images should be oriented around the benefit the audience is going to get so they know the value of them taking the next step in the process.

- It is more profitable to keep a client than it is to find a new one.

There are three types of investments you won’t regret:

1. Investment in yourself (growing your skills and knowledge)

2. Investments in top performers (someone at the top of their craft), e.g designer, marketer, editing/ copywriting

3. Investment in your network

Three Ways to Double Your Business:

1. Increase your traffic

2. Convert that traffic into leads, subscribers, customers, or clients

3. Increase the lifetime customer value, average order value, or how often people buy

- This is the power or ‘what else do we do?’

- If you are not offering a premium version of your product or service, then you are missing out.

- There is a percentage in every market of customers who are premium buyers, where price is not their number one deciding factor. They may want prestige or ease, and are willing to pay for it.

- One change or split test has the potential to increase profits by at least 20%.

- Traffic is the lowest leverage way to double your business.

Secret to More Traffic:

- It has everything to do with conversion and economics.

- Every visitor has a cost, whether it be cost per click or cost per visitor.

- You also have a figure such as earnings or revenue per visitor.

- Revenue per visitor is the function of conversion times economics, e.g $100 per conversion/customer and you convert 5% of your customers, then you are making $5.

- As long as your revenue per click is higher than your cost per click, you have a green light to buy as much traffic from that source as possible.

- If you are earing $1.50 and you are paying $1.00, then you want to make that trade as many times as you can.

- The higher your earnings per visitor are, the easier it will be to get traffic.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

GKIC (conference)

The Best Online Marketing Interview You Will Ever Hear!

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Gary George from Blazin Multi Media. Gary has worked with numerous high profile clients including Virgin Records, United Nations, Panasonic, Rockafella Records, and Jay Z. As a consultant, Gary has generated more than $48 million for his clients within the past 5 years by identifying and reversing limiting patterns in their marketing strategy. If you want to know more about apps, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, YouTube, SEO, and pay per click then this is a great podcast for you!

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk to us about apps and why everyone should have an app for their business.

- What kind of investment does it take to get an app built?

- Why should we like LinkedIn and what kind of power is there on the platform?

- What are your thoughts on LinkedIn groups with regards to owning versus being interactive in other groups?

- How can you leverage the power of LinkedIn? Would you suggest outsourcing?

- Should I pay for the advanced membership on LinkedIn or is it not worth my investment?

- What should people be focusing on when they have a YouTube channel?

- Should a podcaster who is not doing videos post on YouTube with a still image and podcast audio only?

- Who are some of the biggest celebrities you’ve worked with?

- What are some of the things you learned from musicians in their marketing?

Key Lessons Learned:

- The bread and butter of online marketing is keyword research, e.g Google keyword planner.

- You can reverse engineer based on CPC (cost per click) and know what to optimize in other places.

- Consumers don’t care what format media comes in, they simply care that it’s convenient.

- Brand is important, but you have to show results first and have the goods to back it up.

Apps:

- If you don’t have a mobile application (app), now is the time to beat your competition.

- Apps are untapped ways of exposure for brands.

- A huge benefit of an app is that it sends push notifications.

- Push notifications act like a text message and ring your phone.

- 96% of people read their text messages within in the first 60 seconds of receipt.

- People don’t have to open your app and can still receive push notifications.

- The iTunes app store has become the third largest search engine (after Google and YouTube).

- What would take you eight months to rank on Google would take you about 8 days in the app store.

LinkedIn:

- If you sell to another business in any capacity, you should be on LinkedIn.

- You will win at LinkedIn by doing organic marketing, and targeting people on specific criteria.

- LinkedIn allows you to pinpoint and solicit people, such as C level executives.

- LinkedIn has groups, which is a great weapon to become a thought leader.

- If you are looking to target someone on LinkedIn, then you should join a group they are in and communicate.

- If you have the capability, an established following, and a niche that isn’t over saturated, then it is a good idea to create your own group.

- Creating your own group is a way to have the power to message group members all at once.

- When you are looking at groups, don’t just focus on the number of members, but rather the date of recent activity and level of interaction.

- Investing in a paid membership on LinkedIn is not worth it unless you are ready to go ‘heavy’ with prospecting.

YouTube:

- YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

- The #1 thing to focus on in YouTube is to rank your videos for specific search keywords.

- YouTube users are more likely to type searches in first person, e.g “How do I make a podcast?”

- Make sure to position yourself for people actively searching for a product or service.

- Title your videos as above to match that behavior.

- YouTube has its own keyword tool so you can see the best search terms.

- People expose their intent to buy more frequently through YouTube searches.

- You should be asking yourself “How can I title this better so more people find it?”

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Blazin’ Multi Media

brad@liquidleadership.com

How to Be a Speaker with Brad Szollose

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Brad Szollose, the international bestselling author of Liquid Leadership. Brad is a serial entrepreneur, former C level executive of a public company, business advisor, and a millennial expert. If you have any interest in becoming a speaker then this episode is definitely for you!

Main Questions Asked

- What has made you a millennial expert?

- What are some of the steps entrepreneurs can take to becoming a keynote speaker?

- Talk about how comedy, improv, and storytelling help you to be a better speaker?

- Can you give us tips on how to start the actual presentation?

- Talk more about switching from ‘I’ language to ‘you’ language

Key Lessons Learned

- No one is going to know about your brand, who you are, and what you do unless you are going to stand up and be a ‘celebrity.’

