I like I like an active chat. Okay. So s these kinds of sessions are different than a podcast and that I can get real-time feedback. So if you have an aha moment, if you're like that's me, or if you have a question, how did you do that? Or if you have a thought, I know a friend who did that, feel free to share in the chat. The beautiful thing about this room is that we can all learn from each other. So thank you again, Becky, for putting this together.

as she mentioned, my name is Andrea Jones. I'm the host of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. And before we get into this, I love that everyone put their podcast in the chat. I would also love for you to picture what your listener looks like. Okay. So who is this person? What comes to mind? If you have a little description already, you can put in the chat.

you know, where where do they listen to your show? What do they gain from your show or what do they hope to gain from your show? I know for one of my favorite podcasts, I turn it on to laugh. It's two drag queens. It's called sibling rivalry. It's Bob the drag queen and Monet Exchange. And they just fight on the podcast in like a sibling way. And it's funny to me. So my goal as their listener is just to laugh and to like

Forget about the world for a moment. Maybe that's you. Or maybe you have a podcast listener who wants to learn something new or try something new or hear a different perspective or learn from other people's stories. I wanna kind of hear from each other as well so that we can keep that person in mind as I go through my slides today.

I love that Becky said my listeners look like the people in this room because we're here. so if you have anything to add, put that in the chat. Cause we're gonna talk about what happens when someone starts spending time with you. So intimate podcasting, because they're literally in your ear holes as they go about their day. But I also want to think about how you can make it easier for them to have that conversation with you. And I'll show you some examples for my own podcast, including some messages people sent me.

And some of the opportunities that have come from the podcast. But my hope is by the end of today's my session today, I want you to have in mind how you can do that for your show, an invitation that you can put in an upcoming episode or something that you can actually follow through on when you get back to your podcast. So Candace says gratitude geek listeners are Gen X women solopreneurs who've had something shitty happen and are listening to recenter gratitude as a business strategy.

Sci-fi Book Pod is for nerds and geeks who like to read and discuss speculative fiction. Ooh. Nicole says just rest listeners are tired, passionate, midlife women who are listening while commuting, making dinner, or taking a walk because they are exhausted. Christy says plot lab listeners want to get a peek at the creative process and listen to their favorite authors generate a story.

V says our listen our ideal listener is a millennial queer woman whose main online home is still Tumblr. Yes, still in 2026. We've been great at reaching those people, but are starting to open up our idea to include people who are less entrenched in the fandom culture already and are newer or and are newer to it and come to the podcast to learn from that perspective. that's interesting. Amy Stone says my audience is English speaking women.

Who 35 plus who are interested in personal development and self-improvement. Caroline says, I'm Caroline. I'm gonna Caroline, I'm so sorry. You have a last name, but for the recording, I'm skipping it because my mind went, I don't know how to pronounce that. It's Sure. Sure McDicken. Yeah. Sure McDicken. You what? I should have just tried it. host of thank you, Caroline. Caroline Conversations at Words Work Labs.

The podcast is all about exploring story crafting from the perspective of all kinds of creative people. Artists, writers, musicians, and more. Love that. All to support and energize each other. beautiful. I'll read one more, Judy. sorry, this chat just moved on me. I have a few more in here. Wow, y'all are brilliant. My audience are women 35 plus who love football and need to advise and need advice on fantasy football.

Ooh, Judy, I may need to check out your podcast. Okay, Nick. As the say as the name suggests, I am very new to the podcasting space, working on the documentary limited a documentary limited series, hoping to release at the end of the month. Yay, Nick! Love that. and Stephanie, a socially cultured person who listens while working in the studio or during laundry, curious to share and learn and build ideas.

Now I love that everyone has a different listener as well, because one of the beautiful things about podcasts is we all listen to a variety of them as well. And so your listener for one p podcast may still be the listener for the the other. So for my podcast, one of the things that I love is that podcasting gave me more room to kind of explain myself. I started off in the YouTube space. I had my first YouTube video in 2007.

I went to the very first VidCon when it really was just like an idea on a forum. but with video I found there were so many technical elements from the lighting to did I put makeup on today that I didn't need when I first started podcasting. And so I loved that I could use that as a medium to share my ideas. Even today now, though I have a video podcast, I still like the podcast because

I can talk through my recommendations. People still get to hear my stories and they still get to kind of hear the process behind some of my decisions. And so when I think about where my people listen, I'm sharing this screenshot from my car because in my mind, my listener is in the car on the way to daycare drop off. they probably have other things running through their head as well. They're probably listening on 2x speed.

Because they want to listen to maybe multiple podcasts, but they want to spend time with the episode because of the familiarity that my story brings to them. I've been podcasting since 2018 and listening because I have a busy life as well. And so the way that I talk about social media and marketing is through that lens. And so the familiarity gives me that place to begin with when I start talking.

a listener can bring up an example from an episode and suddenly I already have something to discuss, right? I'm curious if this has happened to anyone of you. Has someone started a conversation with you and realized that they knew a lot about you because they've been listening. I had I had someone stop me in Marshall's. I was shopping, discount shopping for clothes, and they said, Andrea, and I was like, Hello, hi, do I know you? They were like, my gosh, I listened to your podcast. How's Gibson?

