On today’s episode of The Engaging Marketeer, we have podcast host, business coach, sales trainer and all-round business Supremo, Suzy Hunt. Suzy came from a corporate background but realized she didn’t want to progress up the corporate ladder any further because she didn’t enjoy the experience. She wanted to go out there and help people with growing and scaling their businesses. This podcast covers how she markets her podcast, how she finds guests for a podcast, tips for starting podcasts and, of course, tips on growing and scaling your business.
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Suzy discusses the origins of her podcast.
Suzy: I co-host the coaching cast with my very good friend and fellow coach, Lisa. The coaching class was born out of the pandemic, so I was actually on maternity leave during the pandemic and all the lockdowns that came with it. I suppose my ideal of what my maternity leave was going to look like was very suddenly very different to what I’d expected and previously to that, I had gone back to University.
Suzy on going to university and becoming a coach
Darren: What made you want to go back to Uni at 34.
Suzy: It’s a bit crazy now I reflect back on it, so I was in a corporate job which I really enjoyed and I’d worked really hard in but I was in a role now where I didn’t want to go to the next level and actually I knew I wouldn’t enjoy what that next level job looked like.
But I was actually on a training course as part of my job about people development and the person who was running came over to me and said “Suzy, I can tell you’re really like into this kind of theme around developing people, helping them with their skills, their motivation, their mindset. Have you ever thought about becoming a coach?” and I was like I have no idea what you’re talking about, I didn’t even know what a coach was at that point. But it spiked a curiosity for me and I decided to have a look at this coaching thing and it went from there. Then I decided to go back to University and get a qualification in Coaching & Mentoring.
So going back to your original question around the podcast, I’d recently just qualified but I needed something that was a podcast which I could listen to on when I was out walking about but that was straightforward, conversational and engaging because I was tired, I was a new mum. But I couldn’t find it so I decided to start one. I knew straight away that I wanted to do it with Lisa and we haven’t looked back since. So we’re currently scoping season eight and it’s great fun more than anything.
Finding topics to discuss on the podcast
Suzy: So we put a poll out and we said “We’re going into planning the next season, what topics would you like us to talk about?” and it came back that one of our most popular topics to talk about which was how do I deal with a toxic boss or a toxic workplace. It was an episode where Lisa and I both shared our differing experiences and shared our top tips. That’s really what our podcast is all about, offering tips, some resources through our self-coaching questions, to just really kind of help our listeners think about how they can help themselves move forward in situations related to work.
Tips for aspiring podcasters
Darren: There’s a lot of people I speak to who are considering starting podcasts for themselves but the biggest reason I hear that people don’t is because they worry that they’re not worthy of a podcast and they don’t think they’ve got something to say and they don’t know why anybody would actually listen to them. Did you have any of those fears yourself when you started and I imagine you probably did because a lot of people do. How did you get over that?
Suzy: Yeah of course like I think stepping out and putting those first kind of couple of episodes out, so we recorded three and they all went out on the same day and that moment where they were published is actually an interesting time in my life because the day the podcast launched, I was actually in hospital because my appendix had ruptured, the day before, so I was about to have surgery. So actually for me I was a bit like “Oh my God, we’re launching it!” but my mind was in a slightly different place so I didn’t have a huge amount of time to dwell upon the reaction and I still have those doubts now. Even though we’re nearly into season eight, because it’s my passion and my purpose is fuelled by wanting to help people and provide that resource as much as we can.
But, going back to your original question, the bit that really helped me actually was the fact that I wasn’t doing it on my own, obviously recording with Lisa and we do it online and actually I’m just talking to my friend about topics we’re both really interested in. I often forget that we’re actually recording and putting this out sometimes but and I think that’s what really helped me actually get over that.
Podcast promotion
Darren: What do you do to promote the podcast, or to market it, to get people to listen to it and what sort of social channels do you use?
Suzy: This is the million dollar question for a lot of independent podcasters. We do a lot of different things some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t. It’s an area where we are continually trying new stuff, evolving and open to ideas. Because we do work in seasons, we look to evolve our marketing and also our episodes. We share it mainly to our Instagram page, which we talk to our community on and share our new episodes. We do a lot on LinkedIn, because Lisa and I are really big on LinkedIn. It’s on YouTube, it’s got its own website and we make sure that all links together as well and that we’re kind of bringing it as a complete package from a digital perspective.
Guests are an important part of a podcast as well, we’re quite strategic around our guests. They are a great vehicle for promotion of the episode and of the coaching class.
They would be my top tips, getting it in all the right places where you would expect it to be. Looking at who are the right guests to support you in your skill set and your capabilities and get them to share it with their audience. Then the final thing I’d say is just give it a go and do some trials.
Acquiring guests to feature on the podcast
Darren: How are you finding approaching guests, identifying them and asking them to be on the show?
Suzy: Our search for guest is really evolved actually and I think the seasons one to five, we were outreaching to people and experts and actually nobody said no. But we have said no to a couple of people. We qualify them as much as they qualify us and it’s all about their chemistry and their energy. Could I see them being comfortable and being real with Lisa and I on an intro call where we’re just kind of meeting and exploring the opportunity. If I get the sense that they’re not doing that when we’re not recording then I get a sense of whether they are right for us and our listeners. And there has been a few occasions where we’ve gone back and said I don’t think this is quite right.
Suzy on her coaching
Darren: Starting a business is relatively easy, getting a business from one person or five people to expand into 20 to 30, that’s when it starts to fall apart because you can’t scale it properly. You scale it in the wrong areas you end up over stuffed, you end up losing money and it doesn’t work or you end up getting business in that you can’t fulfil, that’s the really difficult bit.
Suzy: Coaching individuals, and that might be an individual who’s a founder, and their business is now scaling and often their biggest challenge is letting go, stepping out of doing the day-to-day and actually releasing some of that control.
I help them with thinking about “Why would you not want to do that?” “What’s holding you back?” I think as well the other thing comes up so much, especially for women in high growth companies, is self-confidence and self-belief and “impostoring” thoughts. I think women tend to overthink, and I put myself in this camp, around perfection and it being right and being to a good quality and standard. Often a lot of people come to coaching because they want to feel heard in a safe space where there’s no judgment.
About Suzy Hunt:
Suzy is a business coach who helps others that are looking to get their foot in the door when setting up new businesses. She is also the co-host of The Coaching Cast podcast, alongside Lisa Robyn Wood, in which they discuss general business topics and areas which might impact you in the workplace.
The Coaching Cast Podcast:
Website, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook.
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