- If you are going to increase the amount of money you can make or attract people to your product or service, you have to learn to stand up on stage and deliver the goods.

- If you are an interesting and a dynamic presenter then people will flock to you because they like what you are doing.

- In the 21st century people have to know, like, and trust you before they buy from you (speaking gets you there faster.)

- Toastmasters is great if you want to become good at giving the perfect speech.

- Be careful not to be trapped in the mode of being a ‘lecturer.’

- As a keynote speaker, your job is to give the audience three memorable experiences that they can take home and use as a tool or strategy to solve a problem.

- Start out with the stories you want to tell. What is the point you want to make?

- When you start a keynote speech don’t begin with “I am x and today we are taking about x.” The trick is to get straight into a story.

- The beginning point of your keynote speech should be the same as the end point but worded a little differently.

- If you are overwhelmed by having to prepare for a long speaking engagement then just start with 10 minutes at time. The structure should be a point, a story, and an end point.

- Switch from ‘I’ language to ‘you’ language then everyone can place your story in their imagination.

- ‘I’ language is simply you are telling a story, however, ‘you’ language engages the listener.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Liquid Leadership (website)

Toastmasters

Liquid Leadership (book)

Relationships with Millionaires with James Malinchak, Secret Millionaire

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I share the recording of a live interview I did in St. Louis with James Malinchak of Big Money Speaker. James is a business coach who runs live events twice a year and trains people on how to have a successful speaking career. In this episode, you’ll find out how James’ appearance on the ABC hit TV show Secret Millionaire came about through a relationship.

Main Questions Asked:

- Talk about the importance of building and maintaining relationships.

- Do you see any mistakes made by attendees at your live events?

Key Lessons Learned:

- Content marketing is about getting content made.

- If you wait for everything, you create to be perfect you won’t be creating much content.

- Content marketing is about being consistent, persistent and getting content out.

- Everyone likes to consume their content differently, so think about how you can repurpose your content.

- Networking means you are trying to make connections, but it’s not about connections, it’s about relationships.

- Instead of thinking what you can ‘take,’ think ‘what can I do for this person?’

- Sending a thank you note and showing gratitude is still being a ‘giver’.

- Building relationships is all about positioning and how people think of you, as well as how people talk about you.

- Its not about ‘who’ you say you know, but rather about who knows you, how they think about you, and how they talk to others about you.

- Being a ‘server’ or ‘giver’ positions you totally different to everybody else who approaches people as a ‘taker’.

- Some of the worst advice you can get is to go to an event and take hundreds of business cards.

- Nobody cares unless you show you care about them first.

- “When you meet someone new, they don’t want to talk about you.”

- One of the human secondary needs is the need to talk about yourself.

- Start living in other people’s worlds and talk about them.

- Always approach people with the following in mind: 1) ‘what interests this person?’ 2) What’s important to this person? 3) What inspires me about him/her?

Links to Resources Mentioned

Big Money Speaker Bootcamp

Big Money Speaker

Millionaire Success Secrets

Secret Millionaire

Adam Homey episode (repurposing content)

How to Get Traditional Media Exposure

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:00:00 -0400

Summary:

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Josh Elledge who is a syndicated columnist and ‘go-to expert’ in building relationships with the media. Josh is a dynamic and entertaining consumer expert who focuses on the day-to-day spending habits of Americans, with a focus on showing people how to get more lifestyle on a fixed income. If you’ve ever wanted to be the go-to TV expert in your field, then this is the episode for you.

Main Questions Asked:

- Why should entrepreneurs and bloggers bother with traditional media when they have the power of social media and podcasting?

- Do you think traditional media will go into new media?

- How do we connect with the journalists and make ourselves known as the go-to entrepreneur in our niche?

- What do you mean by ‘checking out’ online?

- How do you get good at interviews?

- What are some actionable tips and steps people can take to start building relationships with media?

Key Lessons Learned:

- In order to be ‘discovered’, you need to be able to speak the language and have the systems down so that you can be presentable and get in front of large audiences with your message and tell your story in an effective way.

- Eventually you will get your one shot, but the goal is to be invited back and be the ‘go-to’ expert and part of their team in their database.

- Ensure that you are presentable and have the means to reach out and build relationships.

Traditional Media:

- Traditional media adds to your credibility.

- Over the past 5 years, newsrooms have been shrinking and adjusting to a new media world.

- Traditional media, on its own in print form, will not survive which is why they are investing heavily in online presence.

- If you are a podcaster, blogger or internet entrepreneur, you are extremely attractive to traditional media organizations as you represent their future.

‘Checking Out’:

- Journalists and producers do not like taking risks, so if you are an unknown they will try and build a picture about you before they even respond back.

- If you don’t ‘check out’ online, then you aren’t going to get calls back.

- You will be ‘checked out’ based on online credibility, including your website and social media profiles.

- Producers will be looking to see if you have you been on TV before.

- Producers will research if you have been quoted before.

- The press kit on your website should have video of you, list of places you’ve appeared, bio, example questions, story and segment ideas.

- Establish yourself as someone who is easy to work with.

Interview Skills:

- The average sound bite for television is 7 seconds.

- Learn how to communicate in sound bites or ‘pull out points’ and rehearse your talking points prior to the interview.