Gibson's my dog, right? And I was like, he's great. He's great. I was like, my gosh. I walked away from the interaction going, wow, they're really listening. And that's always a really, really fun experience to have. And as Becky mentioned, I have had my community kind of move with me from the savvy social podcast to the mindful marketing podcast. So I started the savvy social podcast in 2018. And it was a really good fit for the work that I was doing.

Then. But over time, I found myself making more room for conversations around how marketing really affects our lives, how we set boundaries around it, and how we build businesses that really feel like ours. and then I started thinking a Thinking Out Loud series at the end of 2023, where I was exploring these ideas with my community in my newsletter. So before I changed the name of my show, I started talking about that shift.

in my newsletter, the same listeners in a different format. I wrote a ton of emails while I was figuring out what the show and ultimately what my brand would become. And there was so much I didn't know then that I know now. So re even reading back through those emails, it's like, wow, people were really with me along the way. I shared questions as I was asking them, thoughts and experiences that I had and the show became the Mindful Marketing podcast.

And the and I do feel that the reason that I can make that transition is because of my community. I can feel my people coming along with this direction. In fact, one of my listeners responded to an email and said, I watch your transition from savvy social to mindful marketing, and it's so my jam. and so it's one of those things where I love reading this because it reminded me that the name change doesn't kind of dismiss or erase my my past community members. In fact, they're excited to kind of go on this journey.

with me. And I think that's why I'm all about building meaningful relationships with my people. they can follow my work as it changes, as it shifts, as it grows, as it, as it develops over the years. And that has really, really been helpful for me. So question for you, what brings your people together then? If you're thinking about that individual listener, that individual community member, what's something that would bring them or connect them with another community member?

And I know for my pod my favorite podcast, Sibling Rivalry, it's it's our love of drag queens, it's RuPaul Drag Race, and all of the inside jokes of the show. if anyone listens to the show, we can like say something like ocular proof and instantly bust out laughing because it's an inside joke, and that's kind of what brings us together. Becky says, fighting the man. I love that one. I want to read Joshua's My Listeners are Eco Justice E.

Curious, vibe, radical, tender, interested in learning and feeling as they engage with their life and other living beings during the anthro word that I can read in my head. beautiful, Joshua. I love that. so I think that is something that also is very, very reflective of your community in the sense that

Eco justice curious people will find each other. We find each other, right? No matter what space we're in. And so that gives us something to talk about beyond the podcast, beyond Instagram, beyond threads. And that's kind of what it's all about. V says podcasts with inside jokes are so much more approachable, but I feel like you can always tell a listener when the joke is forced. It's gotta be organic. Yep, it's gotta be organic and come from the real life.

So I want you to think about what brings your people together. If you have an idea, you can pop it in the chat. for me, my people, they like being acknowledged about the exhaustion that can come from marketing our own shows, marketing our own business. And so an episode about finding a workable, like publishing rhythm really speaks to that experience, right? I'm not talking

about the other marketing experts out there who say post eight thousand times a day. Because my life isn't their life, right? I am a single mom. I've got two kids. So the amount of time that I have to create content very limited. It's not the same as, you know, some white dude who ha whose wife is at home taking care of the kids and he has like a a house cleaner and someone who cuts his grass for him and like good for him. And he can post eight times a day. My life is different, right? And so

I bring that lens to the work that I do. Okay, so Stephanie says bringing people together, artists always building, making and showing work, or bringing light to a mission they are passionate about. I love that. So let's talk about format because I do think format lends to this in some way, but I'm gonna share this just through the lens of what I'd learn. it's not really necessarily you have to do it this way, but

I do like to do solo episodes because it really shares my clear perspective. It shares my one idea, it shows my decision-making process. I have guest conversations really just about people that I'm curious about. And I think that natural curiosity lends itself to my show. Becky has been on my show a number of times as well, and for me it's just an excuse to like pick Becky's brain. It's like

What do you think about this? And I think my listeners really like that. you can choose to do audio first. I have a number of private podcasts that are audio only. I'll talk about that in a sec. I do like this method, but I also do video as well, and then a publishing rhythm that fits my real life. I'm actually considering shifting my show because my life has shifted, my responsibilities have shifted.

I have had a weekly show since 2018. We have over 400. I think I just published 426 episodes. so it's a lot of podcasting, right? That's a weekly rhythm with a few weeks missed in between here and 2018. but all that matters is a rhythm that fits you. what I love about podcasts is people can also hear how you think in a way that's very intimate. So maybe you've changed how you work with clients or

Maybe you've decided a popular recommendation wasn't gonna fit your business. Like that's the stuff that my people wanna hear. They want the details, okay? They want the reality TV messy version. They want the to see how the sausage is made. And so in my teaching, that's I want people to understand like how I make decisions about their business. And that really brings the community together because I'm not

I really try not to elevate myself above anyone else. I wanna be like, hey, I'm I'm in the trenches with you. Like I'm figuring this out too. Maybe I'm only one or two steps ahead of you, so I'm just gonna share what I know. And I think that really helps my listeners feel more comfortable with my process as well.

