Harnessing the Power of Podcasting and Collaborations | EP270

Can collaborations in podcasting really elevate your content and expand your audience? Absolutely! This episode is all about uncovering the transformative power of partnerships within the podcasting world. We explore the myriad forms of collaborations, from monetary partnerships to service exchanges, and highlight how these alliances can lead to cross-promotion, richer content, and stronger community bonds. We also delve into the personal and professional growth that comes from engaging with diverse voices and learning from your guests and audience. Whether you're looking to co-host, engage in joint ventures, or participate in panel discussions, you'll find actionable insights tailored to help you build meaningful and equitable collaborations.

Navigating the world of podcast collaborations can be tricky, but don't worry—we've got you covered with effective strategies that guarantee success. Learn how to leverage your existing connections, make the most of social media engagements, and set clear expectations to avoid misunderstandings. Transparency and communication are key, and we offer concrete steps to establish these from the get-go. Plus, we discuss the pros and cons of financial commitments and share tips on nurturing relationships to ensure long-term benefits. New or seasoned, every podcaster will find valuable takeaways to enhance their journey through collaborative efforts. Tune in for a treasure trove of practical advice and inspiring stories that will elevate your podcasting game!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Collaborations in Podcasting
• 15:48 Effective Podcast Collaboration Strategies
• 20:24 Building Successful Podcast Collaborations

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:30

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress. Working together is success. Henry Ford, welcome back to the podcast everybody. Oh, my days.

Donna Eade: 1:03

I have one final masterclass happening this afternoon at 4pm. This is, if you are listening to this, as this podcast releases on the Thursday. So if you want in, head to the show notes right now, don't even listen to the rest of this episode. Before you've done it. Go and sign up for the class so that you make sure that you get the Zoom link sorted and you can come and join me. I am thrilled, thrilled to be sharing this masterclass. It's been a great time. The first two classes, and you know what they say. You know practice makes perfect. So this is going to be even better this afternoon. So if you are not yet in the masterclass, signed up for this afternoon, you still have a chance. Head over to the show notes. Bitly forward, slash EP270MAP, so that you can go and sign up for the final class of the week. I'm super, super excited.

Donna Eade: 1:58

So today we're going to be talking about collaborations in podcasting and if you listened to Monday's episode, you will have heard Viv say that you know what in business you don't have to collaborate. And that is true, you don't have to collaborate. But I am somebody who believes in that old adage. You know, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. So I kind of come from that perspective and collaborations come in all shapes and sizes. So collaborations can be monetary collaborations. So we're going to do this thing together, we're going to split it 50-50 and there's money involved. Collaborations can be a free thing. You know, I'll give you this. If you give me that, I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine. There's no limit to what you can do as a collaboration or how you decide to plan it out.

Donna Eade: 2:53

It might be that somebody is providing some sort of service over here and money into something and you're just providing a service, you know. Think of collaborations that happen with summits, for example. When you see a summit, it is usually somebody organising it and therefore making some money out of it. Usually not always, but usually by maybe selling an upgrade package where people can get the videos and some free gifts included if they download and pay for the upgrade. So, but as a collaborator on that, you would be providing some training and you would be providing a freebie of some kind. So some people in that realm will say, if you provide a freebie, you can talk about that on your training and everybody can go and download it. That's how you start to build your list from a summit.

Donna Eade: 3:53

But they also might say could you provide something that is a paid for item that we could put behind the paywall? So maybe a low cost like $47 or $97 amount item that you could put into that goodie bag, as it were, that they get if they upgrade? And then if they upgrade, they sign up, usually with a code. So you get them on your list and they are doing your thing, but they haven't had to pay for it. So you're in part giving them a little bit of money because you're giving them that 47 pounds for nothing and you're giving a training. They're getting money from the people buying the upgrade, but they are also paying for the software and and they're organizing it and they're putting the time to put those trainings out as necessary. Maybe it's run live and they're hosting the whole thing, maybe it's run where you've pre-recorded all the trainings, but they're still hosting the live part of actually talking to people in between the trainings. Or maybe they're just setting it up on an auto thing so that it's going out at the right time. But all of that takes time and effort. So their time and effort gets paid. Your time and effort gets people on your email list and actually trying out your stuff. So that's kind of where the summit collaborations come in.

