How to Get Visible Quickly With Anna Parker-Naples

Anna Parker-Naples is a Hollywood award-winning audio expert, leading podcast launch expert and online business mentor. Bestselling author of ‘Podcast with Impact’ and ‘Get Visible’, Anna helps entrepreneurs to amplify their message and stand out from the crowd. She is a British international award-winning Entrepreneur and host of Top 1% global show Entrepreneurs Get Visible Podcast.

www.ThePodcastMembership.com 
www.AnnaParkerNaples.com 
www.facebook.com/AnnaParkerNaplesCoach 
www.instagram.com/annaparkernaples 
www.linkedin.com/in/annaparkernaples 
www.twitter.com/annaparkernaple 
www.facebook.com/groups/thepodcastcommunity

Transcript

Josh: What is up everybody Josh Tapp here again from the lucky Titan and today we are here with Anna Parker Naples, this is a conversation that I've actually really been looking forward to because Anna is also very, very heavily involved and very well known in the podcasting space. She's running one of the top podcasts called, excuse me, entrepreneurs get visible but she also has helped multiple dozens of podcasts hits these top lists and get visible get their companies in front of their ideal targets using podcasting and it's just been so cool to see her, her journey and you know, it's always kind of star struck moments for me when you've heard of somebody before and then they come onto your show so I'm excited to have you here Anna, can you say what's up to everybody and we'll hop in. 

Anna: Hey, I'm blushing now with that, thank you.

Josh: Nobody could tell because your mic’s red and your shirts red. So if you're watching this thread, nobody even knows. 

Anna: Always on brand, always on brand. 

Josh: You know, I've never thought about that. But that's a great way to avoid ever feeling like you're blushing is keep everything rad so if you're a blusher, fallen,

Anna: and I tell you what, what's really cool, so a lot of red in my branding, but what happens is that microphone companies are always sent to me red microphones, so I get them all for free because people know that I will use them and then they'll get their product out in front of people, it's just kind of nice, 

Josh: man. I'm like, what color can I do but reds, red is brilliant, I'm not gonna copy you. It's like red balloon in Australia, I think that's what they're called. They're that huge ecom company, the lady from the Australian Shark Tank. Anyways, good stuff, red's a good attractant. So and I want to ask you a couple questions related to kind of kick this off with podcasting because we do like to hear your story, we want to know, you know what, you went from an audio background to podcasting but what kind of made you make that transition, but also what was kind of the motivational factor behind getting into podcasting for you.

Anna: Okay, I want to tell a fairly big story in a really short space of time, Josh, so I 12 years ago, was told to expect I'd never walk again and that was pretty heavy, I was in my third pregnancy, I had a major complication and I was a mess, basically and I'd been an actor, doing a lot of stage work and I'd always thought, I'm going to go back to the stage, once I pop out child number three, and I'll come bouncing back and I have this news and it devastated me To be frank, and I had this decision, I stay locked in this pit of sorrow, that was not a very nice place to be, or I do something about it to feel better and I actually went to see an NLP practitioner, neuro linguistic programming and there were a couple of things that happened that day, he kind of said to me, Well, one, what if the doctors were wrong, what if you could recover, two what if you could actually be a really successful actor, and be at home and be disabled and do the school run and be internationally acclaimed for what you do and earn a lot of money now, as a stage actor in England, I'd always just thought, those things are me, I can't be a good mom and an actor, I can't be an actor and make loads of money so kind of just mashed up my brain for a while of thinking, Well, okay, well, what if I could and what are the what ifs that I came up with was what if from home, I could record voice over work, voice acting work, from my cupboard at home from my wheelchair, and earn great money and do the school run and so I kind of had this baptisms of fire into voice acting and voiceover work so initially commercials and corporate narrations and then later into audiobooks, really high profile video games, particularly once I recovered so to cut a long story short, six years to the day, almost of being told, I've never walk again, I'm standing on the red carpet in Hollywood, walking in a cracking pair of high heels and thinking, oh my god, I can't actually win any more awards in this field, I done it and I felt that really strong impulse of that mindset shift changed everything, what I actually think I want to do now is get that message out to as many people as possible so I kind of went headlong into right, I'm going to be a motivational speaker and I'm going to be an author and I don't know how what this looks like, but suddenly it's not about me getting out there, it's about helping other people stand out and along that way of kind of coming into the entrepreneurial expert space, it didn't all go swimmingly, it didn't all go to plan. People kept saying you should start a podcast so I went okay, and literally came into my recording cupboard and started one, but I didn't know what I didn't know and I didn't understand why when I had great quality audio didn't know how to make that podcast fly and bit by bit more and more people were coming to me saying, I've listened to your podcast, I want to learn how to do it and I thought, Okay, well eventually, once I've done all the motivational stuff I'm going to share with people how to podcast but if I'm going to teach that, I want to have a show that is undeniably successful and I read a book, I read a few books before I was going on holiday that were about podcasting and one of them was so lacking in good information about audio that I literally said to my parents, why hasn't anyone actually really told someone how to do this and it was that moment, Josh of, okay, that's actually what I was supposed to do, I want to help people who feel like they've got a big mission. He wants to motivate others to use audio and it was like, then like, my two worlds completely collided and that's what I do now, as you said, I help often people who are coaches or really want to make a difference, I help them have chart topping podcasts but it's kind of if you told me I was going to do this, I would never have believed it

