Live Q&A! Follow-Up, Conversion, Podcast Growth Hacks, & Systems

Hey FRIENDS!

I have a fun one for ya today! We are doing a live Q&A session and my students had some amazing questions that were begging to be shared. We talked about how to follow up effectively, how to convert your leads into sales, podcast growth hacks, how to set up systems… and MORE!

I know you’ll love this juicy Q&A sesh. Lots of training, tacticals, and a little laughter.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:01):

Hey friends in today’s episode, I’m sharing with you a live Q&A that went down and my student community last week, this is one of the number one benefits of being a Stef Gass student is that you have access to my live Q and a power coaching once a month. So in today’s session, we had amazing questions like how to grow your podcast when you’ve already done all of the things.

(00:26):

I had some girls ask a few personal questions as well, which I totally kept in just for your listening pleasure. We had people ask about visibility conquering your fears, how to organize your coaching clients. I’m just thinking there were so many amazing questions that were covered. So basically if you have an online business, you want to have an online business, you have a podcast, or you want to have a podcast.

(00:50):

You have a course, or you want one. This is the episode for you. I know you’re going to love it. And two quick things, number one, if you’re just starting out and you’re new around here, what’s up girl. I’m so excited that you are here. I want to be sure that you’re part of our community. Okay? And you can join our Facebook community at Bit.ly/successsupportgroup.

(01:16):

And I have a free gift for you as well, which is my four steps to clarifying your calling workshop totally free. And it goes through four steps to help you uncover your purpose, know what it is that God created you to do. So you can begin to walk out your thing. You can know with certainty, what you do, who you serve and how you do it. And this workshop is a great place to start again.

(01:44):

That workshop link is getclarity.gr8.com. Or you can head to stefaniegass.com. Now, finally, if you have a podcast and you are a podcaster, this is a humongous public service announcement just for you. Okay? If you don’t have a podcast, you can skip this one. But my pod-casters podcast to profit mastermind is almost half full. We are starting in two short weeks.

(02:16):

You are going to want to get in before the doors close or before it fills up one of the two, because both are happening soon. And this is for you. If you’re like, I want my show to scale. I want my show to rank and go next level. I want visibility and monetize my pod. Like I want my podcast to be my evergreen sales funnel forever. If that’s what you’re, you’re like, that’s what I want. I want Stef’s business model.

(02:42):

This is the program that teaches you everything. SEO, keywords, visibility. We create your course or your coaching program. I teach you launch strategy, Pinterest marketing. I teach you guys I have a special guest come in and do back office systems so that you’re super, super organized. You know how to create a workflow and get a lot done with less time. I mean, it is worth its weight in gold.

(03:05):

And I could just go on and on about the amazing breakthroughs that everyone has had. But I just want to read you this one. This is from Angela Barnard. My podcast grew 60%. My program sold out and my show ranked in six countries. I mean, y’all, if that is not a Testament to this product, Angela says before taking P2P, I was new to the podcasting world and believed making money in my business would be way down the road.

(03:37):

And just a couple weeks into the program, that belief was demolished. I started following the strategies Stefanie taught, and my podcast grew 60% and keeps growing. I launched my first group coaching program while in P2P and it’s sold out. And my second program sold out 50% before I even announced it publicly. I started getting notifications on my podcast that I was ranking in other countries, six different countries where I knew no one, it was simply due to the strategy.

(04:08):

Stef had taught me. Let’s see, I got offered three paid speaking gigs. People emailing me to do one-on-one coaching and had been a guest on other podcasts. I admire your pod members will likely be some of your best friends. You get one-on-one time with staff during the breakout sessions and awesome surprise bonuses. If you feel the call to do P2P, answer it, amazing things happen when you step out in faith, that is Angela Barnard from the intentional mind podcast and you guys, and yes, that was my child knocking on the door.

(04:40):

But y’all the point, the beauty of podcasting, right? So the point of Angela’s entire testimony is that she said yes to investing in herself and just the, yes, grew her confidence partnered with the skillsets, the tacticals and the trainings and the program to get her that ultimate breakthrough.

(04:58):

So if it’s on your heart, if you are feeling that holy spirit tug, I want you to say yes to you. I want you to join us in this next round of podcast to profit students. And I just hope you’re here for this. I am so honored to be your coach and mentor through this process. You can hurry and get your app in before it is full. Please do not delay podcast to profit mastermind.com.

(05:32):

So we’re going to dig into all of your juicy questions that you guys left me over in the student community. And that’s one of my favorite benefits of this student community is that you guys get access to me to ask these questions. And my goal is to go live at least once a month and answer any questions that you guys have questions that are coming up when you’re in CYC or PPU or even P2P.

