Shine Podcast with Shanna Star

From First Episode to Business Engine: How Podcasting Builds Confidence, Community, and Clients with Julie DeLucca-Collins

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We share how a simple mic and a clear niche can build confidence, audience trust, and real business growth. Julie DeLuca Collins walks through guesting strategy, repurposing, monetization beyond big sponsors, and the simple tech stack that gets you shipping.

• confidence grows through action, not perfection
• podcasting as an attract–engage–nurture–invite engine
• evergreen content and the loyalty of long‑form listening
• repurposing frameworks and SEO‑driven audits
• guesting cadence aligned to launches and goals
• collaboration over competition to expand reach
• monetization via local sponsors and affiliates
• clear, simple calls to action that convert
• starter tech, hosting, RSS, and basic workflow
• consistency, templates, and AI to save time
• naming, searchability, and trademark basics

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They can go to goconfidentlycoaching.com and under the resource tab, they can go and put their information and then I'll send you a copy of my number one bestseller book




Find Julie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/julie_deluccacollins/

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Keep Shining- Shanna Star

Shanna Star:

Welcome back to all those who want to shine to another episode of the Shine Podcast with Shauna Star. Today I have the guest, Julie DeLuca Collins, and I am so excited about today's episode because it's not a topic that I talk about often on here, which is podcasting. Can't believe there's not many episodes where I even really dig into what it looks like to podcast, how to podcast, what you need for it, and leveraging podcasts for business growth, whether you have a separate business or you want podcasting to eventually be your main source of income. So let's get right to the conversation and hopefully you get a lot of valuable information in case you're wanting to learn how to podcast too. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe, and even leave a review if you have some time. I would absolutely love a five-star review and something you love about the show. Today I have Julie with me. She is a dynamic business coach, helping to empower women to build profitable, purpose-driven businesses. You are the founder of Go Confidently Services and Casa Day Productions, where you also host your own podcast, what we're going to be talking about today, and also the author of Confident You. You have quite the repertoire going on, and I love it. I love learning about you. So welcome to the Shine Podcast.

Julie:

Thank you so much for having me, Shana. It's so fun to be able to talk to another podcaster today.

Shanna Star:

Right before we started recording, I did say, I know you talk about this as well as leveraging podcasting and for business, for business growth and for connection. And on my podcast, I haven't talked about that very often. And very often it's in person where people have questions about how to start a podcast and what it does. And um, I would love to go in all the details in that direction today.

Julie:

Well, this is a perfect direction. I really love talking about this specifically because I think that it is one of these things that as entrepreneurs, we know that we have to be visible. We know that people have to find us. And a lot of times we don't understand really the power of our message, our voice, and how a podcast can really support us. So I love sharing this with my clients, but more importantly, with others that I come in contact with through other podcasts.

Shanna Star:

So let's start from the beginning. How long have you been podcasting and touch on what yours is about? I already know, done all the good talking, of course. And also, how many times and how often are you going on other podcasts for growth?

Julie:

