Last week I launched the Owners Collective Podcast, and it took out #1 on the Apple Business Entrepreneurship Chart!
Yep, it ranked higher than the Titans of Entrepreneurship Tim Ferris and Gary Vee. It was massive.
As much as I love the content these guys put out, it sure felt good to be an Australian woman to take out top place on these Aussie charts. It kinda felt like winning a street fight against Bruce Lee (for reals).
But…*I have a confession…*
I had a secret weapon to propel it up the charts….Just a few days before we went live I recorded an episode with Stevie Dillion on…wait for it… How to Make Sure That Your New Podcast Hits the Charts. I can 100% say that this impacted our #1 ranking.
Stevie Dillon is the Founder of Stevie Says Social where she helps women leverage the internet to build online businesses. She’s also the host of the Stevie Says Social Podcast, which debuted at no. 2 on Apple Podcasts and has been downloaded 300,000 times. With now being a hotter time than ever to launch a podcast, I wanted to know How to Make Sure That Your New Podcast Hits the Charts. So Stevie shared her top tips to make this happen!
Let’s dive in….
Here’s what we cover:
- Why now is the best time to be launching a podcast
- The ways that launching a podcast can completely transform your business
- The must-take actions to ensure your new podcast ranks on the charts
Watch it here:
Links and resources:
- You can check out more about Stevie on her website
- Be sure to follow her on Instagram for extra tips and tricks
- Be sure that you’re subscribed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss an episode!
- If you’re keen for more head over to my other podcast One Wild Ride for a listen
- Ready to launch & leverage your own gig? Download my free guide to starting and scaling your business over at theownerscollective.com/startandscale
Enjoy this episode?
Be sure to be subscribed on Apple Podcasts or if you’re an Android user you can follow on Spotify. While you’re there, I’d LOVE you to drop me a rating and review, as is helps get this podcast into the ears of more fine folks like you.
Full Transcript
Pru Chapman:
Hey Stevie, and welcome to the show.
Stevie Dillon:
Hello. Thank you for having me on.
Pru Chapman:
I’m thrilled that you’re here. I’m always so stoked to see you. Now, you are the founder obviously of Stevie Says Social and you help women to leverage the internet to build online businesses and Stevie, I’m going to say, we’ve been in contact for a few years now and you’re just nailing it. I’m so just incredibly, ah, just thrilled for you. Just happy for you. And I think it was in launching Legends that we first crossed paths and I remember right from the get go is that you really stood out to me just because of how much value you delivered. I think you might’ve still been hustling your full time job back then.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah, I was.
Pru Chapman:
You were writing these incredible blog posts, thousands and thousands of words.
I remember you telling me I’m spending all day on a Saturday writing these and they would just… It’s like you really came out of the gates swinging because of how much value you were prepared to give. So it’s just so cool.
Stevie Dillon:
Awe, thank you. And you’re my first mentor. I just remember sitting at… Where were we? [inaudible 00:01:06] doing our mentoring session and you were the one that actually sent me through my very first online course even though it then took me over a year to implement.
Pru Chapman:
And look where you are now, Stevie. Launching them left, right and center. And I mean if the cheeky truth be told before we got online here having a little chat, you’re having babies launching blueprints, launching courses. You just can’t stop, Stevie.
Stevie Dillon:
I know. I actually have no off switch to my own detriment. I just need to let things be sometimes. But as we were saying before, I literally love what I do. So… I don’t know.
Pru Chapman:
No I think we just keep going. You and me, we’re not meant for baking sourdough, we are meant for building businesses.
Stevie Dillon:
Nothing wrong with baking sourdough but…
Pru Chapman:
Nothing wrong. I like eating sourdough.
Stevie Dillon:
But I prefer to have it served to me on a plate.
Pru Chapman:
With a whole load of butter. So what’s it been like? The last few years really building Stevie Says Social because you are putting out a lot of content, you’re producing some really great courses. What’s it been like on the inside?