(06:54):

So if you guys didn’t drop your juicy questions in the student community, Facebook group, you can comment them right here. Okay. So a hi, everybody. Let me know you’re on. Let me know. You can hear me. That would be amazing and let’s do it. So I’m going to go ahead and start with Brooke Jefferson’s question. I would love to know how to drive more traffic to my podcast.

(07:17):

After two years of podcasting is definitely growing by leaps and bounds, but I want more reviews. I kind of want to go all out and do more than just a giveaway. Maybe some kind of three-day workshop via podcast only would love your feedback. Okay. This is such a great question. So those of us who have been podcasting for a long time you know, we’ve tried all the things we’ve done, the initial launch, which is such a great way to grab a new traffic, get that visibility.

(07:51):

But you’ve done it like you’ve tapped out the warm market, right? And so that’s the initial thing that I want you guys to do when you’re starting podcasting. You know, most of you have taken key PPU, which talks a lot about using Pinterest to drive traffic to your podcast. If you guys have not optimized Pinterest, that is such a no brainer way to drive traffic to your show.

(08:15):

So you guys can take my Pinterest mini it’s a hundred bucks. Okay. And my Pinterest masterclass will teach you. And it’s one of the last things we think about like, oh, let me optimize Pinterest, let me go join more group boards. Let me add more pins into, into my tailwind. Like it’s something that you could spend 15 minutes on a week that would result in so much more traffic for you in the long run. Okay. So that’s at Pinterestmasterclass.gr8.com. So that’s a second strategy of how you guys can drive lots of traffic to an existing show.

(08:52):

The third way that you can drive more traffic to your podcast. There’s four things I’m thinking of here is I’m doing podcast swaps. Like I’m talking, going ham on podcast interviews and podcast swaps. So do a run like network marketing does 90 day runs do a podcast 90 day run for 90 days go, I’m going to get 10 interviews on someone else’s podcast.

(09:18):

That is an exceptional way for you to get more visibility. And why not? Like they may not have a ton of reviews or a huge show, but who knows what they’ll have in the future? Some of my most amazing interviews are from shows that were really small, but they blew up and I’m one of their first interviews. And I just said, yes. I said yes to everything that had my niche and my demographic. So you can do all of those strategies.

(09:44):

And then the final strategy is go harder on your show. You want more reviews? You want more downloads, show up more, stop wasting your time posting on Instagram and Facebook and do an extra episode. Y’all like, it’s that easy? Okay. And then the other final tip here, hack number five or whatever these are, is to stop getting distracted. I have seen of all of my success stories of my students and my long-term clients.

(10:12):

I see the most breakthrough between one year and one and a half years in the clients who have been with me and they’re not getting distracted. They’re not jumping to this coach and that coach and learning all the new strategies and optimizing this and that and trying this and doing it. They’re like I’m in it. Like I’ve decided what my method is.

(10:30):

I’ve decided what my tribe is and like I’m going in and they don’t look up because when we look up and we start following this other, you know, new and cool and shiny thing or trying this other thing that everybody’s talking about, you literally start over and like, why are you starting over and over and over, like, we’ve got to zone in and hone in on one thing for over a year. So in this constant noise, like this constantly exhausting online space, I challenge all of you to stop, consuming and start producing at a much higher level.

(11:12):

So that is all my feedback on this question, which for those of you that are hopping in late, or maybe on time, I don’t know. When I started is how to grow that podcast after you’ve been podcasting for a long time. And really what I’m telling you, it’s more of the same, yeah. Super unsexy answer. And it’s the absolute truth. There is no magic wand and all the coaches and fancy people out there that are promising you, that run fast.

(11:39):

So, and if this is for you and you’re like, well, I want to get those five things like figured out and optimize and do all the things you just said. Guys, join me in podcast to profit. We’re about to kick off in two weeks. We are half full already. So if you want to do all of that and rank your show and learn SEO and Pinterest marketing and titling and have visibility and tons of accountability and walk away with a program or course or monetization strategy podcast, a profit is what’s up.

(12:07):

Okay. And that’s a podcast to profit mastermind.com. Let’s move on. Question two is from Jacqueline Howard. Hi everybody. Who else is here? Say what’s up everyone. Jacqueline Howard. How are your goals for health and time management going Stef, any tech tips on reviving a podcast that has been silent for a few months. Okay. Great questions. I’m going to start with the podcast part. How do you revive a podcast? That’s been silent.

