The Power of Podcasting and Deep Marketing for Coaches with Joanna Lott

EP 121 - The Power of Podcasting and Deep Marketing for Coaches with Joanna Lott

Joanna Lott: Big question. I'm a business coach and I help qualified coaches get clients with honesty, not hype. There's a lot of hype in this industry. So yes, I just provide real genuine service to help.

Women in particular to grow their business. Although I do work with some men as well. And how did I get here? I suppose I took the age old route that most women take when they have children, which is finding it too hard to get to and from my London job. And eventually realizing when my daughter was starting school and my son was at a childminder in two different drops, then it became completely impossible to make it to London to my HR job and back again, it was just, there was no way it was going to work.

I worked in a coach training organization doing admin work pretty much. And then obviously discovered the world of coaching, did the ILM level seven in executive coaching and mentoring. In the organization I was working for, just learned loads through working with hundreds of coaches and seeing that gap from them qualifying to actually trying to have a viable business, and then just going down the route of being obsessed by learning everything I could to help these people be successful and obviously eventually.

That was the bit I went into rather than the coach training part, how to actually help them use their qualification to create business.

Joanna Lott: It doesn't vary all that much to be honest. It's usually the niching is the hardest part because in coach training you learn you can help anyone with everything and therefore you want to help everyone with everything.

And so it's really hard and it feels like you're getting put in a box when you have to niche and choose, one particular problem and one particular client. But it does work. And sadly, I haven't really seen many coaches be able to grow successfully a un niched business because people don't really understand the coaching enough to pay for it, unless they can see the end goal that they're buying it for.

Victoria Bennion: And in terms of marketing, what do you see working well,

Joanna Lott: , I love to think of it as deep and shallow marketing. Shallow marketing is social media, pretty much. You're scrolling by, you're busy. It's okay. It's a great reminder, but it's not enough to help people to emotionally connect with you.

And then the deep marketing, which is what most people miss are things like this, like hearing people on podcasts, having maybe a really good in depth blog, networking or other face to face events. So any way that you can get people to know you. A little bit more than that two seconds that they're scrolling on social media is what I consider the deep marketing part, which is really essential.

Victoria Bennion: It's really important to differentiate yourself. And as you mentioned, podcasting can be a really great way to do that. Now you host your own show, the women in the coaching arena podcast. Can you talk a bit about how you got started?

Joanna Lott: I think I had so many ideas and I've got so much to share, but I just, couldn't get it out enough on social media. So it was something that I really wanted to do. I was obviously super nervous though, at the same time is anyone going to listen?

How did you do it? What's the tech? Do I need. guests, do I do solo? There were so many questions, but it was something that I just really felt compelled to do because of, as I say, all of the ideas and the amount of knowledge I wanted to share.

Victoria Bennion: So how did you get started? What were the first steps that you took for your podcast?

take you through the tech of exactly how to set it up and host it and that type of thing. So I think it really helped to have someone guiding the way. I don't think it would have ever come to fruition without step by step instructions.

Victoria Bennion: Did you set yourself a deadline for when you were going to go live with it?

Joanna Lott: I did. And I also had an accountability partner who was also setting a podcast up at the same time. And again, it would never have happened if we weren't working together with that deadline, meeting each other, checking in on where we were with our podcasts. So yeah, it really helped having that deadline and accountability in place.

Victoria Bennion: I needed to have a deadline when I was doing mine as well.

Whereas if you allow It will take a month. So I love thinking about that principle in everything I do.

Victoria Bennion: Absolutely. I think it's a really good one. So did you launch with more than one episode? What was your strategy?

Yes.

Joanna Lott: I read that you should really have three episodes on. release. So that was hard work getting the trailer and three episodes out there all at once.

But it was a good strategy because I think then people download more episodes, therefore your podcast gets more traction in the podcast algorithm, I assume.

Victoria Bennion: Did you do anything to promote your initial episodes or did you just put them out there organically?

I

I've always wanted to, so it's perfect that I'm talking to you, go on other people's podcasts to promote mine because I know that's a really good strategy. And it's worked super well for people that I know, but in all honesty, I haven't really done much of that yet, but I would love to, so that's, I'm excited I'm here.

Victoria Bennion: It's a really good strategy being a guest on other people's podcasts because you can tap into the people who would like to listen to your show as well. Can work really well, and it can be a good way to find guests for your show. Though, am I right, you've done solo episodes up to this point?

But I am. looking to do that soon, maybe once a month or something. So it's not too stressful with trying to fill in all the time in my diary, but once a month or something, I would love to start having guests on as well.

Victoria Bennion: It does have to work for you. That's really key. What you said, whatever you commit to, you need to be able to find time to regularly produce those episodes once you get started.

What's your process look like?

Joanna Lott: I would love to be the type of person that batches everything. But sadly, I have this week's scheduled. I have not got the next week's one recorded yet. No, the idea, I think when I was well ahead of the game, I may have had two weeks.