Stevie Dillon:
It’s been really full is how I would explain the last few years, and it literally is only… So I had my little baby in September last year, so he’s eight months old now and it was full pelt until then, literally just going at a million miles an hour. And it was only when I stopped and had him that I really got clarity on what’s the next step for me, what do I want to do next, simplifying everything. And now I feel so excited, but I also feel like I literally know what I’m going to be doing for the next 30 years.
Pru Chapman:
Oh fantastic. So got a bit of a game plan out there.
Stevie Dillon:
I do. It’s very exciting.
Pru Chapman:
And I can never wait to see what comes next. Now, quite early on in the piece you’ve launch the Stevie Says Social podcast. So can you tell us a little bit about why did you launch it? Why was it the time? Because podcasting wasn’t as big a thing when you launched your podcast as what it’s becoming now.
Stevie Dillon:
I’ve always been a podcast junkie. I loved podcasts before podcasts were cool and I used to literally spend, well my morning walk, my afternoon when I was at the gym, commuting, all of my time was spent listening to podcasts. And literally the reason why I decided to leave corporate and actually dive into my own business was the GaryVee podcast, which I feel like I’ve binged on for a good six months and he was literally in my ear encouraging me and inspiring me to start my own business. And I was like, I feel like I’ve got so much value out of him in particular and I don’t even listen to his podcast anymore, but I just really saw the power of providing value. And he literally was in my ears probably two or three hours a day.
Pru Chapman:
Wow.
Stevie Dillon:
His abrasive full-on voice. And I was like, you know what? I can see the power of that and I know what it’s done for me. And I would really like to number one, stop writing those 3000 word blog posts that I was writing every week and find a different way to talk to people that was still providing value, and I think personally I found it was a lot more powerful than blogs.
Pru Chapman:
Well talk us through that. Why is podcasting more powerful than blogs in your opinion?
Stevie Dillon:
I just think… Well I know, I don’t think it’s such an intimate medium. So I know when I listen to podcasts, I’ll have the one person in my ear for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour at a time, and I have my podcast is that I listen to over and over. And I think the connection that creates with the listener… So I feel like I’m best mates with all of the people whose podcast I listened to and they’re constantly providing value. And so what that really does is it builds that Know, Like and Trust factor, which is so important if somebody is ever going to work with you.
Stevie Dillon:
But it really builds that on a whole other level in my opinion, to simply reading blog posts or YouTube videos, which are the other types of content marketing you can do. And I really feel that it’s the most powerful way to connect intimately with someone, and you can do it for free. Imagine going to a TV station and saying, “Hey, I’d love to take out an hour slot, prime time please. Only with my ideal listener. How much is that going to cost me to do that every week?” And you can do that for free with podcasting and I just think it is the most amazing resource.
Pru Chapman:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there where you say how intimate it is because building that know you like you trust you factor, you and I both know and probably the listeners know as well sometimes that can take years to build that know you like you trust you factor and literally within a 20 minute podcast you can pretty much go through that cycle, can’t you?
Stevie Dillon:
You totally can. And I actually didn’t realize how… I had feeling that it would impact my business positively when I started. And I actually didn’t know the power of it until I was about three or four, five months down the track with my podcast and I’d go to business events or I would have people contact me or I would basically have interactions with people and they would just be like, “Oh my gosh, I love your podcast. I listen to your podcast all the time.” Or I would have people in my inbox saying, “Hey, I want to work with you. When do we start?” Rather than saying, “Hey, what are your rates? How much do you cost?” And then price shopping me with a million other people.
Stevie Dillon:
And I was like, “Wow, I’m onto something here.” This is literally cutting out all of the work that you would otherwise do in people deciding between different suppliers to work with and they just know that they want to work with you. You’re their person because you’ve been providing value. And I was like, “Wow, this is so powerful.”
Pru Chapman:
That’s incredible. Because I quite often talk about the client journey and that happening pre-purchase purchase and then of course after purchase as well. That’s a really powerful way isn’t it, to step people along that journey with no extra effort from you and that trust factor just so high when they do actually reach out.
