Half a Million Downloads Later, Here’s Why Podcasting Works | Sarah Williams

Sadaf Beynon
00:00:06.000 - 00:00:31.934
Imagine turning your knowledge into a powerful platform that not only grows your business, but builds deep, lasting relationships with your audience. That's exactly what Sarah Williams did when she launched the Launch Your Box podcast. I'm Sadaf Beynon.

And today on Podjunction, I'm talking to Sarah Williams about how she uses her podcast to build authority, connect with her audience, and grow her business. Sarah, it's so great to have you here.

Sarah Williams
00:00:32.102 - 00:00:33.530
It's good to be here.

Sadaf Beynon
00:00:34.070 - 00:00:40.686
Sarah, you already had a thriving business with Launch Your Box. Why add a podcast into the mix?

Sarah Williams
00:00:40.878 - 00:01:38.238
Wow, that's a really good question.

I think when, whenever you do something like podcast or even say, like a YouTube channel, when someone listens to your voice, they feel deeply connected to you. And so it was just another way where I could be connected with people that was trying to serve.

Building your audience in a platform like that is really great. I can tell you that. I get a ton of kind of referrals from the podcast. They'll say they found my podcast first, and so that's where they're coming.

Then they're finding me on Instagram, they're finding my programs.

But a lot of times people are finding me on the podcast first because it's such a great platform, especially for people in business, because we like to listen to podcasts. We're looking for knowledge in podcasts. We're usually working or busy or on the road or on the. On the go. And so we're listening to something.

And so that was a perfect platform to help me find my audience.

Sadaf Beynon
00:01:38.414 - 00:01:48.810
That's cool. So you had a business, a subscription business. You have a business. At what point did you decide that a podcast is the next logical step?

Sarah Williams
00:01:49.110 - 00:03:06.910
So we're talking about the coaching business, right? Because I have, I have two businesses. I have the subscription box business, and then I built the coaching business after that.

And so I had the coaching business for about two years before I started the podcast. And it was just one of those things that I was like, I need to. I was doing all of these things for my students behind closed doors.

But how did anybody know what I was doing behind those closed doors? How did anybody know the knowledge that I had to be able to share if I didn't, if I didn't put that out in the world?

And so I think a podcast is really just a way for you to share not only your knowledge and like, oh, she really knows what she's talking about. Also, I use it as a platform to share my students stories. There are hundreds of stories on my Platform of their own, subscription box success.

And so it was a way for me to really highlight what we're doing in the membership, Give a little, serve the audience in some way, show them, give them some tidbits on what they could be doing, and then take the stories of my students and really share them on the platform, but also giving an actionable step, step with those stories so someone that's listening to it can walk away with something from each podcast episode.

Sadaf Beynon
00:03:07.410 - 00:03:29.952
So you were wanting to share your expertise, your success stories, some actionable insight, which is really great. I agree. It's a great. Podcast is a great platform for all of those things.

When you went into launching your podcast and setting that up, did you have a strategy behind that or was it more experimental and then it evolved? What did that look like?

Sarah Williams
00:03:30.106 - 00:07:21.750
I had a strategy. I think I'm really good at having a strategy with anything that I do, because I don't want to just do something just to say I've done it. Right?

Like, I think we get in this rat race of, oh, I have to do this, and, oh, I have to do this, and I've got to have a podcast, and I've got to have a YouTube channel, and I've got to do a Facebook page, and I've got. I've got to do all these things. But why? So what's the purpose around it? And so I really like to find purpose in it.

And so I really looked at launching the podcast as a way for me to share the student stories and a way for me to give small, actionable tips. I was already writing them on my blog. I started by turning my blog, my blog posts, into podcast episodes. I was already giving this free information.

Why don't we do it in a voice? Because people consume stuff in different ways. Not everybody's going to read my blog.

Not everybody's going to watch a video, so somebody might want the audio to listen to. And so when I was getting ready to launch the podcast, I needed to treat it like a launch. And that's what a lot of people miss.