So I'm hoping that will free me up to therefore Just be able to use my time in recording it. And then somebody else actually helped with that because it's like a two hour, I would say two hours after you've recorded the episode to edit it, create a Canva image, create an email, create a social post, all of the little things involved, I would say roughly two hours after the recording per week.

So yes, hopefully if I free up that time going forward, I could start to batch record.

Victoria Bennion: I think that's the part that takes people by surprise when they start a podcast is the amount of work that it is going to involve. And so it's brilliant if you can get some help with some of it so you can just focus on delivering the content.

Joanna Lott: Yeah, totally. It's been an absolute game changer in my business. Having a podcast, people feel like they know me because they listen to me every week, therefore they have been able to now I've moved to a sales page because again, my diary was so squeezed.

Victoria Bennion: That's amazing. That's a really impressive result. So the podcast is working so well for your business.

Joanna Lott: Yeah, totally. I've been interviewed on other people's podcasts saying you're not famous or anything. How are you managing to do this? It's. Been amazing to realize that just by really deeply connecting with people on podcasts, they can get to know you, like you and trust you enough to buy from you without needing huge convincing, lots of calls, lots of back and forth.

So when you're on your podcast episodes, do you direct people to your sales page talk me through how it works.

I don't. Very silly. Rookie error. Thank you for highlighting it. No. Not at all. They're finding it. I know. But it's a great idea. No, I don't probably do enough of the sales.

Now, I do say during my program, the links in the show notes occasionally, but not on every episode, but maybe once a month or so I might refer to it, but it's not as religious and as it probably should be perhaps.

Victoria Bennion: It sounds like it's working. Whatever you're doing is working.

Joanna Lott: Yeah, I think my most

popular episodes are why now is a good time to go for it in your coaching business. So I think that's like inspirational. They want the momentum to tell themselves, give themselves permission to go for it in their business right now.

And then things like how to niche effectively, how to create a great coaching offer. How to sell to corporates was really popular. How to sell without using social media was another top episode. So yeah, they're probably my main top episodes so far.

Victoria Bennion: They sound like great episodes. Definitely. We'll put links to your podcast in the show notes.

So if anyone is interested, they can go and listen.

Has anything about having a podcast taken you by surprise?

So I wanted to release an episode every week, including holidays and things. So that was why I committed to when I started out. Also, I guess the two hours to edit and get out a 15 minute solo episode. It's probably way longer if you're doing longer guest episodes, I would imagine. But I think just those steps just took a lot longer than I realized.

I hadn't really got time in the diary. So to be honest, most of it happens at the weekends because my diary is really busy with calls in the week. So it's either weekends, evenings, trying to catch up. Like I said, I have finally delegated it, but even that's really nerve wracking because I still have to listen to it before it goes out because no one really knows what you want in there or out of there.

Which tools were you using to create your podcast when you were doing it yourself? I still use Descript, the person that I've given it to use is Descript. I think it's absolutely amazing. It's been an absolute game changer. Descript is just so good. Cause you can edit it without being a techie person.

Do you as well?

Victoria Bennion: The same. Yes. Yeah. It's been brilliant.

Joanna Lott: Yeah.

It's just really exciting. And to see it grow month on month, because you can see analytics in Captivate too, is really exciting.

Victoria Bennion: Absolutely. What advice would you give to anyone who's thinking about starting a podcast?

Joanna Lott: I would say do it, although with the caveat that you do need an audience to listen to it. Cause I think sometimes now I speak to my clients who are maybe brand new to business and they, and I might say, Oh, the podcast is the best thing I ever did.

Victoria Bennion: That's really good advice because that can be something that we overlook when you're starting a podcast. How are people going to find it? Have you seen anything work particularly well? Do you get more traction from your newsletter list or social media or is it just a mix?

Joanna Lott: I haven't looked at analytics as to where people are coming from. I do know some people have genuinely bought my program that have found it just by searching coaching in podcast, which is great. So that was a shock because I didn't think anyone would ever find it without me directing them through social media or an email list.

Joanna Lott: I'm so excited. It arrives today, the hard copy from Amazon, but I also do a free digital version and it's free to use. Brilliant. Even if I do say so myself, because it takes you through every single thing you need with regards to looking back at what's worked in the previous year, your niche, your offer, your marketing, planning it out across the year, all of the things that you need to do for a successful business.

So you can get the free digital version, which is fillable and you can type in it on JoannaLottCoaching. com. That's my website. And immediately you'll see a button saying, download your success planner here, or you can go on Amazon. It's called the coaches planner. I can give you a link for the show notes.

If people want the hard copy version that they can, actually have in their hand, which is so lovely.

Where can listeners go to connect with you?

Joanna Lott: Yep. So the podcast is called Women in the Coaching Arena and LinkedIn is my main platform that I use. So Joanna Lott, you'll find me on there. I don't think there are many Joanna Lott's. So Joanna Lott ACC, I think it comes up as, is my main place.

I'm definitely more active on LinkedIn.

Victoria Bennion: Thank you so much for joining me today, Joanna.

Joanna Lott: Thank you so much, Victoria. It was lovely to talk.