(12:40):

You just start again now communicate with your audience. So I would do an episode and I would say, I’m back. Hey guys, sorry. Then Mia, you know, life’s been crazy or we’ve been sick or whatever’s been going on for you. Just tell them, you don’t have to apologize for it because I think grace and such is life. And there’s always going to be seasons where in your life where you’re going to, I mean, you may have to step away from your show, you know, loss sickness.

(13:13):

I don’t know whatever might happen for you. So just communicate that with them, let them know and dig right back in. I mean, it’s just like anything else. We fall off the, the health wagon. Well, get back on, start back over. Like it’s better to get back on and be late and have missed a couple of days or even a month than to give up. So openly communicate and jump right back on the wagon. Okay. Second one.

(13:38):

How are my goals for health and time management going? Yeah. So my goals for health are going amazing. Like I mentioned to you guys, I think in some of my episodes, I’m working with a food, freedom, fruit, empowerment, coach, Jessica Brown. She’s my friend. We went to middle school together, but we decided to do some coaching swap. So I helped her create her podcast and launch her course.

(14:00):

And then she’s been helping me with food coaching and it’s been amazing. I can truly say that for the first time ever in my entire life. I think I’m completely free from dieting, which is like, I’m completely free from the scale. I’m completely free from thinking I have to weigh something I’m completely free from caring about cellulite. Like it’s so crazy. So yeah, it’s going amazing.

(14:26):

Eating, super healthy working out I’m on week 23 or 24 of working out, got my Peloton. It’s super, everything’s going really, really well. And I’m, if any of you guys are in that space and you’re looking for a coach to help you with oh, sorry, my husband’s calling me. I’m looking for a coach to help you in that area. I highly highly recommend Jessica Brown. You guys can find her at Instagram at Jess brown, R D.

(14:54):

So, and thanks for asking my productivity goals are going amazing. I have an awesome team of women who are helping me in all areas. It would be really hard to run a business with no help. And that brings me to a place of reminding you guys to ask for help. You don’t have to pay for help either. Swap with people or you can trade. See if there’s a friend that you guys can do.

(15:21):

Babysitting swaps. I mean, there is 101 ways to get help. You can go to Fiverr and hire someone for five bucks an hour. Right? Ask Juliana about that. She’s going to do a training in here for you guys on how to find really great. VA’s I’m so sorry if this, anyway, she’s going to do a training for you guys on how to get some amazing help for a really low price.

(15:44):

Cause I think that’s important. Okay. Next question is from Juliana. So Juliana Barbati. How do you keep all your coaching client sessions organized? What back office systems can you share that will make life easier in the long run? Okay. So what we do between my VA and I is we have a Google Excel drive. It has all of my recurring clients and they are categorized based on frequency.

(16:13):

So at the top of the list, we have everybody who meets with me biweekly. And then we have everybody who meets with me monthly. And then at the bottom, we may have like special cases or if I’m meeting with clients that bought the coaching package from podcast to profit at the bottom. So our list is separated based on frequency. And we’ve you know, I’ve tried fancy systems like Dubsado and all of these other things.

(16:41):

I’m like, I just can’t you guys like, I’m sorry. I love Excel. So this is me being super old school and stubborn. We use Excel Google share drive, and she goes in there and basically we have all of these different columns. So it has the client name, email addresses, their address, like all the information about them. And then it talks. And then it has a column on when we met last, when our next session is, and then what session they are on and how many sessions they have.

(17:10):

So she’s going in, she’s booking people using Calendly for me based on when people are due to come do coaching. So that’s kind of what’s happening on a recurring basis. I also have automation set up to where they get an email that says, don’t forget to book your session. So between Nina and the email, they are getting reminders to book.

(17:33):

Now, as far as the backend on my system, I have a folder system that is for clients and inside of my client folder. I have a name for every single client. So everybody has a folder on my desktop. My laptop by alphabetical order inside of there is their contract, their release, and every recording, y’all better believe that I have contracts and recordings of every session, be smart. Kay, you are running a business.

(18:03):

So the other thing is you have to be able to dump your computer off on a storage device, right? Cause nobody has, and I have one terabyte and I’m already halfway kept on my space. So I also bought an external hard drive. And once a month I dump everything on the external hard drive and then I can clean out some space. So that is what I actually do. It’s very simple, nothing fancy.

(18:26):

And it really works for us now. I mean, I, right now at this moment have 27 recurring clients and this works. So for those of you that are getting started and you have three, four, five, this is a really, really easy thing to start with where you’re not investing in something. Now I could invest in some big fancy client management system, but I’ve tried them.

