The Ultimate Blog Podcast - Build Your Blog with Podcasts with Christina Lenkowski

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

In this episode of The Ultimate Blog Podcast, we're sitting down with Christina Lenkowski, podcast publicity strategist and trainer. Christina shares how you can pitch yourself on podcasts to get in front of new audiences and build your blog. We know that getting behind the microphone can be intimidating, but Christina is here to share the benefits of guesting on podcasts, tips to get comfortable guesting, how to find and pitch yourself to the right podcasts, and what next steps you need to give podcast listeners when you do guest on a podcast. If you want to grow your blog in a fun, authentic way, you need to hear this episode!🔗Check out this week's show notes here!

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when we started blogging. I'm Amy Reinicki. I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips. We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice.

Our mission is to educate, support, inspire, and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. So in our community, we are getting the question a lot, how can I get in front of more people? Or how can I drive traffic to my blog? How can I gain some more readers? What are my current recommendations has been to get on podcasts? For bloggers who are used to

being behind a computer screen, I know that some of them are like, maybe I really don't like that suggestion, but you should do it. You should go on podcasts. And I'm so excited to share Christina Lincowski with you because she's going to tell you why you should. So you're not just going to hear it from me. You're going to hear it from Christina too about why going on podcasts can really help your blogging business in an age where things can feel a little unsteady with the normal, quote, unquote, normal things that we've been doing and maybe how doing something new like being a guest on a podcast could breathe some life into your blogging business. So Christina, welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Thank you. Thank you. I am so, so excited to be here with you ladies today. I was telling

them beforehand that I've listened to some episodes and I know that this is a great, great audience to get in front of and really chat about, like you said, how you can be using the power of your voice to get in front of even more people to talk about your blog, you know, to totally new audiences. So I'm really, really excited to dig into it today. Yay. We are excited too. Can you kind of just start out by sharing a little bit about what you do, who you serve? Absolutely.

So I get entrepreneurs, business owners, et cetera, booked onto podcasts that are full of their ideal audiences. So I always like to be very clear about that. We are very strategic in the work that we do. We are not just trying to get our clients booked on whatever podcasts we kind of stumble across or anything like that. It is really making sure that we're getting in front of the right audiences. And for me, this stems from being in PR and marketing for over 20 years at this point. So I have worked both in-house, you know, for PR, comms, teams, et cetera, and agencies,

PR agencies, marketing agencies, et cetera. And when I went off on my own and then eventually started this company, it was because I saw the power of podcasts. I saw what happened when both myself and clients started to guest on podcasts and just the amazing things that I did for their business. So those are the people that I serve, really anyone with an online based product, service,

business, et cetera, that is trying to reach new audiences, but again, the right audiences for that. So can you just talk about like why being on a podcast is so powerful? I think for a lot of bloggers listening, they're going to be like, what is being on a podcast have to do with my blog posts and the content that I'm creating every day? Yeah, great, great question. So how I really like to break it down for people is our marketing has three pillars, owned, earned, and paid. Okay? So owned is the stuff that you own. That's your blog, that's your social media. For Amy and Jen, that's their podcast, right?

It is the stuff that you have control over. And for most entrepreneurs, that is what they focus on. They focused on their owned marketing, their owned channels, okay? The other two ones are paid, which as you can imagine, in a great shock, is anything that you've paid for. So ads, an influencer campaign, perhaps some kind of sponsorship or partnership or something along

those lines, right? And then the last one is earned, and that is what publicity falls into, and that is where no money is exchanged, and you are going onto someone else's platform to provide value to their audience in exchange They are putting you in front of their people, right? I'm here on time with you guys about podcasts And now I'm gonna be put in front of you that are listening to this show, right?

So getting in front of potentially, you know thousands of ideal customers that wouldn't know about me otherwise So that is why it's so important to be doing publicity work. Okay. It is absolutely what gets you in front of new people on a regular basis, right? Having our own channels are great, but the thing about own channels is unless someone already knows who we are, what we're about, et cetera, they typically aren't going to necessarily come across our content. Now, that's a little bit different for the Google algorithm, et cetera, and stuff like that, but you know generally what I'm saying. Whereas when someone hears you on someone else's podcast, their favorite podcast or something like that, that's just, you've just kind

of broken their brain open for someone that does something they didn't even know existed, right? Something that they didn't know about before. So that is really why it's so important to be getting in front of new audiences. Now podcasts, to answer the other part of your question, are only one realm of publicity. This is TV, this is print, this is blog. If you do a guest blog on someone else's channel, something like that, that is absolutely publicity as well. But the beautiful thing about podcasts is that when you guest on someone else's podcast, you are literally just having a one on one conversation for a lot of

people. It is the or for me a two on one conversation, but you know what I'm saying right here on this one. But for most people, that is a really, really easy, fun way for them to be doing their marketing and their publicity, right? It is something that they can do simple. To me, it's the lowest barrier of entry of any kind of publicity because there are over a billion podcasts. There are so many places for you to be showing up.

