44: Why You Should Conduct Coaching Calls on Your Podcast with Mallory Schlabach

Written By Britany Felix
 
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Mallory Schlabach is a certified life & business coach who works with kick-ass entrepreneurs to teach them how to make their businesses stand out, get noticed, and massively grow. She is also the Host of the Marketing Magic podcast.

In this episode, Mallory discusses why she started her podcast in the first place, the genius strategy for how she turns her podcast listeners into paying clients with free live coaching sessions on her podcast, how she uses paid strategy sessions with existing clients to help provide more content for the podcast, how the podcast helps her nurture her email list, why she credits her guests with expanding her warm audience and leads, why she decided to hire a “talent hunter” and where she found them, and more!

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Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Mallory slay ba is a certified life and business coach who works with kick ass entrepreneurs to teach them how to make their businesses stand out, get noticed, and massively grow. She is also the host of the marketing magic podcast. malorie, thank you so much for being on the show today. I'm so excited to talk to you. Thank you.

 

00:59

I'm excited.

 

01:00

So let's go ahead and dive right on in because we keep these episodes pretty short. I want you to talk to me a little bit about in general, your podcast right now. So how long it's been going and what you do with the podcast, give us some general background on that. And then we'll really take a deep dive into how to utilize it for your business.

 

01:17

Sure. So I have the marketing magic podcast, I'm pretty sure it started around June of 2018. So it's like a baby. It's a baby podcast, but I love and like nurture. And what I love doing on it is actually the whole reason I started it was because one I'll do like those in the podcast. But I have a lot of kids and I don't have a lot of time. So I have to pick very specific ones that I can listen to, like with them and ones that actually help and not just waste my time. So I had found a podcast where they do on air strategy calls. And I was like, oh my like blew my mind. Like, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. So I was like, I can do that. Cuz that's pretty much what I do is I do strategy calls all day long. And so I was like, I'm gonna do a podcast because, one, it's way faster than me writing a blog and way more interesting. And so I just kind of jumped in and started asking people like, Hey, you want to start a session with me? And I'll record it, and we'll be cool. So that's kind of how it was born. And so it's kind of morphed into I do a lot of strategy, one on one with women who just need help with marketing and not even like a, I think sometimes people think strategy. They're like, Oh, I suck at what I do. But really, it's not. It's like, you should not know these things. Like it's not part of your skill set. You're not taught this. You're not born with these skills. And so it's totally cool to get an outsider's opinion on how to grow your business. So I try to take the stigma away from people who are like, I don't know, I don't really mean strategy. I'm okay. And I'm like, No, you really do, it's gonna be awesome. So I kind of do that on our coaching calls. definitely my favorite this season. I call it seeds, even though I really don't take a break. But this season, I am also bringing on guest experts, who are a couple steps ahead of who my ideal people are. Because I think what I've been seeing in the women I've been working with the last couple of years is that it's really hard for them to visualize where to take their business, if they haven't seen somebody else do something similar. I don't know if you've seen this in your own business or experienced it with people you work with as well. But for some reason, when you can hear even if it's a totally different niche, totally different audience, all that stuff, if you can kind of see how they've taken those leaps and grown their business is simply like, trigger something in your brain, you're like, Oh, I can totally do that, too. So I'm bringing on some people who are steps ahead to kind of talk about one, where do they start? So we will come see, I think people expect, like they're going to be overnight successes, too. And then they totally beat themselves up when they're not growing as fast as they think they should. So I want it to be a space where people can hear other people's stories and truly see like, what are they doing what's working? What's now because if you know, like, online marketing, digital marketing, all this stuff is moving so quickly. It's changed so much in like, a couple years that I focused primarily online businesses. It's crazy. And so you need to know what's going on and what you can try and what you can test and, and just be open to challenging it and to try new things. And so that's what we do. I interview people, and I do strategy sessions. And then sometimes I get to talk to the microphone myself, and it's super fun.

