Podcast Monetization Tips for Business Growth and Success – ep 110

Mostafa Hosseini  00:00

Hey. Welcome to daily competence for entrepreneurs. In this episode, you will discover how to immediately monetize your podcast. How to get big names to come on your show, even if you’re not a big name yet, how to launch your podcast in under 30 days for less than $100 and you will watch yours truly get exposed and coached by my friend friend Cheryl Plouffe. Welcome Cheryl Cheryl. Hi,

Sheryl Plouffe  00:26

Mostafa. So great to be here with you today.

Mostafa Hosseini  00:29

Great to see you. Let me do the proper introduction. And then we’re going to dive into a very interesting conversation. By the way, today’s my birthday. So I’m giving away five, one hour marketing consultations to the first five people that would leave a comment and would say, consultation. On any channel that you are watching, this is a one hour consult no strings attached. It’s not a sales pitch. We’ll work on your biggest marketing channel challenge.

And we’ll come up with a plan a simple, probably one page plan to tackle that issue and a roadmap and an action plan to address that. So if you’re interested in that, chat, the word consult on whatever channel channel you’re watching and we will go ahead and send you a link to look that up. Now let me do the proper introduction to my friend Cheryl. And we’re going to again dive into a very interesting conversation about podcasts and shows which is very important if you’re running a business.

Sure, Paul turned her professional media experience into a thriving virtual video production agency and consultancy. She is an entrepreneur and international speaker, and has broadcast that over 20,000 hours of live television over her 25 year career. Today, Cheryl creates and implements custom content plans for six and seven figure business owners so they can quickly get their brand known online.

She’s the creator of the profitable podcast method, helping coaches get more clients referrals and speaking gigs. When she’s not working. She’s a hockey and baseball mom and an avid prints fan. She lives in she lives and works in Ontario, Canada. So another fellow Canadian. Welcome Cheryl. So

Sheryl Plouffe  02:26

great to be here. Yeah. My son is in the other room somewhere and hopefully he’ll he’ll not be banging on the walls while we’re having this important conversation.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:40

Absolutely. We’re about are you in Ontario.

Sheryl Plouffe  02:44

I’m in Chatham, which is in the southwest of Ontario an hour from Detroit, Michigan.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:51

Oh, nice. So you could cross the border rather easily and quickly, I guess.

Sheryl Plouffe  02:56

Yes, sir. Yeah, nice. It’s, I mean, I love this area, because it’s so I mean, you know, as far as Canadian climate goes, right, being in southwestern Ontario is, is probably the warmest place you can be which really appeases me as a girl who comes from Northern Ontario, where we have, you know, very large, nearly six foot high snow banks on any given winter. I like the warmth of southwestern Ontario.

Mostafa Hosseini  03:23

Very nice. What’s it like right now?

Sheryl Plouffe  03:26

It’s stormy today. It’s stormy today, but cold front. Back to my my I was a weather person for a long, long time. So I do know meteorologically there was a cold front that came through. I do know that night

Mostafa Hosseini  03:40

so it’s raining. It’s raining.

Sheryl Plouffe  03:43

It’s storming. But I think it’s passing.

Mostafa Hosseini  03:46

Oh, yeah. Okay. Good stuff. So let’s dive into it. Cheryl, what is what is your story? Well,

Sheryl Plouffe  03:53

my story, Mustafa is one that began actually began when I was 18. But I’m not going to go through every detail of my life since I was 18. Because it’d be a long story. But I really began in television was 18 years old when I was working at a cable TV station. And I was in the background pulling cables like as a volunteer. And one day someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, we need a host for this show.

Would you want to try it and I’ve never done anything on camera. I’d never hosted anything like that, or it really done much public speaking at that point. I’ve done a little bit of modeling. But other than that, not much in the way of on camera at work. So I started hosting the show and turned out that I really and turned out I loved it, I loved it, and just kind of build a passion for it.

So fast forward many years, I worked in my way up the ranks and eventually made my way to the national stage right becoming a national TV broadcaster before the age of 30. And I did that for 17 years and I was very happy in that role as an on air personality TV person. Elodie and also moved up the ranks in broad, you know, management and leadership positions.

I also was teaching college TV journalism students would come into my class to learn how to perform on camera. And so I had a variety of different experiences in media. In 2017, I decided to leave that profession to start my own video marketing agency and consultancy, under my own name. And since then that’s what I’ve been doing is helping business owners with video first content plans, in some cases, customized plans.

And now, more recently, really diving into this world of what we call profitable podcasting, which is a very different slant on the traditional podcast model.

Mostafa Hosseini  05:46

Very nice. So you know, your way around, being on camera, and I guess performing in the mindset, so you’re a pro at it.

Sheryl Plouffe  06:01

I feel like I’m a pro at it now. But that wasn’t my experience. In the earliest stages. It was really a, you know, learning on the job type of experiences, how I came up the ranks, I didn’t go to school for this, I actually ended up really working my way up the ranks and learning what I could in various positions.

I was I did some radio, I was a business reporter at one point, I was editing audio clips for the radio station, I all kinds of interesting experiences that I’ve had in the course of my career. What’s interesting about that, though, Mostafa is, I think that all of those experiences in media led me to where I am today, because it’s actually a perfect transition going from broadcasting because what really what you’re doing is you’re communicating a message consistently to an audience, building up that audience and having them you know,

come back for more, and then my company that I work for would monetize that, right. And that’s actually really similar to what we do as entrepreneurs, is that we would create content and build an audience, and then we would find a way to monetize that. So that was a really a natural transition for me to go from broadcasting to marketing.

Mostafa Hosseini  07:11

I mean, like we’re live on on a few different social social channels right now. And but going live on national TV, where 1000s and 1000s of people watch you, that’s a whole different ballgame. And it is.

Sheryl Plouffe  07:28

No, it is it is I was really nervous the first night that I went on national television to the point where my now husband was the one who had to really push me to do it. Because I had convinced myself that I had an ulcer, I had convinced myself that I was ill, that I wouldn’t be able to do it because I did I physically felt ill the first the night before I went on for the first time.