Stevie Dillon:
It’s next level. And I obviously have my digital courses now and I actually track when somebody comes in and purchases a course from me, where they’ve come from. And so on average about one to 2% of people that come in from a Facebook ad will purchase my course. I can’t actually measurably track it with podcasting, but I know that out of a hundred people that purchase one of my courses, 60 to 70 have listened to my podcast.
Pru Chapman:
Wow, that’s huge.
Stevie Dillon:
It’s huge. It’s amazing. And so it just goes to show you that when you’re attracting leads into your business, there’s a whole heap of different ways you can do it. You can use Facebook ads, you can use billboards, you can use Google ads, you can use a whole heap of different things. But the quality of the lead that comes in from podcasting is literally on another level to anything I’ve ever experienced before.
Pru Chapman:
Oh my goodness. I’m so glad that we’re recording a podcast right now because otherwise I would be wanting to record a podcast.
Stevie Dillon:
I know. I feel like I inspire everyone to start, literally within half an hour of a business person meeting me, they’re like, “Okay, cool. I’ll start a podcast, Stevie.”
Pru Chapman:
Right. And I think because a lot of you… It’s such a great podcast and it’s so value filled. So can you talk us a little bit through… What has having a podcast given you? So it’s definitely helped convert clients, attract and convert clients, has it done anything else?
Stevie Dillon:
Yes. So number one, it’s built my personal brand. So really the big thing with that is, rather than people going, I could work with any social media professional, I want to work with you specifically. And so that has been really, really powerful for me. It’s meant that I’m not price shopped. I would literally, and this is such a thing when you’re in any competitive industry, so generally freelances in particular will have this… People contact them and then they ghost as soon as you provide your prices and generally it means it’s because that person has gone for the cheapest possible option and you’re not it. And unfortunately if you keep trying to reduce your rates, you end up, basically it’s a race to the bottom.
Stevie Dillon:
So what I found with podcasting is, I would never have people coming to me price shopping me. They would literally just say, “I want to work with you.” And that was really, really powerful. So it meant that I could charge my worth and the impact that that has had on my business alone has been massive. And then I’m really strategic around the way that I podcast as well. So I don’t podcast for content sake. So a lot of the time when people put out content every week they are like, “Oh, I’ve got to put out this blog post because I’ve been told that I need to content market, I’ve got to put out this podcast because I’ve been told it’s the right thing to do.”
Stevie Dillon:
It’s a really slow burn. So one of the biggest benefits for me has been really strategic around, okay, when am I planning launches and promotions for the year? So say for example, in may I’m going to launch a course and I’m really strategic about the fact that for the six weeks leading up to that, I will provide huge value on whatever the topic of the course is. And so what that does is build my audience of people that are like, “Wow, you’re the authority on social media,” if it’s a social media course or, “You’re the authority on podcasting,” if it’s a podcasting course. So that when I actually do open my doors to sell something, I’ve got an audience of people waiting there. And so it all comes back to-
Pru Chapman:
It’s so powerful.
Stevie Dillon:
It’s so powerful. It’s so powerful.
Pru Chapman:
And being strategic around it as well. I like what you said there that you don’t podcast for contents sake, but as opposed to you’re actually quite planned with what content you’re putting out and why you’re putting it out. So it’s [crosstalk 00:10:29].
Stevie Dillon:
So I’ve got this Excel spreadsheet, which is like [crosstalk 00:10:33].
Pru Chapman:
I love [crosstalk 00:10:38].
Stevie Dillon:
Oh my God. So I did this free training for my podcasting course a couple of weeks ago and I showed everyone this spreadsheet that I have in the course and they’re like, “Give me the spreadsheet. This is the most amazing thing in the world.” But it literally steps out exactly when to promote, when to actually put your content together. And if you do it in that strategic way, it literally never means that you’re just kind of… Because what happens if you don’t do that is you start providing content and value over and over and you can’t see a tangible ROI in your business and you pod fade basically. So you’ll just stop doing it because you can’t see it working but it can work as long as you’re actually being strategic.
Pru Chapman:
Yeah, exactly. It’s like going to the gym, if you don’t have a goal for why you’re there, you’re just wandering around doing all the weights, you need to see some results. It’s the exchange, right?