They just put it out there and think that people are just going to come show up and listen. There are millions of podcasts out there, and finding your podcast in a slew of things is not likely unless you actually treat it like a launch.

So I knew I needed to launch multiple episodes on launch day, and so I had come up with three episodes very strategically. One was going to be my story of launching my own subscription box so someone could get to know me. One was going to be a student story.

And one was going to be an actionable step. And that's really how I how I treat my podcast now. So I do two stories a month of my students.

I pick two student stories and it might be like, you know, I've grown my Instagram to 100,000 followers. That's a great story. It may not be that they've launched their subscription box yet, but how are we using that? That's the actionable story.

It could be I've had a launch and I've sold out. I hit my first million dollars in revenue. It could be any of those. And then what is the action behind how they did that? And then I do solo epis.

And so the solo episodes are usually actionable items and they go along with the theme of what I'm teaching in the membership that month so that my members not only are getting the teaching aspects, the worksheets, the swipe files, all the things that I'm teaching, but then they can also listen to the podcast and kind of put it all together. And then people that are not in my world can listen to the podcast. I try to teach the podcast. I try to use the podcast as the what.

And then I teach inside the paid membership, the how, the what and the why on the podcast. And then I teach the how and the strategy inside the paid group. So it's drawing people in. Okay, this is what I need to be doing.

This is why I need to be doing. Okay, now inside the membership, this is how I do it.

And so I do kind of a strategy of I do interviews with my students, I do interviews with industry leaders, I do solo episodes. And then we're at a point now with the podcast. It's been three years.

We do a replay every month so that it's a replay from a previous episode and we just bring it back up. We call it a bonus episode. And that's the strategy that I use every month. We are going to go to two episodes a week starting in April.

And that's another strategy. It's just like, okay, how do I get more downloads? How do I get more listeners?

And we're just going to do a really short 10 to 15 minute episode on Fridays. That is a real. Like, this is what you can do right now.

It might be an email marketing campaign, it might be a list builder, it might be a launch tip, it might be packaging information. But we're just going to do one quick tip on Fridays that you can consume really quickly.

Sadaf Beynon
00:07:22.970 - 00:07:41.678
That's really great.

I love how purposeful as you said, you've been in all of this, and just listening to you speak, I can really see how the success stories that you talk about and your solo episodes, how they complement each other, but also your wider business as well.

Sarah Williams
00:07:41.814 - 00:08:28.150
Yes, absolutely. And I think that when someone listens to your podcast, your personality comes through. Right. And I try to do that as well.

I think that's why people connect with me. My, I say funny, weird things all the time. And I don't edit that from the podcast.

I might tell a story about something that's related to the action I'm about to ask you to take about something that I did that flopped or something that I did that failed. And then I learned, and here's what I've learned, and I'm very transparent with that. And I'm very transparent with who I am. I'm a mom of teenagers.

I've gone through a divorce in the last few years. Like, I'm very transparent of who I am. But you know what?

I'm building an incredible business, and if someone like me can do it, I hope that they relate that to someone like them can do it, too.

Sadaf Beynon
00:08:28.770 - 00:08:49.566
Yeah, I agree.

I think there's something really personal about when you're candid in front of the camera, and especially when you're trying to build a brand around your podcast as well. So people really can get to know you and get to know the person that they might potentially be working with.

Sarah Williams
00:08:49.718 - 00:08:51.534
Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon
00:08:51.582 - 00:08:57.902
And also, the other thing that was really coming through when you were talking was just how great a tool podcasting is for marketing.

Sarah Williams
00:08:58.046 - 00:10:00.950
Absolutely. Because then you've got so much material from that podcast episode. Right. So strategically, I now have a podcast episode.

If I'm recording video with that podcast episode, I now can put that on YouTube. I love YouTube in a way that things just never go away. That's what I love about podcasting, too.

Like, you can search something in the podcast app, and it could be from three years ago. That's exactly how YouTube is like, it's so searchable. So now, now I've got piece of content for both of those platforms.

I can also chop it up into small sound bites and use it for Reels or TikToks on other platforms as well. I can also take that podcast. We can type, we can make it in blog form. I can use that same content.