- Summarize your point of view and be able to state it in two sentences.

- Be able to have a series of points that are interesting.

Podcast:

- People love valuable and actionable content.

- As a podcaster, you need to engage the listener immediately or they are unlikely to return and give you a second chance.

- Podcast guests who aren’t great talent will reflect poorly on the host’s and show’s reputation.

- Invite as much feedback as you can get.

Building Media Relationships:

- Get to know who’s who in your industry.

- Find reporters who are interested in your subject and get to know them via Twitter.

- Create a separate Twitter list to follow local media.

- Make sure you know what availability media outlets need to fill each day.

- Make your contacts aware of the content you are creating.

- Take your relationship offline and ask to direct email rather than Twitter exchanges.

- Be ready and available for your chance to be interviewed.

- Keep an eye on the daily news for opportunities where your expertise could be used in the media.

Links to Resources Mentioned

Millions In Free Media

Savings Angel

90 Days to Abundance Podcast

Podcasters Paradise

HARO

Motivating Other Moms Radio

Fat Apocalypse

Bonus Episode: Door to Door Canvassing, the Fair Trade Movement & Social Entrepreneurs

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:25:21 -0400

Summary:

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview the National Coordinator for Fair Trade Campaigns at Fair Trade USA, Billy Linstead Goldsmith. During this podcast, you will learn about canvasing and communication skills that go into door-to-door sales and fundraising, as well as Fair Trade USA and entrepreneurship in developing countries. If you’ve ever wondered what Fair Trade is all about, how it works and how you can get involved as a small business owner or entrepreneur, then you absolutely must listen to this podcast.

Main Questions Asked:

- What kind of fear did you have to get over to work door-to-door?

- How do you think having a high level autonomy helps us professionally and personally?

- Talk about what is happening in developing countries that we should know about.

- Are there products, other than coffee, that can be Fair Trade?

- What is the entrepreneurial spirit like in these Fair Trade areas?

- Do you sense there is more of an entrepreneurial spirit in these countries and less of a sense of entitlement [like in the USA]?

- Are larger corporations starting to understand The Fair Trade movement and becoming more accepting of those products?

- How do people know if a product is Fair Trade?

Key Lessons Learned:

Going Door-to-Door

- Everyone has an innate fear of rejection.

- When it comes to door-to-door interaction, the worst thing someone can do is say no.

- If you are starting out, you have to be able to look someone in the face for what you want and not be afraid of someone saying no.

- When it comes to sales, you have to take the tools you are presented with and find your own voice.

- There is a difference between following a script and a structure

- Sample structure: Introduction, icebreaker, what you are asking for, close with an ask.

- Entrepreneurship is all about an ability to make a quick rapport with whomever they are talking to.

- As an entrepreneur, it’s important to invest in our businesses, ourselves and our world.

Fair Trade

- Small business and social entrepreneurs can do things to impact the larger market (and have done with regards to Fair Trade).

- Fair Trade provides an opportunity for consumers to examine value and be able to buy products they know are making a difference in communities developing countries.

- Farmers, workers, and artisans are empowered to build their own businesses and work together to take more control over their business and future.

- Fair Trade is about putting the needed tools in business owners’ hands so they can grow their businesses and stop labor exploitation in their community.

- Fair Trade certification started with coffee. This is the most widely available and most well-known Fair Trade product.

- Other Fair Trade products include tea, chocolate, beans, grains, body care products, packaged foods and clothing.

- Every ingredient that can be Fair Trade certified in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is.

- Fair Trade products are certified and you can check the label on the Fair Trade website.

- The majority of companies in the USA that sell Fair Trade products are small local businesses started by social entrepreneurs.

Fair Trade Entrepreneurs

- The universal element is that the entrepreneurs work incredibly hard and are driven.

- There is a real understanding of the strength of community and collaboration and the tireless drive to succeed.

- By participating in Fair Trade, this has allowed many families to send their children to high school (often the first generation to be able to do so).

- The harder you work, the less entitled your kids feel.

- When kids see adults working really hard to improve their station (whatever that is), there is less of a feeling of entitlement and more of an understanding of what it takes to build a business and be successful.

- When you see your parents laboring hard, it instills an understanding of what it takes to be successful and a sense of wanting to give back.

- Many of the next generation (who are now in their twenties) are working in cooperatives and areas to improve the capacity of the business, sales, supply chain management, new understanding of agriculture techniques and training farmers.

Links to Resources Mentioned

Fair Trade Campaigns (labels)

Fair Trade USA

Pencils of Promise

Clean Water Action

KIVA

Social Entrepreneurs Challenge

Help My Website Sell

Relationships vs. Friendships: Joleene Moody Isn’t in Business to Find a New BFF

Wed, 19 Nov 2014 10:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Joleene Moody who is an expert in breaking into the world of paid speaking and entrepreneurship. Joleene is a former TV reporter and anchor turned transformational speaker, author, and business consultant. If you’ve ever been interested in booking paid speaking gigs and landing high paid clients then this podcast is the perfect place to start!

Main Questions Asked

- What is your opinion on women in business being afraid of hurting people’s feelings?

- How do you describe profitable relationships?