Donna Eade: 5:20

But there are all sorts of different types of collaborations that you could do that could aid your business, and podcasting is a way of collaborating, so let's talk about it. So firstly, let's address the why. Why does collaborations matter in podcasting and that is a lot of what I've just said in respects of getting your knowledge out to other people but it is really about that mutual benefit of cross-promotion. That is kind of the crux of a collaboration really is to bring that cross-promotion of audiences. Crux of a collaboration really is to bring that cross promotion of audiences, which is a really powerful thing you can do.

Donna Eade: 6:00

In podcasting. You're also bringing together different voices and perspectives which can enrich your content and provide value for your listener as well as you learning, like I know, selfishly. That is a lot of why I invite the guests that I invite onto my show onto my show because I want to learn from them, and so by having them on the show, I get to learn too, and I hope you find value in it. Because I find value in it and, generally speaking, if you're listening to my podcast, then you're usually at a similar stage of business to me and therefore you should find value in what I'm finding value in and and I also open it up in my group you can come and tell me if there is a particular guest that you would like me to try and get on the show or a particular topic that you would like me to talk about. You can let me know in my Facebook group and I always take that on board.

Donna Eade: 6:48

There's our little collaboration between listener and podcast host, so there are mutually beneficial reasons to collaborate with people and it also can help strengthen your community within the podcasting space. So you can do some joint ventures, some co-hosting opportunities, panel discussions there's so many. We're going to go into the types of collaboration you can do with your podcast in a minute, but by being a voice in the space when it comes to podcasting, you can really create some beautiful relationships with people and that can really stand you in good stead. And, like I say, you get to learn new skills, gain insight and stay motivated as well with what you're doing, with learning from other people. So let's talk about the different types of collaborations you can do with your podcast, because this is really quite interesting.

Donna Eade: 7:41

So the first is the very obvious collaboration, which is guest interviews, having people on your podcast that are guests. Now, this is, like I say, is cross promotion, is our goal with collaboration, and that means that you both have to share the episode to your respective audiences, because that's what is fair. And when people sign up to be a guest on my podcast, they literally are signing a form that says that they will promote the podcast organically themselves to their audience. I ask where they're going to promote it. I ask what platforms that they live on on social media so that I can tag them when I share it. And that is really important to cross promote each other once the podcast episode goes live. Now, I did say I will do a whole episode on podcasting and how you can be a good podcast guest. That will come out shortly. You can be a good podcast guest. That will come out shortly. But that is a really great way of collaborating a nice, easy collaboration, not too difficult to organize, really simple, straight down the line, because it's just two people.

Donna Eade: 8:51

Another one is co-hosting or guest co-hosting. So you know I do a collaboration with Viv. So Viv is on the podcast every other Monday or this month it's been every week you lucky, lucky people and she is my co-host for those episodes because she is a mindset expert. I am not a mindset expert. I can talk about my mindset blocks, I can talk about the things that I do to shift it, I can talk about things that block business people and what I think about those blocks, but I can't help you shift it. I don't have the training or the qualifications to be able to teach you to shift your mindset blocks. And mindset blocks are like a key thing in business, to get out of your way, so you can get out of your own way and succeed. So you need to have the mindset stuff alongside the business stuff, which is why this podcast is called Mindset and Action, because it's about getting the mindset right and taking the action, and those are the two things that are going to lead you to success.

Donna Eade: 10:03

So I invited Viv to come on the podcast and talk about the mindset stuff because I knew that when I started these mini mindset Mondays that I wouldn't be able to provide the value for you in that I knew that I could talk to my guests about their mindset blocks and we could have a discussion about the real implications of these blocks and what they do for people, but I couldn't really give you insight every other week on something that I would be able to talk about. So bringing Viv on was really, you know, such a wonderful thing for me to be able to do for you guys in bringing her into this world so that you can learn from her and you know, if you need help with mindset stuff, then you know somebody who can help you with that. And that is my purpose of collaborating with Viv. Now. Viv gets to then come in and speak to my audience, she gets to share that stuff, and so it's a win-win for both of us in that respect.