And so that is why I believe in podcasts so, so much is just the knowledge that it's easy for anyone to gain entry to. And for a lot of people, it's a really authentic, fun way to be doing their marketing. I was just going to say that the authenticity behind it, because they, you're giving these people a chance to get to know who you are. Exactly. And hear your voice. So you're more than just, you know, the blogger who has really good recipes or the one who helps you, you know, book your next vacation. Like you become more human. I know that sounds a little silly, but like hearing their thoughts

and how they talk about things, you know, their sense of humor, if they have one, you know, like things like that. Or if they don't. Or if they don't. Yeah. But I think that that can help. But I know that there are people out there listening who are like, okay, this sounds like a really great idea. Thank you so much for sharing this, Christina. No, I am terrified because who am I? Maybe we're talking to a new blogger. Maybe we're talking to a blogger who's been doing this six months and they're just getting their content figured out and how to write it and all that.

And they're like, nope, I don't know if I can do this. So they have a little bit of that imposter syndrome that's sneaking in. Absolutely. What's your tip for that to like kind of bust through that barrier of imposter syndrome? Absolutely. I love this question. Thank you. Because you are right. There are people that are tuned in today that are like, never ever, ever am I doing that. Right. And I want you to shift your mindset around that. One thing that I said earlier, this isn't what my main thing

is going to be, but I think it's important to point out is this is a one-on-one conversation. You are not in front of a full audience of people. 99% of the time it's not live, right? Either. Meaning, you know, before we even hopped on, Amy in general, okay, remember if you stumble over something, if we'd lose track of words, we can always edit that out. Okay? And none of these podcast hosts are out to get you. Okay? You can absolutely be like, Hey, I said that wrong. Do you mind if we just start that again from the top? Right? It's all, all good. And also if you do stumble, by, I said that wrong. Do you mind if we just start that again from the top? Right. It's all, all good.

And also if you do stumble, by the way, no big deal. Right. I accidentally swear all the time on podcasts and you know, it is something that I truly do and it is something that unless they need to edit it out for their purposes, which is totally fine. I'm not offended by that in any way, But if they do, or if they don't, that just makes me more real, right? To people that are listening in that instance. But the thing that I really want to say about those of y'all that are really struggling, and by

the way, you are not alone. A lot of people struggle thinking about what it would be like to be on a podcast, is the question I really want you to ask yourself is, what is the worst that could happen? What is the worst thing that I think could happen by being on this podcast or by going on any podcast? And you might have a myriad of things that come up, okay, for you, right? We just talked about, you might feel like you're gonna stumble over your words,

you're gonna say something wrong. Okay, well, like I said, most of these, 99% of shows can be edited, you know, and stuff like that before they go out. People think that other people are gonna think that they're not the expert. Right. And what it is that they talk about. First of all, who cares? Who cares? Truly? You know that you are an expert. You know that you're someone that knows your stuff and you know what you're

talking about. So to me, just that's not even something I never hear someone on podcasts and I'm like, they don't know what they're talking about. That is like not a thought that even enters my mind really. Okay. So I want you to think about that. But the main thing, the main thing that I want you to take away from this is that I truly believe the worst that can happen is that you do not put yourself out there because your business, your blog, your entity will not grow unless you are getting

in front of new audiences regularly. And this is a great way to do that. So I, as a business owner, believe in a visibility KPI. So meaning once a week, I am getting in front of a new audience. This doesn't have to be yours. Maybe yours is once every two weeks. And this is an average. Okay.

So like this week, for instance, I have multiple podcast interviews I'm doing. Great. Next week, none. Right. So like, realize that this is a little bit of an average that we have going on here, but I want you to be thinking about getting in front of someone to talk about your business at least two times a month. If you're starting out, two times a month is a great place.

Now you could be on podcasts, that's wonderful. That's a great way to do it. But this could also be attending an event. This could also be having a coffee date one-on-one with someone talking about your business. It doesn't have to be, you know, this, that, or the other. But we have to be getting our business out there in front of new people regularly,

or our business won't grow. I see it time and time again, people come to me and they stalled out at a certain place in their business because they have not put themselves out there. Yeah. And I like how you said, the worst thing that's going to happen is if you don't even try because at the end of the day, it's just, it's just one podcast to start there, see how it goes. And quite honestly, the more you do,

the more comfortable you're going to get. It's a muscle. It's a muscle. 100% it's a muscle. You're exactly right. And by the way, we all sweat and stumble through our first few interviews. Okay. Like if I looked back at my first interviews, I'd be like, oh my God. You know what I mean?

