Podcasting Momentum

Why Authenticity Fuels Lead Generation and Client Attraction

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche • Season 3 • Episode 1

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How do you turn a microphone and a message into real client attraction and lead generation?

In this episode, Josh Troche sits down with Kevin Anthony, a certified sexologist, relationship coach, and host of The Love Lab Podcast with over 105,000 subscribers, to uncover the real strategies behind building a thriving show.

Kevin shares how he and his late wife began starting a podcast as a way to capture their powerful conversations and turn them into meaningful content creation. What started as a passion project quickly evolved into one of the most effective organic marketing tools for his coaching business, with nearly every client today discovering him through his podcast or YouTube channel.

You’ll learn why authenticity and genuine connection outperform flashy self-promotion, how a simple podcast setup can launch a successful business podcast, and how podcasting fuels a strong personal brand. Kevin also reveals smart podcast marketing tactics for audience growth, the overlooked realities of podcast monetization, and his most valuable podcast lessons from seven years behind the mic. Plus, he breaks down how to streamline your podcast workflow so you can focus on listeners and long-term impact.

Whether you want to grow your business podcast, strengthen your personal brand, or use podcasting as a powerful lead generation tool, this episode delivers clarity, inspiration, and actionable strategies to move forward.


 

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Since the rebrand. You knew I was going to start with a bang. And yes, we definitely, definitely are our first guest. He's a certified sexologist and a relationship coach. That's not why he's on the show. Well, part of it is because he's got 105,000 subscribers. This is one where he's got some amazing tips, some great information that should be really good for you to apply. Yes to your podcast. Stay tuned. It's. So today we have Kevin Anthony. His podcast is called The Love Lab Podcast. Now in the intro I'm pretty sure I said that. We're going to start out with a bang here. And part of the bang with this is he has just on YouTube over 105,000 subscribers. Kevin, thanks for coming on. You've built a career as a and I want I'm reading this to make sure I get it right. A certified sexologist and relationship coach. And you started the Love Lab as, like you said, to support your work as a coach. Can you walk me through, like, the specific problem that you had where you're like, I think a podcast to solve this? Absolutely. You know, it actually wasn't really a problem per se. That that got me to decide to start a podcast. But the origin story is basically that my wife and I, and she's no longer with us. She unfortunately passed about two and a half years ago, but we were doing this coaching business together and so every morning as part of our morning routine, we would get up and we would go through, go for a walk through our neighborhood. And while we were walking in the morning, we used to talk about clients because I had some clients, she had some we would work on some together, and we would kind of basically just bounce ideas back and forth, like, okay, here's what has happened in here. What do you think about that? And we would just have these conversations. And one morning we're walking down the street and I said, man, that was the conversation we just had. Could be so valuable for other people. You know, I wish there was a way to get this information in exactly the way we just had a back and forth out there. Right. And then one day I just said to where I go, what if we started a podcast? To which she turned to me and she said, I got way too many projects right now. She's like, I don't have time to do a podcast. She's like, But I'll think about it. You know? It took about a year before she finally came back to me and said, I'm ready to do a podcast with you. And I said, great, let's do it. So that's really how it all started. It was the idea of, we're having these conversations where we're talking about information that other people could benefit from, and yet nobody hears it but the two of us. So let's find a platform where we can actually share this with people. I don't really know where I got the original idea for podcast, because we could have just thrown it straight onto YouTube or something like that, but we didn't have a YouTube channel at that point either. I just, I, I literally had the idea that podcasting was the place for us. I love that, and it's funny because to me, I see that some of the best podcasts out there are the ones that start out of a giving standpoint. You're not asking for anything. You're you're you guys were literally like, here's knowledge. Go, go, go do stuff with it. Go make your lives better with it. And to me, I love that. So when you said, hey, we're going to start a podcast, obviously the the year long, the year long rumination period is what we'll call it. What was the first actionable step? Were you like, what? I mean, did you go online and be like, how the hell do I podcast? How did you what was the first step you took there? Well, I'm also a musician. Just, you know, for myself, I'm not like, a pure musician. So I already had microphones, although they were dynamic microphones