48: Using Your Podcast to "Date" Your Ideal Clients with Eric G. Reid

Written By Britany Felix
 
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"People come to podcasting because they want to feel like they’re eavesdropping on a conversation or having a conversation."

Eric G. Reid is the Host of the Success Life Radio podcast and the Creator of The Success Coaching System. Eric’s mission is to help, impact, and inspire people to take their life and their business to the next level and get more of what they want out of life.

In this episode, Eric and I veer a little off-topic for a few minutes as the conversation led me to reveal some personal information about my childhood that left me with some emotional baggage, but we get back on track by talking about how he uses his podcast as a tool for learning new information and skills that help in his client work, the two things he would differently if he could start his podcast journey all over again, and how he views his podcast as the equivalent of the dating portion of a relationship with his clients before they take things to the next level by committing to work with him.

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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. Welcome to Episode 48, of podcasting for coaches. So I'm starting off this interview with giving you a little bit of information about how it was recorded and some of the issues that we experienced. Because, as you recall, if you've listened to previous episodes, I am being the guinea pig for testing out squad cast. It is a recording program that is very heavily recommended in a lot of podcasting communities. I have not had the best of luck with it so far. And this interview is another example of one of those. Now, the first issue I'm going to talk about is a little bit user error, actually, it's technically 100% user error, but it's because of a flaw with the way that they have squad cast set up. So I am used to recording on Skype with the Moto, a multiple automatically starts recording once the call is initiated. So I don't have to hit the record button. It's not in my thought process. It's not really there for me to forget to press. Unfortunately, squad cast is not that way, it is not set up to auto record, which means you have to remember to hit the record button. Which means if you're like me, and you do make mistakes, as evident in Episode 43 of this podcast where I talk about the mistakes, I still make three years and nearly 300 episodes later, you sometimes forget to hit that record button that happened in this interview. And I also was very rushed. When I went to go hop on this call, I had some things happen right before the call because my life is a chaotic mess. And I forgot to ask him if he would record his side of the conversation. And I also forgot to record my own. So perfect storm here of different things. That all led to me not hitting the record button until after I had already given his bio, and asked the first question, which was for him to just give me a little bit of a background on, you know, his life and his journey with his business and his podcast. Luckily, I did hit record, I noticed it was not recording. And I did hit it only a few words into his reply into his very first answer. So this interview is actually going to pick up just a couple of words into his first answer. So I'm gonna say his bio here in this first section, and let you know that all you missed and his answer before I hit record was just that he was working in the corporate world. And he was very, very dedicated and focused on his career. So the other issue I had before I dive into his bio, and we really go into the interview, was at the end of this recording, I went to go download the audio files from squad cast. And mine was there and it was fine. And it was perfectly okay, I was able to download it right away. But for his there was just this little cloud icon and it kept saying uploading progressively. And that's all it said. And I left that open for about 10 minutes the session that we recorded in because I thought maybe it was, you know, just not quite finished processing or something. This is the first time this has happened with squad cast for me. So I left it open for about 10 minutes, and the status had not changed. So I eventually went to go look for some support documents to see if maybe there's something I was doing wrong or any other way I can access these files. And I found something that talked about the progressive uploads. But it just said it was supposed to happen kind of as the call was going in. It didn't say anything about if I gotten stuck there. So I thought crap, well, I've lost this file, but it said that they could give a backup for almost any file. So then I went to follow the prompts to access that backup file. At this point, I had already closed out of the session and waited for 10 minutes for upload, it clearly wasn't doing that. And I realized that in order to access the backup, I had to go back into that session, which was a little bit not great. I mean, that's not all that efficient. And then once I went to go do that to access the request for a backup file, because you have to actually send them a request and then they respond back to you. Then I noticed that the file was there and it was fine. And then I kind of went away and it looked like I could download it and I was able to I was able to download it normally. And then it played just fine. And I didn't have any issues. So all was well in the end. But there was kind of that little period of frustration where it didn't really seem like it was working properly. And I had to take some extra steps to get my file which I am not a fan of especially considering with Skype with the Moto which I have been using for years and I have been recommending it's all automatic and automatically records and it automatically saved to a folder on your desktop which I have set for Dropbox, so it's still in the cloud. So this whole process of dealing with this other system that Doesn't necessarily seem to work perfectly every time has been a little frustrating for me. So that's my real raw feedback on spod cast. So far, I am still testing it out, I've only done a few interviews, I don't believe that's enough to form an official opinion on it. I think I'm going to get to about at least 10 interviews with squad cast before I really kind of start to decide whether or not I want to continue on and continue being a guinea pig with it. We did have the same volume issue on this episode, because there is just no way to adjust the volume from inside the program. This is one of my major frustrations with squad cast. And hopefully it's something that they will resolve in a future update. So now that I've taken up so much time going through this, I'm going to go ahead and redo Eric's bio, and then we're going to pick up with the start of where my recording began for his first response. So Eric G. Reed is the host of the success life Radio Podcast, and the creator of the success life coaching system. Eric's mission is to help impact and inspire people to take their life and their business to the next level, and get more of what they want out of life. Eric truly believes that success in any area of life via business, financial health or relationships, starts with mastering your habits and controlling your mindset. If you would like to check out Eric's podcast or learn more about him, you can do so by accessing the Show Notes for this episode, which you can find by going to podcasting for coaches. com, click on the podcast tab in the main menu, and go to episode number 48. So without further ado, let's let Eric take it away.