 

04:03

Awesome. Well, I love that you brought up the fact that you're bringing on these guests who are a few steps ahead, because it is hard to know how these things are possible. That's the exact reason I actually started my very first podcast three years ago, because I wanted to live the travel lifestyle, like we talked about before we actually started recording. Yeah, and I just kept seeing all of these people like posting these amazing pictures, which you know, now I know are you know, take them at face value. But you know, I saw these people living this life I wanted but nobody was talking about how they actually did it. And it was driving me nuts. And because it was this whole like mysterious thing. I kept thinking I couldn't do it. They knew the secret. I didn't I couldn't do it. And I got sick of thinking of that. And so I started the podcast to talk to these people and find out how they did it because I figured if I had these questions so that other people and so I love that you're taking kind of that same approach just applying it to your you know your niche with the marketing and growing a business and all of those things. And I also love that you do these live streams. did you sessions because i talked about this on the podcast before this is an option for people who aren't really quite sure that they can sit down and just talk by themselves into a microphone or come up with a bunch of content every week like you said you're already doing these calls so why not repurpose them into a podcast so i really want to focus on this today because i think you can provide a unique perspective since most people are not doing this you know most coaches right when you first got this idea how did you go about approaching or asking your clients if they would be comfortable with this because i know for me personally i feel like that might be where the biggest hang up is is the clients being okay with having these calls recorded and then published in such a public way

 

05:39

yeah initially what i started with i literally just put a post out and i was like hey who wants to do a strategy session for me and let me record it and i just made sure that they knew that one i was i wanted to feel safe like in anything i do i want you to feel safe so i was like one i'm never gonna make you feel stupid you're never gonna sound stupid i can edit out anything we can always redo it we can throw it away like there's no way you're gonna look bad in this i think you're gonna do is help somebody else as well as gain insight into your business and so that's kind of how i started it was like well put it out here let's see who's took it a lot of people were like me and i was like sweet this is i'm on to something then it's kind of morphed into you know when i have a split really like either i see people who i'm like ooh that would make a really good podcast i'm like can you come on and i strategize with you or i have clients and i'm like this would be a perfect topic for the podcast could we record this and you'll be totally cool and we'll just hit play and then just let it go live and so most people surprisingly are really open to it i really haven't had any pushback ever gonna be like no i don't want to be on air because i think if you ever worked with me or talk with me you realize it's not like a like a lot people think coaches are like shame based and that's really not my style for sure but if you had that experience i just want to say i'm sorry for people like coaching is so much more powerful it's not about you doing the wrong things it's about helping you figure out the best thing you should do and the right things and what you're already doing really well and so that's kind of the approach i take and i think that's kind of made a difference

 

06:59

yeah i love that and i love that you kind of just blew that whole idea that somebody may have that intimidation of getting people to say yes out of the water because you didn't really have that and that's not to say that's going to be everyone's experience but i think it probably comes down to how much your existing audience and your clients trust you because if they don't trust you to you know make them sound okay on the podcast or not make you know look like an idiot like you said then hopefully they're not working with you to begin with you're working with people who should already trust you and know that you will never do anything to you know damage their reputation or put any you know their business in jeopardy by releasing something they didn't want released right now i want to ask you do you have any kind of like contracts or legal statements or releases that you have them sign saying you can put this information out there publicly

 

07:45

so now i get a lot of people who like fan me who are like hey can i be on your podcast and usually i'm like yes you're awesome let's do this so basically what i have them do is i fill out a form and they check a box that says you know yes it's okay for me to use this and yes i know it's possible she may not even use it i've only had one kind of weird session before where it was like this this is not going where like this is a different personality than i thought you were going to be and this kind of sounded weird so there's only one person that i actually didn't want to use it and so i just didn't use it but other than that like i just make sure people know like it's okay you know what i'm using it for i make sure they've heard the podcast i snoke sure they could have links to it if they've you know most people are like have listened to it if they want to be on it so yeah cuz i think that's important i mean you can never get enough permission right you should get permission for all kinds of things just to be safe i think it's a good policy across the board where anything you do in life is just might as well have that box checked so

 

08:34

right absolutely so from what i hear you have a lot of people who are contacting i'm assuming publicly like social media things like that and maybe even via your website for the sessions do you charge them or do you do it for free because it's giving you the podcast content how does that work

 

08:52

two different ways so usually if it's one i think it's going to be an awesome session for anybody needs to hear because basically i'm using my podcast as a way to attract more people right so a lot of times a guest will come on and i do them for free the sessions and then they go on to hire me to either do more sessions do more plans to do that come into my mastermind that kind of thing so it's never like a lose lose situation plus with content plus it's not just me talking like i am very exciting but you know it's way more exciting to hear things specifically you know other people's problems i don't know why we have this fascination with hearing other people's problems because i think it makes us feel better it makes me feel like oh we can do this too so what i do i don't charge for it but sometimes i do have client sessions cuz i record them too and i'm like you know that was a really really great question that we kind of dove into would you mind if i use this on the podcast after and they always extra great