Well, amazing. Uh so I will go back to the very beginning. And this is sort of a journey that goes hand in hand, my business and the podcast, although it was never intended to kind of be one that supports the other. I was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, and this is 2020, March. And I had already been thinking of going out on my own. I've been sort of this entrepreneur spirit person for many, many years. My first job was at 14. I never um not had a really good idea of something fun to do. But there was something that prevented me from really taking that leap. And that was my job. I was very successful in a corporate career. I climbed that corporate ladder, so much so that I got to the C-suite and it was cushy. And at the same time, going out on my own meant that I was gonna take a leap of faith into not sure what, right? And at the same time, I also had that nagging feeling. And I think that probably some of your listeners may identify with this. Well, what are people gonna say? They're gonna think I'm crazy, I'm leaving the job, or you know, the flexibility of you know, being able to be part of the executive team, whatever, right? Because I think that that voice and that nagging voice is different for all of us. And of course, when I got laid off, two things happened. One, I thought, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? And then I thought, oh my God, I know exactly what I'm gonna do. And that was that I wanted to go and help other women find the confidence that at times we tend to not necessarily feel, right? And one of the things, even though, you know, for instance, I'm talking about launching my own business and not feeling confident, um, confidence is not the destination. Confidence is actually the thing that we get when we take a step of faith into the unknown, into the thing that we're not sure how we're going to land. And I wanted to help other women because in my corporate career, many women, after a big promotion, would say, Oh wow, congratulations. I wish I was doing what you're doing. I wish I was as confident as you are. And I thought, no, no, no, I don't have it together. I want you to know that. And I think for many of us, right, we see somebody's outside, we don't understand what is happening on the inside. Now, at the same time that all of this is going in my personal and professional life, I was also going to have a big milestone birthday in April of 2020. And of course, these two things are very separate. And I thought, well, you know, at least even though I got laid off, I'm going to have my big birthday party that I'd been planning for months. And of course, we know how that turned out. April of 2020, we were not going to be ready to be out in person. But my husband saw the writing on the wall from the very beginning. And he thought, well, my extroverted wife is trapped at home. And now she's having this big birthday and it's not going to get to celebrate. And now she's laid off. I need to do something. So he, as a birthday gift, ordered podcasting equipment. And he said, You've talked about this forever. You've talked about this for as long as I can remember. And I've been listening to podcasts from the beginning. And one of the things that even though I talked about starting a podcast, doing a podcast, I didn't really know what I was going to talk about. But I also never took the leap, right? Because the what ifs, or I don't know how to do that, or it's going to take too long, or wait, I'll do it when I'm perfect when it's perfect. And my husband said, Don't worry about the tech, you do the talking. And that's how the podcast came about. Now, the name of the podcast is Casa de Confidence. And that's home of confidence. And mainly because it is a podcast, it's a collaboration between my husband and I. He's the tech. Um, what he calls the talent, but I call myself the talk. And we we really wanted to create a space where people felt at home to talk about what their journey to confidence is. And I wanted to really create a space where individuals really were able to share their story, talk about what did it take for them so that others and we can normalize for others that in an era of Instagram, right, not everything is perfect, but we still can accomplish and build our confidence by creating that consistency, creating that repetition that allows us to show up better. And that's how the podcast was born. And for many months, I love being able to talk to people. I love learning and hearing the stories. And then all of a sudden, of course, as a successful businesswoman, one of the things that hit me over the head, Shauna, was that well, wait a minute. I need to attract people to my business. I need to let people know who I am, get people to understand and know, like, and trust me. So what I found is that because of the podcast, all of a sudden people were learning about me. And I was attracting brand new individuals to learn about who I am. What do I do? How do I work? And of course, the more that people listen, the more that they got engaged and the more that they became engaged with my message, with who I am, my content, then it was very easy to then nurture that relationship deeper. Yeah. And as we know in marketing, that's what happens. We have to attract, engage, nurture, and then have the ability to invite people to work with us. And more importantly, like Pat Flynn, who is one of my mentors, says, make them super fans, which is really one of the things that the podcast allows me to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Julie:

And yeah, so that's that's basically the story of the podcast. And how did that come about? Long story.

Shanna Star:

A few things you said that rang true for me too is well, one, you said you you build these, this community that follows you. And podcast listeners are such loyal fans. And what I love about podcasting is they can actually learn about you because it's that long form where we have snippets on Instagram and you can kind of get to know somebody and get a good feel, but really you can cut through the BS and what people actually feel listening to them and really expanding on that topic or idea. And so I love that you touched on that. And also I wrote down the word confidence because it was the same reason why I started my podcast. I am a photographer full time. And for years I was like, I need to start a video vlog. I need to start something. And it never felt right. And I started uh January of 2020 as well, thinking like, this is the way to speak to more people at a time. And I love being with women one-on-one and photographing them, but it felt like we could speak to more and impact more and connect more. So I love that you started also because of the confidence factor.

Julie:

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna reiterate, and I think that this is very important, right? And I typically will say to my clients, yes, do we need to be visible in social media? Sure. Where are your people hanging out? Social media at this point, I mean, I do it when I'm checking out a business. I'm gonna go see their profile. Who are they? What do they do? But the reality is that out of a hundred followers, only 10% of people are going to see your content. At the most, yeah. Out of the 10%, not everybody's gonna be logged in at the same time. And of course, an Instagram post has a lifespan of two hours. So even though we may be dropping some really great stuff, not everybody is going to be seeing it. Whereas podcast is evergreen. Podcast is something that if you are sharing your message, sharing your goodness, people can go back and listen and discover you and be able to say, oh, this person is for me, right? Or I love that they did that. I was just listening to a podcast because again, I listened to a lot of them, but this is a crime podcast, and I don't usually listen to those because they they really suck me in. Uh, but this one in particular, and by the end, there were nine episodes, it was short. By the end of it, I realized that this was from three years ago. It's not something that just happened, but I love that I could still hear it and it was so fresh to me, right? It's not old news.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I totally agree on it being evergreen. In fact, that was one of the things I wanted to ask what you love about it is how you can repurpose that content and it's still valuable and yeah, still means something. And so when you are repurposing that old content, what are some things if people are like, okay, well, you know, I've done 200 podcasts or, you know, whatever that looks like. And sometimes we think we always need another new thing. And really it's like, okay, if you have all this content, how can we look back? I know we can do snippets of video clips and audiograms and blogs. Um, but what are some ways that you love to repurpose some of those to bring it up again if it was a fabulous and well done podcast episode?

