Back in 2015, I formed my first coaching/training partnership and we launched a podcast to support it.
18 months later we were hosting a standing-room only session at a major industry event.
I know what it’s like to launch a venture with no name recognition.
It’s not easy, but thanks to developments in podcasting and online marketing, it’s easier than ever.
The big challenge for any new coach or consultant is this: What big name people do NOW isn’t what got them there.
We look at them running ads and putting on big events and think that must be why they succeeded. Often the real story is that they’re losing money on their events, losing money on their ads, breaking even on their books or low-priced digital products, and their real money comes from things you can’t see.
For Gary Vee, it’s VaynerMedia, his agency that sells marketing services to huge companies.
For Grant Cardone, it’s his sales training for companies and now his real estate investments.
For many coaching companies, their events are lead generators. They break even on the events and only make money on coaching packages sold at the event or shortly after, often through boiler rooms of salespeople using high-pressure tactics.
So before you imitate what you see others doing, I wanted to share a plan that would work for any new coach or consultant, regardless of your name recognition in your space.
Let’s start with some basic assumptions about you…
- You have a skillset that is both rare and valuable
- You can apply that skillset to solve a big, valuable problem for a particular kind of person
- You have some capital, let’s say $5k
- You have an assistant or the ability to hire one
If you have those things in your favor, here’s a controversial opinion: Don’t worry about a website and setting up a bunch of social media accounts. Just get started.
For a website, maybe set up one-page at most, but odds are it may be completely unnecessary.
Same for social media accounts. Things have changed so radically in the last couple years, it now takes a TON of time and effort to build a new account from scratch, especially if you sell in the B2B space.
For both of these, the time and resources you’d invest in building a website, a new social media account (or hiring people to help) is much better invested in actual conversations that will lead to business.
So here’s what I’d recommend to any new coach or consultant if you want to hit the ground running, generate revenue and get profitable as quickly as possible, and set yourself up for a wide range of options in your first year.
Month One
Create one offer that appeals to one type of person in the most valuable slice of the market
Don’t go after the mainstream in your industry first. They need a ton of social proof, testimonials and track record to pull the trigger on buying. Better to go straight to the higher level, influential, early adopters first. The ones who are most open to new ideas, new services, new ways to solve their problem. Remember the assumption we started with, you have a skillset that can be applied to a big, valuable problem for a particular kind of person. Create an offer just for them and no one else, and keep working on that offer till it’s irresistible to that early adopter, influential crowd.
Work your network to get booked on some podcasts where you can share your story and make your offer
Guess who’s listening to industry podcasts to stay ahead of the game and look for new solutions to their problem? The influential, early adopter crowd. So go where they’re hanging out. If you’re connected in the industry, reach out to people directly via email or social media and ask a simple question.
“Hey! I’m looking to get on a few podcasts, share my background story and give the audience some practical steps to solve XYZ in their business. Do you know any podcasters who’d be interested in having me on?”
Once you exhaust your network for intros and referrals to podcasters, have your assistant build a list and pitch you to podcasts outside your network
Depending on how well connected you are, you might get 5-10 podcast appearances rolling just based on that network. Or you might just get a couple. Either way, you’ll exhaust your network and need to expand. But the list-building and cold reach out is way below your pay grade. Have someone else do that, either a $10 hour virtual assistant in the Philippines or a $17 person in first-world countries. All you need is a smart, capable person who can write well and send a very personal email to podcasters. (We have all the templates for this kind of process in the FastTrack)
Start working on your own podcast behind the scenes
That means running a design contest for the podcast artwork, asking your email list or social network for feedback, picking out title and tagline ideas and so forth. Just laying the groundwork. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you can always rebrand later as you get more clarity. In fact, in the beginning, always go for something clear and direct rather than clever or branded.
Have your assistant start building a list of your ideal clients based on a profile you provide them
If you can solve a big, valuable problem for a particular kind of person, then it should be easy enough to describe that particular kind of person to someone else. Once that’s done, an assistant should be able to locate those kinds of people either being interviewed on podcasts, in industry communities like Facebook Groups, through the speaker lineup at events or online summits, or worst case scenario, targeted LinkedIn searches.