Content in written form that can go on our blog feeds SEO to our website. So there's just so much that you can do if you just sit down and create one good Quality piece of content a week.

It can be used so much, and that's what we focus on. Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon
00:10:01.030 - 00:10:15.710
Yeah. There's so much benefit in doing this. So I know podcasting is great.

We've talked about some of the wonderful things about it, but I also know it's not always easy. So what were some of the biggest challenges you faced?

Sarah Williams
00:10:16.050 - 00:12:52.830
So I come from doing Facebook lives. Okay. So I do them for my retail business. I do them for the coaching business.

Every Monday, I do a Facebook Live, and I'm very comfortable doing a Facebook Live because there are other people to talk to on the other end. So there's lots of chat. I typically have a lot of people on live with me. There's conversation.

So when I sat down to record my podcast, I had never just sat in a room and talked to myself before. And so that was just super challenging. And I would script out the whole thing, and then it felt like I was just reading it. And that's not me either.

I'm very conversational. I'm very casual, and so it didn't feel like me. And I remember when I was making those first three episodes that it was just really a challenge.

And I probably redid them at least five times each for those first three episodes because I hated them. I hated the sound of my voice because I think it's different on a Facebook Live. And I wasn't going back and watching that.

I was going back and listening to myself. I hated the sound of my voice. I hated that I sound like I was reading something I didn't feel like myself.

And so what I ended up doing to help me with this is I would pull up, zoom and so that I had a camera, and I could see myself, and you could just hear my energy just going like this. When I would talk, I would start, like, I would start real puppy and have energy.

And by how halfway through the podcast, I was like this, like, slumped over in my chair. And so I was like, okay, I'm losing my energy.

And that was one thing that I always got from doing a Facebook Live was I always had the energy of whoever was the live audience. So I put the zoom on so I could see myself, and it acted like I was live, and so I could see my facial expressions.

I could have the energy I wanted to. I could use my hands if I wanted to.

And that helped me keep the energy up because you could just hear it in my voice as long as the podcast was going. So that was one thing that I did. Also, I realized that longer is not Better. I was trying to hit this 45 minutes spot, and I don't know why.

I just thought in my mind that I needed to be 45 minutes and it was too long. And so I realized for me, the sweet spot was about 25 to 35 minutes.

And that would make it really tactical and really actionable and really consumable for someone to listen to. I didn't want to just fill the airspace with.

With fluff because I wanted to make sure that they walked away feeling good about what they just listened to.

Sadaf Beynon
00:12:53.370 - 00:13:07.730
That's interesting. So 25 to 35 minutes, you felt was the sweet spot.

How did you, like, did you find that about 25, 35 minutes after that your energy level was going down? Did you find you were repeating yourself? What was it about that?

Sarah Williams
00:13:07.850 - 00:14:10.984
I found that I was just creating filler content to make the length, and I didn't want to do that because I don't think that serves anyone just to listen to me talk, you know what I mean? And so it was like, okay, how can I get my point across? How could I tell the story that I needed to tell in this conversation?

How could I give them actionable items and then. And not feel like I'm having to fill this airspace? And I realized I just don't need to talk for the extra 10 minutes. And that was. That helped me.

It also helped me kind of produce quicker. And, you know, I may have some interviews from my students that are longer because we have a lot to talk about sometimes, but.

But when I do a solo episode, I can just see the clock ticking. And when I kind of hit that 25, 30 minute part, I'm like, yeah, this is good. I've said everything I need to say. Let's wrap it up, move on.

And so that was kind. And you have to figure that out for yourself. There are some podcasts that I listen to that are over an hour every time.

But you've got to figure out what works for you and your content. I think that's important.

Sadaf Beynon
00:14:11.152 - 00:14:21.204
Yeah, you're right. And I'm interested to know, did you notice any kind of difference in your downloads or listenership when you change that to a shorter time frame?