So like, it is, it is all good. You know, your message is going to evolve over time too. The things you're talking about are going to evolve over time also. Right. So it is a matter of just getting out there. And I would say, you know, kind of a tip along that line is go beyond a friend's podcast, go beyond someone's podcast for like your first one, your first couple, because then you won't be as nervous. And when you do sweat and stumble, et cetera, it's not necessarily one that maybe is full of your ideal audience. You know what I mean yet? You can kind of get some of those, the tech jitters out and kind of some of these other jitters out before you start to go on some other shows.

Yeah. Oh yeah. And you talked about refining your message as you go. So let's back up there. If I'm sitting here like, okay, yep, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go on a podcast. I'm a food blogger or I'm a lifestyle blogger or a craft blogger. Okay, what am I going to talk about? How do you start to brainstorm some ideas of things that you can offer to people's audiences? Absolutely. One of the biggest things I teach on is the power of having very effective topics, right? And so we can get into that a little bit more. But when it comes to your general

message, what you really want to think about is what is the message of your blog? What is it that you're trying to do, you know, out there is your main goal that you are trying to make it so that just to go off a couple of your of your examples here, you know, so that you can be providing healthy, nutritious meals for your family each week, right? Is it so that you can be traveling to a luxury destination with your family for under $5,000, right? Whatever it is that you kind of specifically focus on and what your thing is, that's going to be that main message. With that being said, you are not going to necessarily go on a show and be like, here's my main message. You know what I mean?

It is more that that is what you are ultimately kind of working towards. Like my whole main message in my business is to help people go from best kept secret to go to expert through the power of their voice, right? The power of being other people's podcast. I don't go on a show and say that, but that is what that main message is, right? So what I'm doing is when I come and I have my topics, they're all relating to that general thing, right? So you want to get really specific with the topics that you bring to a podcast

so it's when you pitch yourself to a show. Okay. So one mistake that I think people make is they'll just pitch a show. And I guarantee to you, Jen and Amy had examples of so many pitches they've received of people that are like, well, I'm an expert in this, so I'm happy to come on your show and you tell me what it is you want to talk about, right? Or maybe they bullet out a couple of things that they could do and you

are making it harder for that host. Okay. They have to then think about what they're going to talk about with you, what exactly you guys are going to go into. I mean, do you want, they're nodding their heads? I know for those of you that might not see it, but do you have that? Has that happened to you quite often where people are just like, they kind of expect you as the host to come up with what you might talk about. Yes, that happens.

Yes. And and when you don't know who is you don't really know. I don't know them when they're. Yeah. So I'm the one who generally fields those emails. So when I open an email like that, for instance, and they're like, this is what I do. So let's we'll use us as an example. If I just pitched us like, hey, we're blog coaches and we teach people how to blog. It feels a little bit like crickets,

but if I sent them like some, hey, these are three topics that are really good, then that gets my wheels turning a lot quicker versus it being very broad and just not really understanding. You've almost kind of, honestly, what you've kind of done by like sending a more personalized pitch is you've kind of probably eliminated I would say at least two emails between the two people going back and forth trying to figure out, okay, I actually think you'd be

a good guest. And then now what are we going to talk about? Yeah, I love that. It, it may, so it takes me back to my long time ago, journalism days at Oregon state university where we were taught, make it as easy to get to the S as possible, make it as easy to get to the S as possible. And you do that by coming with really solid topics. And by the way, y'all, I'll tell you right now, if you're doing this on your own and kind of just getting started, throw that and chat GPT, throw what it is your, you know, throw what it is that you talk about your main messages, et cetera. Be like, throw 10 topics that I can talk about on

podcasts, see what list comes up there and then expand from there. I'm not saying copy and paste it from charging because we all going to know it's Chad GPT. You know when you get an email from Chad GPT, you're like, okay, yes, we all know you put this in Chad GPT and then copy and paste it in here, okay. But I am not against using it as a place for inspiration. Right, have it give you some ideas for you to go like, oh, that could be something really cool. Okay, let me think about how I might angle that a little bit

and have it for these hosts. And what I like to say is I always, for any of our clients, we have a full pitch template ready. So that means 90% of our pitch is done. It just comes to when we send out our pitches, we're then personalizing it from there. Why do we think this particular show

is a great show for our audience? What is something that we loved about it? And then what are the two, three, four topics from that template that I can tailor to this exact host. Right. So I'm not recreating the wheel every time we go to host or go to pitch, excuse me. And I think that's very important. Like, I think a lot of people think it's like a newspaper when it comes to pitching.