 

06:32

And I remember one day as I was walking out the door, my son started to ask me a question. And he stopped himself. And he said, Oh, you'll probably be at work anyhow. And I kind of got the car. And it was like, you know, my personality sometimes is I just keep going and it takes something to hit me on the back of the head to slow me down. And it was about halfway to work. I was like, Oh my gosh, is that who I am? Is that really because your kids will tell you who you are, if you want to hear it or not. And so I thought, Oh, well, you know, he just doesn't understand I'm doing this for him. So we can have a college education we can have like, I'm doing this for him. And I started to turn it the opposite direction. Like how ungrateful how insensitive how unaware he was. And it took a little while. And I'm not saying the car trip to work. But it took several weeks and months for me to really start to realize how disengaged I was from what I consider success now being fully engaged in everything that I'm doing at the highest level possible. And so it was an unwinding and an undoing of that thinking and that mindset and those belief systems that my only value as a man and as a father and as a partner came from what I could have accomplished outside the home, not what I could accomplish inside the home.

 

07:46

Right? Well, I love that you shared that. I know that that's something that I think a lot of parents wouldn't necessarily be open to sharing so publicly. And unfortunately, it's a story that I can very much resonate with. As the child of that. My father was an entrepreneur growing up, and he worked constantly. My parents were divorced, I saw him every other weekend. And even on those weekends, you know, he would sometimes be several hours late picking us up. He very, very, very rarely attended, like my softball games, or my music recitals or even my parent teacher conferences, because he was always working. And as a child, it broke my heart to not have him there. I'm a daddy's girl to the core. And I remember thinking that I couldn't trust my dad, if he ever told me he was going to be there, I could just count on him not. And it wasn't until I got into probably my late 20s, early 30s that I finally flipped it and was grateful I finally understood that he did do all of that for us. So you know, maybe that's a realization that your child might have one day, because it did happen for me. But that also doesn't make up for all the times that he missed in my life and all the memories I did not get to make with him. So thank you for talking about that openly. And thank you for making that change. And that shift in your life and your mindset. And as the child in that scenario. I love hearing that that happened and that you were able to make that difference because I promise you it made a difference for your kid.

 

09:09

I appreciate that. I want to jump in just for a quick though because you point out something so critical as a parent or potential parent is you said I lost trust in Him. And so to this day, my son will say something like Promise me We'll go see the Captain Marvel video or movie or whatever. And if he uses the word Promise me, I'm like, honey, I can't promise it because I don't know if the movie is going to be like there's things outside of my control. And so here this parents, when your kid says Promise me and you answer just spontaneously reactively they're recording that in like granted that it will come to pass. And so I'll tell my son, it's a constant. I'll say I'll make my very best effort to in here and I'll explain to him here's what I'm in control of here's what I'm not we'll see how it goes

 

10:02

right i love that you haven't picked up on that because that's what my father would do you know i promise you i'll be at the next one i promise and then of course he wasn't and i actually developed a complex about that even to this day i don't really let people make promises to me because in my mind it's so ingrained that if somebody promises me i'm almost guaranteed to get the exact opposite like i will be let down so yes thank you again for picking up on that and for recognizing that with your own child and knowing that a promise can always be fulfilled even if you do everything the way that you're supposed to or the way that you you know can or do all of the things that you can do there are things outside of our control so i don't want to take this too much off off track here sorry no that's okay super interesting we just have a limited amount of time so why don't you tell us a little bit about how your podcasts like when it started you know why you started it how it fits into your business just give us a general overview of that

