A Baby and 20,000 Downloads

Leah Neaderthal0:02

You're listening to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. But I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created a sales approach that feels comfortable, makes you feel confident, and it works consistently. And now I teach women how to land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. So whether your client contracts are $2,000 or $200,000 if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever imagined, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Welcome to Smart gets paid. Hey there, Leah here, and I wanted to let you know that I don't have a new episode this week. Okay, well, actually, I guess this technically is an episode, but it's not an episode like, you know, the ones I normally do, but there's a really good reason, and that's because my daughter was born recently. Her name is Sophie, and she is doing awesome. My wife, Emily carried her, and Emily is doing great too. And our son, Noah, is doing surprisingly well with the new baby. But anyway, Sophie came three weeks early, and because of that, I just didn't have time to prep the episodes that I wanted to for the podcast. But I promise I'll be back with a new episode in a couple weeks. But I did want to share just another quick fun thing, which is that sometime between When Sophie was born, and the last week or so, we hit 20,000 downloads of this podcast, which is just amazing to me. I mean, listen, I know that in podcast land, 20,000 downloads is not that much, right, but for me, I'm totally thrilled about it, especially since I pretty much disregarded, like every podcast tip that the podcast gurus tell you to do to grow a podcast quickly. Some of them I did on purpose, and some of them I did accidentally. Like, for example, the gurus tell you that the way to grow your podcast audience quickly is to have high profile guests on so that when you have them on, they send your podcast out to their audiences, and that's how you get a lot of listeners and a lot of downloads quickly, you essentially borrow their audiences. And I kind of have a problem with that, because then the content of the podcast isn't just the content for listeners. The content, like is the marketing strategy. And you know, you can see this in, like, almost every business podcast that you see out there, but when I started my podcast, it was really designed to share those real conversations that I was having with my clients, you know, like in real life, you know, our real coaching conversations. So as a result, all those conversations are anonymous. It's actually one of the promises I make to my clients when they allow me to share those conversations with you. So with this podcast, that strategy of like borrowing the audience of your guests as a marketing strategy just isn't possible. So I know that means that my listenership isn't going to grow as quickly as it could, but it also means that the episodes can be more real because they're real conversations. Another thing that the gurus tell you to do is that when you choose your guests, choose guests who have really big audiences. So if you're doing that whole strategy where the content is the marketing, then you can leverage the biggest audience possible, right? And get as many ears as possible. And some of you know, if you've been listening, I do have some interview episodes where the guests are named, right? Like they're not anonymous. But instead of, you know, high profile business coaches, I've invited people who I've learned from in their books and in their research, and those people I really respect,

Leah Neaderthal3:45

like Deborah Tannen, the sociolinguist at Georgetown, whose books taught me how to use language to feel more comfortable in the sales process. That's episode 39 if you haven't listened to that one, or Vanessa bonds, professor at Cornell, who wrote the book, you have more influence than you think, which is amazing. And that's episode 41 so I mean, really, I guess the difference is my guests aren't here to help my marketing strategy. They're here to help you learn. And then lastly, you know, the other thing that gurus say, and this one, I guess, is pretty obvious, but put out a new episode every week. That's how you grow really quickly. But as you see, I post every other week, and the reason is simply because that's what I can do right now. So last year, well, I guess it's like almost two years ago. Now, I burned myself out so bad because I took on too much, and I just tried to do all the things, and in the wake of that, you know, as I climbed out of it and tried to learn from it. Now I'm much more focused on boundaries, you know, just knowing what I can reasonably take on and taking on only that much. And that thing you know, knowing what I can reasonably take on and taking on only that much, is a boundary. It's a kind of boundary. So instead of every week, I put out an episode every other. Week, that's what I can commit to, that also lets me serve my clients, build my business, spend time with my family, spend time like not working, and not burn myself out again so again. It means that the listenership of this podcast might not grow as quickly as some other podcasts, but it also means that I'm living out what I would also tell you to do too, right, which is to set boundaries that help you build your business and live your life. So why am I sharing all this? Because that 20,000 number, that number of downloads, it makes it even more meaningful to me, because it means that the way that we've gotten to that 20,000 is by people just like you, finding the podcast, listening to it, and sharing it with your friends and your colleagues, and that means the world to me. Like, I can't tell you how many people reach out to me and say, you know, I found your podcast through so and so and I love it, or, you know, so and so turned me on to this, and I've been listening to every episode. That's why I'm just so honored and humbled that we've reached this milestone. And if you've shared this podcast with someone or posted it on social media, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. So my one request to you today is that if you have enjoyed this podcast, if you have learned something new, if you've learned a new way to do something or approach something with your clients or in the sales process, or if you just have a different way of thinking about selling as a result of something that you've heard here, please pass on the podcast. Please share it on social media with a few words about what you might have learned here, or share it in the groups you're in. I mean, it is really pretty serendipitous that you happened to learn about the podcast from someone in your world, like if you think about it, it's actually a really incredible coincidence. And there are so many other women out there who haven't learned about it yet, who don't know about it, so they're still struggling to get new clients or struggling to charge more for their work or feel more confident in the sales process. So by you sharing this podcast, even if it means that just one woman hears it and learns something that lets her do those things right, that lets her get paid more or feel more confident, then we, you and I together, have contributed to helping women business owners run more profitable businesses, and that's really how we close the gender wealth gap and we help women become more financially independent. So my request today is, please share this podcast on social media, in email and in the groups you're in. I really, really appreciate it. And of course, if you want to go beyond the podcast and work with me to take the strategies that you're hearing here and actually put them in place in your business. Then there are so many more tools and templates and strategies and coaching that we can use to move you forward faster, and all of that is in my program called the academy. Check it out at Smart gets paid.com/academy so thank you so much again, from the bottom of my heart, for listening to the podcast, for using what you learn here and for sharing it with other women. So I'm going to go back and snuggle my newborn daughter, and I'll be back with you in a couple weeks. I'll see you then. Transcribed by https://otter.ai