Josh:  I think that's the typical entrepreneurial Titans story I feel like is like you never would have imagined being where you're at and I love that because some people might look at your story and say, well, wouldn't that just be the natural progression I mean, you go from audio to podcasting, but what people don't realize about the podcasting space is it's, it's a different world of you, especially if you've been in the Hollywood world and coming to this world totally different but what I love about your story is you took your lessons learned from those from Hollywood, and honestly, your trial, I mean, what a crazy story about not being able to being told you're not going to be able to walk, but translating that over into an industry that's still in its infancy, when people think that podcasting is, oh, it's a done deal but we haven't even touched half the world at this point so I love where you go with that.

Anna: And I feel I feel that podcasting sill its infancy but for those of you listening, it's actually about 15 years old, if not been on our phones for 15 years, I don't even know if we've not been able to access them in that way and to put that in context, the whole concept of a home studio microphone, even 12 years ago, when I started in the audio field was a bit controversial, people thought there's no way you can create good quality audio and people who owned recording studios had a vested interest in kind of being very critical of home studio equipment being developed because their, their businesses were at risk so it's been interesting for me to have been on that whole journey of what it means to record good quality from home, how you can do that, does it have to be as complex as a lot of people would have us believe or are there other ways to make it work for you in your own environment and so yeah, that's how that's how I ended up doing what I'm doing 

Josh: well and I love the niche working with them, you know, the group of people who I feel like they're the world's best, right, I said that people were trying to give back, they want to make money giving back but they're really all about community and really, truly giving knowledge and helping other people and so, working with coaches and everything, I want to ask you this, because a lot of the people listening to this podcast are coaches, and they're saying, when should I be podcasting because it's kind of like the book, I think a lot of people look at it like a book where they say, I've always wanted to do it, but I can't do it right now. So when's the time?

Anna: Okay, so the time is now because what we're going to see in about three years’ time, is everybody having a podcast on their website, if you remember, like 10 years ago, or so suddenly, every website, you had to have a blog well, it's going to be a bit like that for podcasting and at that point, you're not going to be able to make an impact, you're, it's you're going to be the same as everybody else, what we have right now, is that a real sense of acceleration and if you have a personal brand, or you're wanting to build a personal brand, certainly over the next 12 months, there is no other way to really get ahead, if you look at who stands out in your industry, well, it's the people who are consistently podcasting, and the radio or podcast guesting so that's the other the other thing and actually, my belief is that the system works best when you do both, when you are hosting your own show with great content that positions you that helps you have great guests to elevate your own authority at the same time as going out and telling your story to the right audiences because podcast listeners will follow you to your own show and that is that is powerful and I think if you look around if you have a book well how are people finding your book now, because there are loads of expert authors that if you hear the right story in the right message on a podcast, you're more likely to go and buy it and a podcast audience actually something like, I can't remember where I saw it but the statistic was something like 81% of podcast listeners take action with intent to purchase after listening to a show and that's not because we're selling, that's because we've touched them in treat them

Josh: giving them real value, yeah, yeah. 

Anna: Yeah and that's, that's something like, I think, yeah, I'm hazy on where this came from but the highest turn, the highest equivalent used to be in radio adverts where it was something like 26%, in its heyday, for people who would take action if they reach the right audience but with a podcast, you're going to get the right audience, if you've if, if you have taken that time to plan your podcasts so the time is now but plan it properly.