(18:50):

And they, I felt like they took more time for me than what was already working. So I also want to encourage you when you find a system that’s working, don’t get distracted, okay. There’s a million ways to cut an apple. And when you find your favorite way, don’t let someone else tell you that it’s wrong because you got to find what works for you. And I think that it permission permission to do what works for you. Okay. Next question is from Rachel.

(19:17):

Galatz when I want to start the podcast and I’m taking the course, can I rebrand and rename my podcast in the future? If I don’t feel aligned with the name I have now hard to even start trying to land on a podcast name. I know you just did, but the part is holding you back. You guys, if you are stuck on your name, please book a coaching call with me as students, you guys get access to 30 minute power sessions.

(19:44):

This is what I do. Name, title, tagline description. We can bust that out in 30 minutes. You guys, you should not be starting a show. If you aren’t clear on your title tagline description, because you are going to create brand recognition from your name. I never anticipated rebranding. Now will you in the future maybe, but if you can avoid that, I definitely would avoid that.

(20:09):

I would start with what you really want. So if you’re hung up on the name, please post in the student community, people have great ideas, grab a 30 minute call with me. You know, that is not something that should, you should have to fight alone. Like we’re all here to support you in that. Now, if you start your show and two years down the road or a year down the road, you’re like, oh my goodness, like God’s calling me to pivot or, or change or shift.

(20:34):

Like I just went through that, but I didn’t know I was going to rebrand. If I knew this wasn’t the right thing. When I started, I would have waited and made sure that I was discerning through that, praying through that, hiring a coach, mentor, doing something to break through that because you just want to have that clarity.

(20:49):

Right. And there’s so much power in a name. It’s worth that investment. Okay. Next question. Juliana, our body. What systems do you have in place to easily communicate with your VAs and your team share files with them, et cetera. Okay. So with my team, we are voxering. So I have Voxer chat set up with my team and we just box like, not all the time, but a couple times a week.

(21:16):

And we do an update like Angela and I were just talking yesterday all about strategy for these groups. And so we’ve ox back and forth. I’m a, I’m a vocal, I’m a audio processor. So it’s hard for me to like write my thoughts. I have to talk them out. We Voxer and email each other as well. And then we have an, a sauna group team thing, like a, like a calendar in a sauna, which shows everybody what’s happening every week.

(21:42):

It shows them our podcast episodes. It shows them what I’m promoting. I put in there, things that I need the team to do. And then it has assignments. So a sauna has been super cool. It’s something new that we just added, but I’m really loving it. So we communicate there. We communicate through boxer. And then of course, through email as well. How do we share files typically just through email or a Google share drive angel asked when is our retreat.

(22:09):

I love that question. So y’all, you guys have to push me over the edge on this one. Not this year, we have so many trips. We’re going to Disney world. We I’m going back to Arizona for the dreamer summit. I have all these trips, crazy, crazy lots of trips this year, but potentially next spring. But somebody’s going to have to push me over the edge on that one.

(22:31):

Okay. Next question. Elise Rooney. How often should you do soft launches for your course? Okay. The way that I look at this is I want to do some type of promotion or drive urgency once a quarter. So on our Assana calendar, what you’ll see is once a quarter, something is planned, whether it’s going to be a workshop, whether it’s going to be a flash sale, whether it’s going to be a group coaching bonus offer, or a bump of some kind every quarter, something is happening.

(23:05):

So you should do something every quarter. Does it always need to be a soft launch? Which what is referring to is what I teach in podcast to profit. It’s how to use organic workshops to drive massive organic conversion basically based on your super fan number. So I teach that in podcast, a profit, again, shout out to that program.

(23:26):

If you guys have not taken that yet, and you have a show, you need to take it. Cause we do the sales, the marketing, the pitch practice, the workshops, the challenges, the soft launches, all of that is covered. So I would really recommend to make it easy on yourself, do soft launches a couple of times a year, and then some other type of urgency, the other two quarters in the year.

(23:48):

Okay. Heather urge or Berg, sorry, Heather, from saying that wrong, should we create a separate Instagram for our podcast or share graphics, quotes, and content to our existing feed? This is really up to you, but in my opinion, I don’t got time to run two Instagrams. You know what I’m saying? So I am the brand and most of you are the brand. Most of you are podcasting about things that you stand for, you know, unless there’s a few cases.

(24:19):

So for example, Beatriz Vargas, one of my clients, she’s a realtor and runs the grace field mom. There are two very different things. So she has two separate Instagrams for that. But I think 99% of you can just have one Instagram account, make your life easy unless you have a team and you’re going to outsource all the posting, which we don’t start there. We grow there.Starting with one, I think is the best thing I ever did because it allowed that to grow.

