Krystal Proffitt is the award-winning host of The Proffitt Podcast – where entrepreneurs go to learn how to start, launch, and market their podcasts. She’s the author of the Amazon Best Seller “Start a Binge-Worthy Podcast” and founder of the digital course “Proffitt Podcasting”. Krystal teaches the basics of content creation, editing, formatting, and other skills through her digital courses and YouTube channel dedicated to podcasting.

In today’s interview, I interview her about launching a podcast to grow your business.

Watch the video of my interview with Krystal or read the transcript below!

Links

Krystal’s Website Krystal’s Book: “Start a Binge Worthy Podcast” Deadline Funnel

Transcript

Jack Born: Hey, everyone. This is Jack Born. I’m the founder of Deadline Funnel, and I’m very, very excited about today’s guest because I’ve been really, really interested in jumping into podcasting, but I’ve just never seemed to pull the trigger. So we’re gonna be talking about that today. So today I’m with Krystal Proffitt. She is the award-winning host of The Proffitt Podcast, where entrepreneurs go to learn how to start, launch, and market their podcast. She’s the author of the Amazon bestseller, “Start a Binge Worthy Podcast” and founder of the digital course “Proffitt Podcasting”. Krystal teaches the basics of content creation, editing, formatting, and other skills through her digital courses and YouTube channel dedicated to podcasting. And Krystal just mentioned to me before we started, hit the record button, that she’s fresh off of coming back from a podcasting conference. So Krystal, let’s jump into it. Great to have you here.

Krystal Proffitt: Yes, thank you so much for having me, Jack. This is gonna be a lot of fun. And, I mean, it’s just podcasting and marketing are two of my absolute favorite topics on the planet, so I’m just excited for this conversation. It’s gonna be great.

Jack Born: So where, I mean, I think there’s so many places where we could begin. Where, you just came back from this conference. Like, where would you begin for someone like me or other people in my audience who, you know, it feels like, I guess one of my reservations is it feels like there are so many podcasts out there. Is, you know, should I be jumping into podcasting? So I doubt I’m the only person who has that concern, so maybe we start there.

Krystal Proffitt: Yeah, for sure. So one of the things that, you know, you mentioned, I went to this conference. And I actually ended up being speaker, a presenter there, and the one topic I was, like, so passionate, I really wanted to speak about was repurposing content. Because I think that as content creators, course creators, online business owners, people that post regular regularly on social, we think, well, we need to reinvent the wheel every time, right? It’s gotta be a brand new, fresh, never before seen, something that is going to blow people’s minds every single time. And that’s just not the truth. It’s really not. Like, I have so many different pieces of content that stretch across my podcast, my email marketing, my YouTube channel, and I think that it’s just all about catering to each specific platform. So for example, my podcast is a way for me to make deeper connections with my audience. I use it to tell client stories or stories and behind the scenes of my own podcasting experience, and so I challenge people to think of a podcast as a way to invite people into what you do and pretend like you’re just having a coffee chat with them, right? Or they’re listening in a conversation, just like what we’re doing here as, you know, “man, these are two people that I would love to pick their brain about things.” That’s not always gonna happen, but I can at least hear their perspective on what we should do and how we can do it. So that’s really how I approach podcasting, as a way to share things that you normally wouldn’t share in a, you know, maybe in a webinar, right? Because you only get so much time to really hook your people in, and you’re really trying to teach them. You’re trying to give them great resources and education. You don’t have time to tell the story about how you botched your very first podcast interview. That was me, by the way. Yeah, I botched my very first interview, and there’s a whole story about it. But you can’t really do that in other pieces of your content, so that’s really what I love about it. It’s those deeper connections with your audience.

Jack Born: And it sounds like part of what you’re saying is that the conversation that we’re having right here, I’m already creating content, so this might be a good place to start. So I’m not too far off the mark. I’m already generating the type of content that could be put onto a podcast. Am I hearing that right?

Krystal Proffitt: Yes, a 100 percent. And actually I get, you know, in the last, I’ve been doing this for several years now, but in the last six to 12 months, I’ve been getting more questions about, “should I do video and a podcast?” And there’s so many things that play into it, especially because a lot of the people that I speak to are either solopreneurs or they have a small team. Maybe they don’t have a video editor on staff, and so when you get into the logistics of it, people can easily become overwhelmed. But I tell them, just keep it simple. Keep it super simple. If you’re recording Zoom files or you’re doing another platform like StreamYard and you’re streaming things, you can always just strip the audio out of that and use it as a podcast. But at the end of the day, I just encourage you to ask the question, “will this content add value to my audience?” Because if you’re doing trainings that are all visual, that’s not gonna help anybody ’cause they can’t see it. So there are certain pieces of content that make sense to repurpose. Like, I hope that you would start with this conversation about podcasting for your podcast. But I think that it’s always, you know, let’s see if this is still gonna add value to the audience and continue to be a helpful resource for them in the future.