Josh: See, and that's, that is brilliant and I love that I just interviewed a guy a couple days ago. And he's like, he was talking about drawing a bow and when you when you draw bow, apparently I'm not an archer so I have no idea but basically, that what really makes the arrow fly, what creates a momentum is the last two inches of the draw and if you can get that last two inches, and to me, he kind of used it as the preparation is absolutely key and he wasn't even talking about podcasting but I think that speaks to your point so well, and I, you know, if you will plan it correctly, it will launch better and I even know, and we've had three different podcasts, and the lucky Titan is the one that has done much better and it's because we really sat down and said, Who, how and where like, Where are these people? How do we promote to them and and where do we push them to and we're not even, I wouldn't even say in your ballpark Anna but I, I really love that you do that with your clients where you're taking them and saying, let's get to top check to make a chart topping podcast, but you're doing it by by all that preparation work and really kind of setting them up to win before they start.

Anna: and for me this comes down to purpose work so I was with a client today and we're looking at what's the purpose of the show? What do you see this as being? What's it going to do for your business? What's the purpose of lead generation authority, building all of those things, but also for you as an individual, what do you actually want this to do for you and being really crystal clear on that and then what's it doing for your current clients, the people who already know you, and we'll celebrate you when you launch the show and what's it doing for the people who've never heard about you don't know your show, don't know your branding wouldn't turn up because they've heard of you before, what's it doing for them and you've kind of got to make sure that whatever you create hits all of those boxes.

Josh: Love that. Love, love. Love that. So can you walk us through a little bit of your preparation process, you've done this so many different times, how would you help somebody who is a coach, let's say they've, they've made a few $100,000 as a coach, and they're saying, I'm ready for this authority play to make money, how would you help them to plan a chart, I can never say that a chart topping podcast.

Anna: So we get really crystal clear on what they're doing, we look at all the purpose stuff and then we get clear on what what are their offers because one of the problems I see with podcasting, or podcasts that launch is, it's great that you can have a show that's engaging and entertaining but if your business is not, if your podcast isn't created as a funnel for your offer, then what are you doing it for yes, you might have impact, you might have a ripple effect but actually, there's going to be this then disconnect between what you're selling, and what you're putting out into the world and I think that there is when you can find the marriage of those things, then your podcast becomes something that's purposeful to you purposeful to the listener, and brings in business because ultimately we want that and I do come across people who say yeah, but I've just got this mission and I want to share it, that's fine but ultimately, a podcast still costs money, yes, you can use pod bean or anchor or whatever to do it for free but it's your time, it's your energy, it's your effort and if you're going to do all of the components that actually make a real tangible difference to your show success, such as the show notes, and the search engine, search engine optimization, and the launch of the show, and you know, all of the assets that go with it to do it properly, well, you've got to make sure that there's a way you're going to be paying for that, that it works as a system so we make sure that whatever we put out there fits the business, you know, if someone's got a book or they've got a book launch coming up the podcast has to represent what's in the book as well and these are simple things that you and I would understand as podcasters because we've been doing this for a while but the amount of times people miss those key ingredients is astonishing and then what we see is what's known in the traders pod fade people get so excited they launched their show they get 10 episodes, there are no set of 12 episodes in, and then they don't tell anyone about it so it doesn't do very well and then they stop and they might as well have not started at that point.

Josh: I completely agree and, and I want to ask you this question, because I feel like you're uniquely qualified to answer it but I mean, you mentioned pod fade and m, there's different ways to say, you know, it's like the content, fatigue and everything but how do you help people or how do you keep people from producing content for producing content sake, does that make sense?

Anna:  I think it comes back to that purpose piece. What are you doing this for and if you do outgrow your show, how can you take it with you so it fits your your new sense of alignment without trying to get too spiritual or wishy washy on you, how can you make sure that it fits with what you're wanting to do in the world and how you want to show up and so instead of losing that audience, how can you take them on that journey and that might mean a complete, rebrand to keep, if it's the same audience, but your messages shifted slightly, I think it's also in that phase, when you're planning your podcast, planning, not just the first few episodes planning, like a year's worth of content ideas, sitting down and thinking, what is it, what while I'm fresh, while I'm excited, what's coming so that actually, if you've got all of those title ideas, it's not going to be that hard to then show up because it's all it's all done for you we do it, we encourage batch creating as well, you know, do it once a month, or I like to get to a point with my show where I do a lot of interviews and my solo episodes three months in advance, and then I don't think about it and then the podcast just becomes this incredible mechanism for bringing in leads without you having to think about it.

Josh: And I love that because I know that the number one question that we even get from people who are podcasters, is they started, they get the concept and they're like, how do I make money? Where does the money come because podcasting can be a money pit, you can put a ton of money into it with no return so what's your monetization strategy, what do you recommend?