at the time. I had, a recording interface. I had some experience recording into GarageBand, and that sort of thing. So when it was time to start, I just said, I think I can pull this off because I already have a pretty good, pretty good understanding of how all these pieces work together. And so I just I told my wife, I said, I'm going to go, you know, lock myself in the other room and play with all this equipment and see what I can come up with. And it really wasn't that difficult for me because I had a bit of a background already. What was more of a learning curve for me was, well, now that I have the recording, like, what do I do with it? Like, you know what what podcasting hosts do I use? How do I get it out there? How do I promote it? Like that was the learning curve for me. That kind of stuff. That, that that totally makes sense. I love the fact that from a musician standpoint, you had that way to to sound good, all those other things. And I mean, at that point it becomes a little more fun because you're like, okay, this isn't quite as intimidating. But like you said, when you when you're like, okay, I have this wonderful thing, how do I get it out there for the world to find? That is so is the the big question. With that, like your YouTube channel. I mean, to me, it looks like it really is a core part of your brand. I mean, you've got even the flag on your microphone there, which is absolutely awesome. I love it when I see people do stuff like that. How do you, like strategically use the YouTube channel and your podcast really to to to drive listeners, to drive that engagement, that you're looking for? Well, I think a lot of people today, they come up with this idea like, oh, I'm going to do a podcast and I'm going to make a ton of money, right? And they do that, trust me, they do. Those of us who've been doing it for a while, like I'm in, what, year seven now, 7 or 8 years of doing this. And I could tell you that it unless you're, you know, Joe Rogan or somebody else, you're not going to get rich off doing a podcast. But I because, you know, you heard the origin story. It was that was never the intent. I never looked at it from the point of view of how do I make this make revenue? I looked at it from the point of view of how can this support the work that we are doing together. I just wanted to get our message out so that people would know that we existed, could see the, the, level of work that that we bring to our clients. And that was really my whole goal. So from that point of view, I really just wanted to I wanted to get it out to as many places as we could. So we originally started the podcast. It was audio only and it was podcast platforms, but we would actually put the audio up on YouTube. Also, our YouTube channel was super new, like we had just started it, so we had almost no subscribers whatsoever, and we were just like, whatever, we have it, so we might as well just throw it on YouTube. Like we didn't really put a lot of attention on the YouTube side of things because it was a podcast. It didn't have video. And then as we were doing it, listeners started saying, you know, it'd be really great if we could see you guys like you. Have. We hear the chemistry right? But we can't see you. So then we said, okay, let's add some video. But that brought in a whole nother level of complexity because our podcast setup was stuffed in the corner of an office, up against a wall, you know, and we were like, if we're going to do video now, we have to have distance. We have to have a camera out in front of us. We have to have lights. Like, we had to rethink the entire setup that we had in order to do video. However, having said that, once we did get that, that really changed things on YouTube for sure. Once people could actually see, you know, who was talking and it feels like we're more engaging with them. And as we got better over time, we were engaging more with, you know, the camera and the audience, that that really did shift things. So my goal always, whether it was podcasting or YouTube, was always I just wanted to reach as many people as I could, and I wanted to provide as much value to them as I could. That that to me, is that base that I love. You keep coming back to that I want to provide value because that to me is if you're not doing that, why the hell is anyone listening? If you provide them value, they they will come back. Additionally, this kind of kind of leads me into the business impact side of things, which is part of what I want to get into. Have you seen people that have say, do you have I'm assuming you have clients that started out saying, yeah, I saw you on YouTube and thought, well, okay, I kind of like this guy. I like what he has to say. I'm going to guess I'm going to use him as a coach. Have you did you see that accelerate a little bit as the channel grew? I mean, has that been a good revenue stream for you? I'll put it this way when I want. When a client wants to work with me, they sign up for what's called a strategy call. So we just get on a zoom call and we just talk about, tell me what your problems are. I'll tell you where I think I can help you. And it's really for both of us to decide if we want to work together. Right. So I'm not going to work with you if I don't feel I can actually help you. Right. And, you know, you obviously are not going to work with me if you don't feel like I can actually help you. So. So we get on that call and that's sort of how we