Jack Born: So for someone who’s just starting out, what are some of the key things that they need to be thinking about? Because I forget the exact number, but I heard recently on a podcast I listened to that it’s something like most podcasts don’t even make it something like nine episodes. I might have that number wrong, but it’s not a large number. So I would imagine that persisting and being consistent is one of the key components. So what should someone be thinking about before they dive into this?

Krystal Proffitt: So one of the things, ’cause there’s been a statistic that has been around, and this was back when there was around 500,000 podcasts. There’s over two million now that are roughly active. That’s the number that people have settled on, but whenever there was still around 500,000, they would say, “well, there’s all these podcasts that are out there, but they’re not producing new content, and they dropped off around 14.” So I feel like it is getting shorter. Just kind of like the, everybody’s attention span’s getting shorter and so many people, they just don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with it week after week. So what I would recommend is, first of all, set a goal to create 15 episodes. That’s, like, first and foremost. Not just create your first episode. Say, “how can I create 15 episodes of this podcast?” Because at that point you will have learned the systems and kind of gone through some of the mistakes that we’re all gonna make. I mean, as a podcast coach and someone that talks to thousands of podcasters every year, I just tell them, you’re not gonna sound like Amy Porterfield. You’re not gonna sound like Guy Raz, like, when you first start all of these different ones. GaryVee, like, you’re not gonna sound like them on day one. So take that out of your mind in, you know, the whole comparison of what other podcasts you listen to sound like, and just accept, “I’m gonna get better at this.” I really do look at podcasting as a marathon and not a sprint, because unless you have a huge platform to begin with, growing a podcast takes time. It really and truly does. If you do it the right way, there’s not a lot of advertising that you can do that’s going to convert someone who is on Facebook to an instant lover of your podcast. It takes, it’s just kind of like any other relationship. You have to nurture them, keep showing up, and for anybody that’s listening and thinking about starting a podcast, my advice is just to dive in. Don’t let things like, “oh, I need to have a fancy microphone.” If you’re watching this, you see my microphone that I have right now? This was about two and a half years into my journey, then I purchased it. If you can see, I don’t know if you can see this up here, I have a $20 microphone that sits on my – That was a $20 mic that I bought, the very first one I ever had. I got it on Amazon, and, I mean, you just don’t have to have really fancy stuff to just get started, so I think that’s where a lot of people get, like, stumped in getting started with their show.

Jack Born: And now it’s a permanent part of your backdrop.

Krystal Proffitt: Yes, it’s my fixture-

Jack Born: The mic.

Krystal Proffitt: in the back.

Jack Born: So you compared starting a podcast and continuing with it with running a marathon, and I think, you know, based on, I’ve never run one. I’ve run, I’ve gotten halfway there, but my wife used to run marathons quite a bit, and she would tell me that everyone has to pay their dudes. You have to put in your road time. So it sounds like you’re saying you have to put in the reps and just know that, again, this is a long-term thing. This is not, you know, I’m gonna come out of the gates sounding like GaryVee, like you said.

Krystal Proffitt: Yeah, definitely. And I have a question about your wife, you know, running marathons. So how long, how much training do you think she put into it before she actually was there on race day?

Jack Born: Oh, I couldn’t put a number of hours into it, but I mean, it was several times a week, week after week after week. And so it was showing up, you know, whether it was raining or whether it was sunny, whether you felt like it or whether you didn’t feel like it. You know, she would be up and out of the house, and the closer she got to race time, the more hours that you have to put in. And so, like, the dedication definitely ramps up. And, you know, maybe continuing with that analogy, I mean, one of the things that helped her, and I think helped pretty much everyone that I saw train up for these marathons, was having other people alongside them. So maybe that’s, you know, kind of similar to what you do, with being a coach. How do you, so when people come into your world, what sort of methods do you give to help them? Is it a course? Is it ongoing coaching and instruction? What are the formats that you use to help people through that journey of going from complete newbie to someone who’s got this thing under control?