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah.
Pru Chapman:
I put energy in, I get a result out. This is awesome. So why is now the time for people to pay attention to podcasting, do you think because you’d hear them as much as I do and I know that there’s some great stats around this, but everyone’s like, “Oh, everyone’s launching a podcast now.” Do you have those cheeky stats up your sleeves, Stevie? I’m guessing that you do.
Stevie Dillon:
I love a good stat. So before we into the stat side of things, I don’t know if you remember… Remember the time when blogs were really big and so bloggers were the thing. It was like the really hot thing, right? So I feel where we’re at with podcasting at the moment is where just before we hit where blogs got to all those years ago. And so what I mean by that is we’re at this really sweet spot where more and more people are starting to jump on board. So if you want a sneaky stat, 65% of people now listen to podcasts, and have listened to a podcast in the last three months, which I think is huge but we haven’t yet hit that critical mass of it’s not attainable for you to hit the charts.
Stevie Dillon:
It’s still very, very possible for you to launch a podcast now, if you are strategic about it and specifically, so another sneaky tip here, if you niche yourself. So rather than saying, “I’m just going to start a health podcast, I’m just going to start a lifestyle podcast,” if you kind of go, “Okay, so what’s the end game for me? I want to sell more of my social media courses. I’m going to start a specific social media podcast.” It’s still very, very possible to chart. 93% of people listen to most of a podcast episode, so super, super valuable.
Stevie Dillon:
And another really… When I heard this I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is the time.” Spotify has just invested $500 million into purchasing Gimlet and Anchor, which are two podcasting tools and they’re going all in. So really what it means is, there’s more people listening than ever. The pie is getting bigger, so it’s not just Apple podcasts that are owning the podcasting sphere. There’s other people really jumping in and it’s still at a point where you can jump in and be one of the big fish. It won’t be like that, I don’t suspect in a couple of years. So I’m actually so passionate about the fact that I’m like, “Don’t put it off any longer. Now is the time. Yes. No, the ship has not sailed, but don’t leave it any longer.”
Pru Chapman:
Yeah. Good one. Good one. And if anyone needs a little analogy here, it’s like when Instagram popped up and we were all too busy or couldn’t be bothered or whatever about consistent content, they were like, “Why didn’t I make the leaps and bounds?” I’ve talked with some people that were on the platform in the really early days and they’d be like, “Yeah, we’d just wake up to like 30,000 new followers.” So to get on something while it’s on the up and not like you say at that critical mass, now is the time.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah. Now is absolutely the time. I feel so passionately about that.
Pru Chapman:
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So what’s the potential if we get it right? I guess you’re a really great example of getting podcasting right and what it can do for your business.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah. It literally gives you… So what I would say with podcasting is you don’t get into it unless you actually have a goal for it. So if you just want to podcast for podcasts sake and you want to get on every week and whatever, that’s fine, but what I would always recommend that you do is you have a goal. So for example, you might say, “I want podcasting to be the top of the funnel to lead into my freelancing business and to get more copywriting clients.” Right? Or it might be, “I actually want to leapfrog out of services all together into digital products,” in which case match made in heaven, go all in on podcasting. And that’s what it’s done for me. I literally started out my podcast, I didn’t even have a business. I very quickly went from no business straight into a fully booked roster of clients as a freelancer. And then literally from there I’ve fast-tracked. So it was six months before I launched a online course with 160 people in the first intake, literally off the back of the podcast.
Pru Chapman:
Isn’t that amazing? Just blows my mind to even think back to it.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah, it’s wild.
Pru Chapman:
So great.
Stevie Dillon:
[inaudible 00:15:51] without it, it’s just such a… Anyway, I’m rabbiting on, but it’s such a powerful-
Pru Chapman:
Oh, I love it. I am here just eating up every podcasting word, ironic that we’re on a podcast. We could cover a huge spectrum here of how to launch a podcast and where to launch podcasts. But I think something that’s obviously very interesting to me and I think interesting to our listeners is how to make sure that your podcast hits the charts when you launch it. So have you got to be cheeky tips for us on how to hit those charts?
