Podcast Guesting - Owning Your Voice, Owning Your Space

Podcast Guesting: Owning your voice and Owning your Space
(excerpts from a Clubhouse conversation with the Fempreneurs in Action - an international group of women entrepreneurs, action-takers and social impact leaders) 

I'm inspired this week - International Women's Day week - to really be looking at how we can and should, as women, be finding our voice about the things in which we passionately want to see change, to access the tools to get your voices, your opinions, your message heard - and to really sort it out within ourselves: what is it I'm passionate about? where is my purpose? where is my voice needed? - and how am I going to make what impact I can? 

Podcasts - and podcast guesting, in particular; being a guest on someone else's show, is one of the most accessible, yet powerful ways to be heard and have that impact.

In the conversation we looked at:

the shocking number on women's voices in places of power and impact 

•  only 24% of elected government representative, 
• a mere 30% of speakers on conference or event stages (just 25% in UK!), 
• grossly under-represented in news reporting at just 24% of stories being about or reported on by women, - and 
• just 20% of podcast hosts are women!!

We are 51% of the population!

We also talked about how you can strategically use podcast guest appearances to get your voice into the fray, tip the balance - #breakthebias - and help shift the social narrative and status quo.

Nothing changes if nothing changes. Be the change!

Nothing changes if nothing changes. Be the change!

❓ 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬? ❓
We are running monthly training events – the 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐏 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 –  to explore the potential for you.

I invite you to grab your seat so you can use Podcast Guesting to
💥BREAK THROUGH in 2022💥

Join the ranks of people making guesting really work for them! Let’s get YOU started

Transcript

0:00

Hi, and welcome to this special International Women's Day edition of the She's All That video podcast. For this episode, I'm repurposing an excerpt of a Clubhouse conversation that I've just had with the FemPreneurs in Action group all around International Women's Day. And the theme of this year's International Women's Day is break the bias. And in our conversation, we were talking about using our voice, speaking truth to power, and how podcast guesting can be a powerful yet accessible tool that can get your important message heard and have the impact you need to have. The conversation and the clubhouse room were hosted by Joyce Osei, and Luisa Martinez, founders of FemPreneurs in Action. And I very much appreciate them having me as their international women's day guests this year. Today that's, you know, the eve of International Women's Day. Diversity and inclusion is a huge part of what IWD is all about. Just kind of before we get into that, a little bit about me, I am both a podcaster. But I'm also a coach, mentor and strategist for people who want to start using media, particularly podcast media. The easiest way to do that really the most time effective is to be a guest on podcasts. And I work with people who want to figure out "how can I have the biggest impact? And how can I raise my profile? How can I really establish my authority using this very accessible tool?" Today that's what we're talking about podcast guesting; owning your voice and owning your space. I just actually sent an email out to my list today and posted. I've been thinking very much today about women's voices, and / or the lack thereof, that are out there. And as much as we might not necessarily be thinking about it. The representation as Joyce it said - representation is so important - representation of women's voices is really shockingly low when you look at the numbers. Like for example, if we even just look at our representative government, only 24% of elected representatives worldwide are female. And these are the people that are making the decisions, and the choices and the laws that are going to impact us and our future, and our children. Representation in journalism; only 24% of subjects covered in media in TV, radio news, are about women, or interviewing women to be asked their opinion about it - only 24% Even though we are 51% of the population. I was really shocked to find that in conferences and events speaking, which is something that a lot of entrepreneurs and thought leaders aspire to, only 30% of speakers - they polled some global - 60,000 events - that happened over the course of a number of years; only 30% of those speakers were women. And then when they got into the what was the subject matter that they mostly focused on, they found that a very large proportion of those, that small percentage, was at fundraisers, galas, or women-only events. So they're not. Really?? Yeah, so we can we can get out there and speak on the behalf of a cause, get that money rolling in, you know, like, whatever you're getting behind in your community or in your world. Or we can speak to women, but we're not getting on - in the numbers that we need to - we're not getting our voices out there on this stages and on the cameras and behind the mics where people can hear us. And as much as podcasts are really, really accessible, women are slow to be getting on and owning their space in that... anybody, if you want to, can start a podcast. I mean, I can help you with that and or point you to