I guess you'd have a scoop, right? Or this has to be a super exclusive, you know, something that I'm talking about. And that is what we actually don't want on podcasts. We want you to be talking about basically the same thing. You know, you might talk about it in different ways, but generally the same thing over and over and over again, because most people aren't listening to you on two different podcasts, they're hearing you on one podcast, right? I actually had a client yesterday we were having a call and she was like, I just feel like I'm saying the same

thing like over and over again on all these shows. And I was like, great. You know, but that was like an absolute like mindset shift she had to have because I was like, someone's hearing you on this show. They're not hearing you on this show. Right? So like, if you are talking about the same stuff, that's what we want. We want that messaging to be really clear and strong and you to feel really comfortable talking about it. So that's why I say that having these really solid

topic ideas and having, let's say four or five of them and then you change the two or three you wanna pitch and kind of customize it to that host, it's gonna make your life a lot easier to do it in that way. But again, make it as easy as possible to get to the yes, be specific. The host can always say, hey, I really like this topic,

but what if we tweak it a little bit to this? I love that you said that because I was just thinking about the guest that we interviewed earlier today, who it was from a pitch. So I'm gonna put that out there right now. We get pitched often, and I don't like ignore those emails. I genuinely read the emails.

I go look at your website. I see if this is actually a good fit and I will be very honest if I think yes or no. So if you are listening today and you're like, okay, I think I wanna go on the ultimate blog podcast and talk about it, send us an email. It's sparkmediaconcepts, Casey at gmail.com. Pitch us. And I want you to come at us with three different ideas,

just like Christina is talking about. But to get your blog out there like right now, we are in a season of we really want to show people how to gain their traffic, but grow their traffic in a way that then can boost their revenue. That's really the goal. We want to help people make money blogging. And so, but the guest back to my original story, the guest that we had on earlier, what she initially had pitched, I didn't align with. But when I went to her site, I was like, but I want her on our show.

Like, I want her on here. I want to be able to talk to her. And so we did kind of go back and forth. What about this instead? Just like you just said. So just because you're giving them those three to four ideas doesn't mean that like nail in the coffin if it doesn't work. I mean, most podcast hosts want guests. We love to have guests like booked out. I don't like to be scrambling for a guest. That is not my idea of fun. And so having those people like kind of banked up is awesome and having a resource I can go to. So if somebody pitches me,

I would like to try to see if it can work. If we can get in alignment some way that we think it's gonna be beneficial for our podcast, but also for them. Because we've also had people who have pitched us who do very similar work and it just doesn't make sense to have them on our podcast. Like, when we have a product that we're promoting, just truth be told, we're probably not going

to like have another blog coach on here who's selling a membership because that's what we do. And so it just doesn't make sense to do that. But I love that you're telling them to come with a pitch. Don't be afraid to pitch. If anything, people that were just listening to this, by the way, that was her saying, do it. Get out there, send them pitches.

And by the way, you already have an upper hand because you listen to the show all the time. So you are going to have a real good insight into what it is they like to talk about, who the guests are that they have on. You just heard her say, we're really trying to talk about traffic that leads to revenue. Okay. So what topics do you have that can fall in line with that? You know what I mean? That is amazing. And that is something that should be inspiring all y'all to be writing out some pitches today and be getting them over to them, et cetera, to get booked on the show and get started with this process and see what it can do in your business.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Help us book our 2025 calendar. I got AMP. I got AMP for everybody right there when you said that. When you gave the email, I was like, she's doing it. Like she's going in, she's getting in there.

I love it. I love it. I give them all permission. And sometimes I think that's what we need she's doing it. Like she's going in, she's getting in there. I love it. I love it. I gave them all permission. And sometimes I think that's what we need. That we just need it. You need that permission because back to that imposter syndrome, who am I? Like, why would they want to talk to me? Exactly. At the end of the day, we're just like two girls blogging.

I guess we're women. We're two women blogging. We're women. And so we're doing the thing just like two girls blogging. I guess we're women. We're two women blogging. We're women. And so we're doing the thing just like you are. And we just decided to help other people do it. We just decided to have a podcast probably because I like to talk. I don't know. And there's, by the way, you don't need a better reason than that. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Hey, Ultimate Blog Podcast listeners.

