Influential Introvert: Communication Coaching for Professionals with Performance Anxiety - Going Global: How to Speak to an International Podcast Audience

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

After you’ve been podcasting for a few months, you’re going to start attracting a global audience.   How you communicate with them can make or break your relationship, and on Podcasting Step by StepI talk about the three things you need to do to nurture a show that grows beyond your borders. *** Live Online Training: Podcast Interview Perfection    Does this sound like you?   You started your podcast to show up as a leader, but now you worry your interviews make you look like an awkward robot.    Breaking the ice with online guests you’ve never met feels forced.   Your conversations sound like job interviews. The kind that make people nervous.   If you feel sick before an interview and pray the guest cancels last-minute so you don’t have to do it, congratulations on being a totally normal human being.    Most of us aren’t born with amazing interview capabilities. It’s a skill we learn.   And developing your interview skills is essential if you want your podcast to portray you as both an expert in your field, and as someone your listeners want to work with.   May I offer you a shortcut to dramatically improve your podcast interview skills?   You are invited to a live online training Podcast Interview Perfection.    In this training, you will learn how to:   show up like a leader during the interview and guide the conversation so your audience gets the most out of it find your ideal podcast guests and get them to say ‘yes’ to coming on your show set up your podcast guest booking system come up with great questions and outline a show that deliver the most value for your audience prevent podcast guest no-shows break the ice with your guest and begin the interview in a fun way that puts your guest at ease record remote interviews that sound great (all the tech simplified) interview with confidence even if you’re a rookie get your guest to promote their episode and more!   After the training, you’ll have the opportunity to ask any interview questions you want. You’ll also have the opportunity to submit questions before the training so that they can be incorporated into the workshop.   Grab your spot at sarahmikutel.com/podcastinterviewperfection  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

After you've been podcasting for a few months, you're going to start attracting a global audience. And how you communicate with them is going to make or break your relationship. And in this episode, I will talk about the three things that you need to do to nurture a show that grows beyond your borders. Have you been wanting to start a podcast for a while now, but something's holding you back? Maybe it's fear of putting yourself out there or confusion about the technology. I'm Sarah Mikital and on podcasting step by step, I'll break. down how to podcast with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and the confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams. Let's get started. At my last corporate job

in London, I was chatting to this guy, this other American guy. It was around Super Bowl time, and you can find some bars in England that will play the Super Bowl. And so he was telling me that before the game, he went to the grocery store and tried to find cilantro because he wanted to make salsa and guacamole for his little party. And he was like, I couldn't find it anywhere. And I said, oh, well, that's because they don't call it cilantro. They call it coriander. And I had the same issues when I first moved to England as a proper adult. I did study abroad and had a flat there back in the day, but I was just student shopping, you know, like pasta and stuff. I wasn't properly cooking for myself. But as in adult, when I moved back to London, I was cooking for myself. And I

remember being totally confused in the grocery store where the zucchini was called courgette and the eggplant was called aubergine. And yeah, nothing was where I thought it was going to be. Even when we speak the same language, different countries have different words, different customs, different holidays. So we can't assume that our audience is the same as us. And sometimes it's quite easy to fall into that routine. For example, I could say, I hope that you are enjoying these final days of summer. Australians really hate this when you talk about it being peak summer, when it is winter where they are.

Now, you might be thinking, hmm, I thought I'm supposed to be speaking to one specific person on my show. And my ideal listener is a 30-year-old American. mechanic named Mike. And yes, it's great that you have your ideal listener and customer in mind when you're creating content that is very specific to his wants and needs. But you can make small tweaks to your language to be more inclusive. For example, if you're celebrating a holiday, you could say, happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating or Merry Christmas if you're celebrating. I hope that you are enjoying these final days of summer if that's the season where you are. A few months ago, I was listening to a podcast that was based in New York City.

I say a few months ago. Maybe this was last year. I can no longer remember. But I'm not listening to this podcast anymore. And I will tell you why. It was an interesting podcast about this woman who hadn't dated in a really long time. And so her friend was trying to, I guess, not be her wingman, but was her sounding board after all of these different tinder dates she was going on. And it's not the type of show that I normally listen to.

but anyway, I fell into it and started listening. And it was like entertaining for a while. But New York podcasters especially have the tendency to act like the world is centered around New York. And there's lots of insider references like barcade, like which bars you're going to, assuming the rest of the world knows what you're talking about. And it's really helpful if you can give some context to your listeners. So they feel like they're more part of their show. but the reason I'm not listening to that specific podcast anymore is I just felt like they were snarky for no reason and it really turned me off. But one comment in particular, they slagged off

Ohio for no reason at all. They made some joke about people from Ohio. I can't even remember what it was. But it was so derogatory. U-BU on your podcast. I don't want to tell you to change what your personality is, but it was a complete throwaway comment that didn't add to the show. It didn't really mean anything. All it did was offend any listeners that they had in Ohio. I just felt kind of offended on their behalf. It was just a poor editorial decision, I think, to leave that in. And when I lived in New York City, I'm sure that I did some of these things as well. And quite frankly, I think I did think that the world revolved around New York City when I lived there. But now I'm outside of that bubble. And I think that just giving some acknowledgement that not

everyone is experiencing the world as you are is very appreciated. So words matter. The other day, I was in like this small business Facebook group and I used the word alma mater for something. I forgot what I was talking about, but something related to my alma mater, and somebody said, what's an alma mater? And I just thought that was the most common language. So anyway, I explained that it was where I went to university, but I didn't realize that. That was not language that this group, like most of the people in it, are from the UK. And so let's just think about the words that we're using. And it can be really fun as well to, you know, show some color about where you're. You know, you are. I grew up in New England and we call grinders grinders. You might call them Subway sandwiches or

heroes or I think po-boy is that like a grinder term. Anyway, we call grinders grinders. And so bring in some discussion about these different regionalisms about where you are. And then also bring in some diversity of your guests, not just race and gender, but think of people outside of your country's borders. So consider giving your podcast a more global perspective and a richer experience for your listeners. And I will be going into a lot more depth on guest outreach during my podcast interview workshop next week. That's Tuesday. It's a live session and I would love to see you there and be able to answer all of your interview questions as I take you through the training of how to like 10x your podcast interviewing ability. You can go to sarahmicatel.com

slash podcast interview perfection to learn more about that. So to sum up today's episode on connecting to your global community. One, tweak your language to speak to a global audience. Two, don't isolate your listeners with throwaway disses that don't add any value to your show. And three, think about your word choice. Does the words you use make sense to people? Can you explain regionalisms more? And can you add more diversity to your podcast guest lists? All right. Can I can I just say once more how amazing podcasting is for international reach. I mean, you are connecting with people around the world and I just think that is so wild and beautiful and just podcasting for world peace. And if you don't have a global audience yet, you will, if you are listening

to this podcast and implementing what you are learning, you will definitely grow your show and find listeners from all over the place. And make sure that when they discover you, they feel welcomed when they start listening to your show. All right, that's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Thank you for listening to podcasting step by step. You are now one step closer to launching that podcast you've been dreaming about, but I want to get you even closer. I created a free guidebook for you with actionable worksheets called eight mistakes new podcasters make and how to fix them. To find that, head on over to sarahmicatel.com slash fix. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot?

I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarah micotel.com slash blank no more.