Okay, so I want to share some of the behind-the-scenes process of the podcast. This is what I use. as part of the recording process, I use Riverside because it has a transcript. And a lot of my listeners appreciate that. And again, it brings the community together. and I share this, this this kind of screenshot I'm sharing with you, I shared on Instagram stories. So I share with people how I make the podcast as well. And I think people like to see that.

there's plenty that goes into the recording process. I talk about how like I interrupt myself when I'm talking. and I actually had to stop doing that because it was hard to pull like clips for social media. So I talk about that on the podcast because I'm I I tell stories like that in real life. and I people really related to that. And again, it's back to that, like, hey, there's a human behind the mic moment. So sharing some of those moments, what that could look like for you.

could really help s build some of that connective tissue with your community, right? so, you know, maybe you're wondering how your behind the scenes, your favorite podcast is created behind the scenes. Show us that. Becky says, funny how I love to do behind the scenes stuff for the shows I listen to, but I rarely share that stuff with the p pods I co-host. Yeah. Show us, show us what it's like, especially when with a co-po host situation. I'm personally curious about that. I've never

How to podcast co-host, how do y'all schedule the times? How do you make sure the episodes are aligned? Like how do you collaborate? Give me all the nitty-gritty. I wanna see it. so here's what I give my listeners. here's the kind of the path that I think about when I'm when I'm talking about my listeners. When I when I design an episode, when I create an episode, I think about how I have an invitation that will make sense for that episode.

And then that invitation starts a conversation that helps them keep coming back and keep returning to the podcast. And so the invitation piece to me is the most important piece of this kind of journey. because my goal is always to have returned listeners. I love new listeners. That's great. I use like my other marketing for that, but when I'm talking about the podcast itself.

I want to make sure that someone's not just listening to one episode, that they keep coming back for more and more. And so the next step, that invitation, I make it really easy because again, my listener, she's probably in the car. and thinking to herself, I'll get to that later. So I want her to have something really, really easy to think about when they when they advance, right? So think about your person.

what happens when they're listening to the episode? what could that invitation look like? Is there another episode you want them to point them to? Do you wanna point them to social media? Do you wanna point them to maybe your email list? Think about this path, but I want us to make it as easy as possible. So here's how I do it. I usually ask people to DM me on Instagram.

So I usually say something like, Do you have a question about this or do you want to talk about this? DM me, I'm at online Drea everywhere, but Instagram is my favorite platform. And then I kind of make it specific to the episode as well. I want them to give me an example. So I just did a an episode all around Q4 planning and Black Friday sales and that sort of thing. So DM me, tell me what your Black Friday sale is, right?

we drop the ball on the invitation piece big time. Yeah, I think that's great for like having the conversations. And then Stephanie, pointing people to something, how many things or for how long do we say that before switching? Stephanie, I would keep it brief and y mine is fairly short. Like DM me on Instagram and we can talk about it kind of thing. it it depends on your community. Some people are okay with a longer

call to action. One of my clients, for instance, had a text message number and she would read out the number. It was like four five five six one or something. Like text four, five, five, six, one with the word pod and I'll send you a free thing, right? And for my people that just wouldn't work, but for some people it would, right? So I would just stick with one main one. And then I usually repeat that every episode. for my people, they're

Like social media is great for if your people aren't on social media, you may want to think about something different. like my my client that her people aren't really on social media like that and they like the text message. So you know, think about what will work for you. DM might be the better move for me versus email. I'll try that. Yeah. And it gives you an opening, right? they can tell you what they're working on and you can have a little bit of a back and forth. and I think that you can move.

from an episode into a conversation with one person. sometimes their question really helps me see something that I can do in another episode. Okay. So it circles back. I've I've done this a few times in my show where I said, hey, this listener, shout out to this listener. They asked this question. So now I'm doing a whole podcast episode on this question. And it really makes them feel like a part of the community as well.

Becky says one of the first shows I ever listened to to do a free something for each episode and wanted to share a simple link, website.com slash number, the episode number, so you can grab an easy system to remember. Yes. I also do that for my show notes at the end of the episode. So onlineDrea.com slash three six five or four two will lead you to the podcast. and then there's usually more links there. So anytime I have a guest, especially, I make it easy for people to remember.

So here's an example of this. Someone said, Hey Andrea, I just wanted to send a quick message because I listened to a couple of your podcasts and I'm just finning the finishing the one with Meg Brunson and it was great. I love the analogies and was laughing so much at the dating analogies. Definitely see where I could put my efforts and that podcast helped a lot. Thank you for that. And this is just something that I I reposted to

Instagram stories and this to me is very useful information, right? I get to see exactly what example stayed with them. I use that example a lot in my work. And so it gives me a real place to kind of continue that conversation with them. And so when someone sends me a message my li like this, I screenshot it, I save it, I put it in my feel good folder. And anytime I'm like, my gosh, this podcast is taking so much work, I go and look in there and be like, this is why I do this because people really do like it.

okay, I love text messages, but it seems like a lot of folks in my world are on Instagram. Yep. Love the idea of simplified links going along with the episodes. Yep. I use I use pretty links with WordPress. it's like a WordPress plugin. so the what the each episode technically has a longer link with the with the name for SEO purposes. And then I basic basically creates a redirect with.