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You can start today and turn your blogging dreams into reality. That's theultimateblogpodcast.com slash success. It's time to redefine success and make your blog shine. If you're a blogger or thinking about starting a blog, let's talk about something crucial, email marketing. It's the backbone of building a loyal audience and growing your business. And that's where Kit comes in. Kit has been the top choice for bloggers for many years who want to connect with their

readers and turn casual visitors into dedicated followers. It has a user-friendly design, powerful automation tools, and seamless integrations, making it perfect for bloggers at any stage. Why do we here at the Ultimate Blog Podcast recommend Kit? Because it makes email marketing easy. So when a blogger is thinking about that business, it's important to know that you're not just a blogger, but you're also a blogger. So, if you're a blogger, you're not just a blogger, you're also a blogger. So, if you're a blogger, you're not just a blogger,

you're also a blogger. So, if you're a blogger, you're also a blogger. So, if you're a blogger, you're also a blogger. So today. So when a blogger is thinking about that besides listening to this podcast and me just giving out our email, how can a blogger find podcasts that are going to be in alignment with their niche? Do they just go to the podcast app on their phone and just start scrolling? Or what are some tips that you have for them to kind of find somebody that might be in

their niche and in good alignment with them? Yeah, I love this question. So first of all, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give two suggestions. Okay. And the first one is a real easy thing that I want every single one of you that are listening to do today. And that is I want you to put on your stories, you know, your Instagram stories, put it on LinkedIn, put it in your newsletter, you know, as a PS, whatever. I want you to ask your audience what podcasts they currently listen to. Okay. And you don't need to get specific. Like I'm looking for, you know, you could, you could like maybe a week from now you're like, Hey, I'm looking for, you know, you could, you could like maybe a week from now, you're like, Hey,

I'm looking for actually like food specific ones you listen to right. And then maybe, you know, a couple weeks later, you ask about another avenue, right, etc. But this is a really, really great way to find new audiences or new podcasts, excuse me, that's a really, really easy, low hanging group to do. I like to do this multiple times a year, just to see what people come back to me with. I will always discover a new podcast that way.

So it's a really, really easy, easy way to do that. And it's something you should be doing now. Okay, like something just get out there, see what people have to say, et cetera. See if any of those would be good fits for you to be on. The other thing I want you to do is I want you to go into your player. Now I'm gonna use this as an example on Apple Podcasts, because that's my preferred player

that I listen to shows in. So what I'm going to do is I would be, I call this my podcast piggyback method. So I would put the name of someone who has a similar audience to me. So perhaps let's say you're a travel blogger. There's another travel blogger that you know of, and you could do this with more than one person, but let's we'll start with one. Think of a person that has a similar audience to you. It doesn't mean that they're necessarily a competitor. You know, that's, that's not necessarily what it means. It just means that you guys have the same audience, although they could be.

You put that in and you see what shows they have been on. Okay. And then I want you to go and look at those shows. If those shows seem like they could be good fits for you, absolutely, you can be pitching them. Okay, so don't don't feel Oh, that person was already on the show. They're not gonna want me on no just come with different topics. Okay, that's all I want you to do just come with different topics. But secondarily, what I want you to do is scroll down to

the bottom of some of those shows that look like they could be good fits for you. And you're going to see a section called people who listen to this show also like, or shows that are like this, right? Et cetera. And that's where you really start to look at those shows. Go down a rabbit hole. I'll tell you right now, I have to set a timer for myself when I do this,

because I will spend hours looking at shows, but get a list of five, six, 10 shows that come out of your work from doing that. And that is a great, great place to start pitching. Right? So make sure they're current, make sure they accept guests, and then make sure that it is the audience that you want to get in front of. And one thing to tell you is I think a lot of people have to also have this shift is let's say you're a food blogger. I don't want you getting in front of other food bloggers. Okay.

That's, that's not what we're doing. Okay. That's not it. All right. When it comes to making you money. All right. What I want you to do is be getting in front of whoever that audience is. You want to get in front of is that busy moms?

Is that families? Is that health coaches and people in the health world? Right. That's who I want you to get in front of. You are not looking to get in front of your peers. All right. You can do it. I mean, you can. I'm not here to say you can't, you know, that it's all good. It's not like that's a bad thing. But when it comes to we're talking about how you make money and how you make more revenue and how you get more people to your site, that is getting in front of audiences that can use your service, your product, your blog, et cetera, that don't

already have a million options at their fingertips, right? Someone that doesn't see you as a competitor. These are people that want to learn from you. And I think that's a really important thing to keep in mind. An example of this is we have a client who is a fiction book, like author coach. So she helps people get their first fiction novel out of their head and published. Right. So that's like her thing that she does. She's not trying

to get in front of other author coaches. She's not even trying to get in front of other authors, who she's trying to get in front of our doctors, lawyers, therapists, people that have had ideas in their head for a really long time with no creative outlet to know how to do that. And she comes on these shows and she's talking to them about, I know you have an idea. I know you have something that's been in your head for years, but you have had no opportunity to be creative in the work that you do. You work really hard, et cetera, et cetera. And those become her best clients because they

are like, yes, that is what I needed to hear. And I didn't know that someone could even help me with that or do that. And now this is the person that I'm going to go to for this help and this coaching, et cetera. So I wanted to give that example. That's not probably who a lot of people think she would get in front of.

