How entrepreneurs can build a memorable podcast, create referable content, and monetize by focusing on what moves the business forward.
Stop Feeding All the Ducks
You know when…
You sit down to do one thing…
And somehow one thing becomes six things?
One idea becomes a workshop ⤸
The workshop needs a checkout page ⤸
The checkout page reminds you your welcome email needs updating ⤸
Which reminds you your podcast trailer is outdated ⤸
Which reminds you your website still has your old headshot ⤸
Which reminds you your About page needs a rewrite ⤸
Which reminds you maybe your whole brand needs a refresh!
Three hours later…
Your coffee is cold.
Your brain is toast.
And the one thing you sat down to do is still staring at you from the top of your list.
How did we get here?
Ducks.
That’s how.
During our July Studio Q+A, one of our members shared several good opportunities in front of her.
Books
Coaching
Speaking
Substack
A documentary
Good ducks.
Sooooo many ducks.
“No, pick me!”
“Wait! What about me?!”
Every single one asking for a breadcrumb of her attention.
I told her:
Pick one duck.
Send the rest to swim school.
I mean, come on now. 😂
The more I think about those ducks, the more I realize…
The squawking ducks are not the problem.
The brilliant ideas are not the problem.
The opportunities are not the problem.
The problem is what happens when every duck gets the same amount of your attention.
So the question isn’t: “How do I manage all these ducks?”
The question becomes: Which ducks have earned your attention?
Remember the Studio mantra:
Every duck must earn its breadcrumbs.
How does it move your business forward?
How does it create a win for your listener?
When it does both and aligns with your capacity…
Feed that duck.
If it only creates more noise, more work, and more unfinished projects…let that duck keep swimming.
When every duck on the pond is quacking like it’s a duck-mergency…your brain starts believing every single one needs immediate action.
But most of those ducks?
They’re just hungry for your focus.
And if you’re not careful, you’ll spend your entire day feeding the loudest duck instead of the right one.
Here’s the question to ponder while you’re standing at the edge of the pond:
What becomes possible when you stop feeding every duck that waddles over asking for a breadcrumb?
When you stop giving every brilliant idea…
every shiny opportunity…
every “maybe someday”…
your time and energy?
The hardest part about choosing one thing is accepting that not every good thing gets your attention right now.
Welcome to the newsletter where we don’t fear what’s lurking under the water. We know which ducks to feed.
Every Saturday, we focus on three ways to make your podcast earn its breadcrumbs:
Create Sticky Soundbites. Give your listeners a phrase, idea, or moment they can’t help but carry with them.
Build Buzz. Create the kind of content that makes your listeners think, “I know exactly who needs to hear this.”
Create Cha-Ching Content. Make sure your podcast isn’t just filling the pond with noise. Create content that opens the door to conversations, connections, and opportunities.
You choose the area that needs your attention and take ONE small action step before another duck waddles over asking for a breadcrumb.
Now go pick your duck.
And let the rest of the flock swim.
xoxo,
Jen
Become Memorable
Sticky Soundbites
Stop Making Every Idea a Command
You are not overwhelmed because God gave you too many ideas.
You’re overwhelmed because you’re trying to obey all of them at once.
There. I said it.
Somewhere along the way, we started confusing:
“God gave me this idea.” with: “God wants me to do this today.”
Those don’t carry the same meaning nor the same level of urgency.
God is not anxious. He’s never in a hurry.
When you get sucked into a whirlwind of activity in your business, your audience feels your anxiousness in your content - even if they can’t name what is off, they feel something is out of whack.
They hear it when every episode you create chases a new direction instead of a logical workflow that directly ties to your offers.
If you’re bouncing around ideas that don’t relate to your zone of genius evident in your client transformation journey, your audience has nothing to latch onto.
That’s why I leaned in hard to Signature Systems in last week’s newsletter. And yes, that link will be in the show notes so you can go listen to that next.
Your Signature System, just like mine, The Mic Drop Mastery Method, inside the Studio, is a very good duck.
When you go off on too many tangents, your listener cannot remember you over the sound of all your ideas quacking at once.
Memorable content requires discernment.
Not more ideas. Not more output.
Discernment.
The right idea. At the right time. For your ideal listeners.
Remember, the loudest duck in the pond is not always the one you’re supposed to feed.
🎬 Your Memorable Action Step
Make your duck list.
Write down every idea currently asking for your attention:
The workshop
The new offer
The podcast reset
The Substack launch
The content rewrites
The speaking opportunity
Then ask:
Which one directly supports the business God has entrusted to me in this season?
Circle that one.
Send the rest to swim school.
You aren’t abandoning those ideas.
You’re giving them somewhere to wait while you finish what’s right in front of you.
Become Referable
Buzz Builder
People don’t share everything they read. They share the sentence that keeps quacking in their head.
The best content doesn’t just share information; it creates moments of recognition.
A sentence that makes them stop scrolling and think:
“Oh my gosh. That’s me.”
Back in Mic Drop Mastery Issue #38, I told you to stop treating Substack Notes like little promotional flyers.
I’m saying it again because some lessons are too important to mention once and hope they stick.
I keep seeing Notes like:
“New episode is up!”
“Here are three takeaways!”
“Listen here!”
Announcements rarely give someone a reason to care.
Your reader isn’t scrolling Notes thinking:
“Gee, I wonder who published a podcast episode today?”
Nope!
Your ideal client’s thinking about the unfinished proposal on her desk.
The offer that isn’t selling.
The podcast episode he hasn’t published in three weeks.
The idea he keeps feeding even though it has never produced anything but more work.
Substack readers aren’t looking for another episode announcement that feels like more work for them to do than something that will alleviate their immediate pain.