Pretty link for each episode number. and that really helps as well. OMG really need to do this. We had a random viral episode got that got a ton of nice comments. Screenshot them all. Yeah, save them for the future. I just did my second episode after nine months getting a schedule now. I invited comments, oops, sorry, with a question, but I like the DM more. Thanks. Yeah, you know, some people feel like comments are so public, and DMs are a lot more intimate.

and so that's why I recommend that usually. is if you okay, I did answer this. Yeah. DM me if not email work. Yeah. So just one call to action DM. Yes. okay. Now here's how I make room for listeners on my show. A listener question can become an episode. So when someone asks me c a question,

I usually ask them, like, hey, I want to turn this into a podcast episode. Can I give you a shout out or do you want to remain anonymous? And I've had people say both. And then I talk about that person on the podcast. shared experiences shape the discussion. there was one time where a a listener asked me about Substack and I'm not on Substack. So I actually invited people, Becky actually was one of them, I think. I invited people who are on Substack and I said, Hey, I d I'm not.

an expert in this. I don't have a substack, but a listener asked this question. So let's like bring everyone together. I do always ask permission before sharing someone's story. And then I let them know after the episode, I usually go back to that person and DM them, hey, thank you so much for asking this episode. Here's the episode that when it came out. And it's those small touches that really help people feel like they're a part of something. And I think especially with the internet, it's so easy to feel like just a number or

pixels on a screen and I want people to know like I'm a human, you're a human, like I this isn't like some automated thing for me. This is this is something that I'm passionate about. V says 80% of our episodes are listener requests. Ooh, I love that. It's been the best choice we made in building the show, making sure people know that the episodes come from listeners like them. Like PBS, yes, I love that. And you know, as you hear from your listeners, you'll start to recognize kind of

Patterns with shared experiences, and you can let those conversations really help you continue to build the show. Okay, I do also like to use guests conversations as ongoing relationships. So during the interview, I'm curious, okay, what the person's saying. I give them the pair questions, I give them a starting point, and then I just go from there. Like I have my questions, but I honestly tell people.

I'm following my curiosity and I like being nosy. Okay. Like, give me the realty. Like if they say something, I'm like, wait a second, break that down. And one of the missions with my show is that I don't usually talk to other marketers. Like it's not like here's what you should do. I talk to people who are actually doing it. And nine times out of ten, they're apologizing while they're doing it. So for example, I had someone come on and talk about their Instagram strategy. They're I'm sorry, I don't really use Instagram stories. I'm like, no, no, no, no, sorry.

That's what I want to hear. They're like, I post to my feet, I stay on my feet, I don't use stories that much. Great. We want to hear about those strategies because it gives someone permission to do the same, right? They can be have their own version of success and be successful. So I really kind of build relationships with my guests as I'm doing that. But I also my guests are part of my community.

So after each episode, I talk to my guests for about 10 to 15 minutes. What are you working on next? How can I support you? How can I lift you up? And this really helps also my guests feel like valued, right? I'm not just there to like get everything I can from them and extract everything from their audience and like force them to share the show when it comes live. That's not what it's about for me.

It's about relationship building in a way that is unique because a lot of times with the guests, I would have never had an opportunity to like just shoot the shit with someone, you know what I mean? Whereas some of these people, you know, they have a a larger maybe community than me or they're a little less approachable. And so after the show I I talk to them. What are you working on next? How can how can I support you? and this is also where I get a lot of ideas for where I should be next. What what communities are you a part of?

What events are you going to? that sort of thing. And it's really gotten me to broaden my own network so I'm not in a bubble as well, to really help lift them up. Becky says we've had a few speakers in FPC talk about how our guests can become our clients or referral partners if we just take the time to focus on them as relationships, not a passing guest. Yes. And I think that's the beauty too of having return guests. So sometimes,

I one time had a client who went viral on TikTok and we did a whole episode about that. And then she deleted her TikTok and we did a whole episode about that. And the beautiful thing was I am connected with her. So I was able to follow the entire journey, right? So I saw her post on Instagram about how she deleted her TikTok and I DM'd her immediately and said, Please come back on the podcast to talk about this. Cause people think they have to be on a certain platform or not, even after they go viral. She didn't like

The the comment section of going viral, people were like making videos about her and tearing her down. And she was like, This is not for me, this is not my space. I'm like, Great, good for you for making the right choice for yourself. And those are the types of stories that I like to highlight as well. V says, one of my favorite things that has come out of my podcast is our Patreon Discord server. Everyone there has totally different fandom background, age, location in the world, nothing in common on paper except the love of something.

enough to be a fangirl and talking through it to each other about that shared feeling rather than this p shared piece of media is how it's become such a lovely community. That's beautiful V. Thank you. Stephanie says chatting afterwards like that is a really good I've done that before and I really like it. Yeah. And when I and I tell guests this ahead of time as well. when I send out all of the guest information, you know, I I block off an hour, but the actual episode will probably be about thirty, forty five minutes, which gives us time to connect.