(24:45):

And it allowed me to just show up as myself because I am my business. Now I also post about my children. So that’s something to consider. If you don’t want to share your personal stuff and you want a safe place to do that, you are going to have to have two separate accounts. As far as the workload and my opinion, I would have one because I’m all about less work, doing more, better, being more efficient, more effective and focusing and being streamlined.

(25:14):

Okay. Hi Polly. Yeah, but you guys shout out to Polly. She’s the one that taught me how to use the sauna for my team. Thanks Polly. Okay, next question. You guys have any questions? Post them in the comments below. Okay. This is Malia. I know I’m butchering that girl. Forgive me. You, my, my, my maiden name is Georgia So y’all, you’re not alone. I’m doing podcasts to profit. Do you teach Pinterest? And how do you use tailwind in there?

(25:48):

Is it different from your course? Do not buy my course. If you are doing podcast to profit we, I will teach you Pinterest and tailwind inside of podcast to profit. I will also teach you course creation and how to use a teachable to host your courses. I will teach you sales strategy, marketing, pitching visibility, SEO, keywords pretty much everything you could ever need to have a insanely successful podcast.

(26:14):

You guys, I just did the podcast to profit Roundup, which is going to air tomorrow and you’re going to be blown away. My girls had a 60% increase in downloads, 40% increase in downloads and, and super fan numbers. They ranked I had someone ranked number one in her category. I had people rank in six countries. I mean the success stories are endless.

(26:36):

So again, if you have, if you are a podcaster, but you want it to become your full-time business model, podcast, profit is the program for you. And like I said, we have half already full, so podcast, a profit mastermind.com. Get your app in ASAP. All right, let me take any other questions in the chat. Let me know. And I’m gonna take one more question from the feed. This is from Juliana for our body as well. Juliana was on fire. You guys shout out to my girl, coming up with all the questions here.

(27:05):

Okay. Ooh, one more. Would you reach out to old coaching clients who haven’t left you a review and ask for one, what is the best way to ask without being awkward? Okay, awesome. So Juliana, like I just get in the inbox and I’m like, I voiced the first of all and I’m like, Hey girl. Oh my goodness. I just realized, I forgot to get a testimony from you. I would love to feature you on my sales pages or in some of my copy.

(27:34):

Would you be willing to write me a quick testimony? That’s it that easy? I’m going to do you guys one better for my biggest success stories. And you guys know who you are. I write them and I’m like, Hey, I need a testimony from you for my sales page. Can you write me something like, and I actually draft what I want them to put, because I know their successes, right?

(27:57):

So I’m like, for example, after working with Stefanie, I had a $30,000 launch and I sold 62 courses in one week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, this is an actual story. So I drafted it for her. And I was like, can you write me a testimony? But don’t forget to put in these tactical wins. And she was like, that looks great. Use it. Awesome. So if you want to help people, because sometimes people get stuck.

(28:22):

Like they don’t know how to write a testimony. And so you can give them those examples and do them one better and even draft them what some of their tactical wins were of working with you. Okay. The other thing is sometimes I get these reviews back and it’s like a novel. And so I write them back and I’m like, girl, can I splice this and dice it?

(28:40):

Cause we just need like four sentences and nobody cares. They’re like, of course. So those are some tips I have on getting really stellar reviews for your stuff. And here’s a few more tips on the reviews. You guys save them in a special folder in your email. So I have one that says testimonies. Every time I get a testimony and I just pop it in that folder because I don’t always need that testimony at that moment, but it’s going to get lost in my inbox.

(29:06):

So I move it over into the testimonies folder inside of my email. And I also ask them, Hey, would you mind pasting this testimony into my Facebook review section as well? Why? Because that’s visible or they can paste it in your, on your podcast reviews, right? So you can double whammy, one testimony and it’s a copy paste for your person.

(29:30):

They often don’t mind at all. And you guys, what’s the worst thing that could happen if you ask somebody says, no, no, I can’t write you a testimony. Okay. Sweet, great business with yet. You know? So like that’s the worst thing that could happen. Okay. So I hope that you guys thought that this was helpful. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this training today. And I just want to remind you guys, podcast or profit is closing.

(29:55):

It is we are launching in two short weeks. We only have half. We have 10 spots left last I checked. So you’re going to want to join, please get your apps and please do not wait. It sells out every time. And then secondly if any of you have any other need like coaching, you want to grab that 30 minute, like I mentioned, just email us support@stefaniegass.com. I’m here to support you with where you’re at. So God bless you guys.