Donna Eade: 11:03

So those are the kind of co-hosting opportunities that you can do and you can have a guest co -host so you could invite somebody on. Like you know, viv is a guest co-host on this podcast, but you could go onto somebody else's podcast and co-host with them and maybe interviewing somebody. Maybe it's somebody that you know that co-host with them and maybe interviewing somebody. Maybe it's somebody that you know that you connect somebody with and you do it together as a co-host situation and the episode goes out on both of your podcasts. Who knows? There is lots of opportunity for you to talk about it and it is really important that those personalities match well when it comes to somebody you're having on as a co-host. Great, great example of this is Catherine and Julie. I absolutely love those two together. If you go and listen to their podcast, it is so good and it's because they are great friends and they are great friends who align so well on so many things that even when they don't align on something, it's a fun interaction. It's not a I'm right, you're wrong situation. They are so great together, so far too fabulous podcast.

Donna Eade: 12:10

If you want to go and see an example of how a good co-hosting session happens, then you can cross promote with other podcasts, so it doesn't have to be a physical thing. But perhaps you know I do that freely and willingly. Right here I talk about the embodied marketing podcast. I talk about the online marketing made easy with Amy Pawsfield. I talk about the far too fabulous podcast I have mentioned a lot of podcasts over the years for you to go and listen to that I really enjoy listening to and I do that freely. But you could make it more of a structured thing where you band together with a few podcast hosts that are in a similar niche to you and you cross, promote each other and you make it a thing that actually, at the end of the next three episodes, I'm going to talk about you, you're going to talk about me, they're going to talk about. So you can have a round robin of like six of you or something where, for the duration of however long six months, say for every four weeks, you talk about a different podcast at the end of your episode and say, hey, do you know what? I've really been enjoying this podcast and you promote each other, and that's a really good way of sharing your audiences without having to do a guest spot, without having to put too much effort into it. It's like an amazing opportunity to do that.

Donna Eade: 13:35

Collaboration with brands and influencers. So this is something that you could look at doing so you could secure some partnerships with brands. So we spoke about this last week where we were talking about having sponsorships. So that is a collaboration of sorts. So you could say to a brand you know I will talk about your product if you give me a discount code and you give me a kickback, so an affiliate link for all intents and purposes. So it's an affiliate marketing opportunity there. So if you have a certain brand of coffee that you're always talking about on the podcast and you always have a cup of that coffee ready to go when you start your podcast, then perhaps you reach out to that coffee brand and you say, hey, I'm always drinking your coffee, I would love to advertise you on my podcast. You know, that's the sort of thing that you can do with your podcast. And then, um, if there are relevant influences to your niche, um, in the fitness world, this would really work well because there's loads of fitness um influencers maybe you have them come on and do a series of podcast episodes with you, you talking about a particular whatever their particular genre is.

Donna Eade: 14:44

So I follow an absolute fantastic lady over on Instagram. Her handle is at her garden gym, so her garden gym is a handle. I believe Her name is Jacqueline Hooten. She is 62 years old and she is a personal trainer who is fitter than I am at 43 and I'm dead jealous of her legs and she talks about aging well and fitness for aging well. So she lifts some heavy. She doesn't right now. She's fractured her wrist blesser and she fell off of a platform while she was on holiday in a different country and fractured her wrist. But she's just had a bone density scan and that bone density scan shows that she is well within normal range, which is great for a woman in her 60s where usually our bone density starts to decline and we are susceptible to osteoporosis. She has managed to maintain her bone density because of the work that she puts in and I think that's amazing to have actually been able to see that she's maintained that bone density.

Donna Eade: 15:48

But she talks about lifting weights like she does deadlifts of like ridiculous weights when her wrist is good, and she talks about not doing it for the butt gains not doing it so that she can have a cute bum, but doing it so that she can pick her bag off the floor and put it in the overhead on an aeroplane. And it's like you don't even think about that at most people's ages, like you don't think about these movements that actually, if you exercise them and do them in an exercise form, you're actually maintaining that movement for the future, and so she is a real inspiration to me. I share her with a lot of people because I think she's very inspiring. She also lives by the sea and always shares her morning walk, which is right by the ocean, which I love. So she definitely sings to me and my personality, so I follow her.

