TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting Confidence

 

Podcasting is a great way to use your voice to reach out to potential listeners and use your platform to build trust and rapport with your audience. But how can you leverage podcasting to build confidence and empower your audience? Here to teach is Vicki Noethling. Vicki spent over 40 years in the corporate world before retiring in 2018. The last 17 years of that career as a project manager. In 2022, she co-authored her first collaborative book and launched The Find Your Leadership Confidence Podcast. As a project manager and public speaker, Vicki shares her expertise on how to boost your podcasting confidence and empower your audience.

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Boost Your Podcasting Confidence And Empower Your Audience With Vicki Noethling Of Find Your Leadership Confidence Podcast

I have Vicki Noethling on for Find Your Leadership Confidence. We have done some podcast swaps and I was on her show. Usually, I have people on my show first before I go on their show. It’s refreshing so I’m doing things a little out of order in that I am going on their show which I always listen to the show even to go on somebody’s show, but then I reach a little bit deeper and take a deeper dive into things so that when I have her on my show, I made sure to listen to even more episodes.

I’m so glad I listened to Vicki’s because if I hadn’t listened before I went on her show, I wouldn’t know that sometimes she asks some rapid-fire questions and that would have taken me by surprise. Shame on me if I wasn’t ready for that because I should be. I love that I was able to do that ahead of time and it has built up a better friendship. I think you are going to hear that through our interview. You are going to hear the rapport that we already have because we had a relationship starting to build already. I think it is so much fun to do more of these podcast swaps.

Let me tell you a little bit about Vicki Noethling. She spent over 40 years in the corporate world before retiring in 2018, the last seventeen years of that career as a project manager. In 2017, prior to early retirement, she became involved with her first multilevel marketing anti-aging/wellness business, Neora. Their mission to help people look better, feel better, and live better fit right into her long-term vision and goal.

Her love of self-development led her to become a Toastmaster in 1998. In June 2021, she completed her second term as a Toastmaster International Region Advisor for Region 2 in California where she mentored district leaders on leadership conflict resolution and strategic positioning. She has devoted herself to building the District for Youth Leadership program and continues to help children 8 to 17 improve their confidence by instructing them on effective communication skills.

She believes that one of her keys to success is continually investing in her personal development. In 2022, she co-authored her first collaborative book and launched The Find Your Leadership Confidence Podcast. She has two online courses to complement her webinar and coaching program. She has been a busy woman. When she was mentioning all that she has accomplished and keep in mind that she has been doing this podcast since earlier in 2022. However, she has a lot of episodes under her belt already. Take a read to Vicki Noethling from Find Your Leadership Confidence, and I will talk to you on the other side.

About Find Your Leadership Confidence With Vicki Noethling
TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting ConfidenceVicki spent over 40 years in the corporate world before retiring in 2018. The last 17 years of that career as a Project Manager. In 2017, just prior to early retirement, she became involved with her first multilevel marketing anti-aging/wellness business, Neora. Their mission to help people Look Better, Feel Better, and Live Better fit right into Vicki’s long-term vision and goals. Her love of self-development led her to become a Toastmaster in 1998.

In June 2021, Vicki completed her 2nd-term as a Toastmaster International Region Advisor for Region 2 in California where she mentored District leaders on leadership, conflict resolution, and strategic positioning. Vicki has devoted the last 10 years building the district 44 Youth Leadership program and continues to help children 8-17 improve their confidence by instructing them on effective communication skills. Vicki believes that one of her keys to success is
continually investing in her personal development.

In 2022, she co-authored her first collaborative book and launched The Find Your Leadership Confidence Podcast. She currently has two online courses to compliment her online webinar and coaching program.

Social Media Links: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube

Vicki, we are swapping. I love it. I have done a bunch of podcast swaps. I’m so excited that PodMatch has done that for me and it has been a lot of fun. You are my fourth podcast swap in a week and I’m so excited because I already got to go on your show. Now, I’m having you here. We know each other a little better. It’s more fun. Friends that are getting together to talk about podcasting. Let’s chat a little bit about that. What made you decide that podcasting sounded like the thing for you?

Whenever I was doing a project for one of my Toastmaster meetings, it was the introduction to podcasting. You had to interview someone in your club and then present that. I had so much fun doing it. After that, I was part of Darren Hardy’s Hero’s Journey. The very first effort of that was I had to interview people older than me, younger than me, and the same age, and it was during COVID. I had so much fun doing that. I thought, “I wonder if this is what I’m meant to do.”

You love the interview process.

I do because it’s a conversation and I love to be able to get to know people. In a lot of Zoom meetings, you don’t get time to know the people that you are talking with and I wanted to get to know them. I find people so interesting. I hooked up with Adam Hommey through Facebook. I did the done-for-you because I have no more time.

