Podcasting came before Coaching in my journey… well, sort of.
I started out as a novice Radio Show Host and launched The Activation Hour Radio Show as a place of connectivity, curiosity and honestly as an act of obedience. I had a longing for media and a nudge to step out and create a space to hear, collect, and record the stories of people who shifted from full time employment to entrepreneurship and who made radical moves based on their faith. I begin to interview faith-based entrepreneurs, influencers, executives and leaders. Over the span of two years on air, one common thing happened in every interview. Every one my guests started their businesses and found their purpose in an awakening to run after their passions after experiencing a tremendous low point in their lives, a point of great transition.
This is what we call an “Activation Hour®,” the moment of great transition when you know your life will never be the same. I had this same encounter or “Activation Hour®” when interviewing each of my guests. As I sat in the interview chair as the host week after week, I begin to transform to the coach. I found myself asking the deep reflective questions a coach would to better understand the journey of my clients and to prompt my listeners on the same path of their own “Activation Hour®” And that’s how the coach in me was born.
After completing a life coaching certification, setting up my office, building a pretty website and having a catchy name, there was one major missing component. I set up shop in my home office in isolation, in a cave. For years, community and connectivity fueled me, but that suddenly stopped when I became a full-time entrepreneur. It was the missing ingredient to putting life into my business. Now away from the studio and working from home, I turned to the mic and started talking. My podcast was born, and so was the tribe I needed to bring my business off of life support.
As I took to YouTube University and learned how to apply the skills I learned at the radio station to pivot the platform into what I thought would look and sound like a legitimate podcast, I constantly asked myself, “does podcasting and coaching go together.” It didn’t make sense at the time, but I felt a longing to create community and get it done to share my message. Fast forward a few months, and as a traveled more as a keynote motivational speaker and workshop facilitator, I was fascinated and honestly floored how many people would come up to me and quote lines from my podcast or tell me how much they loved the episodes. Little did I know I had a whole army of evangelists (who are now called my Activation Nation) tuning in and getting activated just by listening on demand. And then it hit me, podcasting (especially my live stream video podcast) was sending leads and nurturing relationships in my business. My listeners were the community I needed to not feel alone in my business, and in turn, I now had a desire to ensure my tribe of fellow coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs never felt alone in their businesses.
This is why I heavily advocate for every coach and speaker to find and share your voice to keep the conversation going with your clients and audience beyond the coaching programs and big stages.
Now do you see now why you need a podcast?
Well, here are my Top 3 Reasons Why Every Speaker & Coach need a podcast:
- Community over quantity
- Creates a niche community of your target audience
- Crowd participation w/ video live-streaming
- A test kitchen/ focus group for material on new speaking topics, coaching programs, etc.
- Nurtures the relationship between sessions with you & reinforces your message
- They see/hear you present the problem & solution
- Offer solution driven transparency (purpose driven transparency)
- Coaching/speaking is a one-time encounter (a date) podcasting & live streaming is a repeat touch point with immediate takeaways (courtship) FB groups/ email list is a place to see and hear how what you offered is applied which led to more coaching & speaking opportunities
- It’s a micro stage with macro impact
- Interview experts on the topic, cross promote and draw from their audience to meet a need
- Every interview is a case study to support what you present in your business (R&D research & development)
- CTA- where they can go to get more
- Serve at Mass: If I have listeners in 7 counties, what do my listeners in England have in common with my listeners in Nigeria or US? They heard the same thing, now poll them to see if it was applied the same way. (If this episode was useful, tell us how review, join community, message/record your questions…)
Yes, video podcasting is one of my passions that lights my soul on fire, but strategy behind my passion has now kept a continuous stream of opportunities flowing into my business. Podcasting is the mini stage away from the big stage that I long for in this season, and it is the glue that keeps me connected to the community that gives me purpose and a place to coach and serve.
Learn more about The Activation Hour & Subscribe to our Podcast on all streaming platforms.