That’s why your Note cannot stop at announcing what you made.
It needs to show your reader why that note matters to them.
Consider this:
New Studio Q+A is available. We discussed productivity, content creation, CTAs, and profitability. Listen here.
That tells me what you published. It’s nothing about me. It’s all about you.
Now consider:
You know when you spend the entire day creating content, answering questions, helping people, and checking all the “visibility” boxes…but when it’s time to invite someone into your offer, you suddenly decide you need to make one more free resource first?
Yep. That. If being helpful has started feeling safer than being paid, we flip that inside the Studio.
Mirrors build connection and trust because when your audience thinks:
“Oh my gosh, that’s me…”
she is more likely to click.
And when she thinks:
“Oh my gosh, that’s my friend…”
she is more likely to share.
That’s what makes content referable.
Not more words. Not more tips. Not more “value.”
A sentence that gives words to the pain they couldn’t explain.
Heads up! Your Note does not need to explain the entire episode.
It needs one line that keeps quacking in her head after she scrolls away.
🎬 Your Referable Action Step
Go hunting for buried gold in your latest episode.
Find the sentence that names something your listener has experienced but may not know how to explain.
Then turn it into a Note:
You know when ______?
Describe the moment.
Then:
Yep. That.
Then:
If ______, this episode will help you ______ without ______.
For this Studio Q+A, that might look like:
You know when you’ve worked all day, answered questions, created content, and helped everyone else move forward…but you never invited anyone to buy?
Yep. That. If being helpful has started feeling safer than being paid, this Studio Q+A will help you identify where you’re choosing reassurance over revenue.
That Note isn’t a flyer; it’s a mirror.
Mirrors get shared.
If you want help creating podcast language that makes ideal clients recognize themselves and say, “Tell me more,” join us as a paid member inside the Studio.
Inside The 🎤︎︎ Substack Podcast Studio embraces the YOU KNOW WHEN…so you can create CTAs that convert clients faster. When you become a paid member, you’ll automatically get access to How to Get Ideal Clients to Say, “Tell Me More” mini training session.
If you’re not ready for the full Studio Experience, you can purchase the How to Get Ideal Clients to Say, “Tell Me More” mini training session for $47 here.
thevirtualpodcastschool.com/tellmemore
Become Profitable
Cha-Ching Content
The duck you keep feeding may be the reason your audience loves you…but never hires you.
Ooftah!
I know.
That one landed a little close to the pond!
Listen, entrepreneurs are incredibly good at creating content because they love to serve, teach, encourage, and answer questions.
They pour out everything they know.
And then they wonder:
“Why do people thank me…but not buy from me?”
Somewhere along the way, you accidentally taught your audience that your job is to keep giving.
And their job is to keep receiving.
Your podcast becomes the place where people come to feel inspired.
Motivated.
Seen.
Encouraged.
But inspiration alone does not create transformation.
Transformation requires a decision.
And decisions require a doorway.
Your listener may love hearing your stories. He may save your posts. He may tell you your episode was exactly what he needed.
But if he cannot see the bridge between where he is and where he wants to go…he' stays on the shore.
Not because he doesn’t value you.
Because you never showed him where to step next.
This is where profitable content is different.
Profitable content does not ask: “How can I give my audience more?”
You have already proven you can do that.
The better question is:
“What does my listener need to understand before he is ready to move?”
This will sound out there, I know, but know this!
Buyers do not wake up one morning and randomly decide:
“Today feels like a great day to invest in support.”
There’s a deeper conversation happening in their head first.
“Is this really my problem?”
“Can this actually be fixed?”
“Is there another way?”
“How can I get there faster?”
“Is this the right person who can help me?”
Your content must meet them in those conversations in their heads! Not just with information. With direction.
Your podcast is not supposed to be a never-ending bread and butter buffet of where people walk away full but unchanged.
It is supposed to be a path. One episode helps them recognize the problem. Another helps them see the possibility. Another helps them understand the solution. Another helps them understand the solution, your methodology, your signature system, like podcasting TLC, which is trust, leverage, and conversion.
Another reassures them this is completely normal to experience what they’re experiencing. And every episode has a logical call to action, the next step, your offer.
That’s how trust turns into action.
The goal is not to convince everyone.
The goal is to help the right person recognize:
“Wait…this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
That is the moment your podcast stops being content. And becomes the trust-building bridge that leads to transformation through your offers.
🎬 Your Profitable Action Step
Look at your most recent podcast episode and answer:
1. What ache does this episode address?
(Not the topic. The ache.)
2. What is this episode helping my listener understand, believe, or decide?
3. What is the next logical step she can take with me?
If you cannot answer all three, your episode may be consuming breadcrumbs without producing eggs.
Give it a job. Give your listener a next step. And then make the offer.
4. Learn how to position podcast episodes so they build trust, lead listeners to your offer, and stop wasting your best content in this episode. Click the Converting CTAs button!
🎤︎︎ The Substack Podcast Studio is for the podcaster who wants to create the right content for the right person at the right time, so every episode builds trust, creates momentum, and supports the business they are building.
Become a paid subscriber today.
Links & Resources:
Create podcast episodes that make ideal clients lean in, recognize themselves, and say YES to working with you.
Need a game plan? Book a 1:1 Mic Drop Mastery Power Hour with me to get your strategy locked in.
Ready to go all-in to launch and monetize your podcast? If you’re at the level where you’re ready to invest $2k+ in a full-scale system build-out, start by booking a complimentary consult here. Let’s ensure your business model and your podcast are speaking the same language. https://thevirtualpodcastschool.com/consult.
SUBSCRIBER Tiers are open! Come on inside and join professional podcasters who are combining the power of podcasting and Substack to grow their businesses!
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