You felt that the interview process fits you and that made podcasting more logical. I love that. That’s great. How is your podcast going? Are you feeling good about it?

I have 55 done in two months.

Congratulations. That’s a lot.

The thing that’s great is I also do a lot of joint venture networking. I have 67 and I did one now and I have got another 35 or 40.

You can fill up your calendar. That’s great.

I could fill it up and it’s great because the theme of it having to grow your confidence is something that everybody can connect with. Everybody feels either they have got it or they need help. I try to bring people on that will help you to connect to a solution. I might have the solution or my guests might. That’s what makes it so great.

TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting Confidence

Podcasting Confidence: Whenever I was doing a project for one of my toastmaster meetings, it was the introduction to podcasting, and I had to interview someone in the club and then present that. I had so much fun doing it.

 

Find your leadership confidence. It’s focused on the business confidence side of things, which is helping to keep that business model for your podcast and in focus for yourself. You are right. When something resonates with the audience and then with the guests that you are going to have on, and it does it in both ways, then we want to be associated with the show. We want to subscribe to it. We want to listen to it. We want to be on it as a guest. That all is working for you here.

I love how it developed as you are going. You have those certain questions that you are going to ask, but the results of that and the answers that you get back open up. It’s those layers of the onion type of thing. You may never have expected to go in a direction that you go in, but it evolves and grows and develops. I love that.

How have some of your Toastmaster skills helped you with podcasting?

The number one thing is that it taught me to not interrupt. I like to just listen. Active listening is so important and that’s where that richness comes out because I hear things that people are saying or the tone that makes me think I should dig deeper here or I’m going to pull back and I’m not going to ask that next question because it’s not going to feel well. Toastmasters help that, but also having your presence and being comfortable having a conversation and not making it seem like it’s all scripted, boring, and being able to laugh with my guest.

It’s that live energy.

You and I had such fun and that’s what I want. I want you to leave thinking, “I got a new best friend.” I have to say that 99% of the people that I have interviewed, I thought, “I could go out and have drinks or dinner with you easily.” It’s so much fun.

That’s how I feel and sometimes we do so many interviews that it’s hard to remember everybody. It’s those stories that do stick out. Even if I struggle with the name, I will be like, “I remember we talked about this.” That’s what clings on to our memories. That’s powerful.

Some of the people that I interview could use me to help them be better speakers to be more powerful. That’s what I want to try to get them so comfortable that their natural abilities come out and they get away from that stiffness or that, “I want to be the smartest person in the room,” but have them have their authentic self come out. That’s what I want.

A good interview can draw that out. What are some of the ways that you skill up on interviewing? Have you been studying other people? What have you been doing to help you because you were new to this interview thing?

Part of it comes from 25 years as a Toastmaster because we do table topics where you have to answer questions that are off the top of your head, which helps you in the interview process. Also, I’m a project manager by career. A big part of that is for me to draw out from my project owners what works and what gaps to get to what is the pain and how can I fix the problem. Those all help. I loved always watching people like Oprah and Mike Douglas way back when. That was the first person. I thought being a talk show host seems like such a great career because you get to meet all these cool people and learn about them. Phil Donahue and Oprah were influential, and also Ellen. She brought a different and more of that conversational have fun. I wanted to be able to do that. It’s years of experience and I have a few. I make it all happen.

Active listening is so important. That's where the richness comes out because you hear what people are saying or the tone that makes you think or should dig deeper. Click To Tweet

A lot of podcasts now are under your belt. You crash course yourself into it.

Also, prepare for it by going to your websites and listening to your podcast or your interviews. Reading about you makes me feel more comfortable and not thrown off too much by surprises.

Let’s hit some of our questions because when you start a podcast, you aren’t only sure about where things are going to go or how you do things. What did you find is the most challenging thing about starting a podcast and/or promoting a podcast? It could be either way.

I think the most challenging thing is for me being able to get into the cadence of I have recorded it and now I’m going to put it out. There were so many done and only so much time. I literally could put out a podcast every single day. Do I want to do that? Is that what I want? That piece or that follow-up to be able to make sure that I am out there promoting as much as I need to and as often as I need to with everything that I’m doing. That’s something that as I get more involved in this, will become a natural piece. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what is the right thing for me in my podcast world.

That’s such a good, important question. There’s a lot of conventional advice out there. There are tactical advantages to doing one a day. John Lee Dumas will tell you that the key to his show is that he did it every day. That’s it. That’s the key to why he won the podcasting game. Tactically, that can help you, but if at the end of the day, it’s not doing it for your core business or if you are losing momentum or losing interest, it can have a cost to it too. That might not be right for you. It is important to strategically sit back and think about, “Is this right for me? Is this right for my business? This is right for my show and my listeners, and is this what I want to be doing even though tactically, someone would say, “Do that.”