And he as a seasoned broadcaster in his own right knew exactly what was happening. And that was stress, right? That’s a really a stress that was manifesting itself inside of me. And he said, you’re going to be fine, you’re gonna go and you’re going to do it. And I did. So the next night I went and it was terrifying the first night. But then by the next week, it got better.

And by the week after that it got better. And then really within a few months, I was promoted to one of the top rated morning shows in Toronto at that time, and went to full time pretty much right away, and the rest was history.

Mostafa Hosseini  08:32

Love it. So what do you do these days? And who do you serve?

Sheryl Plouffe  08:41

I think I heard your question is what do I do these days? Who am I serving? Yes, yes. So the people that I work with predominantly now are, especially from the perspective of profitable podcasting are coaches, consultants, people who have taken their professional experience and their IP and they’ve created their own programs, courses, memberships, masterminds, those types of things are what they actually want to promote. Now, so they want to sell those things.

And what we do is we teach a method of podcasting that allows them to do that, but not in the traditional sense of just waiting for the audience to build. What we do is we focus on leveraging a podcast so that they can build connections, meet more people, business opportunities, business development opportunities can make via collaborations or joint ventures with other people that helps to build momentum and move their business along.

 So that’s really what we focus on in terms of the profitable podcasting. On the other side, what we do is six and seven figure businesses come to us if they want to have a customized strategy built for them. But if you’re someone who is either cool goes to six figures at the six figure mark, and you’re really trying to figure out what is the best way to market myself. So you’re not a new new entrepreneur, you have a proof of concept, you have something that you are have already sold, we know that that’s a path to profitability, then then that’s really what we focus on.

Mostafa Hosseini  10:17

Got it? Good gang, if you’re watching, or listening, if you have any questions about podcasting, or running your own show, feel free to put them in it comment on whichever channel you’re watching, and we’ll do our best to address your questions. And so you you already kind of touched on it, but what do you suggest business owners to start their shows or podcasts?

Sheryl Plouffe  10:40

How should they start them? Why, why? Why they should start a podcast is because in my opinion, it is a strategy, an organic strategy that ticks off a lot of boxes on a checklist and imaginary checklist of all the things that we need to do as business owners. So for example, when you have a podcast and you do it, the way that we explained to do it is that you’re able to create valuable content, you are positioning yourself as an authority, you are omnipresent on multiple platforms, you are saving yourself time by not editing your podcasts, you are monetizing it in a way that is elegant and is not a salesy site sort of process, right, it’s built around this idea of building reciprocity, first, and being in that giving mode first, without asking for anything in return.

So that is like built in reciprocity. Now people want to come to your aid, because you were the person who reached out first and said, hey, you know, I want to, I want to bring you on my show to talk about the thing you want to promote. This is about you. So that’s why it’s really a great strategy. It just it does tuck ticks off a lot of boxes, Mustafa on a list of all the things we need to do, right, we want to be present, we want to have an online presence, we want to have content, we want to be on all the platforms, we want to repurpose content. There’s just so many reasons why this is a great strategy. And those are some of the reasons why I love

Mostafa Hosseini  12:14

1. The biggest thing that I like about podcasts that are doing a show, especially like the way we do it when we go alive. And I know you do that, too, is the fact that leverage is the big key word for me personally. But we’re live on all of our social channels right now. Then we grabbed the audio and posted on a podcast, which is like another probably 10 or 15, or maybe 20 different podcast platforms across the globe.

And then what you could do is like use that even leverage that even further and transcribe the show, post it as a blog, send it as an email to your list. So the list goes on and on. So the leverage in this strategy is is huge. So I’m a huge fan, obviously, because I do that myself as well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

Sheryl Plouffe  13:06

No, I agree with you. I agree with you. I think leverage is an important word to think about as it pertains to podcasting. How are you utilizing a podcast to, to ultimately help you grow your business and to build your brand, but still do it in a way that isn’t coming across as salesy right out of the gate? You know, I think the problem that we have is that there have been so many ads, we have all been bombarded by ads, and we’re still bombarded by ads. But we’re also savvy now that we can smell an ad from a mile away.

And so it’s important to have a strategy that circumvents that. And that allows you to still be able to build a connection or get a foot in the door with someone who you might not have previously had access to. But if you go, if you go to a big name person, and you say, right out of the gate, hey, I want to sell you this thing. They’re not responsive, they’re not going to be responsive to that. Right. And I think that’s what a lot of people hope will happen is like,

Well, I’m just going to, you know, run these ads, or I’m just going to, you know, whatever the strategy is, but you really have to be cognizant of the fact that the world has changed. And people are not there to savvy, they don’t want to be sold. People want to buy things, but they don’t want to be sold.

Mostafa Hosseini  14:31

Absolutely. Absolutely. Like, like this thing. Again, going back to the leverage point. As business owners, we’re all busy people, we have things to do. And if there’s something that I could do, that would help me leverage my time, and like, we’re going to talk about you’re going to share how we’re going to you’re going to spend his one hour a week to get this done.

It’s a solid strategy in terms of marketing, getting exposure, getting visibility stablishing Gregor your credibility and expertise and the rest of it. Now Sharla if if someone has no clue about podcasting and running the show, and like getting themselves out there worse, what’s the best way to get started? Yeah,

Sheryl Plouffe  15:18

one of the things that we start with is always the concept of the show, and understanding the path to profitability. And that means that we have to examine, what are your offers, you know, if you want to have a path to profitability, but you don’t have anything that you’re offering, yet, it’s going to be awfully hard to do that, because there isn’t a path to it. So I think it’s where do we start, we have to start with looking at your offers, and making sure that those are solid, and, and hopefully already have a proof of concept around selling those things, it might need some tweaking, and something that we are passionate about is helping people to maybe sometimes repackage what they’re doing or charge what they’re worth, we see that a lot, people are not charging what they’re worth, because they don’t know what they don’t know.