 

11:01

so as a coach one of my mentors and coaches was like you've always got to be learning you've always got to be creating you've always got to be content ready because i do coaching and speaking and you know they kind of overlap and don't overlap and i was like well i wait for the opportunity to get invited to do something or when i have more clients than i'll be able to talk about more things and i realized that wait to be my best coach to be fully prepared for those moments as a trainer or mentor speaker as a coach i need to be having conversations daily about the things that i want to see happen in my life and in other people's lives and how can i do that and podcasting became that vehicle it allowed me to each time i need to create a podcast was like i have to go out and learn something and then once i learned it i have to understand it because now i'm going to be required to teach it though there may not be a physical audience in the room and it made me hungry to know more and it allowed me to grow my skill set as a coach because when i meet with somebody and we're having a parenting conversation it's like oh my gosh i just did a podcast on parenting now i have a perspective of what you're saying and i have a set of tools to relate and communicate with you or any of the other podcasts really is about building my toolset but because of my learning style i have to learn it then teach it in order to really fully experience it

 

12:31

right one thing that i love about podcasting from this perspective of allowing it to kind of be a continuing education sort of a thing is that when you are by yourself you're not interacting with an audience of people you don't have a classroom full of students you know you're not up on stage speaking to an audience you're not getting that direct feedback so you have to actually i think no one even more because you have to anticipate what their follow up questions are going to be and what concepts they might have difficulty with so that you can focus on those a little bit more so i think this is a fantastic way to use the podcast because you have to really really understand the information and the concepts that you are teaching or talking about in podcast form because you have no feedback until after it's already out and at that point maybe you forgot a whole other sub topic that you didn't realize you needed to dive into and now all your audience's are like well wait what about this i didn't understand it so i think it's an excellent way to go about kind of continuing your education for not only your business but just any topic that you want to talk about

 

13:34

and for me when i'm sometimes doing a podcast and a solo podcast in the sense when i say something i'll be like who said that i realize i'm in the room by myself but it sounded like somebody else i'm like that's something that obviously you haven't been aware of or you need to become more aware of go in do the homework do the learning do the growing and then when i'm doing this type of thing where i'm podcasting as a guest or as a co host or another air it requires so much active listening like you have got to be dialed in because all of the visual clues are missing

 

14:09

right

 

14:09

and so when i stepped back into coaching just like we had that experience where you said i lost trust it was like if i was coaching in that moment i'd be like well what does that feel like what does that look like that one little word that maybe had we been in the physical room together i would have skimmed over

 

14:27

right that is such an excellent point i tell all of my clients and i've said it on this podcast 1000 times people are probably sick of hearing me say it and we right now an example of this to not use video when you're recording your podcast interviews one because a it just weakens your connection but two because you can't pick up on those visual cues i have a few clients who they record via video and they constantly are like referring to things that the listeners not going to be able to see or like you said they're missing things that the listener would definitely pick up on because they're getting These visual cues, they're understanding that somebody was confused by a question, or they're understanding that someone's smiling and reacting positively to their question or to their answer. But as a listener, audio only form, you don't have any of that that is all stripped away, you just have the voice. So yes, it absolutely does make you a more active listener, you have to focus and we talked about before we recorded this call, kind of the distractions that we have, and you know, around us in our phones and computers, and you know, you were talking about your watch, because it might, you know, beep during the interview. And when you are in this audio only setting, you have to be so focused, because there's nothing else to go off of, I can only hear the words that you're saying to me, you can only hear the words I'm saying back. And I think that makes for a much deeper, more engaged conversation.

 

15:49

I have to agree. And I will say, one thing that I see people that are in this coaching sort of space do is like, Oh, well, I did this Facebook Live, and I'm just gonna move it over to podcast. Mm hmm. It doesn't translate. It's the same thing as trying to dictate a book versus write a book. I know when I do my Facebook Lives that I am a different style speaker because they can see my body language, they can pick up on cues, I can say things differently visually, than I can say things when I only have the audio to work with. And so if you're moving into this channel and into podcasts, and you're like, well, I did this thing before, and I'm just gonna move it over here, or I wrote this. And so now I'm just gonna read it. podcasting is podcasting. And people come to podcasting because they want to feel like they're eavesdropping on a conversation, or having a conversation. And so for that to happen organically, you have got to get in the podcasting mindset, physical space, to give your audience the very best.