Anna: Well, for me, on my podcast, I actually choose not to monetize in terms of sponsorship, or affiliation or any of that stuff, I am very conscious that every time I go live, I'm speaking to my ideal client so what do I need to be saying that touches the heart of them so that's giving them value that's making them feel that I'm the go to resource, but actually sharing a bit of myself actually giving a little bit away about my own struggles, my problems, and I'm not talking about bringing the argument I had with my husband to the table, I'm talking about the real highs and lows, how can you actually be yourself on your podcast and I think that this does come with practice and experience and confidence in in front of the microphone, some people something strange happens the moment they're sat in front of a mic, and then on zoom, it's hits record sometimes, as you'll know, just some people just dry up or they become something else so it's making sure it's just making sure that there's clarity in what you're doing.

Josh: Yeah, I love that getting that clarity is honestly probably the most important thing, it's it's really intriguing to me and even outside of podcasting, how few entrepreneurs have actually sat down for an entire day, even just one day, and mapped out what they want to do and most people are just going going, going going, Yeah, we kind of live off that grind and hustle mentality but in our world, you have to slow down and think, sit down and think and plan and map and prepare so that you don't have to work as much in the future because you're just going to keep spinning your wheels if you don't put real effort into it.

Anna: Yeah, and I think that that's really true in podcasting, what we're seeing now is that people who've been serious about podcasting for a year and a half, two years, even if they were completely unheard of and didn't have businesses two years ago, suddenly they're rising to the top in their field, suddenly, they're more well known, suddenly their books are selling suddenly, they're the ones who are invited to be guest speakers or keynote speakers and that's going to happen more and more so you asked me earlier, when's the best time to start, if you wait another 12 months, we will have something like as we're recording this, we're approaching 2.5 million podcasts, if you wait another year, I reckon that's going to be closer to 4 million podcasts, the competition is going to get fiercer and fiercer so why would you wait, why would you wait?

Josh: Get your content into the hands of your clients, I love that. Well, so Anna, you know, we have covered a lot of different topics and I could talk to you for days, you're just answering some mega questions here and I hope our audience is really getting some great value from this but walk us through a little bit of how you specifically help your clients, and where we can reach you to be able to get help with our podcast.

Anna: So what we do is we help people work out their entire launch strategy for their podcast, what the show looks like what the art was, like, looks like we do the key wording the descriptions, we actually help them write the intros and outros because a lot of people don't realize, but now that Google podcasts exists, as a competitor to Spotify, and Apple and Amazon, Google podcast is actually reading everything you say, even if it's never transcribed. So we make sure that everything's right like that and then we help do all the production, all of the SEO, all of the show notes and everything and then we support people in launch to make sure that they're doing all of the activities, we've consulted with them to actually deliver to get the best result that we can and then we help them track what they're doing around the world. So that they know where they are in the charts and where it's moving, where they need to get a little bit more attraction and then the other thing that we we started getting a lot of requests to develop was what we call the podcast, booking boutique, where we have there's so many podcast pitching services to help you get on shows and it's become a little bit spammy. So we wanted to develop something that was much more exclusive and we actually take a lot of time to work with our very small roster, to develop relationships for them with podcasters so that we kind of open the door for those relationships, because you will know this, Josh, a lot of business is done in the discussion room before and after a podcast, right? That's, that's what you and I have done today, we've talked a little bit of shop we've seen is there a fit is there some synergy and so we wanted to set up that kind of spammy feeling to really, I don't know, feel like everyone that we were representing if you like a little bit like an old fashioned active agency, where we are incredibly proud so we know that when we're, we're matching someone and helping them, it might take a little bit longer, but it's going to be a quality match for their business and their message so we do both of those things but the best place to come and find me is on my own show, which is called entrepreneurs get visible so that's the best place, wherever you're listening today.

Josh: Make sure you go check that out and I do want to let you all know because Anna is way too humble to say this to all of you but they're very selective about who they bring into their services and she's at a point where she's not seeking the money, she doesn't need the money anymore, they're doing it because they are able to help and they're the best so make sure you go check out her podcast, go check out her website and get just dive into her content so and I want to ask you one final question just to wrap this interview up so if you could leave our audience with one rock solid final parting piece of guidance, what would that be?

Anna: You have to get visible, you have to be known in your networks, you have to be known in your fields, that's the that's the way you're going to have a bigger impact in the world, that's the way you're going to call more income to you by showing up and for me right now the best way we can do that is through podcasting and podcast guesting so the best strategy is both, but if you can only do one or the other, pick it and go for it right now.