But that is who makes money. That is who becomes clients for her. That is just really opened up my mind to make me think about this in a way that I haven't before. It's kind of fuzzy in there, but like, you know, it's important, you know, it'd be great. But OK, but how do I actually do it? So I truly appreciate like the really specific actionable tips you gave for starting to get those wheels turning and for getting those ideas. I think anybody listening right now should feel like excited. Hey, I can at least, you know, pitch myself on one or two podcasts. And absolutely. Yeah, I think

that the next thing I would want to know is, okay, say I actually get on there. I managed to get through the interview. You get the yes. I know. Yes, I did that part. Now, how am I capturing these people? Obviously, they're hearing about me, but what's next? How do I stay in touch with them? How do I get them to not just turn it off and be like, oh, that was great. And then forget about it. Absolutely. I love this question. So what's going to happen at the end of this interview is that Jen and Amy are going to say, now, Christina, how can people find out more about

you? Okay. And that I'm just letting you all know. We all know that's what's going to happen at the end. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's happening. Okay. Get ready. Get your pens ready. And they're asking that because this is my opportunity to say, hey, this is how you can connect with me. This is how you can find out more about me. And so what Jen's saying essentially they're asking is like, how do we make sure we have something there that people are going to come to? Because the thing is, y'all are bloggers. You have a blog that you can send people to, that's great. But what we really want is for them to get on your email list.

What we really want is for them to be following you on social, right? What we really want is some way that we can see what this blog or this, I'm sorry, podcast work has been doing, right? And see the leads that are coming in through that way. So the thing that I really recommend for our clients, and I would recommend for anybody here,

is have a single landing page that is where you direct all podcasts that you are on, okay? This makes it really, really easy for you to be able to be like, okay, it's gonna be, you know, publicity by Christina, backslash podcasts, right? Something like that, that I am gonna say at the end, by the way, that's not what I'm gonna say at the the end of that. So don't go to that. But that's just an example here. That would have been smart of me to just use my actual CD, but

I did. So, but this, this is a really great way to do it. Like backslash podcast, backslash gift, something like that. That's really, really easy for you to remember. And on that page, you're going to have something that they can get, okay? So something that they can get for free, all right? Now that can be whatever. So that might be like a PDF download. Maybe it's an email series that you have.

Maybe it's a private podcast. Hot tip, that's what I'm gonna send you all to, okay? So there's different things that you can have there based on what makes sense for your audience. And you don't necessarily have to overthink this. You can have one, you can have two different options for people, you know, maybe it's a meal kit, maybe it's some, you know, something else there, right. But we just want to be capturing their email in that way. On that page. I also like to have all my social info. Okay. So here's how you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Here's how you can connect with me on Instagram, right?

So making it so that they can do that as well, because some people, they aren't ready to commit to your email list, all right? There are people that are either gonna hear you, they're gonna love you and everything, but they're gonna be like, nah, I don't know about being on the email list though, right?

Like they're gonna take a beat. And so that is a great, great time to still have your socials on there so you can capture them in that way and they can still become a part of your world. Now, if you have a service or something like that that you offer as well, this is a great place to also have like book a discovery call apply, right?

Et cetera. I always like to have, if this is a part of your business, I always like to have a, are you ready to work with me? Here we go. Like I was talking about those doctors, lawyers, etc. with our client, the fiction book author, she just has them go straight to an application. She doesn't have a freebie. She doesn't nurture them into anything. They are people that want to do it. They're ready. They're like, boom, okay, filled out your app. Okay, now let's hop on a call, you know? So be ready for people in all scenarios. You know what I mean?

Like people that are ready to go, people that wanna join your email list, and then people that wanna have social. But it's so nice to have this one page because A, you don't have to stumble at the end of your interviews to know where you're gonna send people. You're like, I got a phone spot.

I know where I'm gonna send them. It's just one easy URL. Secondarily that, that link is never going to be broken. And I think that this is a really, really important thing to point out. So some people try to have a special link for each podcast they're on, or maybe they do something that's really time specific, like an event, or they have a launch or something like that. And I do not recommend it because there are people that are going to hear that podcast six months down the road, a year down the road. By the

way, I was also doing a podcast the other day that was three years old. Okay. I didn't care. Still relevant. You know what I mean? Like it was still a great podcast, but that happens all the time. So you want to make sure that that link that you have that you're sending people to is going to be active. Now you can switch up the free beams. You can switch up anything you want on that page, all right? But the thing is, is that link is always going to be there. There's always going to be a way for someone to connect with you. So anyways, that is a really, really great way is just to make sure you have

this really clear call to action and make sure that that's going to be a link that's easy to remember and also one that's going to always be active on your on your site. Yep. Yep. We did some work with Matt Mullen this summer to kind of dive into that about using our podcast to grow our email list. So I'm really glad you said that because when we intentionally started doing that, it was it's been a little crazy to watch our email subscribers grow. I love that. Yes.