Julie:

Yeah, well, here's a couple different things. And and this is something that, of course, now I when you when you know better, you do better, right? So one of the things that happened that we did not realize that would come about from my podcast is again, my husband is the tech, he's been the producer of the show from the very beginning. And as I started to work with women entrepreneurs, some of them had podcasts, some of them wanted podcasts, my husband jumped on board to help, right? Help them with the editing, help them with the producing. Fast forward five years in, we have a full-fledged production company. Wow. But one of the things that, of course, now I know more, I understand more, I realize how podcasting works and how it can be leveraged to bring your message out. I realize that naming a podcast five years ago that said confident nurse is not going to necessarily help you in SEO. Right. Right? Unless you have someone that, you know, you really want to talk about confident nursing. And that's not something that an entrepreneur or someone who is looking to increase their confidence who is not a nurse is going to be looking for. So one of the first things that I've started to do, and that I really encourage my clients also to do, is from time to time do it in audit. And this is something that we we love to do for people is audit their show because sometimes we need someone looking from the outside in and having that different perspective and looking to see, hey, are you reaching the people that are looking for the topic that you talk about on your show based on what you put in as your title, based on what your show notes say? Do you have the right keywords? So that's one of the first ways in which you can really tighten your content, right? Because if you have a message, if you're still, you know, you were a photographer, still are a photographer, but I'm sure there's different things that have come into your world since you started podcasting. But the message and the passion that you have for photography, probably still the same, if not more so, because you're still doing this. So it's really important to be able to see what you have and how you can use these acids. And maybe there is something that has changed for you. Let's say, you know, I have a friend who's a photographer as well and love her. But when she started, she started doing business headshots. Business headshots. And of course, she has evolved over the years. Then she started to do more families and she started to do um high school senior pictures. And guess what? She hates the high school senior pictures because they're very demanding. I don't know about that, right? But she has to go back, and even though she has that experience, she can talk about that and use it as content. So, you know, when I was a photographer for senior uh students, what I noticed is, and and and you can kind of say, I'm not doing that anymore, but I'm still doing it. And that that helped me get to where I am, and it can be a building point for new content, even if you don't want to repurpose what you already have. You can also, you know, there's so many different mediums. If you started to, of course, put your show notes, but nobody else was necessarily looking at the content that you had in your show notes, then look at it and say, how can I repurpose this into a newsletter, into a blog, leverage the SEO that's available. So there's so, again, many different ways. Maybe you want to do a video series on one topic that you know that you ran out of time during that episode, right? So all of these things are really fun to be able to explore.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I really liked the example of auditing because when we hear it for audio, you think like, oh, that sounds like so much work. But the example for photography, just because it's easy and most people know kind of how that business works, is it's going back on your website and going, well, am I even offering this? What do I want to focus on? What am I showcasing? Even if you don't have a lot of what you want to be talking about on your podcast or showing in your photography, the things that you do have are going to continue to attract that listener or client or whatever that looks like. So I love that you said a good audit is important once in a while too, to see always where the clients are. Yes. That's right. So I know that you're busy with yours and busy with your um business as well. But how often then, or how often are you trying to get on other podcasts? And have you noticed, or are there numbers to that where you notice a lead generation for you then as well?

Julie:

So this is this is an excellent point as well. Uh, from the very beginning, uh, Shauna, I decided that I wanted to go on other people's podcasts because there is a magic to leveraging other people's audiences. And if you're just starting out, it's very important, again, to build that attraction strategy. So a podcast is a great way for you to do that. For myself, I've always had a goal of at least doing two podcasts per month. Now, in the very beginning, I will tell you I have over 300 podcasts at this point that I've been on. But that's because I move in in different directions. I'm helping podcasters and it's very easy, you know, for me to say yes, right. And mainly the reason I say yes a lot of times, and for instance, with your show, I love your message. I love what you're talking about, it's super aligned. But every once in a while, I'll get someone with the ask that maybe just starting out. And I remember people came on my show when I was starting out. So for me, it's it's a pass it on, pay it forward to others. But as far as how many shows you should be on, and and you know, when do you squeeze them in when everything else is going on, even if podcasting is not the main thing that you do? Typically for me, I will say it's that two, the magic number, two per month. However, with my clients, it really does depend what is going on. I have a client that has a podcast, she's a pediatrician full-time, but now she's launching a book. So of course she's ramping up something. She wants to get that visibility. So this is the time that I would say to someone like that, hey, you want to at least get an a couple cop podcast at least weekly for the next six weeks until your book drops, and after. And and for everyone, it really does vary from goals, visibility, um, bandwidth, right? Sometimes we don't have the bandwidth. Someone like, I don't know if you're anything like me, I'm extroverts. So I get charged talking to people. Someone like my husband, if he has to be on a podcast, that's it, right? He'll be on the show for the day, but he's gonna need to decompress. So really take a look at who you are, what your ability is, and what you're looking to put out. Is it a launch time? Is it something that you're growing and building? Or is it just maintaining and creating new relationships and building your visibility on a regular basis?