work. But the very first question that I ask everybody, the second we get on that call is, how did you hear about me? And I can tell you, I have a notebook where I write notes during every one of these calls. And if you flip back through there, I would say 98% of the answers to that question are, I heard your podcast or I'm a listener of your podcast, or I saw you on YouTube. Wow. That I mean, that is I guess that's a hell of a I mean, I don't even know how to put that into words that in terms of effectiveness, yeah. And, you know, in my industry, because let's face it, I am talking about, you know, sex and relationships, right? It is a heavily censored topic everywhere. One of the things that I love about podcasting is because it's really the last free frontier. It's the last place where I can go and say whatever I want to say and not worry about being censored somewhere, right? And so what I noticed was that in other areas, you know, I've, I've watched, you know, Google just crash the traffic to my website. I've watched even YouTube play games with the traffic on my YouTube channel. I've watched a lot of areas where they just start to suppress and censor my message. And so over the years, the podcasting just became essential to getting my message out there, because it really was the only place I could really effectively do it. That, and I mean, that makes perfect sense. And that's it's one of the things that I love about it too, because once you have that RSS feed that's yours and you can send it out to people, it's not going to get quashed. It's not going to get smashed, it's not going to get put in the back closet like where you guys were first recording. It can actually, I mean it. It's your RSS feed. It can be out there. I mean, in front of as many people as you want it to. Have you found that there's been an a specific call to action or a specific approach that has really helped with finding those those people that you want to work with. I would say the probably the most important thing is to just be genuine and be yourself. I think that has been the biggest draw, because I get that feedback from listeners and from clients all the time. They're like, the reason I reached out to you and not somebody else was because I felt like you were genuine. Right. And so, my advice to anybody that wants to start a podcast is, don't go out there and try to be an actor. Don't go out there and put on a show. You want to be dynamic. You want to be exciting, you want it. You know, you want to be a presence, but it's got to be authentic. If you show up as your real self with the, you know, intent of wanting to help people and deliver value, it's magnetic and they're going to want to listen to you. I, I absolutely love that. It's so funny because people can tell when there's a difference in personality. They can just see it. And it's one of the reasons why we love video on it too, because that it really makes it apparent when someone is acting instead of just being themselves. I also get to there are I mean, you, you and I, we have a different type of charisma, but we both present. Well, there's we're we're easy to listen to. It's different. It's a different way of doing it. But it's once again it's it's it's approachable. It's people want to listen to that. We also realize not everyone is going to have that, but it's so much worse when people try to force that. It comes across as disingenuous. Disingenuous, and especially in like a field like yours. You just can't. That's I mean, it has to be what I mean, you have to be 100% honest upfront. I love that. You mentioned that a lesson you've learned was that it's up to you to make your podcast successful. It's a powerful insight. It really is, because I know to get where you've at, you are at you've put in an incredible amount of work. Can you tell me about something early in your journey when you're like, oh gosh, I am learning a lesson here, and it's the hard way. Oh yeah, it's funny you say that because, okay, being a professional in the industry that I'm in, I know a lot of other professionals in the industry and many of them are personal friends of mine. And so, you know, one of the things that my wife and I said to each other early on was, man, we know so many people that could help us promote this. Like, we're not we're not by ourselves just trying to, you know, like we know a ton of people. So the first thing we did when we launched was we sent out messages to everybody, some of which were dear friends for like decades. You know, here's our new thing, you know, please share it with everybody. And it just did nothing like most most people did nothing. They were like, oh, cool, glad you started a podcast. And that was it. Like we never heard from them again, right? You know, and so that was the big wakeup call for us were like, wow, if our own friends who like, love us and want to support us aren't really doing anything, then you can you can sure bet that nobody else is going to really lift a finger to help you. That was the wake up call that told us if we're going to get this out there, it's going to be us. Nobody's going to do it but us. It's funny, you say that. It it it is very true. I feel like everyone has these expectations of, I'm going to put out a podcast and I'm going to be Joe Rogan in two years. And I, I the thing that I always love to tell people is if like, have the right expectations for it. The other thing I tell people too, is if there's