Yeah. It wasn't until he was kind of like, well, how are you doing? How are you getting these listeners onto your email list? And I'm like, wow, I'm not sure. Yeah. Hopefully they're coming. And it took some intentionality to sit down and like really think through that process. But we want you guys who are listening to be more than just listeners.

Like we want you to be part of the community. We want you to be engaged. And so how can you get people to do that? And that's the ask. The ask is an invitation into whatever you are sharing into your community. If they clicked play, there's a hint of interest in whatever it is. If there's not there, they're gonna leave the podcast episode within five minutes.

So they're not even gonna get to the pitch of you getting on their email list, you know? So like think about that. What are you offering? And I think that we can really overcomplicate that. It doesn't need to be complicated. Like you said, it's just a simple ask because people don't need the whole shebang.

Nope, they don't. And quite frankly, they don't they don't want it. They don't. It's gonna overwhelm them. It's gonna overwhelm them. You know, if you're like, hey, here's 14 different ways that we can work together at the end of your thing, people are gonna be like, what like they're not even gonna then listen to one, right? You know what I mean? So having that one place to send them just simplifies the process for you and for them as well. I think one of the question I have, how important is it to have a podcast yourself? I mean,

I love our podcast and I love vlogging and so I feel like they are two very easy things. our podcast and I love vlogging and so I feel like they are two very easy things. Hold on. Okay, I was going to say hold on. They're not easy things. Let me make sure I make that very clear. But married together, they work really well. Yeah, absolutely. It has been our journey.

What is your thing on that? What if somebody's like, there's no way there can be a podcast. I'm going to use Jennifer as an example. Like she has a slow cooker website. I use Jennifer as an example all the time. Like she has a slow cooker website. Like I'm not really sure what a slow cooker podcast would be like. You know what I mean? So is there still something to offer even though she's not a podcast host herself? So like she doesn't have a podcast that's about slow cookers, for instance. So like, is there a benefit for Jennifer to go on podcasts, even if she's not a podcast host and has her own podcast, can she still go out there

and be on other podcasts? I don't have a podcast. 90% of our clients don't have podcasts. It is not of our clients don't have podcasts. It is not in any way a requirement for you to be a guest on shows to have a podcast. And that's not to say that me or our clients don't believe in the power of podcasts. We absolutely do. It is just that, and I know that Jennifer and Amy can tell you this, it's a lot of work. It is a lot of work to have a podcast and you need to be committed to it. And so for a lot of our clients, they podcast, and you need to be committed to it. And so for a lot of our clients, they are busy business owners, and for them, they just want to guest. They want to go on other people's shows, they want to show up, they want to have an amazing

conversation, amazing connection with that host, get in front of new audiences. That's one thing I'm going to point out real briefly about that as well. And they are just not interested in having their own show. So it is not something that you have to have. Okay, so I want to make that very, very clear. It is a wonderful thing if you do have it. If you already have it like that's fantastic. That's great. But I always like to make sure it's very clear. It's not something you have to have to be guessing. And I think that a key

difference for me that I ask people a lot when they come to me and they say, Well And I think that a key difference for me that I ask people a lot when they come to me and they say, well, should I start a podcast first or should I guest first? And my big question for that is always, what's your end goal? If your end goal is that you are trying to build your brand and your brand ecosystem, then have your own podcast. You feel that you're getting enough traffic that can be coming to your website, coming to your brand, et cetera, as it is, then that is a great, great thing to do there.

If your goal is getting in front of new people, then guest on other people's podcasts. So it's really all about kind of what that end goal is there. I think that's great advice also for somebody who's not quite sure if they would like to podcast or not. A really great way to just dip your toe in the water is to guest and just see, do I like this or do I not? Because it is a lot of work and I wish I knew the exact statistic, but like a lot of podcasts don't even make it to seven or seven to ten podcast episodes. Like several don't. I think you're like in the top 10% if you make it past like episode like nine or something

crazy like that. It's some very simple statistic that you're like, really? But I think podcasting, like blogging, it's kind of a slow burn. It takes a while. There's a lot of people in that game. And so asking yourself, is this something I want to do? Being a guest on a podcast is a really easy way to just ask yourself, do I like this? I mean, you might actually hate it.