So those are some of the things that we’ll do. But it’s starting with the path to profitability. And then I think the second thing is looking at the concept of the show, if the show is structured properly, we call it the winning podcast idea. If that is solid, then it will lead you to three things, clients, referrals, and speaking engagements. And that’s the lens through which we see profitable podcasting, it has to be leading to one or all of those three things.

What we don’t do, interestingly enough, is we actually don’t focus on the audience, or the downloads, or the vanity metrics and things of that nature, we don’t focus on that, because that is never been in my experience, what has actually resulted in business. What has resulted in business are relationships and meeting people, and having access to people who have access to more people who you need to know. It’s the access part, that is the key to this whole equation.

And it’s who you’re meeting and, and you know, when you bring on someone onto your show, and you’re not expecting anything in return, and you’re edifying that person, they often want to repay, repay the favor, through introductions, email introductions, or messenger introductions, or, you know, speaking engagements, whether on their platforms, or people that they know who will have an upcoming summit, or this person has a podcast, I want to connect you, you’d be perfect for my, my colleagues show about blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, so that’s momentum.

And that’s the key to the whole, the whole thing. So in answer to your question, where do you start? You start with your offers, and you start with a really clear concept?

Mostafa Hosseini  17:55

Love it? Can you give us some examples of how how some of the people that you’re working with and or people you work with, in the past, have gotten clients referrals and speaking engagements out of the work that you’ve done with them?

Sheryl Plouffe  18:08

Sure. I mean, I think of there’s one that comes to my mind immediately as she works in the world of technology and productivity for business owners. So she’s like, you know, she knows, understands, like, how to get around all the CRMs, and the email service providers and like the tech stack, and things of that nature. So she’s really keen on technology, but it can be really intimidating for people who are her ideal people that that technology is not their forte.

So she actually had was someone who had thought about doing a podcast for three years. And she’s someone I’ve known for many years, actually. But she’d been thinking about doing a podcast for three years, and had tried all kinds of other, you know, different strategies. Some may have worked, but some didn’t. And so here we are, and then she launches her podcast in, I think, under 30 days, if memory serves you, it was like 28 days or something. And she started this podcast, she’s now I think, 32 episodes into her own show.

And she has been, again, bringing people onto her show. And she’s getting like bigger names and people who are further along the path than then then herself who have audiences of their own. And they are out there sharing the content that features them, because they’re made to look and sound great, so that they want to promote themselves being on other people’s shows.

So she’s getting her name out there. And lo and behold, she’s getting opportunities to speak on other people’s stages, right? It’s like, I was just talking to her recently. So Oh, my God did another podcast I did another I was invited on a summit. I did this. I did that because of the connections that she’s building by virtue of having her own show. And then also getting that content out there doesn’t hurt from a brand awareness perspective or from a content perspective on all the social platforms.

Mostafa Hosseini  19:59

Very interesting. And, and so how long does it take to set up a podcast or a show? And what what’s the investment like to get it going?

Sheryl Plouffe  20:10

Yeah, well, I spent a good amount of time, maybe three to four months before I relaunched my own. And profitable podcasting is actually a result of me having to solve my own problem in that the first time around when I did it, I did it in a very, I think, a more inefficient way, because I didn’t know any better. And some of the tools that are available to us today were not available then.

So I, when I relaunched my podcasts, I really gave thought to it. And this time, I’m going to do it differently. This time, I’m going to make sure that I have tools, and I’m going to explore what tools to use, I’m going to experiment and kind of be a crash test dummy of all these different tools. And I’m going to figure out which ones work together which ones integrate with one another, I’m gonna build a system. And I spent some time and investment on that I hired an automation expert.

And she and I worked together on that. And so it built up my system. Then I started actually doing the podcast and realizing that it was about the connections, it was almost an epiphany, an epiphany for me to realize it is about connections. It’s not really about that vanity metrics. But aside from the time that I invested to create the system for my own self, as it pertains to other people, now who learn this system, it takes 30 days, it takes 30 days for them to if they follow the system, and they follow exactly what I’m saying to do. They can have their podcasts up and running in 30 days.

Mostafa Hosseini  21:37

Okay, love it. So just 30 days. So we start today, which is 21st. By October 21. We could have the podcast up and running. Yes. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. And then what would like to investment be like, for someone? Yeah. So

Sheryl Plouffe  21:53

the tools that I decided on, and that I experimented with, you know, this tool, that tool, and some of them are free, some of them are, are affordable investment, you know, SAS tools, and things of that nature. There are nine tools that I really decided on and said, Okay, these are the nine tools, not all of those tools are necessarily required tools in order to pull off a one hour per week podcast method. But the I can’t remember the number of breakdown right now. But there’s, let’s say it’s like five of them are required. And four of them are optional, right?

Something break down, something like that. And, and that’s those are the nine tools that I decided on for my own self. And now what I teach to others, the totality of those tools, excluding a CRM, so a CRM is not necessarily just a tool for podcasting, it’s a tool to run your entire business. So let’s just park the CRM out of the equation for a moment. But the tools outside of that in terms of running the podcast, it’s about $100 a month to run the technology required to do the method that I teach.

So really, I mean, if you’re selling, I don’t know, if you’re selling a program for, let’s say, $3,000, or $5,000, or even $1,000, who knows? You know, I think that the economy of that makes a lot of sense.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:27

Love it, love it. Love it. Love it. So you’ve gone through, experimented with a bunch of tools and software’s and, and whatnot, put a system together and help them set it up in 30 days, 30 days or so. And with just the mere investment of $100 a month they could it could be up and running. What is your favorite podcast format? Do you recommend people doing like solo? Or do you recommend them doing interview style, like what we’re doing? are a mix of what’s your recommendation on that? You

Sheryl Plouffe  24:02

know, I think the breakdown is generally going to be more of a talk show interview format with guests. Because the the whole concept of this is that you’re building relationships, and that you’re using the podcast and leveraging it in order to meet new people, build your network and build those connections. So that is predicated on the fact that bringing guests on, it’s the guests themselves that are the key to building out your network.