people who can help you. Sidebar: 3:48

it's a lot of work. So like I tell a lot in entrepreneurs. If you're in business, you're in business to have the impact you meant to have - not to learn how to create this whole other side project that's going to suck up as much as 20 plus hours of your time every week. Get on someone else's show! But all right back back to the whole thing of audio and podcast. Only 20% of podcasts are hosted by women. The rest are hosted by men. So everywhere men's voices. Yeah. Yeah. And well, we we had a conversation a couple weeks ago when we were discussing what we were wanted to talk about today, and one of the things that we all kind of agreed upon, was that, generally speaking as women somewhere in our life, you know, earlier on or maybe later, if you were lucky, you started getting the message. It became apparent to you that your voice quite often wasn't as welcome in the conversation. You were too loud. You were too pushy. You were too opinionated. And then I mean, I really feel sorry for the women who have grown up when it's a totally internet controlled world. cuz they are even more trolled and bullied and tone-policed than we ever were, you know, people who had actually had the the opportunity to grow up pre-internet. So that kind of makes you think twice about speaking out. That makes you think, subconsciously or otherwise, is my opinion really important? Do I really need to say this, or you hear opinions stated and you might think, 'I don't think that's true' or 'I know that not to be true'. But somebody in a higher position, somebody who owns the stage, owns the mic, owns the channel is out there and this is the story they're telling. Having lived in Japan a long time, I believe it's a Japanese saying that 'a lie told 99 times is now the truth'. If we just keep hearing the same thing again, and again, again, the same version of reality, even if it's not our reality, it becomes the accepted truth. Yeah, and when that's happening, we are actually being marginalized in our own society, in our world, and our own, in some cases, home; our voices don't matter. And so I'm inspired this week, and that this is International Women's Day week, to really be looking at how we can and should, as women for other but I'm more concerned this week, and in general about women, how we should be accessing these tools and and really sorting it out within herself. You really should be talking if you've got a passionate about something. And if you've got a change you want to make in the world, something that you know, is really important to a community to people that they're being impacted by this and you want to make a change whatever it is for and whatever you're wherever you land on the political spectrum, everybody, you know, like, if it's important to you figure out how you're going to get your voice out there. And podcast, podcast guesting, in particular, being a guest on someone else's show, because they're going to do all the work, you just come in and sound like a rock star, and then they'll produce it. If you can figure out what it is you need to say. And then learn how to harness the power of the podcast platform. This is one of the strongest and the most accessible tools for us right now. There are a billion people worldwide that listen to podcasts every week, and they listen to on average, an hour a day. Unlike social media, an hour a day where we might actually if you were to count all of the posts that you scroll by, you probably have hundreds, in the course of an hour, hundreds of things passed by when people are listening to podcast, they will listen to 30 minutes, 40 minutes more of one episode. So it is deep engagement. The end. And this is also not social media podcasts are broadcast media. This is broadcast media, this is not going away your podcast content will be found years from now. So make sure you know what you want to say because it will be found years from now. And you don't want to look back and go oh my God, I wish that never happened. So make sure you know what it is you want to say. And then figure out how do I harness this in a strategic way. That's going to help start changing the narrative in these areas that I value and that I think are important. Louisa, when was the last time you were on a podcast? What is considered a podcast? No. This is not a podcast. The reason I quibble with that is because no one's going to find this next month, maybe if they come and look for it. But this is not going to come up in someone's feed one year from now two years, five years from now. This is not curated by someone else. Yeah, yeah. And when you're on somebody else's podcast, they're promoting it for you. And you're having actually, for example, Joyce and I were talking about her approach to podcast casting. Joyce knows the message she wants to get out. But she also knows the field that she needs to get seen in. She knows the people that she needs to connect with the kinds of people and the individuals I'm sure she knows who she needs to network for this podcast themselves because of they're so highly produced. When you're working with a podcast, if you're a guest on the show, you're going to end up probably spending a couple hours with them. And that's just to get it produced, but then you're going to be co promoting it. And this these people if especially you know if you make the right choices, these are people who are movers and shakers in the field that you want to be seen and found in and you you were you were forging a business connection and