Donna Eade: 16:38

But she could go on to the far too fabulous podcast, for instance, and do like a month's worth of podcasts with those ladies talking about aging well and exercise to help you age well, and how you can incorporate pilates, which is what Catherine does, how you can incorporate nutrition, which is what Julie does, and how she, as a PT, works with her clients to get them to age well, and the types of exercises that she does and modifications, etc. So she could do a whole little series with them on that. So that is another way of collaborating. And then, lastly, panel discussions or roundtables. So if you are somebody who can handle it and this is something that I would not attempt myself, it's just not something I'm interested in doing because I feel like it can get really out of hand, but a panel discussion, roundtable talks with other podcasters on, with guests, on trending topics, things that are going on in the world right now that affect your businesses.

Donna Eade: 17:42

You know you could talk about something along those lines. Or you know, for example, for Catherine and Julie and I keep coming back to them just because it's an easy one for me to pick up on but if the health secretary was to announce something to do with labelling, for instance I've recently listened to Julie's episode on labelling, so it's fresh in my head but if they were to say that they are going to scrap sharing the ingredients on food labels or something, julie would have something to say about that and Catherine would too, and I'm sure there would be a few other people that they're connected with in their world that would have something to say about it. They could have a round table conversation about it and that would be a collaboration where they bring their audiences in. For that, if you were to do it in a podcasting setting, I just I'm just really concerned about how everybody gets to talk, because I've heard podcasts and I say that with the air quotes that you can't see because they are video casts. I've seen them on YouTube where there's like 10, 12 people around six mics and they're all talking at once and it gives me a headache. So the idea of a panel discussion kind of I'm not sure, panel discussion yes, maybe round it gives me a headache. So the idea of a panel discussion kind of I'm not sure, panel discussion yes, maybe roundtables and not so much. So a panel discussion kind of leads, you need to think that there would be a host that would pose these questions and ask different people within the group to answer and give their input on it and then move on to another question and ask different people and things like that. So a little bit of that interview style, but that could work well on a podcast. But those are different ways that you can collaborate with your podcast and other podcasters.

Donna Eade: 19:20

So before you jump in and start DMing people to collaborate with you, there is some important things to consider in the initiation and nurture of those collaborations. And this is where it can all go horribly wrong and I have heard some horror stories of people that collaborate and don't get back what they put into it or have been missold the collaboration in some way and feel that they've been taken advantage of. You want to make sure that none of this is there in any collaboration that you do. So make sure that you do your research and preparation and make sure that you know exactly what it is that you want to do, what you're offering and what the mutually beneficial things are going to be for your people that you want to collaborate with. The next thing is to make sure that you're actually building relationships with those people before you reach out and ask them for collaboration. So I'm not saying that you necessarily need to go to brand new people and start a relationship with them so that you can nurture them, so that you can collaborate with them, because that might not work.

Donna Eade: 20:24

But go to your existing connections for these collaborations, for these collaborations. If there is somebody out there that you would love to collaborate with that you know would be a great fit, then yeah, by all means. You probably already follow them on social, if that's the case, and start to make sure that you're alive in their comments, comment on more of their stuff and share things that they're doing to create that connection that you might be a face and a name that they recognize when you reach out to them to do this collaboration and then make sure that you are setting very, very clear expectations. Make sure that people know exactly what they are signing up for and make sure that they are aware of what their part is and what your part is, so that there is no confusion. Make sure that the communication is very, very clear on that, ok, because it's really easy to misinterpret and think that somebody is going to do something and you know they don't do it and I'm.

Donna Eade: 21:30

I've actually gone through a situation where you know I'm collaborating with some people and I almost feel like it's. You know, too many cooks spoil the broth and if you haven't got clear lines of communication, it can really make it a harder task than it needs to be. It can be a very simple, but if you don't have that clear expectation, those clear boundaries in place, those clear lines of what is expected of everybody written down and do it in writing, then it can easily go awry and people feel let down or feel missold and actually you've provided exactly what you said you were going to provide, but they had misinterpreted what you said. So make sure that everybody is on the same page. And then, how long is this collaboration? Is it a summit? Is it going to be something that's a one and done thing. Is this an ongoing thing, like for me and Viv? We are ongoing on this. You know I'm happy for her to come on every other Monday for as long as she's willing to. It's not, it's not written in stone. If she decides that actually she doesn't want to do it anymore, she is more than willing to walk away from it. Then I will think of something else to do. You know it's not the end of the world, but there isn't that you set in stone deadline for it. We're easy breezy with it.

