Ep25: Why Entrepreneur Podcasts Are So Popular In 2024

ASM Ep 25: Why Entrepreneur Podcasts Are So Popular In 2024 and BTS Of My First Year of Episodes

Sonja: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show soulful listeners. Oh my gosh. Can you believe. It’s our one year anniversary here at the art self-mastery podcast. So in today’s episode, I want to talk about why I am particular and proud of this one year of episodes. I’ll share with you what worked and what didn’t. why podcasts are so popular for entrepreneurs in 2024. And whether or not I recommend podcasting for aspiring or new entrepreneurs.
Sonja: So you’ll get all that and more, but before I move forward, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has listened, who has subscribed, who has left a review, who has shared on social media? I sort of feel strange about the fact that I have some super fans [00:01:00] who always, whenever they listen, share this episode on their social media they are telling people about it, and I just want all of you to know whether you share it with others or not, whether you are a quote unquote, a super fan. If you are here, your presence is felt, it is noted. And I just thank you for spending anywhere from a 15 to 45 minutes of your life with me every two weeks, it has truly, truly been an honor.
Sonja: The reason I think, people have incorporated podcasting into their business model. Um, so many of us who are talkers in terms of our medium of communicating. This has just been a godsend. Okay. You know, we either enjoy, or it’s just as our natural propensity to communicate and get our points across through the verbal process through the throat, chakra, all of that kind of thing.
Sonja: [00:02:00] Podcast, just allow you to do that in such an easy way. And the technology behind getting the episodes recorded and getting everything out there is so easy.
Sonja: I mean, it, for me, at least it has always been a very easy process in terms of recording the episodes and getting them out there. If you don’t remember, I, this is actually my third podcasts that I’ve had over the last like six years. However, this is the one that I have been most consistent with.
Sonja: The process, the systems have always been relatively easy. But it’s, it’s incredibly easy now with so many different tools and systems where you can now just record, you can edit, even if you record it on a video format, you can now just pull that video, that audio out of that video format and have just straight audio that make podcasting easy.
Sonja: So the ease [00:03:00] of podcasting I think, is what makes it a popular medium, especially for those who enjoy talking. The other reason, I think podcasting is so popular amongst entrepreneurs in 2024 and probably have always been is because we can connect with you all our audience in a way that’s deeper than say a static post.
Sonja: I would say it’s in the same way that video is really great form to connect, but again, for those who don’t want to do that video, for whatever reasons, it allows you to have that same type of deeper connection with your audience, your community, that writing for some people just doesn’t hit the same. It allows you, I think, to kind of go off the cuff a little bit more people can get a deeper sense of your personality, your values, the things that you believe in and all, that your business stands for.
Sonja: Those are also some Statistical reasons to [00:04:00] why podcasting is so popular with entrepreneurs. But in 2024 in particular I also know that many of you have said that podcasting is great to be able to learn more about things that I talk about that can help you with your business, your personal development, how you navigate harmonizing between the two of them very easily.
Sonja: It allows you to take in the information in ways that you don’t have to stop doing other things fortunately, unfortunately, just depending on how you live with multitasking for some of us, that’s just our way. And it works out really well. Podcasting is great because we get to take in this information, these inspirational stories and antidotes and interviews while we are doing other things that we also enjoy. And so I [00:05:00] think with say like reading, if it’s just straight blog or email in order for you to really comprehend what is going on in written text, you know, I think there’s a, just a different level of concentration. Where, if you sort of hear something, maybe you’re multitasking and you hear a phrase or a certain word, oh, wait. You know, it, that, that you’re particularly interested in. Your ears perk up a little bit more.
Sonja: You can hear me whine, how you can be more intentional about it. Personally, I love listening to podcasts because depending on the show and the content of that show and that host delivers, it can be something that plays in the background That’s sort of works like a hypnosis or affirmations if you will.
Sonja: So Again, that was a mix of like personal reasons and professional reasons why podcasts are so popular for entrepreneurs. But even if you don’t have a business, I think those are some great reasons why podcasts are so popular. And why I personally [00:06:00] enjoy doing these episodes and having you all here.
Sonja: Now, I also mentioned I was really proud that I was able to hit the one-year mark with the Art of self mastery podcast.
Sonja: Even though this is my third podcast show and the reason that is, is because I was consistent in my own way. And it felt really easy to do this over the last year. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that felt other than, you know, my coaching sessions, which is something else that is just very easy for me, it’s very natural for me to guide my clients through their transformations. This was just so easy.
Sonja: Now prior podcast shows that I had again, the process was easy. What was difficult for me is that I was attempting to do those shows in ways that I was taught or I learned, or someone said, this is how you should do it. And that’s what [00:07:00] blew it for me.