Shanna Star:

And I don't know how you feel about this. I know for myself, I wasn't on any podcast as a guest until after I started mine. But now looking back, when people do ask me, like, okay, where do I start? I always suggest like be a guest on a few because you'll see how they conduct it, what they do, how it works. You'll kind of feel a little bit more comfortable when you sit down, you'll know how you want the intro, how you want it to go, and um how you want to speak to your guests as well. So that's always one of the first things and like try to get on some. And at first, you're going to have to reach out to people. And eventually, a lot of podcasters have PR teams that will do that for you, that will reach out to podcasts for you to be on the show and to reach out to get you on their show as well.

Julie:

So yeah, 100%. And by the way, I will say in the very beginning, like I think about how I booked my first guest. Um, the first five, they were all friends, right? And I sent an email and I said, Hey, can you be on my show? Yes. And as I as I started to put the episodes out, it it was like, oh my God, what am I gonna talk about? Oh, wait, how do I promote this person? Where's their email? And I had it all over the place. And then by being on a podcast and having an intake form, I'm like, oh, I need one of those, right? And then it helps you. And that's how my initial uh SOP, standard operating procedures for being a podcast host, came about. Learning from what I liked from people's practices, what I didn't like, what made sense for me, right? And I think that that's also another great point that will help you really not only know what works for you, but also know what you don't want to do because it may not, you know, be something that you enjoy doing and perhaps your guests won't like it as well.

Shanna Star:

Right. Absolutely. I had to look up these numbers. So they might be slightly different, but I was thinking like, okay, if I'm listening to this episode, big deal. How big are podcasts? How many people are actually listening? And since the year you and I both started in 2020, global podcast audiences grew. Again, I'm taking this number from like Google from over 500 million. Let's see, no, from 332 million to now 500 million last year. And they're estimated to do another like 200 million over that. It's incredible, incredible.

Julie:

And it's a huge number. And you know, I had the opportunity to meet to interview the one of the senior VPs at Lisbon. And one of the things that he talked about is that a lot of people are saying, oh, video podcast, video podcast. And of course, I have a video podcast, everything just gets repurposed. However, um, he was talking about how right now the number of podcasts that are audio only, that number is going up of people listening to the show. And the reason that's going up is because nothing really replaces the convenience of being able to go out for a run, wash your dishes. My girlfriend and I were talking over the weekend. She and I both listen to podcasts in the shower. Like we have them playing as we're doing something else, right? Yeah. And that's really powerful because people can take you with them.

Shanna Star:

Absolutely. I know I have my certain podcasts that are video. They're usually like I you have to be able to see the visu visuals, but most of the podcasts that I listen to are audio only, whether it's kitchen, walking, driving, and you know, you have your business ones. And then of course you have your okay, I need a break from learning and need some funny stuff too. So exactly.

Julie:

Yeah, I have my every I have a category uh for everything, right? I have my sleep podcast. I have my I want to learn something or I want to be entertained. Yeah, definitely. You can find it all on podcasts.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. And something else I love, which I know you feel the same way because you're also being a guest on podcasts, is connecting with creators that not only have the same ideal client, like you and I have probably some a lot of overlap in ideal clients and customers and listeners, but also aside from podcasting, you and I probably might have never met, connected, been able to chat, have this conversation. And so the clients that have listened to me now know about you, and vice versa. And I think it's such such an expander.

Julie:

And oh, absolutely. And and this is the thing, you know, a lot of times clients will say to me, Well, I don't know if I want to go on a podcast for another career coach. Well, guess what? You are not gonna be everybody's cup of tea. Yeah, I'm going to tell you, I'm sorry to say. And and for as much as we want to, I don't want people to try to become something they're not, because at the end of the day, you need to serve as the people who really, really, really love you and work with you. Your message may be helpful to others, however, there might be someone who is a better fit, right? So, for instance, for me, I worked a lot with one-to-one clients. And now do I have one-to-one clients? Sure. But the majority of people who want to work with me come in into my mastermind or really do some VIP days or come to the CEO retreat, whatever it might be. But for instance, there might be some clients that really want a different approach, and perhaps you are the one. So don't think um being on somebody else's podcast that is in a similar lane as yours as competition, but look at it as an opportunity because at the end of the day, my business really has grown tremendously from other people's referrals, from people that found me through somebody else. And that is, in my book, a way for you to really create deeper trust with someone faster.

Shanna Star:

I really agree with what you said about not everyone's cup of tea. And it's something that I say similarly is you want your followers, clients, customers to either be hot or cold for you. I want the and I don't want the lukewarm because they're not gonna, they're not going to talk about you, they're not going to share things about you. But if they're hot, they're gonna like and follow and share and listen and be engaged. And the cold ones, they're gonna fall to the wayside. And that's fine because you're not gonna attract everybody and you can't, you're not everybody's, like you said, cup of tea. And that's perfectly okay.