networking bond with this person and with their network and their policy. Oh my god, it's so powerful. It's so powerful. And this stuff sits out there. I call it Netflix for audio. It is out there it is curated, every episode that you go on. If if you choose your shows correctly, we as podcast host has the ability to put in the notes, all of your URLs, all your important information, all your keywords, all your catchphrases, we can advertise your courses, your books, we can send links out for them to buy your products that will be there for years to come. And it's all pointing back at your website, which is giving you sure, September September was really, really good. And podcast was in my list, but it wasn't on the top of my list. So I told him my list was to do some speaking engagements, which now I'm out and about doing. And that included like social media, I just thought that me like joined and I was interviewed on Instagram Live once by Mila. And then tomorrow, I'm going to this conference. So I had to do some speaking engagements, social media or out there in personnel that then pandemic is over the UK at least. And then I had blogging as my next blogging, guest blogging for other websites, other blogs and things like that. And then the third was podcasting. So that was my odor. I would shake it I would podcast when it comes to media podcasts is way above blogging. When I what I recommend for clients, when we're creating a strategy of okay, what do you need to put together in your media mix, because it's not just one thing, as you said, you had a list of different platforms and or forms of media that you wanted to be found on. You want to look at which one is going to have the biggest bang for the buck to kind of get out there and get me known and give me the most cred and then start going and then what works with that. So like, for example, some people are thinking, I want to talk on stages, then you want to get found on podcasts, because that's like I said, that stuff's hanging around, it's curated, somebody gets on, they want to talk. I'm actually right now planning a summit that I'm going to be holding in June. That's all around all the different kinds of media that we as entrepreneurs or thought leaders should be looking at as part of our media campaign to really get out there and break through, you've got to look at okay, for me, if I want to end up on the stage, I can't just go to an organizer right now and say, can I be on your stage, because if you don't have a track record, they don't know you. However, if they're considering you, and you are really in their niche, and they can go to a podcast, and they can listen to you, and you've got it all nice and polished. And that's exactly the kind of stuff that you'd want to be using on the stage. That's almost an audition for their stage. And if they go and they see that, yes, it is a body of work, it is a portfolio. And unlike a blog post, which people will spend, it's got to be really good for them to spend more than a few minutes. And we know that when people look at a page of text, there, they're hitting the h1, you know, when you're talking about h1, h2, h3 headers within a page, they look at the h1, they look at the H tos, and they might hit 30 words in the page. They're not engaging really deeply, unless unless it's something super compelling and really well designed, then they're going to dive in. But for the most part, that blog thing, people are lazy, they don't want to read anymore. So they might catch an idea of what you're talking about. Something like video, they're gonna watch it for a while. But we are trained, you know, the old thing, the nine second attention span, where if we're watching video, chances are we're on our phone, we're on her computer or on whatever device we're using. There are so many other apps and things that we could be looking at. And we're getting notifications and oh my god, Brenda, just email me or something, you know, like so our attention is taken elsewhere. Like I said, the average podcast length right now is somewhere it changes month to month is when you keep track of the stats. It's somewhere between 35 and 40 minutes. The average podcast listener, the average listens to 80%. You're in someone's head for over half an hour. And the reason they're using it this way, because usually people when they're used to listening to a podcast, they're doing something else. They're driving, they're cooking, they're doing gardening, they're running on a treadmill, something that they just want to put in their head their earbuds and just not have to play around and look for a new source of entertainment. Yeah. So I think of it as you're in their head, talking to them, creating an emotional bond audio, the audio, some sensation with the sense of hearing it One of the strongest senses, because it's the first one that develops when we're in utero is one of the theories. When somebody is in our head, and we're listening to their voice, and we're hearing them so intimately for 30 minutes, they feel they know you. And if you've done it really well, they're connecting with your message, which gives you so much power, if you know how to do this, right? Yeah. Can you tell him a little bit passionate about this? Yes, nobody is great. I see this, I just totally see this as a tool. And I think of the singer Anita Franco, the end of one of her spoken word poem, she says, because every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right. And in the fight for you, for whatever the challenge is, whatever the mission is you're fighting for, or whatever it is you're trying to create or achieve in your business. This is a tool slash weapon that you can be using. And I think of it as a weapon to pry open the doors that maybe are not open to you. They might not be ushering you in and rolling out the red carpet come in, we want you on it on our stage and here in this circle. This can help you get in and be heard. September walk was that analogy you used around. