Have you considered podcasting as a way to stay relevant in your network while building your community and business up? Not that many business owners do, but that is actually the secret to creating a successful strategy in the long-term. This is, of course, assuming that you’re creating quality content that your audience wants, and not just providing crumbs of information with the only goal to drive sales to your business.

Now, in order to reap the benefits of podcasting, you need to be willing to create content consistently throughout the year and follow a common thread throughout the episodes. To talk about just how powerful podcasting has been for her business and network building, I interviewed Chanel Christoff Davis, the co-founder and CEO of the largest women and minority owned Sales Tax Advisory Practice in the United States - Davis Davis in Harmon LLC.

Chanel’s podcast ‘Follow The Leader’ is an interesting take on the topic of Business. Chanel has a ‘creative personality’, a strong sense of community, and loves learning about the behind the scenes. In our conversation she shared how the podcast was the perfect way to meet dynamic female powerhouses, and to use her platform to share the inspirational stories of how these women became a success in business.

We talked about how entrepreneurship is ‘an extension of a person's creative voice’, and why curiosity and empathy play the biggest roles when creating a project, including, of course, podcasting. Keep reading for Chanel’s takeaways of what she learned in her four years of podcasting.

Being your AUTHENTIC self will benefit you

The phenomenal thing about podcasts, is that they are a great way to share with your audience your knowledge through your unique, authentic voice in an intimate setting. As a host, you can be as creative as you’d like in order to create a concept that either works for your brand… or that can provide an opportunity to show a side of you that you don’t get to use at work:

Planning will make your life easier - to an extent

We’ve tackled the importance of planning and mapping out your content in advance in the article ‘Why a content calendar will up your pod game’ and how you can do it effectively through Batching. Chanel admits that the planning comes easy to her thanks to her background in accounting, but she strongly advocates to not Let “Perfect” Be the Enemy of “Good”:

Get the basics right (but be flexible)

If you’re looking to start a Podcast, it helps to understand the basics, potential and limitations of Podcasting. Not just to understand the platform, but to provide some inspiration for concepts, find out what’s been done, and how you can stand out in the midst of it all. It can feel overwhelming at first, but thankfully, you can google your industry keywords + podcast or industry keywords + top podcasts and you’ll be able to get a starting point.

Opportunities will pop up everywhere

When you host a podcast, getting face-to-face with industry leaders becomes more realistic than ever, and if done correctly, you can maximize on these interviews to grow your own online influence or close deals that can completely transform your business. Having strong and reliable processes in securing guests is equally important to keep a podcast running smoothly - we’ve rounded up our best tips for you here.

For Chanel, the podcast provided an opportunity to learn business from her industry icons:

Be curious: everyone has a story to tell

As a professional speaker and an expert in the areas of tax, business strategy, disruption, and future-focused leadership, Chanel is uniquely equipped to identify successful business leaders, but to host a good interview, Chanel focuses on asking the ‘right questions’ or as she puts it ‘just being nosey’.

But what does that looks like for most business owners with no experience in media?

Researching, having pre-calls with your guests to learn more about them, or just leading with curiosity, by ‘asking questions that the audience is curious about’:

You WILL make an impact

A podcast can serve multiple purposes: it can allow you to network with key players in the industry (that you wouldn’t have access to in any other way), create marketing content for your brand, generate leads for your business and STILL make an impact in your community! Chanel shared how the podcast initially provided a relaxed mentoring environment for herself, but as time went by, it transitioned into something that provided value to her community:

A strong ‘why’ will help you move you forward

Having purpose and direction will help you keep a connecting thread on every episode (or throughout seasons) - without it, it will be hard to keep listeners engaged long-term. On the other hand, if YOU are lacking connection or motivation to the whole reason why you’re podcasting, it will be hard to stay in the game for longer than 10 episodes. As Chanel shares, there’s a flow to her recordings throughout the year- and that’s ok:

Don’t do it alone

The year of 2020 helped us understand that we’re stronger together and that we need to be more intentional about where we use our energy. The process of launching a podcast has a lot of moving parts and there’s no reason to be stuck on it anymore, as there are all types of professionals for remote hire on the internet that can help you move forward and make you accountable with your projects:

To learn more about Chanel Christoff Davis, you can connect with her through her LinkedIn profile.

Subscribe to ‘Follow The Leader’ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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