Key Lessons Learned

- Building relationships is all about providing value to other people and thus attracting the right relationships to you

- When you are growing your business ask yourself ‘who can I help and who can I bring value to?’ Doing this will attract people to you

- The more authentic you are and less you care about people’s feelings the more people will want to be connected to you

Business Relationships vs Friendships

- Often people want to build business relationships but care more about being liked and not hurting anyone’s feelings

- As women in business, there is a problem with defining business relationships and friendships

- Sometimes women are afraid to engage in conversation as a professional

- Business isn’t personal. Remember to be professional not focus on becoming BFFs

- Women have a fear of ‘rubbing someone the wrong way’ and not becoming BFFs this brings up fear that others could speak negatively of you

- Building profitable relationships isn’t about building friendships

Business Communication

- You can’t read someone’s tone through an e-mail message

- Maturity is a piece of business evolution everyone needs to move through

- If it doesn’t matter and its not going to keep you up at night hitting delete on an email is fine

- Being cognizant of someone’s feelings is different to absorbing them

Profitable Relationships

- Focus on what will be best for you not on who you want to connect with

- Be part of a network where people want each other to genuinely succeed

- If you are in a place where the success is just about you then you won’t make it (this is the space of manipulation)

- The relationships you build are at the core of a passion that ignited what you are moving through to bring you to a higher place

- If you want to be successful and profitable in your business then working for free is not going to get you there

Links to Resources Mentioned

Joleene Moody

Business Heroine Magazine

Michelle Fetsch, Creator of Women Enough and the Bare Campaign

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 10:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Michelle Fetsch who is the creator of Women Enough and the Bare Campaign. Women Enough is an organization that supports women in having a healthy body image and self esteem through nude photo shoots. In this podcast Michelle will bring you amazing tips on how to connect with your audience and build relationships that move your business forward and have an impact (even if you don’t need your audience to take their clothes off!)

Main Questions Asked

- Share your background and history that led you to starting Women Enough

- How did you decide to do nude photo shoots?

- Tell us about the first time you asked another woman to take her clothes off and be photographed as part of your campaign

- What did you do that helped these women be comfortable in your campaign?

- Give us a blueprint of the campaign and how you are using the photographs

- Is there a way for women to be part of the campaign but not do a nude photo shoot?

- Talk about your relationships with the media

- What is your pitch and what do your tweets to celebrities say?

- What is the behind the scenes process? Do you have a spreadsheet of who you want to reach out to and when you’re following up if they haven’t responded?

- Have you used Contact Any Celebrity.com, IMDB Pro or anything similar?

- What are the steps you’ve taken to build media relationships?

- What are some of the areas you wish you were further along in but aren’t?

Key Lessons Learned

- Many girls grow up with their role models being the women in beauty magazines

- The goal of Women Enough is to create realistic media campaigns that support women in having a healthy body image and self esteem

- Many women are having children and haven’t addressed their own issues with themselves and are giving their problems to the next generation

- So many women have a perception that another person’s life is better than theirs

- We often ‘go things alone’ because we think no one else is going through what we are

- The story element in the Women Enough campaign is what helps to bridge the gap between perception and reality

- Getting women to represent diversity in the photo shoot was difficult due to women’s insecurity around their bodies

- Regardless of whether you are overweight or underweight everyone has issues with how they look

- Everyone deals with the same issues but it’s their own version of it

- The educational aspect of the campaign is for people to take care of themselves regardless of what they look like

- The campaign is about women being able to look at themselves

- Michelle found that sharing her story disarmed others and gave them permission to do the same

- The most successful entrepreneurs and business owners are those who are comfortable being vulnerable and sharing openly about their struggle and journey

The Bare Campaign

- The campaign is a way for women to have a place and space in the world

- The website was created on Square Space

- There was more than 200K organic visits to the website in the first week

- The Bare Campaign photos are on the website and social media, however, the goal is to have a billboard campaign that features women and their stories

- Women can chose their level of involvement in the campaign

- Some women do a Bare Photo Shoot to go through the experience but don’t publish their images

- The photo shoots are a way for women to address what’s inside of them that is holding them back

Media Relationships and Reaching Out

- Scout Willis (Demi Moore’s daughter) responded to tweets and is going to join the campaign

- Michelle admits she is relentless when it comes to reaching out to the media and celebrities

- The ‘ask’ is to be part of the #BareCampaign

- Often people won’t respond the first time so you’ll need to continue reaching out in order to get a response

- Michelle has a spreadsheet of magazines and blogs that have the target demographic as well as women who she would like to be part of the campaign

- There is a lot of groundwork in getting an outreach spreadsheet started

- If someone engages on Twitter it is great to follow up within 24 hours

- Many celebrities have agents that you need to contact in order to have a conversation

- We all want to be further along than we are, however, we still need to give ourselves the acknowledgement of how much has been accomplished

- If you have narrowed down your audience it is possible for your pitch to multiple outlets to be the same

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Women Enough

The Fat Apocalypse

Contact Any Celebrity

IMDB Pro

Co-Authoring a Book for Niche Authority with Diane Gardner

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 10:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Diane Gardner who is the founder of Adept Business Solutions and Tax Pro Solutions. She is known widely as ‘The Tax Coach’ and is the bestselling co-author of Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That? Obamacare Survival Guide, and the Ten Most Expensive Tax Mistakes That Cost You Thousands amongst numerous other publications. Diane helps entrepreneurs nationwide pay the least amount of taxes they can legally pay.

Main Questions Asked

- What is a tax coach and why should we find one for ourselves?