Donna Eade: 22:55

But if you are planning on having a long term partnership, you need to kind of lay out those expectations in that initial collaboration phase so that people understand what is being expected of them. So just some little pitfalls to make sure that you are not falling into there with how you actually initiate those collaborations and then, when you reach out to somebody, make sure that they are really sort of understanding the benefits for them. So I've had people reach out to me and I feel like it's more spam bots and things like that, but you never know who have kind of said oh, we'd love to have you come and speak at our event. It's 600 pounds. I'm like why am I paying to come and give you my knowledge for free, like, well, not, not for free, I'm actually paying you, so I'm losing money. In that respect, I'm not. I'm not only giving you my intellectual currency, but I'm giving you physical currency as well. And what am I getting out of it? It and to me, that doesn't sit well with me, so that's not something I'm interested in doing.

Donna Eade: 23:58

But if you are somebody who is asking for financial input into a collaboration, then you need to be very clear why that financial commitment is there. You need to be very clear of your history is there. You need to be very clear of your history. You need to be very clear of why you choose to do it that way so it doesn't come across scammy. You know, you need to make sure that you're building those relationships, these people I've never spoken to, never even connected with them, and they're sending me these emails saying we'd love you to come and speak. You can pay us some money for it. I'm like what? I don't think so. So make sure that you're doing that nurturing. Make sure you're very clear and upfront with the whys and wherefores of what it is that you're doing and how that collaboration comes together. So that's where things can go wrong, but there are lots of places where it goes right, and some examples are the podcast collaborations that I've already mentioned. So Catherine and Julie collaborating on their podcast as co-hosts seems to be going absolutely marvelously well. They are both involved in the editing side of things. They kind of share it out between them.

Donna Eade: 25:05

I have guests on the show. Sometimes it works really really well. Sometimes I'm a little bit disappointed in what my guests do, but you know you can't force people to do things, so it's very much a. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drinks. So make sure that you are just being very honest with it. And yeah, it can be a really, really good thing, especially when you're starting out in business, if you can find other people that are newer to business in that first sort of 12 to 24 month period and you can collaborate on something. Those are really great ways of building your audiences more quickly when you haven't got a very big audience to offer. So if you can come together and share each other's audiences, you can grow your audiences in a much quicker way.

Donna Eade: 25:53

So this is something that works very well in the early stages of business in order to get that initial growth going. And it doesn't have to be that you're going to these people and going. Well, I haven't got an audience at all, but I'd love to collaborate with you on this. It's just like I've got this idea. I'd love us to do it. You know, let's it. You don't have to talk about audience sizes and things. It's about sharing your knowledge with each other and with each other's audiences, and growing organically in that way, which is a great way to do it.

Donna Eade: 26:27

So that is it for today's episode. Reminding you now if you haven't gone over and joined me for this afternoon's masterclass it's on at 4 pm today, I believe, um. So go over to the show notes of this episode and get yourself registered for that masterclass. It is the last one that is happening and then then that's it. That's it for this, for this masterclass, um. So I'm really excited to share it with you. It's been great fun for the last couple of days, but today is the final day.

Donna Eade: 27:00

So if you're listening to this and it is not thursday, the day that this podcast released, so you've missed the masterclass then, if you go over to my website, donnaeedcom, you can see all about my program Start your Podcast and how that works. You can come and join us for that at any time. You can purchase that program. It is available now. So if you want to start your podcast and you want me to help you get it started the right way so that you make sure that you're not making any of the pitfall mistakes that I made when I started and that you can actually potentially get your podcast into the Apple charts when you first launch it, which would be absolutely amazing then come and join me for that program and let's do it together. I would love to have you over there. So that's it for today.

Donna Eade: 27:48

Guys, do join me next week when I will have a guest back on the show. Potentially. That'll be exciting, won't it? I think I do have a guest for you next week. I need to check my diary for those dates, but come and join me next week because I will be here, whether I have a guest or not. I will always be here for you. I will see you then. Thank you so much for joining me today. I will see you over in the Facebook group if you're with me in the Facebook group. If not, I hope to see you on the masterclass this afternoon and I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.