So the more you can have guests, the better off you’ll be. Now I don’t necessarily, you know, say that you can never do a solo solo episode. Of course, you could, as long as you know, going into it that I’m going to do the solo episode, but I know that I don’t because I don’t have a guest. In this case, I will not be able to leverage their audience in any way because there isn’t anyone’s audience to leverage in that case. And that’s okay. So for an example of that Mustapha might be that you’re a podcast host and let’s say you know, nine times out of 10 You have a guest on the show, right?

because it’s about building your network. But maybe you go to a conference, and you’re really inspired by the keynote speaker, and you want to record a short solo episode about your thoughts about what you just learned for your audience, and you squirreled away somewhere into the depths of the of the Conference Center to a quiet corner and just record your thoughts and then get that out.

That’s perfectly fine. That just adds value to your your show. But mostly, you want to really be thinking about guesting or having guests on?

Mostafa Hosseini  25:32

Absolutely, would you recommend doing a mix of like some solo and some guests things so that you could get your own experience out and have some guests and give them exposure and whatnot?

Sheryl Plouffe  25:42

Yeah, I like the idea of mixing it up. Yeah, absolutely. I think it depends on their comfort level, your own comfort level as a solo host, because it’s a very different dynamic. To be a solo host, you were holding this, you’re holding court by yourself.

And that’s very different than holding court with a guest. Because in most cases, when you are the host of the show, and you ask questions, the other person is the person who’s answering and doing most of the talking. So that’s just something that we have to kind of keep in mind.

Mostafa Hosseini  26:10

For sure, for sure. And it’s tougher to do your own. Record your own stuff and get it out there. Sometimes you end up maybe recording it multiple times. They’re like, oh, that didn’t sound good. I didn’t sound really that professional or as good as I want it. And so you there’s a lot of self judgment going on, in that I’ve been through that myself. So how, how do you help people? Or what’s the best way to overcome the fear?

Because, as IT guy who’s been around and speaking in front of people, forever, for as long as basically know, myself, when I was going online, like going live, I was like, oh, oh, my god, people are gonna see me. And then I’m like, That’s a stupid thought, just for lack of better term, because I’m very comfortable talking in front of people. What’s up with my fear?

Of, I’m like, Oh, my God, people are gonna see me. I’m like, have they not seen you before? Anyway, so there was that fear. Right? So how do you help? Or what’s your suggestion on overcoming that fear of maybe the first few times that people go live?

Sheryl Plouffe  27:27

podcast? Yeah, I don’t know that there’s a real simple answer in that. You really have to dig deep, and you have to do it anyway, you have to do it, despite the fear. And that’s really what it is. It’s just fear. And, you know, I think back to when I was 18, you know, I was fearful, I didn’t know what I was doing, I thought am I going to look like a total idiot here, I have no idea what I’m doing. And I was over preparing, and I mean, all these different things.

But I did it anyway. And it unlocked a whole not only a whole world of opportunity, but an entire career and an entire life, you know, built around that. So that singular decision was paramount to unlocking a whole world of opportunity. So I think if we shift our mindset around, gee, if I were to face this fear, who knows what it could unlock, if I’m looking for opportunity, if that’s why I’m even thinking about this strategy as an opportunity for business development, and etc, and to market myself, if I’m looking for opportunity, then I have to be willing, don’t I to be a, you know, willing to face the fear so that I can have the potential of that opportunity reaching me.

So it’s not an easy answer, but it is about doing it anyway. The other aspect of it as I would say that if you are someone who does provide value, and a lot of coaches and consultants do they provide ton of value, what that is a disservice to other people, and frankly, selfish for you not to do it because of your own vanity, your own fear your own issues, put those aside and make it about other people instead of making it about yourself.

Mostafa Hosseini  29:08

100% I’ve learned years ago that there is always opportunity on the other other side of fear. And once I overcome this fear, usually when you face the fear and you do it, then you’re like, oh, that way actually wasn’t that big of a deal. And you’re absolutely right, the first few times, there’s going to be that fear, I’m not going to be the best, but there’s that learning curve.

And there’s that discomfort that I have to go through. Like if if I go back to the first few episodes that I’ve done on this show, they’re horrible. They’re not they’re not good. And like a few of my friends are like, wow, you’re like day and night. It’s like comparing the first few episodes compared to what we do now. Which still not great, but once you get comfortable, it takes that little bit of practice to get used to and then we always come up with those outside as like, Oh, what are people going to say?

What if this happens? What if that happens? And at the end of the day, the worst that happened to me was nothing? Yeah,

Sheryl Plouffe  30:11

I think it’s because we think we think in our own minds that, that the whole world is waiting with bated breath on every word we say like, that’s just our own internal dialogue. The truth is that that’s not happening, right? It’s not no one is sitting there waiting for you to make a mistake so that they can you know, rail on you. That isn’t really how it’s happening.

So I think it’s just an internal dialogue question. And we have to be able to put that aside and just do it anyway. And think about it doing, again, why are you doing it? And then another way of looking at it would be looking at it from the perspective of your business. It’s like, Do you want a business? Or don’t you want a business? Because having a business means being visible?

Like, you know, you have to, and we’re just speaking about the online space here, but, you know, just thinking about traditional business, right? It’s like, people want to build, let’s say, a local business, well, you’re going to have to be visible to your local market, how are you going to be seen by your market? And if if you’re in Swift, if you want to do if this is a hobby for you, that’s a different thing. But if it’s a business, you have to be visible, you’re gonna have to figure out a strategy to do that.

Mostafa Hosseini  31:24

For sure, for sure, absolutely. What do you see as some of the biggest, or some of the mistakes that people make when it comes through producing their podcast?