Reach out to those ideal clients and invite them to be featured guests on your podcast
Initially, reach out yourself and keep it very personal and informal. Since it’s a new podcast, focus your pitch on the quality of the conversation you’re going to have. The interesting things they’ll get to talk about, maybe things they haven’t shared elsewhere. In industries where podcasting isn’t as well known yet, giving someone an opportunity to share their story on a podcast is novel enough to get them interested.
Start recording episodes ASAP
Include your offer naturally during the course of recording, so your guest hears it and can speak up if they want to learn more. Often this will come up even before you hit record, as the guest will want to know why you’re running the podcast, and that’s a perfect time to give them your “Clear & Compelling Idea” (more on that in the MicroFamous book). In just a couple sentences, the right kind of person who suffers from the problem you solve should be interested enough to want to have a follow up conversation.
This is also a big reason not to spend months obsessing over your podcast name if you’re just starting out. It’s better to put something out that’s super clear, easy for guests to say Yes to, and start having these conversations because they can directly lead to early sales. Once you have 6-12 months under your belt, you can shift the focus to building an audience and rebrand the show if needed.
Month Two
Launch your podcast with your assistant or an agency doing the bulk of the work
Your best investment of time in a podcast is recording the episodes and turning some of those into sales calls with guests who are interested. Your time is not best spent editing audio or video, wiring show notes or sending emails. Even if you have the skillset to do it yourself, don’t. Hire someone, whether it’s an agency like ours or having your assistant do it with the help of templates and systems (like you’d find in the FastTrack).
Work your network to get help promoting the launch
This applies especially to social media, where you’re not spending much time. Let others talk about your podcast on social media for you. Word of mouth beats any other form of marketing, especially in high-trust sales like coaching and consulting. Reach out to anyone in your network who has influence in your space, and ask them in advance if they’d be willing to share your podcast with their audience when it launches. Talk up the guests you’ll be featuring and the mission of your show, and secure their agreement. Then on the day your podcast goes live, send them a reminder message with some text to help them share the podcast with their audience.
If necessary, spend to promote the launch with ads wherever it makes the most sense for your market Facebook/IG, YouTube, maybe even Spotify
If you don’t have a large email list and you’re short on influencers to help share the podcast on social media, take some of your capital and put it into ads for the podcast. They may not grow your list, but they at least create awareness of the show in your industry. This makes it easier to get guests as the people you’re reaching out to may already have been exposed to ads for your podcast.
Month Three
Release a new podcast each week
If you follow our Weekly Podcast Formula, you’ll be putting out a combination of guest episodes, client success stories and solo episodes. Unlike straight interview shows, we’ve found that a combination of episodes works together to create demand for coaching and consulting.
Send new podcast episodes to your email list weekly (at least), include episodes of your own show AND guest episodes you’ve been featured on
Why include episodes of other people’s podcasts where you were the guest? Because for a new coach or consultant, credibility and authority are among your biggest challenges. Sharing episodes where you are the guest expert builds that credibility and authority, while linking you with other influencers in your space.
Become a Connector in your space
Start working your prospect list and the new network of relationships you’ve formed. Look for ways to introduce them to each other to add value and build your influence in the space. Everyone has good intentions to build relationships. Few follow through on those intentions. That’s why I created my own Relationship System to make sure my team and I follow through. (More on that in the book or steal all of our templates and the whole Relationship System in the FastTrack).
Look for Sponsorship opportunities
Not for your own podcast, but opportunities for you to put your offer on hyper-targeted podcasts in your industry. Start by looking at which guest episodes from Month One have the best audience for you, reach back out to them with an offer to sponsor their podcast or co-market together. If the best podcasts are ones you haven’t been featured on yet, reach out to them about sponsoring first, and often a sponsorship deal can be struck that will include a special guest episode in the package.
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Throughout the article I’ve mentioned 2 resources.
First, our Done-for-You podcast launch and production service. You can learn more about that here.
Second, the MicroFamous FastTrack, which gives you the entire MicroFamous system and all the tools, templates and shortcuts to execute it yourself. You can check that out here.
I’ve helped people execute versions of this strategy for 5+ years, and it’s proven to work. Far more proven than other strategies like booking random speaking gigs, running online summits, or running Facebook ads to a sales funnel.
Not that those things aren’t valuable, they all have their place.
But if you’re starting with little name recognition and you want to hit the ground fast, this is the strategy I’d recommend.