Julie:

Absolutely. Yeah, and that's a hard lesson because sometimes, uh, especially especially as women, we we want to be those people pleasers. But really, what you end up doing is you end up compromising your message, you end up compromising who you are, and at the law in the long run, you're not getting people to to rave about you, which is what you want. You want these raving fans that tell everybody about the work that you do.

Shanna Star:

Yes. And that also reminds me when you said, like, especially as women, is this is both, of course, male and female, but often when we're starting to listen to podcasts, you listen to the ones that are most known. Joe Rogan and Gary Brecka and things that the names are known, so they can talk about everything. And I think often, and I don't know how you feel about this, it's always start with your your niche and figure out what you're good at, what you can talk about, the people that are gonna um be those expanders for you. And then as you grow, you can kind of expand your niche.

Julie:

Expand, absolutely. And and um for many people, right? And even when starting a business, I think that, and this applies to podcasts. And you know, we have many individuals who come down the pipe who are launching a show with us, and they'll start, well, I want to, I don't want to alienate anybody, I want to make sure that everybody likes it. No, my friend, you don't want to make sure everybody likes it. Yeah, because at the end of the day, maybe you are not sharing the one thing that you're really, really good at that someone needs to hear. So make sure that you start in a very niche-down area for listeners, really get to know that message because it's not just about capturing new listeners, but it's getting the current listeners to come back. And if one day you're talking about, you know, body parts, and the next week you're talking about the bestseller book that you read, then it's it's not an alignment. You need to find the thing that will keep people coming back for more. Now it could be right within the same realm. My theme is confidence. And by the way, I I did what we're saying not to do. I wanted to be everything to everyone. And luckily enough for me, I had a strong enough circle of friends and groups that I was visible in that gave me some great listeners from the very beginning. But if I was just talking about everything all over the place, the reality is that a lot of people probably wouldn't have tuned in. Right. And for me, the the real through line is always confidence, always coming back to how do you create that confidence? How do you do the work today to take you to the dreams that you have for yourself?

Shanna Star:

I agree. And same with mine. Mine isn't necessarily, you know, just photography, obviously. It's encouraging women in business. And so that's so many different facets. So technically, mine is a quite large pool as well, but it still falls in between women and business. And in doing so, in those niches, whatever that looks like, you can become an expert in that. And when you become an expert in one thing, then you can add on lifestyle or you know, whatever else your heart desires to share.

Julie:

So absolutely. That's how it works.

Shanna Star:

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Julie:

Yeah, absolutely. So here's the thing we a lot of podcasters that want to monetize from the very beginning, right? They're thinking, okay, I'm gonna start a podcast and then HelloFresh is gonna pay me for their ad. All the money. Yes, I'm gonna get lots of money. Well, it doesn't work like that. And could it work like that? Sure. However, advertisers like a HelloFresh or um the, you know, think about, you know, purple mattress, whatever, right? These they the companies do have large um marketing dollars. However, they're going to look to who has the largest amount of audience members. So they're not going to come to a show that doesn't have hundreds, if not thousands, of listeners. And as we know, podcasting is a long game. Can you get to listen, uh having really big listeners and having people commit to you? Absolutely. But don't think that you're going to be able to get the large advertisers from the beginning. If you think about who you are and who are your listeners, then I want you to think about and think outside of the box. How can you talk about somebody's product, again, someone that is in a very similar niche than you are, and then give them the opportunity to advertise. And this could be not necessarily the $50,000 contract, but it could be the money that helps you offset the cost of the podcast. Or products you love as well, for sure. Right. The other thing too that a lot of people don't realize is you can create merch. You can, I started with buy me a coffee. I don't know if a lot of people, right? Buy me a coffee. And I think this is the thing, right? That we need to um success is not necessarily having the big contract, success is getting to do what you do, what you enjoy, still making an impact on the lives of others, but really doing it in your own way. Right now, what I'm seeing, and it it really is something that I encourage individuals, there are a lot of brands out there that are spending money, not so much in the big Joe Rogans of the world, and they are starting to spend it in smaller influencers, smaller uh nano or micro influencers. You can go into websites like Backstage where you can see what the user-generated content is that you can create that then helps another brand put their product out there and you can monetize that. You can also look to see in your community, you know, that I have a friend and she has a very niche podcast. She talks about all the happenings in her town out in California, right? And if you don't live in that town, you could care less about what she's talking about. However, because everybody in her town, right, listens to the show to find out what's happening, what's coming up. Guess who wants to advertise? Local businesses. So she had no problem saying to local businesses, hey, would you like to advertise on my show? I'll give you a 30-second spot and it'll cost you a thousand dollars a month. And you'll also get some social media posts, and we'll give you a shout out here and there, add you the newsletter. So, wow, can you imagine what can a thousand dollars do for you? Right. And this is why when when we work with individuals, this these are some of the things that we we teach them. And as a matter of fact, today in my mastermind, we were writing pitches to pitch ourselves to the Drew Berry Moore show. We love that. Yeah, Kelly Clarkson. But these are skills, right? And yes, are we gonna I'm I'm making my clients send those pitches out, but I'm also making them send it to organizations, to small businesses, to other aligned brands that want to get the word out and can leverage her connection to her listeners for them to advertise in.