Krystal Proffitt: Yeah, so the first place I always tell people to start is my podcast, and it’s, Jack, it’s the most meta thing you’ve ever heard. It’s a podcast about podcasting on a podcast. Like, it’s just so, so many layers of podcasting, but it’s really where I share all the behind the scenes. I like to share the different processes and systems because it’s what I wish I would have known whenever I started. I share how I create my content calendar, the tools that I use, the things that I’ve tried and have worked successfully, the mistakes that I’ve made. So, for anybody that wants to get started, definitely check out my show. But then, I in the last two years have started on YouTube because I realized there’s a lot of things that you can talk about all day, but until someone sees it visually, they really need, like, to understand how it works, especially with editing and setting up your podcast host and trying out different marketing tools. And on that note, I do have a course that goes really deep into the mechanics of content creation, understanding your audience, and then setting everything up, but I feel like creating your podcast is just the beginning. Because I can tell you all day how to create incredible content, but if you don’t know how to tell people how to listen to it, why they should listen, what’s gonna keep them back every week, that goes back to the analogy of so many podcasts that fall off after maybe six months. They’re just like, “this isn’t fun anymore.” And so my job, I’ve taken it on as my life’s mission, to make podcasting fun and to have less friction in it. And I’ll be really honest, there are no rules in podcasting. As much as people wanna say, like, “you gotta do it this way and it’s gotta be this many minutes and it has to be this type of consistency”, I tell people all the time, “it’s my show.” I make the rules, and if at sometime I want to change it and pivot, then I have that opportunity. But I think just giving people that permission to try something, and if it works, great. If it doesn’t, let’s try something new, but you have to do what’s gonna fit into your lifestyle, your work-life balance, your professional goals and everything in between.

Jack Born: So do you advise people just starting out to create a certain amount of episodes before they start putting it out into the world? Or should they just start with episode one, you know, “that’s a wrap”, and upload it to iTunes? Which method do you go?

Krystal Proffitt: Yeah, so in my course I teach people about having three to five episodes when they launch their show. And I mean, Jack, I know with Deadline Funnel, and you know all about launches and what it means to have a deadline and a timeline of when things are actually going to happen. And so what I like to tell people is pick that launch date and work backwards and give yourself enough time to learn your equipment, learn how to record, discover the format you want to use. And then have about three to five episodes recorded, uploaded, and, like, ready to drop on day one. But before you do that, I advise people to brainstorm up to 20 ideas that they could use. Now, hear me out, ’cause some people are like, (gasps) “20 episodes. What? That sounds like a lot of work.” I’m not saying you have to plan them, record them, have them ready to publish, but just having those ideas, like, out of your head, onto paper, in Asana, like, in a project management, whatever you use, will help you not feel that, like, pressure and that anxiety of, what do I talk about next? Because that’s often what, like, just getting your show out there, people will come to me and say, “well, now what? what am I supposed to do?” So before they even launch, I like to tell my students have at least the first four to five months of ideas. Again, this isn’t recording all of it. It’s just, what else could we talk about? So I’m gonna use you as an example, Jack, ’cause I know- I’ve used your product for a long time. I know it well. And you could have experts on your show. You could have people that deal with courses and marketing and funnels. You could talk about, you could interview people, but you could also do solo episodes on case studies that you’ve had testimonials from your customers or unique ways that people have used your product that you never even thought about. So I think that, you know, there’s just, there’s a lot of different ways that you can approach your content, but having, like, a brain dump at least once a quarter of “what can we talk about next?” And it doesn’t have to be fancy. I have my ideas in a Google Sheet, and then I eventually turn it into a better outline. But having all that beforehand, excuse me, will keep you from panicking, “what am I supposed to talk about next?”, which happens so often.

Jack Born: So, now that you’ve been doing this for some time, how many episodes, how much of a buffer do you have personally? Like, how many episodes do you have that if you went on vacation, those are ready to go before you ran out of content?

Krystal Proffitt: So for planning, I’m trying to think right now. So I work in quarters of the year. It’s just how my brain works. So I don’t have the rest of 2021 all recorded and ready to go, but I have all of the ideas planned out. And what I’ll do is usually from a week-to-week basis, work on the next two to four episodes of creating the outline and maybe adding some notes or, you know, making sure the interview is set up properly. So it just kinda depends. The holidays are coming up when we’re recording this, so I already know, “okay, I’m gonna set aside time in October and November to batch as many episodes as I can, so my goal is to take the whole month of December off, where I don’t have to upload anything and I can take a break.” So I can’t say that it’s always an ongoing “I’m six episodes ahead or four episodes ahead”. It’s more of, I will batch a bunch of interviews and then kind of, they’re in, like, a holding pattern until I’m ready to use them. And does that answer your question? Does that help?

Jack Born: Yeah, it does. So what are some of the things that you’ve learned over the years that has been, has really improved your game with regards to interviewing people?