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I, I heard this the other door. Somebody referenced it in an article I was reading last summer. It was like, Oh, what's that? So I went and checked it. And I immediately when I understood it was like, Oh, my God, I have been doing that my entire life as so many of us who are not Missouri, as many of us who are not middle class white males, we have to find the third door and that the first door is when it's thrown open to you and the red carpets rolled out and it's Oh, come in come in urine honored guests, like VIP passes at the nightclub. The second door is when you have to know a person so that they're going to open that door for you and say, Yeah, I know they're good, let them in. For the rest of us, we're standing out there waiting to get into the nightclub. If you really want to get in there to where the action is, and where you know you want to be. The third door is you have to scout the periphery of that building and find that other way in there. And quite often, that that is what we have to do if we want to get hurt if we want to be part of the conversation if we want to be where things are happening. So yeah, the third door is that analogy that is like how you find your way in. And that is what podcast, podcasts and podcast guests are, they are that third door for you. And even if you don't even if you think like oh, my opinion is different than what I'm hearing in most media, television, radio, magazines, newspapers, while there's a reason for that, the numbers that we just went over. But also, it's not just you if you were having this experience, there are probably 100 more people like you who if they hear your message, you changing lives when it just because it's different than the status quo, doesn't mean it's not valuable. Find your way if you're passionate about it, and you know, it's the change that you want to make. Find your way to get your voice out there. And as I said podcast guesting, for me, it's not the only one. That's why I want to hold this summit. We're going to be looking at how you build a media campaign with podcasts, podcasts, guesting television, radio magazines, speaking from the stage, virtual speaking, summit speaking, and all of the peripheral stuff around that. Find your way to start building your media campaign, because why not you? Why not you? Exactly. And also, if we're looking to break the bias, we need to start somewhere. Need to use our forces. Absolutely. And and like that, that feeling like you're seen, because somebody that when they see you or when they hear you, they see she's like me. She could be me. She could be me. She's saying this thing. It's so empowering. Yes, definitely that the theme this year for pwd is break the bias. And that bias is not going to be broken waiting for other people who have been holding power for millennia, they're not going to suddenly change their mind and start saying things that are going to be breaking that bias. It's going to be broken by the people who are outside of that circle of power. And yeah, just it's all up to us. If we want to make a difference, you know, like, break the biases, we want to really make a difference of 25% of speakers here in the UK being women. There's definitely get Be passionate to be passionate about our message about sports, what we do, and we wouldn't be doing it if we were not passionate. So really just let go of whatever limiting conversation is going in your mind and show up as we truly are. So and be strategic about it because you know, especially if you know that who you are if there's a bias against you. Or there's some stereotypes that like, oh, people like her are x y Zed, then you don't want to give them any reason to count you out or invalidate what you're saying. So make sure you're really strategic. You know what your message is, so that when they hear you speak, it is unassailable, it is bulletproof. What she's saying makes sense. She's a person to listen to, because you don't want to be written off, we get written off far too often. So be strategic about what it is you're going to say, and the stages that you're going to get on the allies that you're going to recruit to help you and they can be the people who are organizing events, they can be the podcast hosts themselves or their team, the people that are going to give you the mic that are going to give you this stage, your allies are out there. Get strategic know what you want to say where you need to say it and find those allies. Session. One wonderful insights because I think this is a topic, and September shared with us the stats, I mean, the low numbers 25% of women are speakers. And likewise, you know, only 20% of the podcasts are hosted by women. So this is a topic that actually really shouldn't be on the doors for women, and that they should be using their voices using this medium. Well, Sarah Joyce, well, listen, thank you so much for having me here. It's been such a pleasure hanging out with you guys, particularly this week. International Women's Day, women's month. Thanks so much for having me.