Whew! It’s been a minute since I’ve been here on the blog - for all good reasons!

At the beginning of this year I started giving all of my “things” (blog, facebook, IG, etc) a JOB. As in, I assigned those things something to do. Something that I could see ROI from to know that I was GETTING somewhere in my business.

I don’t know if you’re like me in your coaching business but, sometimes it’s HARD to know what way is up, what is working and what is actually generating leads. At the end of the day what is the one thing all coaches want - more clients (aka more money). And don’t take that as greed - it’s a fact of life. We assign value to things and usually that has a currency sign attached to it.

So in the beginning of the year I was in a new-to-me Networking Group and the leader of the group said, “Let’s do a round robin! Tell everyone your name, your business name and ONE big hairy thing that you want to do in 2023!”

When it got to me I said, “I’m Maggie, Your Business Bestie & Chaos to Clarity Coach and I’m going to start a podcast!”

And instead of hearing crickets, I was flooded with messages, “what is the podcast about?”, “how can I be on your podcast?”, “do you need any help producing your podcast?”

All great questions and all things I had yet to think about 🤣😬

So I encouraged anyone on that call to friend me on Facebook and send me a message saying, “PODCAST” and I would send over an interview link.

I got off of that call in a PANIC. HOW TF WAS I GOING TO MAKE A PODCAST HAPPEN????

My CEO mindset kicked in and I saw the note on my to-do list, “start a podcast”. I have been dreaming and waiting for the “right” time to start a podcast. I guess now was it! I spent some time dreaming about what I wanted this podcast to be, the format, who I wanted to interview, and how I wanted it to be delivered.

Ok, so how exactly did I get a podcast rolling in UNDER 90 minutes?

First -

I knew my target market. If you aren’t sure on your niche or ideal client - this is CRUCIAL for getting a podcast up and running quickly.

Second -

a name - I knew I wanted to call my podcast Chaos to Clarity. My whole business is centered around helping women entrepreneurs navigate the chaos of business & life. In fact, you’ll notice in my introduction in that networking group I introduced myself as a Chaos to Clarity Coach. Why? It’ll catch your ear. The chances of YOU listening to my WHOLE “I help” statement are higher when you have a catchy and relatable intro.

Third -

I started looking for places to host my podcast. I knew that anchor.fm (now spotify for podcasters) was a free option. I also knew that buzzsprout was an option but there was a certain threshold that you’d have to pay. In order to keep costs minimal I went with anchor. It was very easy to create, upload and connect my podcast to multiple other locations (amazon music, castbox, apple podcasts, etc). An item of note: you have to pay a fee to have your podcast on apple podcasts, for me it was $20/year.

Fourth -

Answer those questions from above!

What is the podcast about: Helping women move out of chaos and into clarity. Specifically women in business who probably have a family and are wanting more time freedom, creativity and sustainability from their business. This I knew from knowing my target market. So back to the first point - KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. And if you don’t, girl, I got you! Schedule a call so that we can get the conversation going on this and get you appropriately niched. I used to be scared to niche down, but really it’s not as bad as I thought!

How can people be on my podcast?: I knew I wanted my podcast to be part interview and part solo episodes. To me connection is so important and I know first hand that it takes a village to grow a business (just like to raise a kid!). Something that has always been hard for me is reaching out to ask for help. This podcast is a way for me to connect my listeners to people that they might not know are out there and available! I put together a quick landing page and a calendar link to set up an interview slot.

Do you need help setting up and producing the podcast?: I work on a mac and I knew that garage band was an editing tool that I had for free to produce audio only tracks. Since I have a lot of knowledge editing photos and video I was pretty confident in my ability to learn how to use garage band. So for the time being - no, I do all of the recording, editing and uploading!

Some things of note:

When I recorded my intro I knew I wanted to have music. In order to have music on your podcast you have to find royalty free music. There are some nuances here - if your podcast is ONLY on spotify, I think spotify lets you use their music without charging extra. But I also know there are TONS of sites with royalty free music on them (meaning you don’t have to pay any of the ASCAP, SESAC or BMI fees). Some of those sites have free downloads and some you have to pay for the royalty free music. I purchased the track that I use for my intro and outro to spread some of the love to that artist for creating that track.

When I started editing on Garage Band - I had NO CLUE what I was doing. As far as equipment I use my apple ear buds from my iphone 8 because those still had the 3.5mm headphone jack. I have a microphone, but have not set it up yet because my desk isn’t situated in a way that allows me to have the boom for the mic properly placed.

I record solo episodes within garage band! I had to look up how to record things in garage band the first few times I did it. But, it’s super easy! When I record interview episodes I do so over zoom! When you record on zoom it creates an audio file, video file and configure file.

When you’re ready to use the audio from your zoom all you have to do is drag that audio only file into garage band!

On my podcast I ask interviewees 4 questions. Since I focus a lot on navigating the chaos and moving it into clarity I wanted to make sure these episodes weren’t just a 3 hour conversation about not a whole lot. I came up with the 4 interview questions as a way for me to have an outline and to also let the conversation flow. I do not like most podcasts that are scripted. I find that when people have to read a script, it’s like being in the 10th grade english class and it gets to you and you’re literally just reading without much emotion. A script in my podcast’s case gives little room for any extra tid bits of conversation and nuggets of wisdom. So no, I do not and will not ever have a script. If you do, that is wonderful and I applaud you - it’s just not my style. Even for my solo podcasts they are not scripted. I will write down a topic and have 2-3 bullet points of what I want to talk about, but as far as anything more than that I do not script things.

The hardest part about creating a podcast was setting up some of the back end stuff in my CRM to take interview slots and to understand garage band. But anchor actually goes a step further and you can record right within the app on your phone or the browser on your computer! So really, it is SUPER easy to create a podcast! You can even create album art within anchor (I did mine in canva!).

If you haven’t yet, go and check out my podcast!