Krystal Proffitt: Ooh, this is a really, this is a really, I’ll give you a simple one first, and then we’ll go a little bit high level. ‘Cause I had a student come to me one time and she said, “I just know this about myself. I’m the worst interrupter there is.” And I said, “Okay, I have a great trick for you that I started,” because I feel like everybody kind of has this when you first get going. I will take my hands, and I put them just right underneath my legs. No one can really see them, but when the other person is talking, I will put my hands underneath my legs. And that reminds me, “it is not your turn to talk. Let this person finish talking. Let them make their point. They are a guest on your show. Let them talk, and then you can talk.” So having some kind of, like, physical cue that reminds you, “hey, it’s your turn.” I know it’s very simple. It’s kind of childish, too, like “sit on your hands until it’s your turn to talk”, but I have three boys and it’s, I guess that’s probably where that idea came from. But on top of that, preparing before the interview really helps. If this person has been on a podcast, if they’ve been on a YouTube, if they’ve been somewhere else, getting more familiar with their content and their goals will help you deliver a better experience for your listener because it feels like two friends that are talking. Like, you know, even with you and I, Jack, like we just met, but I already feel like I know you better having watched some of your YouTube content and having, you know, just discovered some of the other content that you’ve already put out there. And I think that it just really helps when you familiarize yourself with your guest and what they’re doing, because then you can understand how they can help your audience. Because at the end of the day, you’re the one that’s gonna know your audience best, so helping guide the conversation to help your guest really add value to your audience is also a great tip.

Jack Born: Do you have any, first of all, I really liked those tips, and the one where you’re sitting on your hands. Like, I could totally see how that could work. I love simple ideas like that. Okay, so my next question is, for someone who’s anxious and nervous, they’re just getting started and they don’t feel comfortable being on camera, they’re a little bit nervous and they feel the butterflies, do you have any tips, tricks, or techniques that you’ve shared with your students to help calm that down so that they can show up as their best self?

Krystal Proffitt: My best, so this is, again, I do really well with simple. It’s how my brain just go, it defaults to “let’s not overcomplicate things”. So before I ever started doing my podcast interviews with other, like, people that I didn’t really know really well, I started interviewing people that I do know. I started with people that were some of my high school friends, people that I’ve known for decades, and I’m like, “hey, I’m doing this podcast thing. Can I have you on the show?” Because it was more for me getting the practice and, like, okay, if I say something dumb in front of this person, they’re not gonna totally, like, turn me off and, you know, avoid me forever because it’s a childhood friend or someone that I know. But I did a few test runs with my husband. with my mom, to make sure everything worked. And so doing things like that, where you can get familiar with your equipment and start testing and trying things. But at the end of the day, I would just tell you if you’re nervous on camera, you’re nervous behind the mic, start recording things, whether it’s Instagram stories that disappear in 24 hours and they’re gone forever, or it’s just you turning on your microphone and just speaking into it. I tell people this all the time and they’re like, “how do you get started with solo podcast episodes?” I say, “just turn on your microphone and start talking.” Just say, “hi, I’m talking.” I almost feel like “Elf”. You know, he’s like, “I’m in the store, and I’m singing”. You know, like, whatever it is. Like quote your favorite songs.

Jack Born: One of my favorite movies.

Krystal Proffitt: Yes, it’s my top three. I love it so much. But it’s like, just start talking to yourself. It’s awkward. I’ll be very honest. Doing solo podcasts are very awkward at first, but the only way to get better at them is to do them and just get started and maybe make those first few mistakes, and then you won’t have to make them in the future, but just get started is something that we just talk about all the time around here.

Jack Born: So as we’re wrapping up, I wanted to ask you, is there anything else that you find that a lot of people who are just jumping into podcasting struggle with that I just haven’t thought to ask you?

Krystal Proffitt: I think imposter syndrome is one of the biggest ones, which I think everyone struggles with that. A lot of people come to me and say, kind of circling back to what you were talking about earlier, “why would someone listen to my podcast? Why wouldn’t they listen to one of the other two million that are out there?” And I just have to say, bring yourself to the table, right? There’s not other people that grew up in Texas that are moms of three boys that have moved around a lot and have had all the exact same experiences that I have. That’s what I bring to the table. I bring to the table my realness, the fact that I’m not super techie. I like to keep things super simple, and that’s what attracts people to listen to my show and what I do. So just pull out those pieces of yourself that are authentically you and just run with it and just be yourself.

Jack Born: Well, those are all great tips. And so if someone wants some more information, how can they find you? You know, should they start with your book? Why don’t you share all the places where someone can learn a little bit more about you and your show and what you do?

Krystal Proffitt: Yeah, for sure. So you can find me krystalproffitt.com. Yes, Proffitt is my last name, and that’s another story we could get into another time. But yes, Proffitt is my last name. Krystalproffitt.com. You can check me out on YouTube, Instagram, and on my website you will have places where you can just go on Amazon and get “Start a Binge Worthy Podcast” as a paperback, ebook, or an audio book.

Jack Born: Krystal, thanks so much for sharing your experience and your expertise.

Krystal Proffitt: Thank you for having me, Jack. This is a lot of fun.