 

16:54

Right right now, is that something that you just kind of knew from the beginning when you started your podcast? Or was that a skill you had to learn as you went?

 

17:01

It was a skill. And then because I was all things me, because I was learning podcasting. I went out and I listened to some a lot of podcasts. And I started to feel like why do I just not feel like this is any good. And it wasn't necessarily the content, it was that they weren't participating the same way I was participating. So when I'm listening to a podcast, I'm typically listening to a podcast, I'm not watching a video that they've downloaded from YouTube, or a recording of a teaching that they gave at the University. I'm there to listen to a podcast. And so it's different in coaches, it's a wonderful vehicle to share a message on a different level with your clients or potential clients. Because we all hear and learn differently. And so you as the deliver have to be able to move through those spaces with equal ability.

 

18:00

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more like what that actually looks like in podcast form, at least maybe for you.

 

18:06

So for instance, right now, we're doing this podcast and one of the things are we doing video or non video because if you had said video, I would had to move physically into a different place to set the scene for a video. Because we're doing audio, I'm literally in like a box, I've got like a wall that's three feet taller than me. It's soundproof, it's visually, there's nothing but black velvet on the inside. So I can see that I don't have anything physically that I can distract to, because mentally My eyes are closed. And I'm trying to see and hear you so that I can be connected to you that way. If I'm doing a solo cast, where I'm just doing something, I may have note cards where I can see them. But I don't have a script. Because when I wrote the script, it was an internal conversation. And now I'm trying to make an external, reading the written word, you have to be really good to do that in a podcast format. Now I get it. There's some people that say, Well, I just disseminate information. It's like, okay, as long as your audience knows ahead of time, that that's what they're getting, right? Because I don't want to tune in for an audio book unless I know what's an audio book.

 

19:14

Right? Exactly. Yeah, no, I have never really tried to script out what I say for my solo episodes, because I do a mix of solo and interview as well. I sometimes will do bullet points like a bulleted list of talking points just to make sure I don't miss something. And inevitably, I seem like I still do. But I don't script anything one because I just don't necessarily have the time but to you're very correct in saying that that's a very difficult thing to do. And most people cannot read from a script and it still sound natural and authentic. And that is one of the beautiful things about podcasting as you are getting people hopefully, in there just authentic truth, natural cells and personalities. And that's why we're able to establish that trust. So is that something that you feel that you've been able to do a great job with your audiences kind of building that That bond of trust with them. So that they want to work with you further is that one of the purposes of the podcast serves? It is. And partly because

 

20:07

I said this to somebody the other day in our coaching profession, taking somebody from hello to let's have children, over one cup of coffee is a really big leap. I mean, it's a financially it's a trust leap. It's a know who you are, and can we work together. And so often what I'll discover is some of my most productive and long term clients are those who have been like, you know, I've been listening to you for like three months on podcast, and I just couldn't but commit to you. That's like, oh, somebody else did the dating before. And what I realize is that somebody else was me, it was just in a different form our relationship was, and now they want to take our, quote, relationship to a higher level or a different place. And so having multiple places where your potential clients can meet you, whether it's in a blog, whether it's in a Facebook Live, or YouTube Live or another video format, versus podcasting, is really about giving them channels to get comfortable with you before they show up on that first blind date, that coaching call.

 

21:10

I love that analogy. Because you are absolutely correct. I just released episode, I think it was like 47, maybe of the podcast, where I was talking about how my download numbers aren't really that great, but the show is still a success for me. Because when I get on calls with people, half of my job of selling myself is already done, if not more, because I'll hear the comment of Oh, your podcast has already helped me so much. You know, if me just talking into a microphone, and then listening to a headphone has already helped them, what are we going to be able to do when I can actually interact with them and provide direct feedback. So I love that you hurt you are having that same experience, because it just kind of further validates that for coaches, and consultants who are considering starting a podcast that that's not just my experience, that's a very common experience, that the podcast does a good chunk of that for you.