eight people in the next room that we're interested in hearing from you, would you go in and talk to them? Yes. So get it and get the podcast out there so you can you can go talk to them about that. In terms of other difficult things with this, I mean, you obviously had to make a pivot with your show going from 2 to 1 was the I mean, obviously there's a huge, huge emotional component to that. From the podcast side of that was that was the that pivot a difficult thing. Obviously, I know the emotional part was, but from the podcast side was that a difficult piece to do? Yeah, to be perfectly honest, I almost quit. Sure. And the. You. The reason for that is, you know, my wife and I had really great chemistry and we would get that feedback all the time. Like what made the show engaging was the way we related to each other and the information that we were sharing. And I felt like without that, like, who was going to want to listen to me right. But I did get a lot of positive encouragement from people who said, don't do that. Sure. Don't don't give up on it. Keep going. And so I thought, okay, all right. But then I started to have some ideas like, okay, what if it wasn't just me? What if I had guest hosts come in to share with me? What if I, you know, I don't know, I just was trying to think outside the box of what could I do to keep that sort of dynamic going and keep it interesting. And I experimented with that in the beginning. I had some different people, different experts come on and guest host with me, which was different than doing an interview. Sure. So an interview, I'm like, I'm asking you specific questions. In this, we would co-develop the topic for the show and we would bounce back and forth like my wife used to. And, you know, it worked okay. It ended up being a lot more work for me. It took a lot more time to actually produce those. Like to create them before even sitting down to record them. And at the end of the day, my audience basically told me one way or another that they actually preferred it when it was just me. And so I kept going. I love that, that that to me, for the audience awareness piece of that is, is a big part of what I love about hearing that because it's like, look, we tried something. It didn't exactly work as well as I hoped. The audience is like, no, look, just, just do the thing. And, that the fact that you were able to make that pivot for that and willing to make that pivot for it, obviously it's a lot easier when to say this is going to be a hell of a lot less work if I do this. So, yes, I'll make that pivot. How does the podcast fit into your future plans? I mean, are there big plans? Are there changes? The I mean, I know it's an integral part of your business. Are there plans to to keep it that way, move it forward, do more. What what's for the future? You know, I, I started telling you that we started the podcast because we just wanted to get the conversations we were having out there. Yeah. And I never really thought about, you know, podcasting itself as something that, you know, would be something I would enjoy so much. Right. And, and over the years, I've realized I love podcasting. It's one of my favorite things that I do, and the ability to sit here in front of a microphone and have people give me their attention and want to hear what I have to say is it's an honor. Honestly. And because of that, it's like, let's just say the show didn't continue to grow. Maybe it stayed flat, maybe it even declined a little bit. I love doing it so much I would keep doing it. I really would. I would hope that it would continue to grow right and continue to reach bigger audiences. I think we all hope that, but I just enjoyed doing it so much that I would not stop doing it. And as we also talked about, it is one of the primary ways that people find my work. And I've been super blessed. I, I don't I really dislike bragging about myself, but no one's here. I mean, by all means, do it. You've accomplished a lot. So by all means, let's hear it. Well, one of the things that I hear from guests frequently is we get off the actual recording. You know, I hit and record and they'll say to me, wow, that was one of the best podcasts I've ever been on. Like, you asked really good questions and you, like, kept me, you know, on track as I was starting to wander. And just like that, you made the experience great, you know? And I love when people share that feedback with me. I've actually thought like, wow. I mean, I started this podcast, you know, to support my work, but because I love podcasting so much, I've been considering, like either starting another one or I've talked to a few people about starting like a cool podcast, like a separate one from my own I even thought about then I would look out there to see if there's any bigger podcasts that are looking for seasons hosts, because I just love it. It's just so much fun for me. It's funny you said that because, I've done a similar thing. There's another podcast that I'm a host of called The Business Fix, and the way it started was one of the hosts that used my studio, Chrissy Meyers, phenomenal, amazing CEO and business woman. I looked at her cross table. The one day I said, what do you want to do? Like a business podcast again? And she's like, yep. And both of us. It is the highlight of our week when we get the chance to record that and do that and talk about those things, it's great conversations. I 100% get every word that you said