Sheryl Plouffe  31:33

Um, oh, gee, I would say, Well, I would say not having a clear path to the intent behind it. So like just doing a podcast. I’ll give you an example. Without naming names, and being too specific, but just to generally give you the idea. Someone has a business about X, okay. And then you find out okay, they did start a podcast, but the, the podcast is something completely unrelated. The podcast is about y. So how does x relate to why it doesn’t. So that’s a big problem.

But sometimes people don’t see that unless they work with someone else who helps them to see the fact that those things do not connect, like that has nothing to do with that, or that has no correlation. Or maybe sometimes it’s like, x could have a correlation to y. But you’re missing this important thing in the middle that binds those two things together.

And right now they feel disconnected. So it’s, you know, I see that sometimes happen with people who have started a podcast where there’s no correlation to x two and two y. So that’s sometimes a problem. I think another thing is about structuring the episodes. So how do you structure your episodes, it doesn’t have to be complicated, does, it can be simple, but it needs to be strategic. So one of the things that I teach is what I called the Universal Video Script.

 And the idea is that you would start with, you know, it has to be to engage, to educate and to enroll. And this is a strategy that I’ve taught for many, many years in a variety of different ways. But it does apply also to podcasting, as well. And I think the structure of the episodes is really important, because you want to have people continuing to listen to the end. And the third thing I’ll say, Mustapha is use your podcasts to promote your own products and services if you want to.

Don’t wait for a podcast, don’t wait for a sponsor or an advertiser to come three years down the road. Why can’t you promote your own products and services on your own show? If you choose to?

Mostafa Hosseini  33:41

You could be your own sponsor?

Sheryl Plouffe  33:43

That’s right. sponsor? Yeah, it could be, you know, it could be for example, you know, the name of your program, right? So you have a show. And then the winning podcast concept is built around a specific name, and you have artwork for that. And that’s great. But can the show be sponsored by the name of your program?

Mostafa Hosseini  34:03

It could be 100% 100%. All right. Love it. Love it. So some of the stuff that you mentioned was very, we don’t have a clear intention as to what what we’re doing and why we’re doing the podcast, and the fact that it could be unrelated to what you’re doing in terms of business, and they’re not supporting each other. And it could be that disconnection. And yeah, and

Sheryl Plouffe  34:33

sometimes most often the name of the podcast, it’s really important to make sure that the name is clear. And that the name tells a prospective listener or viewer, what they’re going to get the value proposition essentially needs to be communicated through the name. And sometimes what happens is, this is a mistake I see where people try to be too clever. To try to be too cute with the name So the name was like, it’s like an inside joke. And they’re the only person who knows the joke. So the rest of the world is going, Wow, what that what what does that show about?

I’m not really, really sure. So you have to use clear language. It’s not this is not the time to be clever and cute. This is the time to be clear. Charlie,

Mostafa Hosseini  35:17

you know, what puzzles me usually in the marketing world is that people come up with cute names and cute ideas. And sometimes it works. And I’m sitting back going, how in the world? Is that thing working? Because know, one of the items on my checklist is, you know,

Sheryl Plouffe  35:43

you’re right. Because there are always listen, we’re talking in general terms here. Yeah, absolutely. always exceptions to the rule. Yeah. There are always extraordinary circumstances are that one off viral thing, right? There’s always that one breakout hit. But that’s not majority of people’s experience. But to your point, there can sometimes be people who break out in this like, huh, but there had to have been a bunch of different things that conspired together for that astronomical rise to success to happen. But those instances are so few and far between.

Mostafa Hosseini  36:22

My favorites is like people, when people like, turn a massive seven figure business out of starting with a Facebook post, just posted online, I said, Hey, guys, would you be interested if I do this, and then next thing I knew there’s like a lineup and a waitlist of people waiting to just pay me and begging me, I’m like, really, that worked?

You know, or examples of that, where people just absolutely had no clue about any of this stuff. And boom, next thing, you know, things are working. But like you said, that’s like one in a million or one in 1000. But let’s give me some some no BS perspective on our show and what your experience was, in terms of the connection, the structure of what we’ve gone through so far. And what gives me some constructive criticism, if you Sure. Okay. Like, you’re not going to hurt my feelings. Okay.

Sheryl Plouffe  37:23

So, here’s, here’s what I’m seeing this really good about what how you’re doing and what you’re doing. You have prepared some questions, but you’re willing to go off script, and you’re willing to actively listen to what I’m saying, and act and ask follow up questions based on what I’m actually saying, not necessarily staying stuck on the script of, I must ask question three now, like, you’re not doing that you do have some prepared questions.

So that you can keep to time and to keep on track and to keep us focused. And that’s a great approach. And you should do it that way. So I think the only thing I would say, and this is something that I do teach and I recommend, with regard I know I provided you a bio, you asked me You said send your headshot and a bio and, and I did all those things. When I, when I capture headshots and bios, I don’t use the bio as a introduction to the show. And the reason why is because most often by biographies tend to be a lengthy, mine included. So instead of reading The Biography at the start, what I like to do is to, to read it to myself, before I start my interview, just so that it’s top of mind and fresh in my mind about your experience and, and who you are and what you did, and all those different things.

And then what I like to do is I like to just intersperse or seed some of those pieces of your biography biography throughout the conversation. So don’t I mean, so I like to keep the beginning of the podcast really clean and crisp and write into it because I want to hook people in right away to the conversation. And then I will find ways to intersperse parts of the biography not all of it, but parts of it throughout the conversation.

So an example of that might be and I always suggest you starting with the engaged would be engagement statement or question or statistic to hook people in and then introduce my guest. He’s here retook talking about this today, done it at all, we start talking and then I might say something like, just using my bio as an example, right, be like and Mustapha.

You know, we’re having 20,000 hours of experience on television. That must have really helped you when you did Blank, blank blank. Tell us more about that. So I’m not reading the biography. I’m just taking chunks of it and I’m seeding it throughout the column. citation is a little bit more advanced. But that is a strategy that you can use that gets you out of that pattern of reading the biography.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:07

I liked that idea. And

Sheryl Plouffe  40:12

I hope that wasn’t too harsh.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:13

No, no, no, it’s perfect. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. Like, instead of reading out the bio, succeeding into the questions, and what I just become come aware of is the fact that the very first question that I asked you is, what’s your what’s your story? So you’re gonna naturally give me your bio. So it’s kind of redundant for me. That’s redundant, read your bio and be like, Alright, what’s your bio?