Sonja: Is that the way they were recommending, I should do it. Um, did it work for me? Again, very well-intentioned everyone that I listened to, they are masters in their crafts. What they were doing, worked for them, but it did not work for me.
Sonja: Things like you should have an episode every week because that builds consistency and a following and people understand what to do that hadn’t worked for me. Okay. Um, that doesn’t work for my lifestyle. It doesn’t work for my personality. It doesn’t work for several things with imaging. Uh, what does work for me though, is in terms of consistency, was that I said on onset, I would create these episodes and we would drop biweekly.
Sonja: That was something that I learned from two previous shows. And that’s why I don’t consider them failures. Guess what I told you guys when I first launched this, I was going to record these and release them biweekly. And [00:08:00] that’s exactly what I did. Guess how many people complained and said, “you know what no, that’s not enough for me, Sonja. Zero a big fat zero. So that reassured me that certainly it was okay with me and I was committed to that schedule. That schedule feels very spacious for me. And also no one complained, no one has written in an email saying like, no, you have to do these weekly. I’m not going to follow.
Sonja: And so let there be a lesson to you, consistency, and I teaches in my coaching in so many
Sonja: different arenas where, you know, whether we’re talking about starting or how you operate your business, how you go about practicing self-care and wellness, or how often you are nurturing your relationships. Consistency is not quantity.
Sonja: I [00:09:00] remember several years ago when I first got into the online coaching space as the brick and mortar Maven, for those of you remember, I had a YouTube channel. And that again, not every week or two or three times a week posting a video i just could not. And I did a second sort of iteration of that show as well. Or if that channel. And I remember changing my header image and there’s like, copy on it that says ” Consistently good content uploaded sporadically”.
Sonja: And I remember that sort of became my motto. In terms of however, I was going to show up online, you know, in terms of online marketing and social media marketing, because that’s something that I could be consistent with. I can’t tell you, I couldn’t promise you then you know exactly, I’m going to post Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Or I’m going to record a video, you know, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Sonja: And it will like, I don’t [00:10:00] do hard schedules like that. But I could promise that I could be committed and dedicated to the fact that it would be consistently good content. It wasn’t going to be just a mess where I’m just rambling and you know, for no reason everything that I would publish in terms of content would be helpful, it would be informative. It will be empowering it would serve and intentional purpose. And so that was my promise and that was my consistency. And that was the same thing with this podcast. So I’m just really proud of myself for that. That I made that statement. We were going to release every two weeks and I did it, it felt really good and easy, and that’s awesome for me.
Sonja: Let’s talk about what worked and what didn’t work.
Sonja: So when I think about what worked, definitely the biweekly episodes, as I just mentioned, that worked so much better than trying to do episodes once a week. It wasn’t [00:11:00] recording the episodes that post a problem. It’s the entire management of the episode, which isn’t really a lot, and it doesn’t have to be. I know when I very first started , the two previous shows and even the first maybe four or five shows of art of of Self mastery. I did zero editing.
Sonja: Z RO. Do you hear me? Like you got every, um, cough, Twitch. Mispronounced word, you got all of that. Guess how many people complained? Zero. So I just want to encourage and say that that doesn’t have to be your way if you’re considering a podcast. And I still don’t do a lot of heavy editing. But the management of it and what I wanted, I want it to have transcripts.
Sonja: I wanted SEO optimization with these episodes because I wanted this to be a medium for my marketing purposes. Because I don’t want to spend a lot of my time on social media and that has been fruitful. Let me just say that. So if that’s something [00:12:00] that you’re interested in, that worked for me. So those things require a certain actions to be done in terms of the management of the podcast of that is why the biweekly worked so well, because it allows space to do those other things and serve the ultimate purpose of why I have the podcast. Okay.
Sonja: What didn’t work. I tried a couple of times just like, oh, I felt inspired. I was really passionate about certain topics. And I was like, oh, this would make a great series. And
Sonja: I just decided like, oh, I’m going to make this a series. And I’m just going to drop these special episodes once a week. Yeah, that didn’t work. Don’t look for those again in 2024. Now, occasionally I will still drop like an episode sort of like a bonus episode. But not like a dedicated series, a where I say to you guys “oh, and I’m going to drop the next episode next week”. Like because again for all the [00:13:00] reasons I’ve just explained bi-weekly works better for me.
Sonja: I talked just a few moments ago about the episode management. So once I got more strategic about how I wanted to use the podcast. And being able to identify what that would include that’s where more of the episode management came into play and that’s when I hired Folks too handle that part. When I say management, I’m not talking again just about like editing because we do very little editing in these episodes very, very little.