Shanna Star:

Yes. I love what you said about pitching both of those things because I've done the same. I've pitched ones where I'm like, probably not gonna get this right now, but it's getting your name out there. It could be a later, it could be a connection, who knows? Um, or it could be a yes, even if it's a small percentage. And I also have pitched just famous to me people, which you know, like photographers that mean a lot to me, but anyone outside the realm is gonna go, I don't know who that is, you know, and but they're both important, have value, and have something to offer for your podcast. So I love that. I do want to go back to the um advertising thing quick because I wrote down a few things. First, the buy me a coffee is something that I think is still on my website, honestly. But it's basically for those listening, it's just it's a link or an app, I guess, that you can add to your podcast and they can just donate. It's like a donation. So you can do $5, 10, whatever, as much money. And that way people can still be contributing to your podcast and helps a little bit with your time and talent. Um and then of course there's Patreon and some other things like that. And back to like the small brand thing, I've had a few very small brands on my podcast. Um, and they've sometimes fallen off. But the thing that I still do, and if you're looking for an advertiser, but maybe you're too small, I love using softwares that I already use, business software. I use Honeybook and most software or programs you use, they offer like, hey, if you get somebody to sign up under you, you get 20% off. And so those are wonderful ones to work out any software.

Julie:

Those are great. And you know what? I'm so glad that you talk about that that affiliate marketing. And yeah, and I think that a lot of times, right, we forget that if we really love something, our word is going to help, right, influence somebody else who doesn't want to have to spend the time to try to figure out what to use, how to use it. They already know someone that it works for, right? Um, so yeah, that affiliate marketing is an incredible opportunity. And people forget how fun it is to all of a sudden get a check. I do affiliate marketing for Bus Broad where I host my podcast. I also do it um for Flowdesk. I'm actually a Flow desk partner, and that's what I use for, that's what I use for my email. And it's really fun, right? Because as a Flow Desk partner, I talk about it. I teach my clients, and I usually will say to my clients, look, this is what I use. I'll teach you whatever platform you want. You need to use the platform that works for you. But most of them, when they see how easy Flowdesk is, they'll go to Flow Desk and then I get some money back. And it's kind of like I don't have to pay for the service because it's paying for itself and it's giving me a couple extra dollars there.

Shanna Star:

Yes. Yep, and it's something you already use and they trust. And so, of course, that's going to be easier to sell. Uh, something else I wanted to ask you about is then we kind of are doing that with advertising, but call to action because podcasters don't just have to be. I mean, you and I are chatting right now. It's a great conversation. I hope that they're learning lots from it. But then it's like, then what? So when somebody's making a podcast, what is the next step? How do they do that? What do you suggest?

Julie:

So, you know, for more most podcasters that have a business and you don't know how to drive people to your business, it's very important to understand that your episodes can be real great opportunities to um tell people what you do and tell them where to go that you're doing that. I think that there's three missing pieces that are costing conversions to individuals. Number one is a lot of podcasters, especially if you're a coach or a consultant, you're over-teaching. And sometimes when we over-teach, people will tune out, right? Or it becomes too jargony. We're talking, that's the other thing that we do. We become too jargon, the this, the that. And people are, you know, people need to know, like plain, simple. Tell me in in in sixth grade level. A lot of times when I'm speaking, I'll think, can my niece understand what I'm saying? Because sometimes we think we're saying, hey, go sign up for my thing, but we're like, oh, it would be great if you, you know, become aligned with us and join and come on, just say, okay, I'm having this thing, go here, and this is how you do it. And again, the other piece when it comes to converting people and your call to actions is that people focus too much on benefits. Now, are the benefits of our service great? Of course, everybody wants to reap those benefits, but remind people what the struggle is, right? It's okay to highlight the positive, but when you when you are not zeroing in on the specific problems you solve, your message won't connect with the people that need you.

Shanna Star:

Yeah.