Sarah Williams
00:14:21.332 - 00:17:15.534
Well, I really changed it right away. So I don't know that I had a lot of data. It wasn't like I had, you know, 100 episodes out, and then I changed it. So I don't really know the.

I don't know the data on that. But I just know for me, you know, you asked the question of, like, recording Content is not easy to stick to.

And so I think for anyone that commits to doing a podcast, you have to make it work for you. And so what worked for me was the shorter episodes, and then I could really just knock them out easier.

What also works for me is that I batch podcasts. I do like two a week so that I don't have to do them every single week. And so I think you've got to just figure out your sweet spot with it.

And when you start anything, it's the consistency that matters. You can't just go record 10 podcast episodes and then ghost the platform for three months and then come back, oh, season two is here. And so you.

You can't do that or you're going to lose your audience. You're going to lose that consistency.

Like, they're showing up weekly to listen to you, and then if you're gone for three months, they're off listening to somebody else in that time that they listen to you. So I think consistency is important.

And if that's a struggle for you, I would tell you you probably need some batch days, like if you do that once a month or a couple times a. Getting ahead of your episodes, so that if you have a week where you don't want to record anything, you don't have to.

You've got a bank of episodes there for you. But I think you've got to give. I like to say you have to give everything a year.

I know that's a long time, but you think about that, that's 52 episodes if you do one a week. And so you've got to give something a year to either really decide it's for you or it's not for you.

And if at the end of the year, decide, you know what, I'm not getting downloads. No one's listening. I'm doing this work for nothing.

It might be time to do something different, but after a year, you're going to have a lot of data to really look to, see how's your podcast grown. Am I finding the right person? Is my content attracting the right person? And do I like it? I love podcasting.

I don't want to keep doing something I don't like because that feels like drudgery. So if it's not podcasting, what is it? What could you be doing?

But for me, podcasting is really easy because a lot of times I don't have to do hair and makeup, and I can just sit in my office and just talk, and I'm good at that. But I Think what I get back from it is so many people telling me, oh, my gosh, that episode really hit me. That episode really helped me.

That episode is what I needed to hear this week. And when you do content for those reasons, you'll be able to stay consistent.

Sadaf Beynon
00:17:15.712 - 00:17:34.338
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. And I mean, consistency is huge. It really is. And I agree that if you need to do it in a way that works for you in order to keep consistent.

And also to your point, now that you've added at the end about being able to help someone, that. That really does keep you going.

Sarah Williams
00:17:34.474 - 00:17:36.050
Yes, absolutely.

Sadaf Beynon
00:17:36.210 - 00:17:47.898
So was there a specific episode or moment that you were like, okay, this is really working? So I know you struggled at the beginning with the solo episodes. Was there a time when you felt like, like, I know what I'm doing. I've got this.

Sarah Williams
00:17:48.034 - 00:20:51.276
I think it took about 30 episodes. Honestly, I've probably. If I went back and listened to those first 30 episodes, I'd probably want to delete them all.

But I think is creating that habit and then getting comfortable doing it, and that's really with anything. Like, if you're doing a Facebook live or a YouTube video, like, you have to do it enough that you actually feel comfortable with what you're doing.

And I think that I was just really uncomfortable for a while. And about 30. 30 episodes in, I was like, okay, I've got this. I don't need notes. Like, I might write a little outline. I'm just gonna talk.

I'm gonna tell the story. I'm gonna give them the action steps, and I'm gonna feel good about it. And I think it was about.

You know, it took me about six months to get through that hump of one. The drudgery of creating the content. Because now this was something I had to do every week that I wasn't doing before.

And so then figuring out what I was gonna talk to and really putting a system and process, process in place, you know, now we have a content meeting with the team, like, once a month, and we plan out all the podcast episodes. So I'm not sitting in front of my computer with my microphone thinking, like, okay, what should I talk about today? I already know.

We've planned it out. It lines up with what we're working on in the business. And I'm like, okay, four steps to launching your box in 30 days.

All right, I can talk about that, and I'll make some notes, hit the button, record, and we're good to go. But I think it's having those systems and Processes. I record on Wednesdays because that's when I work from home.