- What do you mean by a co-author book and what is the process?

- What is ‘lumpy mail’?

- What is the process for writing your book and tips on getting content written?

- Share about the relationship behind the scenes with your co-author

- What is your advice as a tax coach?

- What is the biggest tax mistakes people make?

Key Lessons Learned

Tax Coaches & Tax Mistakes

- Tax coaches are your strategists and planners who come up with a proactive 3-5 year plan that factors in personal goals and expected business growth

- A mistake is not deducting your home office expenses and mileage

- 2014 tax deduction for mileage is $0.56c a mile

- Being in the wrong tax entity can cost you thousands of dollars

Co-Authored books

- Being an author is a great way to become an authority in your industry

- Figure out what your ‘prime writing time’ is and stick to that schedule

- Since your name is on the product you have to be careful who you partner with (make sure you’ve known them a while and trust them)

- Do your research on your co-author to find out what their work ethic is and the quality of work they are producing

- Always make clear on who is doing what work when in a partnership

- Split the content with your co-author and commit to having chapters done by agreed upon dates

Lumpy Mail

- Lumpy mail is odd shaped mail that won’t stay in the pile and is moved to the top of the pile.

- It has a better chance it will be opened due to its size and shape

- Lumpy mail is a marketing strategy

Deadlines

- When you are launching a podcast or a book you need to give yourself a launch date or it will never happen

- When choosing a launch date make sure to look at the time of year; day, month, and week. What is going on in your industry at that time?

- Find something that draws people to urgency when they are buying

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Certified Tax Coach

Adept Business Solutions

Tax Coach 4 U

Tax Pro Solutions

Napoleon Hill: The Road to Riches

Stand Apart

Dream Business Coaching

Glambition Radio

Interview Requests

Diane@adeptbusiness.biz

Diane@taxcoach4u.com

How to Harvest Gold from the Minds of Successful People with Greg S. Reid

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 09:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Greg S. Reid who is a bestselling author, acclaimed speaker and filmmaker. Greg has motivated millions of people and is published in more than 45 books including 28 bestsellers, 5 movies, and is featured in countless magazines. In this podcast learn how to seize those ‘ah ha’ moments and seek counsel over opinion.

Main Questions Asked

- Can you talk about how we can still harvest gold from the minds of successful people when we go a long time without being face-to-face with other entrepreneurs?

- What gave you the confidence to go on your journey?

- Talk about running from people with negative attitudes and breaking ties with people who aren’t going to move you forward

- What is your take on entrepreneurs creating distance between themselves and their audience?

Key Lessons Learned

- A good author writes about what he or she needs help with the most

- We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with

- Run from people with negative attitudes

- Its difficult to cut negative people from your life when they are friends, family and colleagues

Ideas

- Many people have great ideas but a lot don’t have initiative to do things with the great idea

- How many times have you had an ‘ah ha’ moment and let it go away only years later to see someone else has made a success of it? Don’t let it be you!

- The best thing to do is to harness that great idea the moment it strikes you

- Its not about what information you get its about the application of that knowledge

- All the energy and information is in the airwaves so you just need to tap that source

Relationship Marketing

- Relationship marketing is all about building relationships with successful people in order to build your business

- Remember don’t give up before the finish line and quit before the miracle happens

- LOR – leveraging our relationships

- Successful people know how to move the fulcrum so they can leverage their relationships at the highest rate possible

Accessibility

- When entrepreneurs become well known some start outsourcing their email, social media and make the decision to create distance between themselves and their audience

- The most successful people are the most accessible and available people

- You have to have responsibility and accountability for your actions even if you outsource your brand representation for things such as social media

Counsel and Opinion

- There is a big difference between counsel and opinion

- Opinion is based in ignorance, lack of knowledge and someone who has never done it

- Counsel is based on wisdom, knowledge and mentorship

- Successful people seek counsel where failures listen to opinion

- If we spend our daily lives only seeking counsel and ignoring people’s opinion then that is the day your life will change

- The line between successful relationships, mentorships and friendships is often blurred. People often fall into the trap of seeking opinion instead of mentorship

- It is possible to have multiple mentors in your life so surround yourself with the right people who can get you the information you want

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Three Feet From Gold

Thoughts Are Things

Greg S. Reed’s Website

Web Business Breakthrough

Monetize Your Podcast w/ Webinars featuring Steven Essa

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 09:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Steven Essa who is known internationally as the “make money with webinars expert.” Steven gives business owners the flexibility to create additional streams of reveneu using the power of webinars. If you’ve ever wanted to monetize your podcast through webinars this is the best start you can give yourself!

Main Questions Asked

- What is a webinar?

- How professional does your Powerpoint presentation need to be and do you suggest outsourcing?

- Can you break down the webinar format?

- How can podcasters monetize their show with webinars?