Sonja: But the management of it, The transcripts, making sure those are grammatically correct, uploading them to the website, embedding the form, Creating a graphic, that kind of stuff that I’m really not interested in.
Sonja: I am here you guys to share my experiences to coach you all through your own [00:14:00] experiences, building businesses and incorporating them into your life very harmoniously. Like that’s my thing here in terms of the work that I do in this world, it is not about making graphics. So handing that off definitely was something that worked. Right I did it all maybe two or three times.
Sonja: And I was like, yep, no, that does not work. And I’m really also proud. And, and, and I’ll have to say, this is, uh, this is something that I’ve learned As I’ve been on this self-discovery journey because I don’t think it ever ends. And also just developing myself. Once you discover certain things about yourself. Um, you start to decide if you want to develop. Certain parts of those, or if some of these things need to be released.
Sonja: And so me seeing like, oh, okay. When I get to doing these parts of the podcast management, I start to like really fall off. That’s how I know like yep nope! This needs to get [00:15:00] handed off and so that’s what I did. And I’ve gotten a lot quicker with noticing those things and then taking an action that is in alignment with what I need to do.
Sonja: Recording as I go. That’s like a 50 50 in terms of what worked and what didn’t. For the most part I would say the first half of the year I would create topics or episodes based on things that I was either really personally interested in passionate about things that maybe I was experiencing in the moment that I thought would be helpful. And then halfway through I started experimenting with loosely planning topics and episodes. And I have to say there’s pros and cons to both, but I think going forward in 2024, like I already have certain episodes batch recorded, which [00:16:00] is a first for me. So that feels really good and also batched outlines of different topics and I’ve pulled more topics based on what I hear potential clients saying that they’re struggling with. Or topics from coaching calls that I’m having with my current clients. That I’m noticing are more like, this is a recurring theme because, Hey, if it’s happening within folks in my community, Um, my coaching circle that it must be something that I think the masses. Um, probably are struggling or challenged with, or at least interested in.
Sonja: And so I’ve been taking that approach in terms of outlining. Upcoming episodes. And so. You know, recording as I go, if I’m super inspired. You know, y’all, if you’ve been around for a little while, you may have heard me in the sauna I’ll record an episode on the go. Now, when it’s published is a [00:17:00] different things sometimes I’ve recorded episodes. You know, Very very little editing or no editing.
Sonja: And it is the next episode because I think it’s that pertinent. But for the most part, I might record the episode on the go, but it’s not necessarily then, you know, pushed into the schedule. Like that’s the next episode dropping. And I just give myself permission it is okay to have content already ready to go sort of in the pipeline.
Sonja: So. I’m the last list of like what worked, what didn’t.
Sonja: The name of the podcast. You all have no idea how many times, and it’s not been a lot, but. I’ve probably thought about changing the name of this podcast. Two or three times over the last year. This also goes into the bucket things I’m really proud of myself for, and that is, although I have thought about it two or three times, like seriously thought about it two or three times.
Sonja: I did not change [00:18:00] it. And each time that I don’t change it, I’m always like, Ooh. Okay. I’m glad I didn’t do that and I’m not saying that I won’t ever change the name of the podcast. Well, let me tell you why. Let me tell you why I’ve thought about it. As I’ve done episodes and I’ve done more. Um, Interviewing and sort of thinking. The direction of my business, which has become more, a little more expansive. Um, a little more broad. Then when I was first starting.
Sonja: As I would make certain decisions in my business, I would go, oh, well, wait a minute.
Sonja: Does that still make sense for the podcast? Okay. Because again, I did get very clear that I wanted my podcast to be a marketing source for my business. So that’s really important. They work hand in hand. If that’s, if that’s the goal . And so when I would make certain decisions [00:19:00] or, Introduced, maybe a new, coaching offer, I sometimes would think like, oh, does that make sense with the podcast?
Sonja: But yeah, I definitely thought about changing, the name. I’m glad I didn’t. I still feel like the art of self-mastery works really well. I would love to know what you guys’ always, always DME, let me know. If you think the name of the show correlates very well to what we talk about here.
Sonja: And so lastly, I think, you know, if you been considering starting a podcast, Whether you are an entrepreneur or not based on my experience, I say, go for it. I have a couple of clients who are adding podcasts into their business model. And I absolutely love it again, especially for those clients who have that gift of gab. It’s their, their way they attract people doing that. I say, absolutely go for it. But if you are an entrepreneur in particular. And you’re someone who’s not [00:20:00] very interested for whatever reason of doing a lot on social media or relying on that as your main marketing tool, I would say go for it.
Sonja: And if that is you I’ll just share a couple things that I would say you need to know this. If you want to add a podcast to your business model as an entrepreneur in 2024.