 

09:38

awesome so let's talk about how you get these people to become your clients because that's why a lot of people are starting podcasts lead generation increase their revenue grow their business and i think that doing these live coaching sessions is an amazing way to do that and it seems like you're already having success with that so do you want us walk us through the process of what that looks like how this podcast does really just generate those leads and like, what your quote unquote funnel is for that? Okay,

 

10:05

so that's a great question. Because what I've done is I've just kind of built in a protocol to whenever I have an interview coming up, so whether it's the guest expert coming in, whether it's a strategy session, I pretty much pre bashed my day. So I know I have a couple ones coming up today after it's on Friday, and I'm super excited. But what's important to me is that I know from working with so many different people, that questions come up about the session, if it's a one on one session, if it's about a guest expert coming in, I pick kinds of random questions from people listening for that person. So I always bake into it. Like, before we start our interview, I would love to set up a follow up call, because I know there's going to be questions and we can just touch base with it. That then opens the door to pretty much anything, right? Like, I don't have any expectations of what could happen after we do our podcast. But I'm going to make sure there's a path that could be anything that happens. A lot of times it's just finding out from people where they're at, you know, have they taken the action? You know, have they done steps we did on the study session? What can be the very next best step for them? What can I recommend for them, and just continuing the conversation, because like, once you meet me, it's not like I'm like, see, ya never wanna talk to you. Again. It's like, you're you're part of the family, I'm like, gonna check on your family and see your pictures of all kids. And I'm not creepy, but I do love making genuine connections with people. That's why I have people on the podcast. So I just make sure that I'm following my steps, I book a call, I get on the call, and then I just see what happened. And then I book The next call. And then I just keep going just like I'm just talking to a friend.

 

11:27

Okay. And I think that's an amazing strategy, I honestly wouldn't have thought of just automatically scheduling that follow up call right away. And I think doing that, while they're on the call while they've gone through the session, while they're really motivated and excited and energized is the perfect time to go ahead and set that up.

 

11:43

Right? Because it's not like, like, I'm not a salesperson. Sales makes me nervous. But it's like, if you could think of a framework of I literally just need another person to talk to you. Like, I don't have any expectations. I literally have nothing to pitch to them. You know, there's things I could but I'm not going into it that way. And so I think that's probably a barrier people from normally because they're like, oh, man, I don't have to sell to that person. Well, that's not what I'm doing it for. I'm doing it to genuinely figure out. Could it be a good fit for me for her for him, like whoever I have on the podcast? And what can we do next?

 

12:11

Yeah. So I mean, obviously, you don't have to talk about like conversion rates, or like how many people actually hire you. But as you mentioned, your podcast is still relatively new. I mean, it's not even a year old yet. And for most podcasters, it's a long game it takes a long time for they really start to see this come in. And so I think you have a really good system for this. Would you say now that it's a main lead generator for you? Or how does it fit into the overall, you know, umbrella of your business, as far as lead generation,

 

12:36

I would say it's got a couple different prongs into it. So one, it gives me great content to continue building relative with my existing list, because I reach out to my list, they get insider stuff in the podcast, things that must be bought to download or like go to the website and do that. Like they just get straight up anything I talked about I send straight to my list. So that's helping build that, you know, community engagement that way, then the strategy sessions that I do with people, it really piques their interest, because I think it's kind of hard to wrap your mind around. Truly what it could look like for marketing help. Marketing is such a big, like fancy fancy words and like a billion things. So when they can hear it broken down into literally, what are we mapping out for this person, they could be like, Oh, I need that, too. So then it's, you know, starting the conversation, or I'm seeing people kind of trickle in, they join my list, they join my group, I see him engaging. And so it just gives me more ideas that people to kind of reach out to next so that they're the warmest. And then what's interesting is bringing on these guests, they're helping me expand my warm network, right. So I'm introducing to their crowd of people who, you know, a lot of them I'm bringing on, they have some kind of like marketing niche, like they're very specific, like they do content, they do Pinterest, they do something, but they're further ahead. And so it's one it's really interesting for people who like want to do that specific thing. And to like gives them inspiration for how they can get there. So our audiences kind of blend really well together. So I'm just getting more leads coming in that I wouldn't normally have gotten before. So that's kind of a three way approach of using it. Okay, awesome.

 

13:59

And do you have any plans to change anything or tweak anything, as you know, 2019 progresses? Or are you pretty happy with the podcast itself, your overall workflow, anything that you have learned, you know, along the way that you're maybe going to tweak this year?