and so they're they're kind of aware of that as well. so here's another thing. Help someone find their first episode. So your archive of episodes can help someone who's just finding you f answer this question. Where do I start? Like imagine discovering a show with a lot of episodes. I have over 420 episodes. Where do I start? And how are we scrolling through titles? I offer small collection around one challenge. I also have a

PDF that I put for put together that groups them by topic as well so that I can recommend an episode based on what they're looking for. Okay. This works with individual conversations as well. When someone just DMs me and says, my gosh, I just found your podcast, but like I don't know where to start, I go, What what are you curious about in marketing? And if they say, I want to explore Pinterest, and I go, here are three episodes about Pinterest.

Or if they're like, man, my email list, I've been abandoning it, then here are a couple episodes about email lists. Here's one guest about messaging or a guest about website building. And so that really helps that person kind of find what they're looking for. A couple comments said, we started doing this, Becky said for yes and otherwise, we have our most recent, most popular in the groupings of five episodes around.

themes, yes and otherwise.com. Chrissy says we've talked about grouping them by genre since we have authors that write in all kinds of genres. Chrissy, I love that. V says we have a primer playlist on Spotify and on the main page of our website. I don't know how often people find us through that, but it was fun to create. Yep. I do also on Spotify I create a playlist of episodes I've been a guest on as well. So if someone wants to listen to like my story or something, I have that as a podcast playlist.

Candace says I have five lesson series of blog posts that call back to guests. Yeah, that's so smart. I love that. I love this message. when someone says, I can't believe I last DM'd you in 2021 and I listen to all your episodes and I feel like I know you. This is the best. Honestly, it's the best feeling. And it's basically they they told seriously do make my day. And when I think about this, I think about how this is also a DM.

Right. So a lot of podcast metrics are so invisible. People don't really know how many downloads you have or anything like that. And even if they did, that is not a metric that I'm tracking. This to me is the biggest, most important metric. It's when a person can quietly listen to the episodes, even if they're not DMing me, right? Because I I often say, DM me, this person did DM me in 2021. And then

She's keeps listening and I say, DM me again, and she goes to and she's like, I did that years ago, right? And this is why I keep making that invitation. Do I sound repetitive to myself? Yeah, yeah. But even if we think about our favorite TV shows, they always have a little sign-off. They always have a the little signature phrase, right? And so I think of it as that, right? The signature phrase and a sign-off.

so here's how I make deeper participation kind of fit in people's lives. And I do this as an audio welcome. So sometimes when people DM me on Instagram, if I can, I will send them an audio DM back. So it gives them that podcast experience, but personalized for them.

And usually I will go look at their profile, follow them, and then I'll say, Hey, thank you so much for listening. I saw that, you know, you're in Florida. I used to live in Florida, or I saw that you have a bookkeeping business. That's amazing. Or, you know, something specific. but I also do this through private mini series. So when people sign up for my email list, I can say, you know, sign up just to get the newsletters. I do that sometimes.

But my biggest, my favorite, I should say, lead magnet is a private podcast. Has anyone here done private podcasts and put your experience in the chat? private podcasts give me, give them access to like a deeper teaching point. So I'm working on one right now about ethical use of AI and how I personally use tools like Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini, Reaplet. Like these are how I use these tools, right? And so

I'm developing this as a private podcast mini series. And I have probably about five or six that I've done over the years. My most popular one is called Social Media Unwind. it's a mindful meditation series all about how to kind of approach social media in a mindful way. and I do that in a private podcast. It's free, it's available, but it also gives people kind of a lane for a very specific topic and they can pr participate in

In a different way. And it makes room for that range, especially when I'm asking people to kind of fit learning in with their life. I also do private podcasts in my okay, Christy, what is a private podcast? Let me go back. Doot do do rewind. So private podcasts. It's a podcast feed that someone has to have a specific link to in order to access. I use Hello Audio for this, but a lot of the podcasting tools have them, like transistor has it like if you have a

If you have a main podcast on there, you can put a private podcast on there. But usually they have to give you like their email address and then you email them a very unique code or link to get access to the private podcast. They can listen to it in their podcasting app. So Spotify, Apple Podcasts, like whatever wherever they listen to, they can kind of listen to it there, but it's locked, so they only get the code to access it. So it's kind of like

It's kind of like a speakeasy where it's like you have to know the code to get in, kind of thing, right? So that that's kind of the the vibe with that. Great question. So it helps me go deeper on a very specific topic. And what I like about this is it's like a little reward, a little treat for the people, again, my community members who are in it. And so here's an example of that. This is my beautiful friend Diane. She was listening to my social media reset private podcast.