Julie:

So it's very important in in your call to actions and always reminding people, hey, by the way, if you like this episode, go and subscribe or go share this episode. Hey, if you liked what I was talking about when it comes to becoming a more confident entrepreneur, you can blah, blah, blah. Or if you really loved that I shared how we created this podcast, then and you're not sure how your podcast is hitting other people, don't forget you can go here to get an audit, right? So I I you want to go ahead and plan it out. And in the very beginning, oh my gosh, talk about haphazard. And I don't think I had any call to actions in my podcast. Yeah. So it people weren't making the connection. But if you want to plan a high-converting episode, you want to make sure that you have a teaser, that you build it in, right? That it's a doorway to your episode. You also want to be personal and share personal experiences. But the other piece of it, and this is one thing that a lot of podcasters forget, is you don't do a callback to old episodes, right? Hey, I know that we talked about email marketing today. I want to share a little bit about how I started to grow my list, right? And you can listen in such and such episodes. So now people are going back to your back catalog. They're starting to really connect with you, nurture more because they're hearing your content. But remember that, you know, putting into action is going to require practice. You're not going to get it right in the beginning. But really, if you say, hey, from this episode, I'm talking about this. What am I leading people to? Right. And then decide how your content is going to align with that.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I totally agree. Uh something else that I feel like questions that come up when people start podcasting or even being a guest on a podcast is, well, how much it how much does it cost? And where what do I need for it? And it at first you want to be like, ah, there's a lot you need. You know, we need a big bigger conversation. And but really you don't need a huge budget to start podcasting, but you need a clear pathway and you need certain things. You need somewhere to host your podcast because even though I have a website, that's not what hosts, that's not where it is hosted. You need gear, and you can start off with real cheap gear and a place to do the audio. And if you have a Mac, there's garage band. I know it's not great, but it's a great start. So, what are some things that you suggest starting with?

Julie:

I know I kind of popped off what I feel, but no, listen, I love that you talked about that. So, yes, you don't have to start very you don't have to be fancy, you don't have to get, you know, the the big complicated microphones. Now, of course, I'm not the tech in the podcasting world in our world here, but I'll tell you what we tell clients. Um, my husband will say, you know, a time, and actually this weekend, I I didn't, I went away. I needed to record a quick thing, and I didn't have my mic, I have a travel mic. So he said, just use your iPhone. Your iPhone is has a great mic in it. And guess what? You can just hold it like this, like a mic in front of your mouth, and then you can record. So if you wanted to do that, it can be as easy as that. Now, there are services, for instance, you can get um Riverside. Um, and again, I am transitioning to Riverside five years in, but it's easy, right? Some people love it, and then you can just like Zoom, you don't pay for Zoom, or maybe you have the Zoom Pro, but that's an easy investment. You need it for your business anyway. But something like Riverside can help you also record and then have the files that you can then use to put out there. Now, your RSS feed, and I want to revisit this because I think that a lot of people don't understand the whole RSS feed. You need to, so if you're going to send your message, your podcast out into the airwaves, there needs to be a vehicle. Your RSS feed is kind of like the envelope that delivers to Apple, that delivers to Spotify. So you want to pick the RSS feed, and some of them have free plans. So you can get started with a free plan within most of the providers. Now, if you don't want to put it maybe on Apple yet, but you want to put a show out there, you can do it on YouTube, and you're not paying for YouTube as well. So there's different ways to get creative. The latest thing that also you can get started with is believe it or not, Substack. Now, Substack is known as the blogging platform, but you can start a podcast on Substack. As a matter of fact, I decided to test it out so that I can share and teach my clients how to be able to do that. And it's easy enough. You just go to Substack, you create an account, and then you can hit record and record right into Substack. Wow. Okay now, obviously, the the level of sound, it's not going to be as professional as if you're being edited. But listen, that's a great opportunity for you to live, learn, understand, make mistakes, and keep showing up and build that muscle for podcasting because that consistency is also something you're going to need as a podcaster.

Shanna Star:

Absolutely. That's one of the first things I say is it doesn't matter how often you do it. If you can only do it once a month, twice a month, four times a month. But as long as you're consistent in those, that's really all that matters because your listeners will look forward to that day and watch for it to come out. And so if it's even once a month, they'll be like, okay, it's the first or whatever day.

Julie:

That's right.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, they'll be ready for it.

Julie:

A hundred percent. I have a client that she drops her episodes every other week. And guess what? People wait for her episodes because that's the that's the the cadence that she got people used to.

Shanna Star:

Yes, yeah. I had some health issues this last year, and so I was like, I needed to pull back, and now that I'm back in it, it's been every other week because it feels not stressful that way. I want it to be fun and enjoyable and have great conversation, and so that's been helpful. Also, not to quick like veer off, but AI also has helped me. So where I host is Buzz Sprout, and they just added all the stuff where now my transcripts are in there, and now it'll help me with um all the other words and the topics that are happening, and those things used to take hours and hours.