Sonja: So number one, podcasting you can use search engine optimization as a way to attract more customers, clients, audience members, what have you to your business, whatever type of business you have?
Sonja: Yes. It does take a while. It’s not as instant. And I use that in air quotes very lightly as social media can be, I would say. But I, but definitely factually speaking, SEO definitely has a longer lifespan than a social media post. So for that reason, I would say, go for it. Again, the recording, the automation, the process [00:21:00] is so, so easy to do now. I’m happy to share a list of like my tech stack with you all.
Sonja: I’ll do that in the show notes. I am an affiliate for some of these softwares that I use, but I use them. I’m not an affiliate and I’m telling you about it because I’m trying to make $2 off. If you use the software, I’m telling you about it because I use it and it’s easy and I’ll take the $2, um, for sharing their name with you.
Sonja: So for instance, my mic that I’m using, it’s not the best mic in the world by any means, but it was like 25 bucks. When people start off and they’re like, Buying $200 mics. I’m like you can, but
Sonja: you don’t have to I’m, you know, you guys know I’m all about starting with what you have and using the resources available to you, and you don’t have to go full scale to get started. And I’m especially saying that to you and looking at you all, who are my perfectionist. Um, who can’t [00:22:00] do you know who can’t get started without having everything just in place?
Sonja: I really encourage you to talk yourself through that if you need help, book a call with me to discuss coaching because that’s what I do. Stop letting your perfectionism keep you in procrastination mode, right? So very inexpensive mic, I used Descript to record and edit the episodes. I’ll leave an affiliate link for that, but you can click on the, learn more about it.
Sonja: It’s very inexpensive. I think we’re, I think it’s less than $20 per month for the software. It makes editing super, super easy. Especially if you know nothing about audio editing, you know, And you don’t want to fool with garage band or none of that kind of stuff because yeah, I can’t, I won’t, I don’t have time. I refuse.
Sonja: What else? Hello audio is what I use to push these episodes out to all the major platforms like apple, Spotify, et cetera. I love hello audio because also I [00:23:00] can just, if I don’t want to push it out to apple, I can literally just send you a link and you can listen to the episode directly from the link that I’m sending you.
Sonja: So I love hello, audio for that. That’s I think 17 bucks per month put an affiliate link in the bottom there, plus I will say hello audio has amazing customer service, a free Facebook group and the founder Lindsay Padilla is the founder.
Sonja: I know her husband also helped a lot with this. So I don’t, you know, I don’t want to be offensive and be like, oh, it’s female founded. I think it is, so great way to support independent business for sure and female owned businesses. If that’s something that’s important to you.
Sonja: Let’s see what else?
Sonja: That’s literally like my tech stack. Oh, Google docs, right? Google it’s free. Um, I use. Vimeo to kind of hold all of our recordings. And things like that. It’s like an extra storage, but you could also. Very easily. [00:24:00] Just be the kind of person who has an external hard drive that you use regularly. I’m not. So I just slide right over to. Vimeo and pay for storage that way.
Sonja: And yeah, I don’t know, but you all. I will definitely link everything in the show notes.
Sonja: So, not only is this the one-year anniversary of the Art Of Self Mastery mastery podcast. I was celebrating, I launched this podcast on my birthday, March 14th. And so I’m also in the process of celebrating a birthday, which I’m so, so grateful about.
Sonja: Especially this year, I have recently had some health challenges, if you’re part of the email community, the goals din you know about it, if you’re not make sure you head over there. You can join my email commmunity at sonjathompkins.com/email forward slash email.
Sonja: And in honor of [00:25:00] this one-year anniversary I am doing, I don’t know if I’ll call it a giveaway, but if you have just listened to this episode, you’ve enjoyed it, you’ve enjoyed just listening to the podcast and the episodes over the last year, I would love to reward one of you, this month with a free one-on-one coaching call with me. We can talk about anything that you want. This is not same as a consultation call for coaching. This is actually a coaching call with me. To win this 30 minute coaching session with me, all you need to do is leave a review and rate the podcast, take a screenshot of it. You can DM that screenshot of your star rating and your written review, you can DM me at @sonjathompkins on Instagram. You can also email that to me. At assist@sonjathompkins.com in the subject box put [00:26:00] podcast review. And I will select one lucky winner on March 31st to win a 30 minute no holds barred coaching session with me.
Sonja: So happy one year that’s how fun that celebrate. I’m going to give you gifts rate review and win a 30 minute. Ask me anything, get coached on anything. Call with yours. Truly. Thank you guys so much for being here. Not just today, but all year. And if you are new here, please go ahead and subscribe to the show, leave us a review and rate us share us anywhere and everywhere so that we can make more impact in the world. With this show
Sonja: see you next episode.