 

21:58

You know, your

 

21:59

analogy with doing the dating is fantastic, because that is the same thing they are getting to know you. They're learning about you. They're learning about your quirks. They're learning about your expertise, they're learning about how you like to work, so that they can make the decision before they even get on the call. They're not making it right then and there. You know, they generally already have their mind made up as to whether or not they want to work with you. If they didn't, they wouldn't have taken that next step, you know, taking things to the next level, and scheduled a call with you one on one. So thank you for sharing that experience. And how would you say, you know, the people who listened to your podcast like, where are they at, and I guess the stage of their journey, because they don't know what kind of clients you typically work with, like, where you they normally come at you from. So if you don't mind just talking about the type of people who listened to your show, and where they're at in their journey. And I know you said that, you know, you've had someone say like three months later, they've listened to you, but kind of what does that flow look like from when they come to your show to the time they work with you? Well, and I

 

22:56

can appreciate you sort of adding confusion because I think sometimes as a coach, we go in with a specific niche. And after a while that grows or changes or shifts as we discover our voice. And as our clients begin to discover the comma, the connection point. And so a lot of where I find my clients coming into it is like, you know, I'm either very successful at this, but this part of my life completely sucks. And I need you to fix this. And I'm like, Well, here's a hand, buddy, I'm not going to fix that we're going to fix the whole thing, and move forward. Or a lot of entrepreneurs will say, you know what, I'm here. And this is not what I want to do with my life. I don't like my job, I don't like where I'm at. And I need to go to the next place. And I know that's going to require somebody to like shift my thinking, and hold me there. I'm actually working on a book right now. Of course, it's always a project that I have. But sort of the idea of exit now. It's like what is it gonna take to exit the situation you're currently whether it's a relationship, a financial situation, a job or the business, you're running what's required to exit. And that really came out of working with clients that would call me it's like, I'm not where I want to be, but I don't know how to get out of this. It go there. And I'm like, well, that's why you need a coach. And, you know, not everybody and I are a perfect match. And that's why I say I love the idea of having a podcast because they're like, you know, you said something three episodes ago that has not gotten out of my head and I'm like, really? I'm feeling pretty special. You've been carrying me around for three weeks.

 

24:33

Yeah, absolutely. I still have things that I implement in my business that I heard on a podcast a year or two ago. Some things some little nuggets just kind of really resonate and stay with you. And I think that is a great thing about podcasting. I mean, yes, I do have visuals that have stayed with me, you know from different videos I've seen, but none of those are videos of just somebody sitting in front of a camera talking. None of that stands out to me, as far as you know what I remember and what's resonating From a video, but I have almost exact quotes in my head still, from things that I've heard on podcast and actions that I have taken. Just last night, actually, I was editing a interview for a client. It was like a health podcast that I work on. And they were talking about, you know, blue light at night and how it interferes with their sleep and all those things. And, oh, there's this software program that you can put on your computer, it's free. And as soon as I finished editing that episode, I went and downloaded that because I work mostly at night. I'm like, Oh, I should probably try this out. Like, no wonder I get headaches all the time. And so I think that a podcast really inspires people to take action, in a way that personally for me, I see no other platform do. And yours, I think, for your clients to take the action is to, I love that idea of exit now, because I can relate to that I can relate to being and just kind of this snowball, where every day, it just seems like it gets a little bit more difficult to stop. If you're in a job, you make more money than you know, the next year than he did the year before. And now it's even harder to quit. If you're in a relationship, you've invested yet another year of your life, and you're like, Oh, I don't want this to be a waste. So I think with a podcast, you can really inspire those actions and inspire people to finally realize when it is time to make that shift in that change. And unfortunately, we do need to wrap up. But really quickly, I want to ask you one final question here. And that is if you could do anything different about your podcast journey, if there's one aspect of it that you feel you didn't handle the best way or that you wish you would have known more about what would that be?

 

26:31

I guess I'm gonna because of me, I'm gonna give you two one I wish I would have started earlier. And two, I wish I would have cared less about it being perfect. I think I got so stuck in recording and deleting and recording and deleting and recording and deleting and instead of just delivering and releasing.

 

26:50

And how long would you say that held you up for? Lord, I'm

 

26:53

ashamed to say probably like over a year, like I had thought about it. And then I tried everything I could not to do it. And then a couple of them I did and they were so bad. I backed away from it. And now when I say I'm more consistent, it's like there's a weekly show. And then there's probably some extras mixed in when I get pulled but there is never gonna be not a weekly show now, or daily show when I do it

 

27:16

live.

 

27:16

Gotcha. Okay, well, thank you for sharing that. And thank you so much for being on the show. Everyone can find your information in the show notes for this episode, which was talked about in the intro to this episode. I just appreciate everything that you're doing and that you are helping people make incredible changes in their lives. I know that it was a struggle for me to do it on my own. And so I hope that people understand there is support out there. Support like Eric, thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you next week. 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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