You might not like this at all, or you might be like, I absolutely love this. I know that I guested on a couple before we started our podcast. And I mean, I was so excited. But I knew also that there were things that we weren't going to be able to do unless we had help and because of the time commitment. But when you're a guest, a lot of times what that kind of looks like, I'll just kind of give you like, what does it look like to be a guest on a podcast? Just from our perspective, generally, there's some emails going back and forth about what are we going to talk about? You book the interview, you fill out a form, you show up the day of, you do the recording,

and then the morning of the podcast episode, you get our marketing materials that we put out and that's quote unquote, that's it. You know, it's a pretty simple way to get yourself out there. It's a pretty simple way to introduce yourself to an audience that you may not otherwise be in front of, especially as a blogger, because people consume content in very different ways. So let's say that you talk about how to teach a kid to read. You might have a blog that you're sharing about that on, but then

you can also connect with the mom who doesn't have any time to read a blog, but she does have time to listen to a podcast. You're going to be able to help her in that way. And from then, she might learn so much from you in this podcast episode, but then she actually is like, I'm going to make time to actually open that email because they provided really valuable information about something that I want to learn how to do. So it's so diverse in the way that people can see the content. And I think the example you just gave, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I just want to put a pin in what you just said, which I think is how so many of us are.

I listen to podcasts when I'm driving, okay? So like when I'm taking my child to school, I am listening to podcasts, but at night I'm reading stuff on my phone, right? And so I think what you just said is like so true of like how something like that would work, right? Like I hear it in that way, and then later I'm gonna be in my more reading mode or like when I have

the time to be doing that type of stuff. So I just want to point out like that is a very natural progression of the day for a lot of people out there. Yeah. I need to have my little screen with the big screen in the background. Yeah. All the screens. Yeah. All the screens. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I the screens. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I think as bloggers, once we can kind of get past that limiting belief like who am I to do this and why would anybody listen to me? I'd just like to remind you, you might have had some of those feelings when you started

your blog too and looking here today doing it and pushing past that. And being a guest on a podcast is just a new way to kind of strengthen a new muscle that maybe when you started blogging, you didn't know that you were going to do. And it might be something that you really enjoy in a way to connect with people in a different way and alongside, hopefully grow some traffic to your site. So Christina, I am so glad you pitched us.

I'm so glad you pitched us. I'm so glad you emailed so we could have this important conversation because that's definitely one that we've been having. Exactly. It's a great one. And you know, when me and my team are doing our pitching, because that's what happens. You were pitched by one of our publicists, right? And I think it is so important to just know, do the research, know what the, know what the show is about. And that is something that really pride ourselves on it. Publicity by Christina is like making sure that when we send that pitch,

that connection is there and it's authentic. It's real in this world of AI here. I am telling you to use chat GPT to come up with topic, but in this world of AI, people really do crave what's authentic. Right. And that is what, that is why your blogs do so well. And that is exactly why going on a podcast is going to do so well too, is people are going to hear the real you. And that's so important.

Well, I know that there's going to be bloggers who want to know, okay, what do I do? I want to learn more, Christina. So can you please tell them? We told you it was coming. It's here. It's here now. I mean, you already knew, you already knew. Yeah. So Christina, can you please let them know where they can connect with you? Absolutely.

So I have a really fun interactive quiz I like to send people to. It's at podcastpublicityquiz.com. I love a good vanity URL. That's also a hot tip I have for you. But that quiz will let you know potentially if you want to work together, what of our services a hot tip I have for you, but that quiz will let you know potentially if you want to work together, what of our services might make the most sense for you, whether that's more of a DIY maybe, or maybe that's more of our done for you

service that we have to offer there. And then you can always find me on Instagram at publicity X Christina, which is publicity by Christina. I thought I was very clever. It's been the bane of my existence ever since. But that is where it is. Come find me. Come tell me you heard me. Seriously, send me a message.

Let me know you heard me on the show. I love when I get those messages and hearing people that they're really excited to go out and start pitching. It makes my whole day. Yes. Yes. I hope that you go out and pitch and I'm just going to plug us one more time. If you are a blogger who feels like you have something that you can share here on the Ultimate Blog Podcast, email us at sparkmediaconceptskc at gmail.com

and pitch us. We'd love to know your idea and connect with you in a different way. And Christina, thank you for giving them the courage to do that and the tools that they might need in order to send an email to us and to others. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you. And I cannot wait to hear episodes where some of your people that we're listening to today, it's you and I seriously can't, it's going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. So I think it's great that you gave them the courage to be like, please do we really will look at this and we really will do it. So yeah, I'm just, I'm excited for that.

Awesome. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thanks for listening to the ultimate blog podcast. If you'd like to learn more about building your blog, visit the ultimate blog podcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next time.