And so she messaged me on Voxer, hey mama, I'm at the gym listening to your social media reset private podcast. Then I heard you say social media is not negative, it's neutral. It's a tool like a hammer. You can build something, great, or you can bash someone's head in. And she said, I laugh so loud at that. I got a bunch of weird stares. It was so worth it. I love a good surprise, hope all is well. And so for me, when I'm teaching, like for this particular series, it was kind of a you know, social media reset.

at the end of the year preparing it people for the next year. And so I love that she was at the gym listening to it. So that also gives me context clues, right? Where are people listening at the gym? And then that teaching moment stuck with her because of my silly analogies, which is just the analogies keep coming back. People love them. I keep making them up. I try to make them as silly as I can. The current favorite one is poop scrolling because we all take our phones to the bathroom with us.

Nobody likes to admit it, but we all do it. And it makes people remember. Like your people, there's so much content available, and we're consuming content at a faster rate than we ever have. And so I don't, I think there's room for everyone in this, right? And so I love that. let me check the chat again. Let's scroll up a little bit. someone says, O V says, a Patreon feed. They have Patreon episodes on the feed. Love that. Stephanie, do I need Voxer?

it's a voice messaging tool. You don't do you need it? N I would say only get it if you know someone who's on there. Otherwise, you don't need it. but I do like it to message my friends. I work with Becky as my coach on Boxer, so that's a lot of fun. so it it could be helpful for you. For me, I I'm a talker and so with my friends, it's like a private podcast for each other. Like, hey, let's catch up. Like we just send audio messages back and forth.

I love that. Okay. So, this private podcast before you go on. There was one question there from Alicia, I don't think you got to, which is the benefits of of paid versus free podcast. Private podcast. Okay. Let me find it. I think it's the last one now before my there we go. What are the benefits of paid versus free? Thank you, Becky. So

I have only subscribed to one paid podcast and I don't have any of mine paid, so I can only use that example from my personal experience. Paid private podcasts for me was like taking a course. So it was very in depth. There were over three hundred episodes that I paid for from a coach that I really enjoyed her perspective, all about like building general generational wealth. sorry.

All about building like generational wealth, especially as a black woman. And so for me, I paid for access to that private podcast because it was basically her framework in that series. free podcasts tend to be a lot shorter. so my free podcasts are anywhere from three to ten episodes. So I don't really do a lot longer than that.

And so it's free because it's a free limited series for a paid podcast. I would if I'm if I paid for it, I would expect it to be a little bit longer than like three to ten episodes or have really long, like in-depth work there. Yeah. Becky says I offer async coaching via Voke Foxer. It's great for people who like that. Okay. Stephanie, I just use voice or signal. Okay, great, cool. And Becky, if I miss any others, let me know. I love how this chat is going.

okay. Build the follow-through. So for private podcasts before publication, or this is sorry, for public podcast before publication, I give my guests a heads up. Hey, the episode's coming out next week. Do you have anything that you want to add to it? Sometimes they launch a new program, the links have changed, and then on release day, I send them an episode link. Hey, the episode came out. Here's if you want to share it. I don't require people to share it, but if you want to share it, here's that information.

And then in my newsletter, I usually end with a question related to the podcast or I tie that into the story that I'm telling that week. And then afterwards I read and respond to listener DMs. And then I also post it in private communities that I'm in and respond to questions there. But you can choose a version of this that you can maintain, right? This is how I do it. And I do have support. I have an assistant who helps me with editing and sending out the emails.

But I talk a lot about boundaries in my work and how I protect the quality of my work. So when I respond and l to listener DMs, I don't have notifications turned on on my phone. I just have an Asana test to check Instagram once a day. So I tell my people that they don't expect me to respond. And in fact, sometimes they type that, hey Andrea, I know you don't work weekends, so you know, respond to this on Monday. And they know that about me because I talk a lot about that in my work.

So you can set that up for yourself, right? You can set up what that looks like. Maybe it's you just send one email to your guests, or maybe you don't tell your guests at all that the episode is out because you don't have the time. You can decide however you want to do that. But for me, it kind of maintains the relationship with that host. So for the wealth building course, she doesn't have that business anymore. unfortunately, she went through a bunch of health issues and

She closed down her business. but it was amazing. And I'll DM her and see if she has it and maybe I can share it with y'all, but it was amazing. I don't wanna I don't wanna overstep with what she has going on right now. But yes, awesome. okay. Question that I asked myself as well what are people doing because they listened?

what I had a strategy client who've been listening to the podcast for three years before she booked. She never ever sent me a DM, by the way. She just signed up for my strategy session and said, I in the notes, I've been listening for three years, saving up so I can do this, right? So a lot of this feedback loop for me isn't just the DMs. It's like so many different touch points in my business.

I saw a question from Joshua. Curious, like how much time are you spending doing community nurturing, replying, et cetera? Even just in comparison to your other podcast making labor. Yes. So for me, so e even though I've been doing this for what like can I do math? Eight years now? Is that right? 2018 to 2026. Yeah. Eight years. Whoo. Okay. Even though I've been doing this for eight years now,

For me, I only get about one or two DMs per episode. Okay. And I and my my show gets anywhere between three to five thousand listens a week. Okay. So I don't I'm not like inundated with DMs. Usually by the time someone's inundated with DMs, I I I let them know like it may be time like get sponsors on your show so you can monetize.