Julie:

So it can be very time consuming. And and here's the thing, right? You need to leverage the expertise. Like I tell people, you know, when we were in high school, did we use a calculator for some of the equations and a complicated algebra? Thank God that we could use a calculator for some stuff. So why not utilize it and and really be clear, right? Don't lose sight of the humanity that you bring to the tech. However, there's nothing wrong with being able to leverage. And a lot of times I'll get stuck and I'll say, Hey, can you give me a title? Or can you, you know, tell me how to say this in a different way? And that cuts back the time. Because here's the thing that people and entrepreneurs don't realize there's gonna be different activities that you're doing in your business. And there's some activities that you should not be doing. And if you can delegate it to, and maybe you cannot afford an assistant or podcast producer, but if you can cut the time that you're doing something, right? That is it's content, is putting your message out there, but it's not necessarily working with a client or being in front of people that can lead to a client, then you want to make sure that you cut those tasks and that you concentrate on the things that are going to move your business forward.

Shanna Star:

Perfect. So I just have two more questions for you. And uh the first is now if somebody's wanting to start a podcast or excited about it, is there anything that you feel we maybe haven't touched on or something that you love suggesting or love about podcasting we haven't talked about that would be just encouraging.

Julie:

Well, I uh I'm gonna make a plug for Buzzsprout, and maybe Buzzsproud is gonna, you know, go ahead and and uh sponsor both of our shows. So Buzzsproud just launched something. It is a podcast name generator, and I think that this is something that a lot of individuals, um, me included, right? When I started a podcast and I came up with a name, I came up with a fun, catchy inside joke, little name. Now, mind you, right, we we've created a brand around the name. But if someone is looking for confidence habits, that's not Casa de Confidence is not the first thing they're gonna be doing. Now, I've um my my podcast and my podcast name is trademarked, but there's a lot of people who I've seen. I have a friend actually that he started a podcast. I'm not gonna name his podcast, but he started this great podcast. It's such a good name. But you would think that this uh very high-level executive that did startups in in Silicone Valley would have thought to go in and Google the name of the podcast to see if somebody else had it. And yes, somebody else, as a matter of fact, it was a photographer that had the name for his podcast. Well, sorry for no, it wasn't you, but but two different lanes, and now he created this great show with great content that was really getting some traction. And then he got a cease and desist letter from a photographer for using his name. So go and check out, come up with your ideas, ask, you know, what are the things? What are the things that people are going to be typing when it comes to looking for the information that I'm going to share on my podcast and see if somebody else has the name? Or go to the bus sprout name generator and you can type in the description of what you want the show, who do you want the people to listen, who is going to be that person that is not going to miss an episode, and then they'll give you some names and then you can see, right? Oh, what fits, what doesn't, and go from there. So make sure the your name is something that you research. And of course, you don't have to do it right away, but always protect yourself and you can go through the process of of um making sure that you're trade trademarking your name too. You can I did it in the very beginning. It's not listen, with AI, you can figure it out, you can do it, people are smart. But then if you need an attorney, you can get, you know, there's attorneys out there that can help you. But you can get started with having that name.

Shanna Star:

That is that's great advice. And I didn't know Buzz Sprout was doing that at soon.

Julie:

Yeah, they just announced it this week.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. Oh, okay, good. Then I don't feel so behind. That's incredible. So, what is maybe I know you have maybe a little freebie for us or that call to action where we can connect and find and get something from you today.

Julie:

Okay, so I have a freebie because first of all, you know, Shauna, you you talk about so many really fun things, but I want to offer your listeners a copy of my book. And they can go to goconfidentlycoaching.com and under the resource tab, they can go and put their information and then I'll send you a copy of my number one bestseller book. And it's something that you'll see that the way that I wrote the book is the kind of book where you can pick up and lit and read the different stories. I share the stories of individuals who have gone confidently again in the direction of their dreams. There's people from all walks of life, women who have um impacted me and have the right habits that allow them to reach a level of success. So we're kind of getting an insight look at how did people create confidence and success in their terms? And then this way you can start to kind of incorporate those that make sense for you. So there's a cop, there's the copy of the book, and I love for people to check it out. Um, also, of course, in the resource page, you'll see other things in there. But the book is a really fun read.

Shanna Star:

So I know you already gave us that. And of course, it'll all be in the notes too, so they can scroll down, click on it, and find it right away. Much easier if they're busy listening to this uh this episode today. But is there other ways or are there other ways where we can find and follow you as well?

Julie:

Sure. Well, I would love anybody to who is listening to check out myself and my hashtag handsome hot husband on the show, which is Casa the Confidence. And we're all on the on every platform. And of course, I'm Julie DeLuca Collins on social media. If you want to send me a DM and tell me what you loved about the show, I would love to um be friends. I I love friends.

unknown:

Perfect.

Shanna Star:

Well, I appreciate you so much. I've loved being able to talk about podcasting because often when I talk about it, it's with people just learning, which is great. I love teaching it, but it's nice to talk and learn a little bit myself. So thank you so much.

Julie:

Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. And listen, you're doing a great job. I love your show. I listened to a couple episodes and you're going into my rotation. So I can't wait to see what amazing things you continue to do in the world. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Shanna Star:

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