Key Lessons Learned

Webinars Explained

- A webinar is a web seminar where you present a Powerpoint with voice, or video image

- Webinars are much like lectures but with the opportunity to sell at end

- The difference between a webinar and a teleseminar is that teleseminars only use the phone

- Webinars are usually presented on one particular topic

- Popular webinar platforms are Go To Webinar and Google Hangouts

- Webinars are automatable. You can place on YouTube and continue to make you sales after the live webinar

Webinar Effectiveness

- Webinars produce higher conversions than any other form of online marketing

- There is no better way to convert a prospect into a customer or an existing customer that’s bought a low end product into a higher paying customer

- The idea of a webinar is to deliver as much valuable information as you can and at the end offer a natural solution to the next step

Powerpoint

- Black and white slides are just as effective as color branded slides and sometimes work better as they are less distracting and seem less ‘salesy’

- The less you put on the actual slides the better

- Simply listing a number on the slide is often enough visually

- People will want to write down everything on your slides so the less visual information, the more they will listen

Webinar Formula

Introduction

- Choose a target market

- Come up with a killer marketing hook

- Put that hook on slide #1

- Immediately outline the benefit for the listener (rather that talk about yourself)

- On slide #2 outline who the webinar is for (list all the types of your prospects and their needs) the goal is for everyone in the audience to identify and say ‘that’s me’

- In a 60 minute webinar your introduction should be 10 minutes

- 15 min introductions are best for 90 minute webinars

- On slide #3 show proof, case studies and statistics.

- People want to know why they should listen to you and that you are a credible source

- The introduction should include “what led me to this webinar and why I’m talking to you today” this really isn’t about you but you need to relate back to your audience

Content

- Always show 3, 5 (60 mins) or 7 steps (90 mins)

- Webinar content should be 40 mins for a 60 minute

- For a a 90 minute webinar content should be 60 minutes

- You need to have multiple ‘ah ha’ moments in your webinar

- Webinars need to have practical actionable steps people can take away

Webinars for Podcasters

- Follow intro and content steps from webinar formula above

- Don’t sell on your podcast (do it on your webinar)

- Create a name for your product such as Podcast Mastery Program e.g 8 webinars delivered one per week over an 8 week period

- People aren’t interested in the actual pitch is, they are interested in working with you (tell them what they will get out of it)

- Focus on 30% features 70% benefits

- Reveal the value of the package (if you are not sure multiply your hourly rate by 8 webinars)

- Offer some one-on-one support or group sessions

- Find out why customers bought and where your program is strong and weak

- Make sure to get testimonials from your one-on-one clients

- Offer email support (another opportunity for feedback and to sell other products)

- People buy because of bonuses (interviews, e-book, mastermind session, and workshops etc)

- When giving a special or reduced price you have to give a reasoning

- The word ‘because’ automatically makes people think there is a ‘reason’

- Offering an unconditional guarantee shows confidence in your product

- Keep repeating the link to buy at the end

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Links to Resources Mentioned

Steve Essa

Go To Webinar

Influence – Robert Cialdini

Virtual Assistant Support for Business Growth with Lyndsay Phillips

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Lyndsay Phillips, founder and CEO of Smooth Sailing Online Support. Lyndsay’s goal is to serve and help businesses grow and run efficiently using her Virtual Assistant team and account managers. If you want to scale your business and grow, then hiring a virtual assistant is what you need to do! This episode of Rhodes to Success answers all Virtual Assistant questions!

Main Questions Asked

- What is a virtual assistant?

- What are some things a virtual assistant can do for an entrepreneur?

- Talk about the perception of virtual assistants and how they are viewed

- How does a virtual assistant having multiple clients bring more value to your clients?

- How do your clients find you and what advice do you have for entrepreneurs who want to hire a virtual assistant?

- How did you grow relationships so they resulted in paying clients?

- Talk about trading hours for dollars and moving toward being a business owner

Key Lessons Learned

What is a Virtual Assistant?

- A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an executive assistant, a secretary, a receptionist, an administrative assistant and many roles beyond

- A VA doesn’t work in your office but is available remotely (electronically )e.g email, text or phone

- Tasks a VA can complete include email, contracts, letters, scheduling, customer service, event management, promotions, and marketing

- A VA can encompass anything in regards to the operation of your business such as client management, payments, customer support and marketing

The Value of A Virtual Assistant

- Having a VA means you can focus on the revenue generating activities and doing the things that you love

- Remember a VA is a business owner who has other clients so they are an entrepreneur in their own right

- VAs are not employees so you don’t have to pay tax or vacation or sick days

- Many VAs work on retainer or an as needed basis so you don’t need to hire a full time employee (saves you money)

Finding A Virtual Assistant

- Two great ways to hear about VAs for hire is via word of mouth from other business owners and networking

- Make sure you interview your VA before committing to ensure there is synergy and that they meet your needs

- When searching for a VA think about what you value most in a business owner (complete tasks on time or communication in a timely manner etc)

- Make sure your VA is familiar with the software you use or that they are trainable

Be A Virtual Assistant

- Starting by offering services for an hourly rate is a great way to start as a VA

- When building your business ask yourself “what revenue generating things can I do and have my support staff take on?”

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Smooth Sailing Online Support

Info@ ssonlinesupport.com

484-284-0933

Your Virtual Assistant (FB Group)

Glambition Radio

How to Master Kindle Publishing with Jonny Andrews

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 14:11:30 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Jonny Andrews who is a bestselling author, publishing expert, entrepreneur, international speaker and business strategies consultant. Jonny is known as the go-to-guy for author entrepreneurs when it comes to launching a successful business or book by leveraging the power of audience and Amazon. If you ever wanted to know how to hack the publishing industry then this is podcast is a must!

Main Questions Asked

- What is an audience hacker?

- How do you focus on building a large audience while still bringing in revenue?