there. It's just it's wonderful. It's a great thing. It's yeah, I, absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. That being said, I want to wind in with one last thing. We always try and make stuff actionable. What's the one piece of advice that you would give to a business owner or marketer? Anyone that's looking to use a podcast to promote their business? What would you use to that? What would you tell them if they're maybe on the fence about starting the podcast? Well, the first thing I would say is just do it. Just do it. You don't know. And you know, it doesn't have to be complicated in the beginning. You know, like I tell people, yeah, just get yourself, you know, a $50 or $99 quality, you know, relative quality, USB microphone and a computer and GarageBand, if you're on a mac for free or, you know, there's there's other programs you can use on PC. It can literally. Be that simple, right? Like don't over complicate it because like, I have a technical background. Before I was doing coaching and stuff like that, I actually worked in tech for, you know, some of the biggest tech companies in the world. So like, I'm at home with all this and you already heard about my background, but for a lot of people, just the tech part alone scares them away from doing it. Keep it simple, right? Don't don't get overwhelmed. And I think you had an amazing piece of advice which is set appropriate expectations. Do not think you're going to be Joe Rogan overnight or next year or five years, or ever even right. Go about it with I'm going to keep the setup simple, and I'm going to have the intention of I'm going to provide value to my audience. If you're a realtor and you want to start a podcast, go out there and educate people about the realtor, the real estate market, right, and tell them what trends are happening and give them a value. If you do that enough, they will come knocking on your door. That I, I love that piece of advice that that ties in with so many things that, we believe and and I don't want to say push, but talk about, Kevin, I really appreciate your time today. This has been a wonderful conversation. We're going to have to follow up again after a while just to see how things are going. I'm willing to bet the, silver plaque I see in your background may have a friend to hang out with it by that point, too, so. I certainly hope so. Thank you very much. And for everyone, watching or listening, I am going to wrap this up in just a few minutes. I'll be right back. I was really glad to get Kevin as a host. First off. I mean, as soon as I talked to him, as soon as I saw his podcast, I realized the charisma, the way he carries himself and just the general knowledge that he has. I mean, what a great guest to have on your podcast. If you're looking for guests to find people like that, they are golden. Just tons of great information. And he was more than willing to to share all of that information. And that to me, is the really the actionable thing that I want to talk about. He mentioned a couple of times in there. He he started his podcast in order to share information, share conversations. If it wasn't for him. And now, granted, he still enjoys doing it, so he he gets something from it. But really, he's doing this for the people that tune in to the Love Lab podcast. He's doing it to share information. He's doing it to try and make people's lives better. I mean, is there really a more noble cause than doing that? So when I, when I look back at this and I want to make sure that we're doing actionable things, we want to leave you with actionable stuff that you can look at each week when it comes time to to do your podcast, I want you to to really dive in and say, why? Why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for? What's the reason why I'm doing this? It it really should be an audience centric reason. It should be a giving reason. If it's not and you've been stumbling with some of your audience growth, maybe it is time to take a look at that. Maybe it's time to, like, really dive in and say, why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for, and what are they going to gain from it? Not you. Don't think about you at all in the process. What is your audience going to gain from that? To me, that really is where the gold is. I've heard Mel Robbins in her podcast, one of the top rated podcasts out there, saying she never asked people to subscribe. She's never tells people to follow. She doesn't ask for reviews. Even. She's like, look, I am doing this for people. So therefore I can't ask them to do anything to me. I very much like that philosophy. I love how she presents it like that. If you present your podcast like that, you will engage with that brighter, wider, just bigger audience. And once again, you're going to engage much, much deeper with that audience. With all that being said, I am very excited for some of the stuff that we have coming up. Our next guest is also going to be another interesting one that's going to be a little bit out of left field for what you may think. I'm going to say anything about it though. I want to make sure that, yeah, I'm going to ask you to come back next week. I'm at least going to ask you that, right? That being said, do me a favor. Take care of yourself. Can take care of someone else too. I will see you very, very soon.

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Josh Troche

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