Why your Handmade Business Needs a Podcast
Lesson 2 from: Podcasting for Crafters and MakersTara Swiger
Why your Handmade Business Needs a Podcast
Lesson 2 from: Podcasting for Crafters and MakersTara Swiger
Lessons
Class Introduction: Build Trust and Increase Sales
03:12 2Why your Handmade Business Needs a Podcast
06:42 3What is a Podcast?
03:13 4How to Set up your Studio in 5 Minutes
04:48 5How to Launch a Podcast in 1 Week
05:58 6What Kind of Show will you Have?
03:02 7About the Interview Format
06:39 8About the Solo-Show Format
16:41About the Roundtable Discussion Format
07:55 10Which Format is Right for You
21:40 11Challenge: FInd What's Out There
03:25 12Choosing the Right Topic for your Podcast
14:19 13How to Make your Show Special
02:23 14Make Magic: Combine for a Unique Show
07:46 15Content Development Strategies
16:12 16Naming your Podcast Best Practices
07:34 17How to Introduce Yourself
11:34 18How to Write your Intro
03:48 19How to Exit with Confidence
09:00 20Where does your Podcast Live and Why iTunes Matters
20:06 21DEMO:How to Get your Podcast on iTunes
07:18 22How a Listener Becomes a Customer: The Customer Path
07:58 23Your Home Base: How to Set it up for Podcast Listeners
15:19 24How to Generate Content Upgrades
12:39 25How to Leverage your Podcasts to Sell your Product
04:53 26Question And Answer
06:58 27How to Launch your Podcast Successfully
18:06 28Defining "Success" for your Business
07:41 29Other Ways to Make Money from your Podcast
08:25 30How to Find Time for it all: Tara's Exact Workflow
25:19 31Wrapping it all Up
02:03Lesson Info
Why your Handmade Business Needs a Podcast
A podcast can be super helpful in your small business. Whether you have a hand-made business and you make a product, or whether you are super passionate about the product that you share. Whether your work has a component of teaching and holding workshops or it is just going to craft shows or selling in shops or selling entirely online. There are a lot of reasons why a podcast can help your business. We're going to talk about couple of those now. But first, I wanna know, especially in the chat room, who listens to podcast already? So many people ask me "do I really need to do a podcast? "Are that many people listening?" So I wanna know do you guys listen to podcast? Yes. (laughs) I'm audio obsessed. (laughs) Absolutely. So do I. I listen to, I don't know, five to ten shows almost every week and then I'll go through a period where I don't listen to a show for a while and then I binge it. So, yes. (laughs) And I've found in my own business, I told you it has increased my business 50% ...
every year since I started it. And 75% of my new customers tell me that they found me via my podcast. So, they either were looking on iTunes for it, they were Googling around for some kind of podcast that does what my podcast does. Or a friend said, "Oh my goodness, on my drive over here "I listened to this great episode "where she talked about mindset. "And you should look for that Tara Swiger girl's podcast." So, they go into iTunes and they search "Tara Swiger podcast" or they go into Google and search that and my thing comes up. We're going to talk about how to make that happen for you. How to make it so that people can easily share it verbally and also how it's easy for them to find you when they go to look for you. The other 25% of my people actually come from Creative Live. They say they found me on Creative Live. So, the audio podcast is reaching people that otherwise would have never found me. And it gives my fans or listeners a way to share my work with others because it is really easy to say, "Go listen to this podcast episode." That's much easier than, "Hey, go buy this book." So, it's given a little discrete piece of content that can be shared between friends. And of course, all the podcast listening apps also have that share button so they can send a friend a link to listen. So that's how more people are gonna find you. And then, the other things that a podcast is gonna do for your business is audio is personal. You have those earbuds in your ear. You are listening to that person's voice in your head. It's like being in someone's head when you have an audio show. And they carry you everywhere. Right, they walk their dogs, they do the dishes, they break up their kids fight all while you're talking to them. All while you're being with them And it makes for a much more personal relationship. In the YouTube class, we talked about how seeing you on camera communicates a lot of the stuff. Audio does as well. Audio communicates in a slightly different way, but it let's them carry you all around. It's so portable. Like, a video you have to sit down, you have the screen open. If the person is saying something really intense, you kinda have to watch it. Especially, if they're showing you something on the video, but audio is just portable. It can go everywhere with you. So, it's really a great way to build a deeper relationship. And if you're having that problem where you feel stiff and you don't feel like yourself when you're online, the answer might be for you to just talk it out and for you to talk to the people that you wanna connect with. The other thing that's great about a podcast for your business is that you're gonna stand out. So few makers, artist, small business owners are doing podcast, especially of the variety we're gonna talk about that you will stand out. You will be one of the few who are doing it in your field. Even if you think a million people are doing it, it's only because you're looking in your field. Listeners are wanting multiple podcasts about the things they're most excited about. So if you do a podcast, you're going to stand out much more than if you just do an Instagram account. Right, like an Instagram account, everybody has Instagram. Everybody has a Facebook page. But not everybody has a podcast. So, it's a really great way of connecting with all new people and standing out. So the other thing that podcasts are amazing at is there's such a low barrier to entry. I'm gonna show you how to set up your home studio in just five minutes. And, spoiler alert, it's like free, super simple, you have everything you need to get started. So the barrier to entry on this is super, super simple. You might feel like to have a really successful blog, you have to be able to write really clearly, and have a beautiful image and have a beautiful layout. On a podcast, if you can talk, you can have a podcast. Bonus points if you can put coherent sentences together. (laughs) But the barrier to entry is so low and what's really cool about this is you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be well-spoken. You don't have to have a posh accent. You can just sound like yourself. People want to hear and connect with others who sound like themselves, but are doing cool things. Right, so if you are managing a household with four kids and a new puppy and running a business, they wanna hear that. So, even if you sound a little frazzled, or even if you are interrupted by the kid crying, that is part of the joy of it. That's part of what is going to connect the people to you. That's part of what's gonna build those relationships and make your podcasts really connect-y and relationship-building. And what's really cool about that relationship is that people feel like they know you. I get emails from listeners who have listened to, I think I have around 180 episodes now, they might have just listened to 20 or and they're like, "Oh, Tara's my best friend. "She talks to me every week. "I know so much. "We've connected in these ways." And so then, they write me emails and they tell me what they're struggling with, what they're dealing with, what they most need help with. And that helps my business. Because when I hear from my customers in their own language I realize what I could be doing to better help them. And that connection builds a stronger business for yourself. So along with that low barrier to entry, you don't even have to get out of your PJs. The main benefit an audio podcast has over a video podcast is that you can just look like whatever and sit down to record. This is actually how I started my podcast, back in 2014, is I did... I just recorded into my phone wherever, however, and I'm gonna show you the technology you need to do that but I just sat down and would record a couple days ahead of time and then post it and schedule it to get it done. Over time, I built in the video component and I'm gonna tell you how you can do both. In the youtube class, somebody asked the question, "How do I not put my face on camera?" An audio podcast. Just don't even do video, do audio. You're gonna be found. iTunes is one of the biggest search engines, so people are going to iTunes searching for information, searching for shows that will teach them or educate them or inform them in the way that your show will do.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Tess
I design embroidery patterns and I love podcasts but I wasn't sure what I would talk about in my own podcast without being able to show pictures. After watching this course I already have 20+ ideas for podcast topics, plus I now know how to get a podcast up and running, step-by-step, AND how it fits with my business goals. Tara Swiger is an excellent teacher and coach. I filled page after page with notes!
Rhonda M.
Excellent, practical information.
Dawn Craig
Student Work
Related Classes
Podcasting