I'm in my warehouse now, so there's a lot of distractions going on around me. So I record on Wednesdays. I have it all planned out. I upload and then send it over to my copywriter and my graphic designer as soon as I'm done.

So the other key was I have people waiting on me. Right. So that helps motivate you to get stuff done, because they're waiting on me to submit this for them.

And so just creating that system and process. What days will you record? What are you going to record?

Knowing that ahead of time and then making your notes so that all you have to do is flip that microphone on and go. And I think that's what really makes it easy. If I had to be like, oh, it's Friday. I still have to make a podcast for next week.

You're like, I don't know what I'm going to talk about. I really want to just go to lunch with my friends instead. Whatever that is. There's so many ways you could talk yourself out of doing it.

So if it's on the schedule, I like to time block it. Like, if I'm going to do two podcast episodes tomorrow, they're time blocked in my calendar.

I know at 9 o'clock I've got to switch over to podcast mode. Here's the two episodes I'm recording tomorrow. And I'm. And I. And it's all. It's all assigned out to me in our project management system in Asana. Okay.

Record the episode, drop the download here, send the, you know, whatever to the copywriter. Like, it's all. And I just check, check, check, check, check. And then I feel good about it at the end of the day.

And it keeps me on task, it keeps me on schedule, it keeps me consistent because I need structure to keep me consistent.

Sadaf Beynon
00:20:51.388 - 00:21:19.080
That's really helpful advice. Thank you. Sarah, I love that you pushed through until episode 30 and that's when it finally worked for you.

Because I think too often people give up even before they get to episode 20 because it is hard. And finding, you know, all the advice that you're giving now has come from sticking to it. And you've been in the trenches.

You know what you need to do to keep going. And I think when you're new to it, it can sometimes feel far too overwhelming to carry on.

Sarah Williams
00:21:19.420 - 00:21:43.700
Yeah. And I think you, you give yourself a lot of reasons to stop. Like, it's not working, no one's listening. I don't even know if I like doing this.

But you've got to. You gotta give it a year. That's what I say for everything. Like, give it a year before you call it quits.

Have you given it everything you can for a year? And if you have, and then you can say it's not working, great. But I tell people not to give up on things unless you've given them a year.

Sadaf Beynon
00:21:43.820 - 00:21:57.780
Yeah, that's really helpful, Sarah. One of the things that makes podcasting powerful is its ability to build trust over time.

I know you've touched on this a bit earlier, but how has the Launch youh Box helped you deepen relationships with your audience?

Sarah Williams
00:21:58.360 - 00:23:29.410
Again, I think it's that someone listening to your voice. It's like having a phone call with someone when you're talking with someone on your phone. It's a much deeper connection than a text message.

And I think that's really the difference with podcasting versus blogging or just social media posts in general. Like, someone is really getting to know you through your voice, your tone, your warmth, your excitement.

You know, all of those things come through when you talk to someone. And that's why talking on the phone is so much more intimate than just a text message. And so I think that connection's there.

And then when you give them, say, actionable steps and they go and they put those steps to work and they're like, oh, I can do this. They feel like you're the person for them. Like, if I can give you some steps on my podcast, it might just be a couple simple steps.

And you go put them in place. And then you're like, I trust her because this worked.

I should listen to more of her because I get what she's saying and I'm implementing that in my business. And so they come back and they consume more and more, and that ultimately leads them to want to have my programs.

And that's really what it's for, is a lead in. It's that funnel into my programs. But. But it's also that first connection point with a lot of people that come into my world.

If they were to see a post from me today, they wouldn't connect with me the same way they would after listening to a podcast episode with me.

Sadaf Beynon
00:23:29.710 - 00:23:40.342
I think you're right. When people trust you and enjoy the content and feel like they can align themselves with you, they do keep coming back for more, don't they?

Sarah Williams
00:23:40.446 - 00:23:41.130
Yes.

Sadaf Beynon
00:23:41.870 - 00:23:49.258
Have you seen. Have you had a direct impact on your business with more customers, more engagement, more business opportunities?