Sheryl Plouffe  40:39

No, I hadn’t thought of that. But yeah, you’re right, actually, because you did ask. And I think that’s a valid first question. That’s absolutely a valid first question. Because you do want to potentially give that person the opportunity to give the backs Why are they here? What’s the credibility? But yeah, actually, that is a really good point that there might be redundant. Yeah, you’re right. Anything

Mostafa Hosseini  41:02

else that you think? Let me ask you the question that I’ll ask you that question, again, maybe at the end, and more about getting feedback on what we’re doing here. So once we get started, in the beginning, there is this probably thought or mental block that says I’m a nobody, I don’t want to go out to people and reach out to some big names, they probably are going to ask me, if I have millions of downloads a day, and I don’t I only had a grand total of 150 podcast downloads in the past 12 months? Should I go reach out to people? Or should I wait for 12 years to get 10,000 hours of podcasting become a real pro and then go out to people? What’s your take on that? And how should we go and approach some big names out there?

Sheryl Plouffe  41:58

Big names, medium names, small names, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has something to promote. And everyone wants exposure of whatever it is they’re working on. It can be a nonprofit, a book, a program, a website, a social media platform. I mean, everyone has something to promote thought and idea, a point of view, right? Everyone’s quote, unquote, selling something, right. So I don’t think that, I think that we make it up in our own mind that oh, a big name would never pay attention to me, they would never give me the time of day, because I’m too small.

I just started. But the truth is, that people who have made it and people who are big names are often in a position to pay it forward, because they’re not as concerned anymore about, you know, they might be in a position where money is no object, and it’s not about that anymore to them. There they could those bigger names might be more so in a position to want to help someone who’s smaller, because they remember when they were that way.

They might be more willing to say yes, I’ll come on your podcast and share whatever it is that I’m going to talk about and promote, again, a philanthropic endeavor or anything of that nature, even if you’re a small player, because they also recognize that that content, even if it only reaches one person, that one person could lead to many, many more people because they understand networking.

Mostafa Hosseini  43:32

100% Oh,

Sheryl Plouffe  43:33

we pick that up in our own minds that the big names won’t ever pay attention to me. In fact, I say that. I mean, I’ve asked a lot of different people to be on my show. I don’t think it’s happened. But once where a person has said, Yeah, I think your show might be too small for what I’m doing. And that person, that one person after I don’t even know hundreds and hundreds of reach outs, right? One person said that. And fair enough. And that was great.

And that was fine. And then they actually end up following it up by saying, but I’m going to introduce you to five amazing people that you’re going to really love being connected to. So I still wasn’t it was still a win.

Mostafa Hosseini  44:13

Absolutely. Absolutely. Even if they say no, we could say you kind of ask Who do you know anyone else? Or who do you know that might be interested in joining us who might be a good fit and they will probably introduce you to a bunch of people. I’m Cheryl, do you have any TV industry best practices, tips or tricks on on this on on getting guests or maybe some names out there for us?

Sheryl Plouffe  44:39

I think the biggest tip that I would give is that you have you cannot make it about you. Really, you are the last thing that we need to be pitching here it. It has to be always positioned as what I can do for you. This is about the other person. Doesn’t matter if it’s communicating through Do a text message or an email or whatever means always needs to be positioned as what I can do what, what, what we can do for you, it’s always about the other person.

Easier said than done. Because people have a tendency to want to enter, they want to inject themselves into the, the pitch, so to speak, because they want to show their credibility, they want to show that they’re, you know, here’s why I am I’m this and this and that. But you have to be so careful with that you have to be so careful to not give it an overall tone of meanie, it has to be you, you you. And that’s the biggest piece of advice.

And that’s coming from someone who is on the receiving end of many, many pitches. When I was a news manager, you know, the ones the pitches that came across my desk, were the ones that were always positioned as helping me and my role in my job and what I had to do. Those were the ones that captured my attention if it had anything to do with like, here’s what who I am and we don’t care yet. We care about our goals and what we’re doing at this moment.

Mostafa Hosseini  46:08

Fair enough. Fair enough. I think that’s a great point. I’m making it about them. One way that I have done it in the past, actually, at the very beginning of starting the show was whenever I saw a big name, say in the coaching industry or any other industries doing a launch or promoting something, I reached out and say hey, I’d be happy to promote your your offer and your launch on my show. And they never asked me how big you are, how many listeners and nothing. They showed up.

And we actually became friends and I built relationships with them. And I you know, I didn’t even ask for. For reciprocation. Right. And then it was very easy to build a relationship. So to your point, making good about them reaching out and offering help and be like, hey, we’ll be happy to promote your product to my audience. Would you be open to that? What do you think they’re gonna say? All right, if they’re gonna

Sheryl Plouffe  47:06

say yes, they always yes. And they never to your point. I don’t think it’s ever happened, where someone has said to me, I’ll only come on your show. If you have your example. You know, 12,000 downloads this month. Yeah, that that never that never comes up.

Mostafa Hosseini  47:24

Actually, it this has happened to me once. Where I reached out, I said, we’d be happy to have you in there. Like, how big is your show? We’re like, that’s like our I don’t think it’s a good fit. Like, okay, no problem. That’s and that’s,

Sheryl Plouffe  47:36

and that’s fine. Yeah, yeah. And you might get some of those occasionally, and that’s perfectly fine. But if the majority of the times that you’re asking people and they’re saying yes, then that’s a win.

Mostafa Hosseini  47:45

Yeah, for sure. For sure. For sure. Um, you talked about monetizing your podcast and making sure that you actually monetize and make something out of it. How can people monetize that podcast? What are some strategies and tips for that?