- What is your opinion on self-publishing versus traditional publishing?

- What is the secret to a successful book launch?

- What is your opinion on writing for Kindle?

Key Lessons Learned

Audience Hackers

- An audience hacker is someone who builds their business by the power of audience

- Building an audience is all about going to where they live online, hang out with them and bring them to your platform so you can communicate with them

- Learn how to properly leverage your platform so you can build a sustainable audience driven business

Building Audiences

- Build your audience of people who are more than likely going to buy from you

- If you can leverage 5-10K of people you can have a million dollar business

- Aim for a focused audience who are your ideal customers not just people who are your fans

- You can turn your customers into fans and your fans into customers

Publishing

- Traditional publishers are more credible and can offer more distribution which potentially get you in front of more eyeballs

- If you don’t have an audience you won’t get a major publisher

- A book is a method of growing your audience

- You can’t make money off books if you are only getting 7-15% (what a publisher will give you)

- Amazon takes 30% so you will get to keep more money

Book Launch

- Get pre-release copies to book bloggers in your niche (Make sure they are a book reviewer)

- If pitching to a podcast host make sure to pitch the content and not the book itself (sell the benefit and not the book)

Pre-Selling

- Book Scan tracks all of the book sales on Monday-Sunday basis across platforms

- If you want to get on the New York Times Bestseller list be in pre-sale 30-60 days before you go live

- The day your book goes live sales count toward Book Scan

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Red Podcast (David Hooper)

Audience Hacker Podcast

The Grey Wolves

I Love Vampire Novels

Mikel Mailings

Create Space

Click to Tweet

Do you want to be an author entrepreneur? @Jonny_Andrews reveals how to hack the publishing industry w/ @JessRhodesESS www.rtspodcast.com

Self Publishing vs Traditional Publishing. Find out the pros and cons w/ @Jonny_Andrews & @JessRhodesESS www.rtspodcast.com

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Building Relationships for Success with Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:00:00 -0400

Summary

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Michael Stelzner, founder and CEO of a multi-million dollar social media blog called Social Media Examiner. Michael also hosts one of iTunes most popular business podcasts and was once known as the King of White Papers. Listen to this episode to learn how Michael propelled his way to success using the power of relationship building!

Main Questions Asked

- Why is it so important early on to build relationships?

- How did building relationships help you grow Social Media Examiner so fast?

- What is your take on why it is important to leverage multiple content platforms?

- Do you think that using your personal brand hurts or helps people when trying to get noticed?

- How frequently should you post on Facebook and Twitter and what is the etiquette?

Key Lessons Learned

Relationship Building

- People like to work with people they know, like, and trust

- Build relationships with the right people way in advance

- We all have something of value to other people. If we can figure out what they need and help with that, that can become a profitable relationship for both parties

- Just asking someone for an interview (or favor) doesn’t always work. Sometimes you need to offer value first without asking for anything in return.

Content Marketing

- Be realistic about the time you have as a business owner and what you will spend that time doing

- In the beginning choosing one platform such as podcast, video or written is okay but in the long run you should diversify

- Remember that there are different kinds of people that are interested in consuming different types of content

- On average people spend 1-3 minutes reading a blog post and generally only skim the content (more time is spent consuming other formats)

- As your business gains momentum it is worthwhile experimenting with more than one form of content marketing

Branding

- There is a difference in being the spokesperson for the brand and the brand itself (personal branding vs spokesperson for the brand)

- Not everybody might like ‘you’ as the person if you are the brand which means you may lose business

- If you are not the ‘brand’ itself then people have the opportunity to rally around the business identity and not you

- When it comes to selling, it is easier to sell a non-personal brand

- As a personal brand the challenge is when you get to the point where everybody wants a piece of you and you can’t grow your business

Social Media Posting Guidelines

- As an example; Social Media Examiner posts 5-7 times a day on Facebook, 20-30 times on Twitter and publishes 10 articles a week (Keep in mind that SME is a publisher)

- Before posting or setting a schedule, ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish?

- Posting content is about what your audience finds interesting and what you find acceptable

- Post interesting content that people find of value 2-3 times a day (non promotional.) If that works increase the frequency and monitor for negative consequences then adjust

- Lists come in handy as a way to privatize your content into sub groups

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Social Media Marketing (Podcast)

Social Media Examiner

Solopreneur Hour with Michael O’Neil

Nuclear Chowder Marketing Podcast

Writing White Papers (Book)

Gary Vaynerchuk

Social Media Examiner @SMExaminer CEO & founder @Mike_Stelzner speaks w/ @jessrhodesess on http://rhodestosuccesspodcast.com/michael

Click to Tweet

Just asking someone for an interview doesn't work; Offer value first @mike_stelzner on RTSPodcast.com/Michael @jessrhodesess

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Repurposing Content and Web Conversions: Adam Hommey on Content Marketing

Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:41:43 -0400

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Adam Hommey, founder and creator or Help My Website Sell and The Business Creators Institute. Adam’s focus is on helping you emancipate the power of information by converting more social media fans and followers. His goals is to turn website visitors into prospects and customers by simplifying your internet marketing technology. In doing this, you can get more customers, make more money and make a bigger difference. If you want to know how 1 hour of content can be used in 22 ways then you need to listen to this podcast!

Main Questions Asked

- How did you end up founding Help My Website Sell?

- What are web conversions?