Sarah Williams
00:23:49.354 - 00:25:06.800
That kind of thing with the podcast. Yeah. I'm going to tell you, I don't have a giant following on socials, right.

And I sent in a book proposal and when they saw that I had half a million downloads on my podcast, that's what got me a book deal. And so when you think about when a half a million, I have half a million downloads, that's a lot of downloads for people listening to my content.

But when you see someone like, you know, a world class publisher take on your book deal because of your podcast, like that's a big deal. I only have 30,000 followers on my social media, so seeing half a million downloads gave me some street cred. Right. It gave me some authority.

People were listening to what I had to say and they could direct see that. And so I think that it does engage my audience.

It also gives, it gives my, my public audience something to engage in with me when they're not ready to join my programs. It gives my paid audience something else to consume from me that I tie directly into what we're learning that month.

So it really works for my good in multiple ways.

Sadaf Beynon
00:25:08.020 - 00:25:13.750
So how do you use the podcast to move listeners into your paid programs?

Sarah Williams
00:25:14.090 - 00:26:48.644
I don't do it with every episode because I really use it to serve. But you'll hear a couple things. If I have something I'm talking about where maybe I have a free resource.

I use a texting app, so I'll tell them to text me a keyword. If you're listening, pull out your phone from your back pocket, go ahead and type this number in. Send me the keyword surprise.

And I'm going to send you 10 ways to surprise and delight your subscription box subscribers right to your phone. And so I'm encouraging they're probably listening on a phone most of the time. And so I do that. That'll get them on my text list.

That'll get them in my email list. I also periodically when I'm having promotions, like right now I'm getting ready for a big webinar.

So I have my, I have an ad, a dynamic ad on all my episodes right now promoting my webinar. And so we can turn that off and turn that on whenever. They're already listening to me.

Hey, you want to come over to my web my free workshop on, you know, whatever date. And so I think you can do that with dynamic ads on your own podcast.

You can do that with opt ins and freebies if we're in open cart for the coaching business, I will do an episode about why? It's a great place to start your business and send them over there. But again, I don't do that on every episode.

I probably do it once a month just to keep. Because when they listen to you, they may never follow you. Right. And so you got to keep them coming. I need them on my list. I need them on my socials.

I need them in my world outside of that podcast. And so that's something that we work on.

Sadaf Beynon
00:26:48.812 - 00:26:57.924
So, Sarah, what's next? I know you're quite purposeful, strategic when it comes to your podcast and aligning it with your business. So what's. What's on the horizon for you?

Sarah Williams
00:26:58.092 - 00:27:42.860
Well, we've got some great new sponsors of the podcast, which is awesome too, to be able to monetize your podcast, which really just kind of pays for all the work that's being done. Done for the podcast. You have video, you have a editor for the podcast, you have copywriter for the show. Notes.

We've got graphic designers for the episode. So I just love being able to fund what we're doing over there without taking it from the business. But we're just going to keep going.

We're about to hit our 200th episode, so that's exciting. We're planning something big for that. But I love the podcast podcast.

It's going to be around for a long time, and I'm excited just to keep continuing with what we're doing because it's. It's obviously working.

Sadaf Beynon
00:27:43.320 - 00:27:51.296
Fantastic. Sarah, this has been such fun. Where can people connect with you and learn more about your podcast, about you, your business? Yeah.

Sarah Williams
00:27:51.328 - 00:27:58.592
The podcast is called the Launcherbox Podcast and you can find my website@ Launcherbox.com Fantastic.

Sadaf Beynon
00:27:58.736 - 00:28:00.888
We'll be sure to add that to the show links.

Sarah Williams
00:28:00.984 - 00:28:02.264
Okay. Thank you so much.

Sadaf Beynon
00:28:02.352 - 00:28:21.620
You're welcome. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and on podcasting and how it has helped you grow your influence. I really appre.

Appreciate you taking the time to be here and to our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to connect with Sarah, be sure to check out and reach out to her on her website and from Sarah and from me. Thanks for listening.

Bye for now.