Sheryl Plouffe  48:04

Well, I think that the most obvious one is that you can turn the people that are listening or watching your podcast into clients, right? Because if you’re positioning yourself, and you are, and you have decided to promote yourself on your own show, then you could get clients because they would hear that, that you know, that promotion or that elegant way of showing you know, what it is that you do on your own show. So that could lead to clients.

And then the second part of that is, who’s to say that the guests themselves don’t become a client? Sometimes that happens, because now you’re there, you’re both getting to know each other through the format of a podcast. And maybe they reach out after and say, hey, you know, you said something on the podcast that you did this. I didn’t know you did that. I’d like to know more about that. Okay, you know, so. So clients is, number one, be it through the audience itself, or probably more likely through the guests. The second way is through referrals.

So when you have a podcast, you bring a guest on and they have a great experience. And when you finish that podcast, that person might say, hey, you know, I didn’t know that you did such and such. I know, I have a friend or I have a colleague who’s actually in the process of launching a podcast, but she could really use your help. Can I make an email introduction? Yes, absolutely. Here’s how to do it. So referrals, right is the second way that happens a lot. And then the third way is through speaking engagements.

So it may be that it’s a I do mine you do your you know, we trade back and forth. That happens a lot or you get off a you bring someone on and you find out that they have a private mastermind retreat that they do in who knows where could even be on a Caribbean island. It could be online, it could be in any number of capacities. There are speaking opportunities everywhere.

And it might not always be on social media, it could be that you’re invited to speak to a private group of, of millionaire CEOs, if that happens to be, you know, what they’ve built, and they’re looking for someone to talk about video, the answer would be yes, I’ll be there. Right. So it’s really about the speaking engagements. And then the fourth way to monetize is you have to think about the people that you bring on your show, if they’re if they are a big name, or if there’s someone who was sought out, there are people who are potentially googling that person’s name in Google, YouTube, Facebook, or any of those different search capabilities, right?

Mostly YouTube and Google. And they’re searching for those names. When you’re, if you have them featured on your content, and people are searching that person’s name, it materializes in search results, okay. And it’s possible depending on on a lot of different factors, but it’s possible that your content could surface as a result in a Google search for that person who you had on as your guest. And now you get yourself in front of more people strictly through search. So that would be a fourth way that you can monetize as well

Mostafa Hosseini  51:15

love it. Love it. So the four ways to monetize your podcast is one they may become a customer today may become a referral partner, three, you may do a trade, or they may introduce you to someone else, or they may have their own retreats or stages that you could speak at. And the fourth one is getting trapped traffic through Google and search engines and, and all that. So would you would you wait for them to ask the question, or would you open up the conversation maybe before or after the podcast about them being interested in the products and services or whether they want to introduce you to someone?

Sheryl Plouffe  51:58

Typically, I don’t do it before, because I really want the focus to be on the show and the upcoming episode that the topic that we’re going to talk about what I what I sometimes do at the end when we’re back in the greenroom, and we’re in the behind the scenes part when the broadcast is over. Sometimes you’re just chit chatting, you’re just like, hey, don’t do that went well, you know, you’re just sort of chatting. And then sometimes it comes up in conversation there where it’s like, you know what we should make, let’s make a date to follow up on this and a month from now. Sometimes it happens, right? When you’re done the episode.

In other cases, it’s not done at the end of the episode. And you can follow up with them maybe down the line, right? It could be a month from now could be six weeks from now or something and just circle back and get back in touch with that person. And hey, it’s been six weeks, you know, it’s again, back to your sort of follow up procedure that you do in your business on a normal basis, because that shouldn’t be part of what you’re doing. But that’s the you know, and then it’s what we call power partner talk. Let’s have a power partner talk.

They don’t know that it’s called that we just internally call that power partner talk because it means getting on the line and talking about is there is there an opportunity for us to do any kind of business development, collaboration, joint venture, maybe it’s that they know some people that you need to be introduced to or stages or referrals, etc. But it gives you an opportunity to talk to that person now that you have a built relationship.

 It doesn’t it’s not weird anymore, because you’ve already chatted, you would have had an likely an intro call, which we recommend having an intro call, then you did the podcast. And now you’re following up. This is the third time you’ve talked to that person.

Mostafa Hosseini  53:47

Love it, you just covered a very, very powerful concept. Power.

Sheryl Plouffe  53:53

What do you recommend? Yes. Power partner talk, we recommend that when you have a prospective guest to come on your podcast, we’d like to suggest that you do A a 15 minute what we would call a podcast intro call. And that’s a place where you get it’s a touch point. With your with your prospective guests. It’s also an opportunity to nail down the topic nail down the the angle, make sure that there’s alignment in terms of values, that you see things the similar way so that it’s not some weird thing where it’s like, oh, you believe something that I am dead set against when you get live on the call, right?

That’s not the time to explore the fact that you both see things very, very differently and it gets weird. You want to know in advance, before long before the podcast episode that there’s an alignment of values that you see things not necessarily the same opinion, but that you have the same values. At least that’s important to me. And so that is an important part then you get on the podcast now that third apart is not your old friends at that point, you know each other because you’ve just spent quite a bit of time chatting 100%

Mostafa Hosseini  55:07

Love it. So there was three meetings. One was the intro call. One was the podcast. And then there was there will be a follow up call after to talk about partnerships, introductions, referrals, stages and see how you guys can collaborate.

Sheryl Plouffe  55:25

Yeah, you can do that. Now, you know, you might, you might have a guest who comes on your show, and for whatever reason, maybe, maybe it doesn’t become a Power Partnership. And that’s okay, too. That is okay, too. The thing that’s nice about a profitable podcasting is that, since you’re able to pull this off in about an hour per week, you get to choose and you have control over the levers of how many of these will you do in a week, it could be one a week, which is perfectly fine.

I’ve done up to six in a week, six podcast episodes in a week without breaking a sweat. Right that so it’s, it’s up to you to decide, you know, and then maybe not all of those people or people that I’ll follow up with, but some of them might be?