Or get an assistant to help you with some aspects of this, right? And so I have worked on the other side of that a social media manager for large podcasts where my job was to go in and respond to DMs. And so as you grow, you can absolutely get support with that. When you say you ask if a guest wants to add more, does that mean you'll be recording more? No, I don't add more, but in the show notes, I add a little note. and it's only ever happened once or twice where it's like,

This link came in after the recording and I'll just put a little note. Honestly, that happened a lot during the pandemic. I can't think of anything recently that has happened, but yeah, during the pandemic it was like, we we're not doing this event anymore because we can't have live events. So can you put that in the notes kind of thing? Okay. If there's any other questions, Becky, I missed, let me know.

but I want to talk a little bit about the results of this because I do to Joshua's point, I do put a lot of effort into building my show. It probably takes me about two to three hours each week to do my show, and I have someone else editing it. So it's it's quite a bit of time. But this is my 2025 Spotify wrapped. 59 fans had my show at number one, and I'm the top 10 videos on Spotify. And these are lovely results for me to look back on.

When I think about some of the success from the show, it's because that community building. Another thing that happened is one of my episodes, it did not go viral, but it was on rage baiting. And BBC radio reached out to me in 2024. I did a radio piece and they did a whole article quoting me. And then in 2025, it was the Web Oxford's dictionary's word of the year was rage baiting.

And so they brought me back to do another interview. And then I also here in Canada got on CBC Radio. It was over a dozen interviews. This is this screenshot was taken at four in the morning. I was so tired. But this is part of the community building of my show. Did that episode go viral? No. But someone at BBC Radio was listening and picked me up twice, and CBC Radio picked me up just because of that episode, right? So

I say all this to say like it's not about like having massive numbers. For me, it's about the community and the quality of listenership. I'd rather have that. Also, the podcast did win in Canada 2023 Outstanding Business Series. Again, I like I said, I have about three to five three to five thousand, three thousand to five thousand downloads per episode. So I I mean

Some episodes are less, some are like a thousand. Some episodes are more like 10,000, right? But the point of all of this is like success to me is not measured in the downloads. This winning this award was incredible experience for me and was all because of my community because they voted. It was a a popularity vote for this. So my people came together for that. So one thing I want you to think about is this question.

After my next episode, I'll invite listeners to do blank and I'll make room to respond by blank. Okay. So maybe it's you'll invite someone to DM you through a question you're working through or comment in a community. and if you have the answer, feel free to put it in the chat so we can learn from each other while we go into some QA. but I would love to just see them in the chat. I'm not gonna read them out because I wanna have time for QA, but I think we can learn from each other.

'Cause everyone's gonna be different, right? So after my next episode, I'll invite my listeners to DM me, to text a number, to sign up for my email newsletter, to at me on threads, to comment on a Facebook post, right? One podcast I listen to would actually just say, Go comment the word pink on my latest Instagram post. And so it doesn't even have to be like

anything specific. They were good, they do that for giveaways. Comment pink on my latest Instagram posting, we pick a winner every month and they have a different word for every episode. So that just lets them know how many people are listening, right? And so and it helps the Instagram out algorithm because suddenly everyone's commenting. But that's that their strategy, yours may look different. All right, let's talk about your podcast. what questions do you have? We can put them in the chat or we can raise hands too, Becky, right? If someone wants to talk through their question.

and I also want to say I have a course called Behind the Mic. It's in the event upgrade bundle and it's really goes into how I built my show to having you know episodes with over 10,000 listeners. and so if if you upgrade, you'll get access to that. Yes, thank you so much for including that. I'm gonna take us off. I removed the spotlight. If you wanna stop sharing, it's up to you, but then we can see each other. yeah, and for anyone who did get the upgrade bundle.

I will be sending all the information to you if you haven't already figured it out, or if I haven't already gotten it all to you on how to make sure you have access to all of the amazing goodies in there. It's like $1,200 worth of incredible stuff, including Andrea's course. So okay, I love Stephanie already answered your question. Anyone else who's got an answer, do it. Or if you don't yet and you want maybe a little thoughts from Andrea on what your answer could be, feel free to raise your hand and ask a question. We have like

eight minutes before we say goodbye or well before we start networking, getting to know each other. anyone have a question? You can either use the raise your hand or just go like this and I'll see you.

Or or in the chat. I don't know if you want to look at the answers so far, Andrea, but that's good. Yeah. I'm gonna read a few of these out. I have I have been inviting folks to join my monthly creator collab mixers, Candace. Christy said on all of our episodes we invite listeners to use our prompts and write their own story with a chance to have their story on the show. I love that.