 

14:13

What I have been working on since January was actually having somebody helped me kind of organize the people, the people on it and getting it like systematically, like, if you've not podcasted, before, let me tell you, it is not for the faint of heart. It is awesome and wonderful and magical and hard and like makes you wanna stab your eyes out some days. Just because it's work, right? Any good thing takes work. And so just figuring out that rhythm of like, do I want to edit it myself? Do I want to hire that out? Where do I find all these people? Like, who's gonna send them the questions? And how do I find like, just kind of that logistical piece which I know a lot of people will come on your podcast and talk about because you do a lot of that. That part gets exhausting people like start because it's fun. They're like, Oh, this is a lot of work. So I think that's when you kind of step in also, and kind of help entrepreneurs figure out how to keep going With this like monster they just created. And so that's kind of where I was, I was like, I just need someone help me figure out the people part of it, I'm still comfortable editing it myself. For me, it's kind of like a fun techie game, it's probably not going to stay that way forever. And so what I've done is I've had someone help me like, find people, more people to expand to kind of bring it outside of my own network, because I'm really learning and know this, but it's like, something you have to drill into your brain is that the more people you know, the faster you're going to grow. And so if I can use every person in my network of possible to reach out to their network, and so on and so forth. There's really no bad into that. There's, nothing bad's gonna happen. And so right, just using somebody else to help me kind of think outside of the box for my podcast, I guess and think about where could I take it possibly,

 

15:42

and sort of follow up on that? So somebody to help you with that kind of guest management part of it? Where did you find that person? Were they already in your network existing? Did you go through a service? Because I know a lot of people have that same question of where do I find the support that I need? Which of course, they can reach out to me, for anyone on the podcast who just kind of wants to take care of themselves, and how did you go about finding your help?

 

16:02

I was introduced to this person as a like she was a VA and then she like niched down to really just focus on podcasting. And she doesn't do editing or anything. She really is like the talent Hunter, I would call her. So she helps me find podcasts, she helps me find guests, kind of that liaison between like making sure like everyone shows up, they have any questions, getting them a guest packet, you know, sending them out, or all they need to know. So for me, it was just asking, like, honestly, I didn't even know this person existed until I heard about it. And another I was like, oh, people do this. I need that person. So it was the same thing. It's like I had to see what was possible to know that I could do with my own business.

 

16:38

Right. Okay, well, if you are interested in finding out who Mallory is using, definitely reach out to her we will have her links to everything in the show notes for this episode, which you can find by going to podcasting for coaches.com clicking on the podcast tab in the main menu and going to this episode, which is number 44. So Mallory to wrap up today, for the budding coach or consultant or maybe even the established one who is considering starting a podcast for their business in 2019. What's the main piece of advice you'd want to give them?

 

17:08

Oh, man, such a hard question. I think the thing I would say is, if you truly think you could love podcasting, if you are like a podcast junkie, you're probably gonna love it. If you're okay with just putting in the work because it's exactly what you said it is not a quick game. This isn't like a quick marketing ploy. This is like a long term thing. And you're going to have to be committed to it. But it is so fun. Like it's so fun. If you have a fun meter like I do, and you like talking to people, then it's I think it could be really worthwhile for you for sure to just try it out because I think podcasting gives you a different platform than just blogging and exponentially increases that know like trust factor, which you have to have in marketing to do well. And so that's why I love it so much. Is that like my husband listens to podcast about pirates like people if there are podcasts about pirates, you could do anything, you can do any kind of podcast and you will have a listenership. So it's just trusting that you can do the process and follow it through to see where it goes and not be like, month to like,

 

18:07

Oh my gosh, I

 

18:08

have 500 downloads, which is pretty awesome. For two months, we're

 

18:10

gonna be both

 

18:11

right. Do not be discouraged because it's really really it can be really great for you.

 

18:15

Okay, well Mallory, thank you so much everyone listening, go check out Mallory's podcast, check out her website, follow her on social media, and she also has a free guide for how to get visible. Again, all of those links will be in the show notes for this episode number 44. Mallory, thank you so much. Thank you. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, get additional free resources, receive updates on this podcast and connect with other coaches and consultants who are using a podcast for their business. I'd like to invite you to join the podcasting for coaches community on Facebook. You can either search for podcasting for coach's community on Facebook to find it, or you can use the link that's in the show notes for every single episode of this podcast on my website podcasting for coaches.com

 
Britany Felix
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