Mostafa Hosseini  56:12

Absolutely. While we’re talking about this, another strategy that I’ve seen, to make a podcast profitable and monetize your podcast is inviting potential customers to be your guest on your podcast, going back to your intent, and the name of the strategy, the name of your podcast, and whether it’s related and whatnot. So that’s another very powerful. And guess what, you could reach out and people on LinkedIn be like, Hey, would you would you be open to share your story? On our podcast with our audience? And with our listeners?

Sheryl Plouffe  56:41

You know, yeah, it’s so interesting, because I’ve been on networking calls, and you know, where it is breakout rooms and things of that nature. And you know, the say, hey, everyone put your contact information in the chat. Whenever I have done that, where I’ve said, you know, I put my name, and I’m looking for guests for my show.

Yeah. Okay. And then put a URL to like, it could be like, you know, a waiting list. And there’s different ways to do that. But whenever I put it in there, and like, anybody want to be a guest on my show, anyone looking for promotion, or you know, a way to promote their things? It’s like, like, everyone responds Me, me, me. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Because everyone’s looking to promote something. Oh, so that’s a powerful thing, because I’m not selling anything.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:35

100% Sure, I’ll please tell us about your gift to profitable podcast method.

Sheryl Plouffe  57:39

I’ve done a 20 minute recording that talks even more in depth of what we’ve covered here about profitable podcasting and how that works in your business. And you can go to profitable podcast method.com to to get that 20 minute records what I think it’s 19 and a half, but who’s counting 20 minute recording, that explains the whole concept of profitable podcasting, that’s a great place to start to understand the concept of what we’re talking about in depth.

And then from there, there’s an opportunity to to talk to me about your specific situation, your specific business and see what the profit path would be if you were to go down this path of building a profitable podcast of your own. So profitable podcast method.com profitable

Mostafa Hosseini  58:23

podcast method.com or click on the link in the comments or the description the show, and it will take you to the same place. Now Cheryl can ask you a few personal questions before we wrap up. Sure. All right. What’s a new thing you have tried recently?

Sheryl Plouffe  58:45

A new thing that I’ve tried recently. Well, I love drugstore makeup. So okay, so I love I’m not unusual find me in Sephora. Likely because we don’t have a Sephora here in Chatham, Ontario. Okay, but like, I like to just, I like to try new makeup and lipsticks and things like that. And I just started one tried one recently called, oh, what’s it called? Vinyl, vinyl ink. I think it’s called by Maybelline. And not today, but I have tried it and it’s pretty good. I like it.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:18

You’re open to try new things.

Sheryl Plouffe  59:20

I am. Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:22

Give me two of your favorite books.

Sheryl Plouffe  59:26

Oh, gosh. I mean, let me look over at my so um, I like the book, Marie Forleo is everything is figured out double. I really like and another one that I like is the one thing by Jay Pappas n. And Gary Keller. Yeah, it’s over there on that. I mean, there are so many there’s word genius over here by David Fagan. There’s a story worthy by Matthew Dix. I mean, it could go on.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:56

Very worthy. Love it. What’s one advice have made a big, big impact in business or life.

Sheryl Plouffe  1:00:06

For you a word of advice that really made an impact for me is something that a coach once told me, which was that if I were to become 40% more organized and committed, that I could have a much bigger business than I have. And it was a bit of a an awakening for me, because it was someone calling me out on something that I was maybe a little bit bitter at the time when she said that to me, what would it mean? What do you mean? I’m not? I’m

Mostafa Hosseini  1:00:38

not organized enough, right?

Sheryl Plouffe  1:00:39

She was right. Okay, she was right, I needed to get more organized. And I did. And lo and behold, my business grew once I started really committing myself to being more organized and committed.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:00:55

Love it. If you had a Google or Facebook ad, where everyone around the world with access to internet could see that ad, what would your message be? For the people of Earth?

Sheryl Plouffe  1:01:08

That message would be that message would be you are capable. You are capable, right? It really is about your own. What’s going on between your two ears? Is everything that that stopping you is is you absolutely capable of accomplishing anything. You just need to put one foot in front of the other and just keep going on. It’s funny.

I watched a video earlier today from Jennifer Lopez. And she was just doing a clip of something. And she said, You know, there’s really no secret to my success or to success. It’s really about never quitting. And she said I never quit. And that’s why I was successful.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:01:52

Love it. Sure. Well, this has been an amazing conversation. And thank you for sharing all the all the wisdom and tips and the knowledge that you have accumulated over the years. When it comes to running a show and a podcast gang, if you have questions, and you need help, and you want to start your podcast or a show, which which I would absolutely recommend you do that. Because again, this is one leveraged activity that you could expand and get a ton out of it.

And the results. And another big good thing about running a podcast or a show is you produce it once and it keeps bringing people to you. And it there’s a possibility of you know, and there’s that type of leverage, as well. So it’s like it’s got leverage all over it. So do reach out to Cheryl, go to what was the website again, profitable podcast method.com.

Sheryl Plouffe  1:02:45

That’s right, profitable podcast method.com, or the link in

Mostafa Hosseini  1:02:49

the show notes or the descriptions or the comments of the show. And we’ll go from there. And again, as for my birthday, I’m giving away five marketing strategy sessions where we will tackle your biggest marketing strategy and come up with a one page simple plan to to tackle that and with an action plan. And for that to get it put down the word consult or consultation on the comments below.

And we’ll send you the link to book a time. Thank you for joining us. Thank you Cheryl again, I really enjoyed our conversation. And I wish you the best. Thank you for joining

Sheryl Plouffe  1:03:28

thanks, Mostafa and Happy birthday to you. That’s an awfully generous offer that you just put out there too. So your your audience would be wise to take you up on that.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:03:38

Thank you. I appreciate that. You’ve been listening to daily conscious entrepreneurs. And have yourself a great day a great week, and maybe put down in a comment below what was the best thing that you got out of this episode. And we will see you next week. Bye now. Bye