Stephanie says, after my next episode, I will invite listeners to DM me on Instagram and I'll make room to respond to DM voice notes. Becky said, after my next episode, I'll invite listeners to that's just the question. Well, Becky, you can answer it too. I'm still thinking about it. I'm trying to come up with a good answer. V says, I'm inspired to revamp our ending business.

of info and CTA. People largely stop listening when that starts. So I think I'm gonna add a CTA into opener as well. Yes. V I think that's so important. Do you yeah. Yeah. So V, I usually integrate my question, like DM me into the actual episode. Cause I also find by the end s my listeners have moved on. And it's also why I stopped doing pre-recorded intros and outros. So I used to have pre recorded intros and outros and I realized

People aren't listening to them. And so I do mine talk show style, like, well, welcome back to the show. My name's Andrea Jones. Here's the one liner of what we're about. And then I get into the show. And at the end of the show, I say thank you so much for listening. Make sure you rate and review. And like by that point, when I say thank you so much for listening, I know people have skipped on, like my my OGs who've been listening with me, all these eight years. But for the people who are new, that's for them, right? Yeah.

So he says these are great ideas. Yeah, awesome. Well, if y'all have any questions, DM me on Instagram. See what I did there. Make sure you put the link there, Andrea, for people in chat. Or tell people where to find you if they're watching the replay, because they won't probably see the chat. Yes. I am at online Dre Everywhere. online D-R-E-A. Instagram's my favorite, but I'm everywhere. Excellent. Thank you all. Does anybody else have any other questions? Any other comments? I see.

other be talking about the outro yeah I mean you're never gonna please all the people isn't that true preface season two skip the pre-recorded yeah yeah and I think the also one thing just to say is like say it more than you may feel comfortable saying you're a C like you can say it at the beginning you can say it again in the middle once or twice you can say it at the end. There's no reason you can't tell people to DM you more than once as you're going through

because as if we know anything about people, they're overwhelmed with information and news sources and everything else and they forget. So like Nicole was saying earlier, and I think that was a question that I answered, Andrea, but I'd love to hear what your answer might have been too. My answer was kind of long, but I'm trying to get back to it. Where she was asking about like what do you when you're shouting into the void, here it is. what do we do when we get crickets? How do we know if people are not interested or we're just on the wrong platform or format for connection or something else entirely?

Yeah, I got Crickets for a long time. I think that's part of podcasting, is that it's it's such a different platform. It is a lot harder to build community, I think. because the community members are so used to just listening to you yap, right? for as far as platform goes, I think

If you post about your show as well and you don't get any engagement, that's a stronger signal to me than the DM call to action. and you can also try like email me or DM me on a different platform. you know, experiment a little bit with some of that. and I have also done surveys on my email list before to see what platform people are on. So I just know my people are mostly on Instagram.

so it kind of all works together in like my marketing ecosystem. And and Kevin said it's one of the things because he does his everything live through Substack and then puts things there and that creates more engagement for him. So that's something to consider doing it could also be YouTube, it could be other places if you don't like Substack. And then multiple questions about the sweater, which I commented on before you all got in the room. I was like, I love your sweater. So yes, you have tells us. I thrifted it, y'all. I'm so sorry. This is thrifted. But I need to find the original source and become an affiliate.

I w I th I I think someone actually made it because there's no tags or anything, but I wanted just more rainbows to show kind of like my queerness because I was like, I I just wanna like represent more. So I went out and thrifted a ton of rainbow stuff. Well we love it. Okay, so hang crochet up just the link. You're gonna get multiple orders from people in the room. I'll put my order in now. You tell us how long they'll take. Make to size. I'll send you my measurements. please. And then

Nicole, I'm wondering about creating community for busy midlife people. I like Substack, but some people aren't there or don't even know it exists. But I'm wondering if something they can I'm wondering if something they can do that's as simple as a text would work better. And that might be so worth experimenting. It definitely is. There's a lot of people on Substack. and I think people at this like in 2026 were kind of used to multiple platforms, multiple apps.

and I think there's enough people on there that you can find your people there if you like it. I do find texting it c it ends up being cost prohibitive for a lot of smaller podcasts. So that's my only warning is that it tends to be a little more pricey than some of the other options out there, but something to consider for sure. Yeah. I mean, 'cause you're not gonna be texting individually from your phone to people and those services can be pretty pricey, so

All right. Thank you so much, Andrea. This was fantastic. I knew it would be you're awesome. And we're gonna move. I'm gonna hit stop recording. So if you're watching the replay, thank you for being here. And thank you, Andrea. And where do people go learn about you? You put it in the chat, but I yeah, onlinerea.com is my website. I'll put that in the chat. All right.

So you go learn about her, her show, all of that, and send an Instagram DM. If you're here, send an Instagram DM saying thank you for doing this or one thing you learned or something. Because we all know, here's the thing, I just want to reiterate this for everyone watching here too on the replay. We all want more people commenting on our stuffs. We all want more people engaging with us, but we have to also check our own behavior. How often are we doing that for people? How often are we remembering to

Message the host of our favorite shows or somebody who does an amazing presentation and we're thinking, that was awesome, but we never take that extra step to say, send an Instagram DM to make her day and say thanks so much for that. So if we're not doing it, it's harder to expect people to do it for us, right? And when we get into our own habit of engaging, and I'm only saying this because I've recently started a whole new networking system. And as I'm using it and actually putting it into practice, holy moly, it's changing everything.

Because it's that's what reciprocity looks like. So we have to make sure we're putting into practice if we're wanting that same energy back for us. So don't forget to do that. All right, don't anyone leave. I'm gonna stop recording.