- What does multi-purposing and content marketing have to do with web conversions?

- What is the model where 1 hour of content can be used 22 different ways?

- What kinds of entrepreneurs have you had a lot of success with?

Key Lessons Learned

- When you want to take things to the next level its important to invest and implement systems to increase conversion rates

Web Conversions

- When people who visit your web pages do what you want them to do

- Sign up for your webinar, product for sale and buy it, register for your event, comment on your blog, listen to a podcast are some examples of actions taken

- Just getting traffic to your website is not effective, you actually need visitors who are prequalified, prepped and pumped

- Prequalified- addressing the right people

- Prepped- when click on link they know what to expect

- Pumped- they are excited to be there so they are waiting for page to load to take action

- It will take an average of 9 months to a year before someone contact you after they first hear about you

One Hour of Content Used Twenty Two Ways

Create content – Host ateleseminar orwebinar. This will give you the basis to create the content in 22 different ways. You need something that has video, audio, and something to be transcribed into text. Make sure your webinar is structured (bullet points, interview questions etc.)
Video – replay in streaming mp4 (can also play on mobile device)
Create an autopilot webinar using software such as Evergreen Business
Carve video into little segments
Create optimized videos on YouTube
Take video segments and add to blog posts on your website
Edit video into auto responders
Embed the video in your newsletter
Place video in membership site and sell access
Audio – render out the file so you have audio only using a program such as Sony Vegas
Upload audio to iTunes for podcast
Pre-schedule audio using Instant Teleseminar
Take audio and put over still images on YouTube, Vimeo, and Daily Motion using a program such as Camtasia
Take audio and put it with the transcript to make an information product for people to download at a reasonable price
Audio can be a bonus for existing products you are already selling
Transcription - Hire a transcriptionist to create word document e.g Magiscript
Find 7-10 topic areas from the content and make into blog posts
Take each blog post and adapt into script for YouTube, iTunes, E-zine, Newsletters, feature article or a personal note
Each blog post can be a conversation starter for Facebook, Twitter & Linked In discussion groups. A 1hr transcript can provide 30-50 status updates.
Turn your transcript into E-book
Turn multiple webinars into a full published book
Use transcript as foundation notes for public speaking presentations or podcasts

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

Links to Resources Mentioned

The Dream Business Coaching (Jim Palmer)

Help My Website Sell

Higher Profits Webinars

Business Creators Institute

adamh@helpmywebsitesell.com

Schedule With Adam

Business Creators Radio Show

Click to Tweet

1hr of content used 22 different ways: Find out how on this episode of Rhodes to Success @moresalesonline @jessrhodesess RTSpodcast.com/adam

How to improve your #WebConversions with @moresalesonline @jessrhodesess RTSpodcast.com/adam #podcast

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic

Building Relationships through Collaboration: Jared Easley is Starving the Doubts

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 23:13:32 -0400

On this episode of Rhode to Success I interview Jared Easley, the bestselling author of Podcasting Good to Great; How to Grow your Audience through Collaboration. Jared is the host of Starve the Doubts and the man behind America’s only national podcasting conference; Podcast Movement. If you’ve ever thought of starting your own podcast or want to know a few insider tips then this is the episode for you!

Main Questions Asked

- What is the music you use on your podcast?

- How does building rapport with your listeners help build relationships with them?

- What are some things you did early on in your podcast that helped you build a strong audience?

- What is the podcast co-hosting strategy?

- Talk about the power of mentioning people’s name on a podcast

- How can speaking at attending live events grow relationships?

Key Lessons Learned

Music

- You can purchase stock music for your podcast, but it will be widely used

- Another alternative is to utilize local bands’ music which in turn helps promote them too

Early days of your Podcast

- Allow yourself permission to not be great when you start out podcasting

- Embrace your invisibility when you are starting your new idea. This is your chance to practice and improve.

- Focus on the people you are trying to serve and ask yourself “how do I get to know them and how do I develop a rapport?”

- If you want to get noticed online one of the best strategies is to start noticing (sharing) other peoples’ content who are in your target. This develops a rapport and synergy.

- Check in (share) on a consistent basis with several people

- Over time rapport generates reciprocity

- You don’t have to have the best equipment, guests, and performance straight away just start doing recording podcasts

- Perception is reality so just fake it till you make it

Benefits Podcasting with a Co-host

- There are different formats of podcasts; monologues, panels, interviews, and podcasts featuring co-hosts

- You can grow your network by inviting people on your podcast as a guest

- Think about how you can make people feel appreciated and share their story (how do you make it about them?)

- Helping other people get what they want helps you get what you want

- Building relationships doesn’t have to always be affiliate marketing, you can just genuinely help others

Mentioning People in your Podcast

- An on-air mention is a simple free strategy with big impact

- Ask yourself: “who are the people that would appreciate my mentioning them?”

- The best people to mention are the people in the ‘trenches’ and your target audience who wouldn’t usually get a mention

- A mention is a powerful way to get people excited and build rapport

- You can make somebodies day just by mentioning their name in your podcast

Speaking at and Attending Live Events

- Proximity is power

- When you are communication in person with someone you have a richer dynamic in your relationship connection

- Find unique ways to go to events or local Meetups

- Everyone loves a prize no matter what the speaking engagement

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Starve the Doubts

Girl Power Podcasts

Podcasting Good to Great