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah, I totally do. So a lot of my students [crosstalk 00:16:24] in my course.
Pru Chapman:
I love it.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah. So my podcast when I first launched, it launched at number two in the business charts under Tim Ferriss. And I was like, “What the hell? What is this? I cannot even believe this.” And actually got my friends to look up the podcast as well because I thought maybe it was just my phone and it was showing it up. And anyway, so I was like, “Well this is amazing.” And then I was like, “Okay, so [inaudible 00:16:53], how did I do this? What was the secret sauce?” And so that’s actually where my podcast course came from. And it’s three things.
So number one, is you need to be niched in. So you need to really be niched in on a specific topic because number one that will give you search engine juice. So for example, I had somebody yesterday… And I always ask people in Instagram DM when they Instagram DM me, I had somebody send me a DM and they were like, “Oh my gosh, I found your podcast, absolutely love your podcast.”
Stevie Dillon:
And I was like, “Oh, just curious, how did you come across it?” “I searched social media podcasts and it was the first one that came up.” I was like, “Bam. Amazing. I’ve got social in the title, I’ve got it in the show description. Make sure that I really SEO optimize it.” So niche and SEO optimization. Number two is call to action. So make sure you tell people to subscribe, is your main call to action. Ratings and reviews mean nothing, they literally mean nothing.
Pru Chapman:
Really, Stevie?
Stevie Dillon:
Yes. So you don’t need to literally worry about them at all. So on launch day, you want as many people as possible to subscribe within a 24 hour period. And that will give you the best possible chances. And then number three, sneaky little tip, is build your audience before you actually launch your podcast with guest podcasting. Sorry, actually strategically contact people in similar but noncompeting niches. So for example, if you’re a social media manager, you would contact a copywriter with a podcast. You’ve got the same audience, but you’re not competing with your products and offer value. Offer to provide value to the audience. Don’t make it about you. Don’t say, “I’d love to come on your podcast to promote my podcast launch.” I’ve definitely had that before. And build your audience with aligned people so that you actually have people that know your podcast is coming, that a podcast is podcast listeners themselves.
Pru Chapman:
Amazing. They’re three really great tips actually, and from one podcaster to another, I think people can actually, even courses that I’ve done in the past way back when were really… They’re really high level, but like I’ve said from the start, you really do get right in there and these kinds of strategies, you don’t find them everywhere. You have to have done it yourself to know about this.
Stevie Dillon:
Yeah. And I think a lot of people just teach the bare bones. There’s a lot of advice on the internet around podcasting that I see and I’m just like, “Ooh. It’s not right.” And I think it changes a lot as well. And I think those are the three things. And I’ve had a lot of my students launch in the charts following that exact strategy and there’s other things as well. But I think that’s the secret sauce, it’s really niche and search, subscribers to CTA and guest podcasts to build an audience.
Pru Chapman:
Amazing, amazing. Well folks, you’ve heard it here first. That is some really, really valuable information. So thank you for sharing that. In true, Stevie Says Social style giving us all the value right up front. So you have at the time of recording this, which is, we’ve just hit may in 2020. You’ve just launched your podcasting course, so when can people, if they’re interested, when’s the next one coming up?
Stevie Dillon:
I don’t know. But I do have a free podcasting workshop, if people are interested in that.
Pru Chapman:
Good. How do they get there?
Stevie Dillon:
steviesayssocial.com/podcastworkshop. I will set that up.
Pru Chapman:
I hope everyone’s watching the video [inaudible 00:20:25] as you just saw Stevie’s eyes make something up on it. But I do know that that’ll be absolutely packed with value, as with everything that you do, Stevie. So other than that, how can people best connect?
Stevie Dillon:
Send me a DM on Instagram. Come and connect with me there. @steviesayssocial
Pru Chapman:
Awesome. Stevie, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been an absolute treat and as always, I’ve learned something too, so thank you so much.
Stevie Dillon:
Thank you.
Sharing ideas matters.