Part of what I do is speak. If I’m always on air and doing podcasts, I can’t get out there and speak. That defeats the purpose of what I’m trying to do. Even though I love this, I want to get to the point where I’m able to get out there speaking in person again and also doing some online training and some things like that. That’s where I’m sure, at some point, I’m going to hire a VA and then it’s not a problem. It’s now their problem to get that out there every day.

Let’s talk about the three things that we talk with everyone about. The first thing is a great guest. You’ve discovered that PodMatch is working for you, but do you do anything to vet them? How are you making your choices for determining if someone is a good fit for you?

I do take a few minutes. I read through all of the information that they have on their profile. I will go to their websites if I’m not sure enough. There are some things that as soon as I read it, I see this is a perfect fit. This will be a great guest. I do look at the percentage. If it’s above 64% or 65%, I will go ahead with that.

Vicki is referring to PodMatch percentage like how well-matched you are to the criteria that you’ve set. In the beginning, if you haven’t set good criteria, you could have someone that they are too good or they are not good enough. You need to play with that. Over time, you refine it and you have.

What I found is that there are people that are focused more on businesses to try to help a business that has got people and structure to help them find their niche and improve. I’m looking to help individuals more so. If they say that they are out there to find a way to help with their HR. Immediately I know, you are not a right fit for me.

TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting Confidence

Podcasting Confidence: The theme of having to grow your confidence is something that everybody can connect with.

 

If they are out there trying to help you know, “This is or tricks for LinkedIn or these are things that will help you on social media.” Other speakers and I have a lot of people that come on that teach exactly what I teach and I like that. To me, it is a personal relationship that you want to have. That’s why the coaching world works because you want to have a person that is comfortable with you and that you are comfortable with them so that you can make that connection. You want to work with them and you’ll trust them. I try to find people that are going to complement the needs of my audience.

We have a good friend Scott Carson, a podcaster for The Note Closer Show. He calls it coopetition, which is cooperative competitiveness. That’s the way I look at it too. If all of us podcast coaches got together, banded together, and helped each other, we would find out. We would probably refer each other a lot more than we think. That model happens with speakers as well.

You might not think this is the right speaking event but if you’ve been coordinating and working with them, and built a network and a friendship, you are likely to refer them to it. That builds rapport with that event organizer and with you. It may get you the right opportunity later, and it helps someone else in your network and that’s amazing. I agree with you. It is a good idea to think about having someone who might be closely matched to you and use that to build your network and build an audience because their audience and your audience are the same people. You never know what’s going to happen there.

They turn out a lot of times to be potential summit guests. You don’t want to do a lot of summits a year. When you do one, you want to have a nice assortment of guests. What I’m building is having the smorgasbord, this little cafeteria of different people that will be enticing to you to come and get a rounded training in a summit, rather than we are all talking about the same thing.

I don’t want to leave it there because my audience would be mad at me and I’m sure to get in the message and email back, but you said you don’t want to do a lot of summits here. Why do you think that?

It’s because I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to have some time to myself. I do have an app that will be coming out that does to sum it all in the app, and that will take some of the work away. I do a lot of things. I have a few businesses, and so I want to be able to have my time. One or two a quarter is probably where I will start and then we’ll see how it goes.

That still seems a lot to me.

It’s one of those things that you have to experience to know what works and what you want to do. Let me get to that point where I experienced it, but I do look forward to that. I love organizing things.

That sounds fun. I look forward to that as well. Let’s talk about increasing listeners. What have you found is working for you to increase listeners? Is there something you are doing on social media? Are you using your email? What are you doing that’s working for you?

What I try to do is social media. A lot of my audience comes from LinkedIn and Facebook. I make sure that whenever I put out the podcast, I’m on it every day. I have a scheduled time that I will go and I will do my postings and look at things. I want to make sure that I’m putting out value. Even after I have done the initial post, I will reference something.

Life is not predictable, and there are too many times when we say, “maybe someday. So decide that someday is today, say yes, and take action. Click To Tweet

As I’m reading information that’s out there on LinkedIn, it will bring me or remind me of a podcast that I have done. I will reference that and give them another shout-out. That’s important because there are contents that are in those podcasts that whenever you are looking at it, that initial swipe content or whatever, it might not be the right time for you to hear it. Later on, there could be a problem or something that comes up that exactly what was given at that podcast will help you.

I love that when you get that a-ha yourself, and then you are able to share that with others.

I interviewed a woman who helps you get to college for free. She helps you find the money to help you have your kids and not have debt. I love that and I’m constantly running into people, especially because I do things with the youth. What she said is important for them to hear. I will refer back to her podcast and to my website to check it out. The beauty of this is that evergreen piece. What we do is not gone. I had another person that said, “When do you do your podcast?” I work and I don’t know that I can hear it. I said, “It is recorded and I did that for the purpose not to have live. Live might be exciting, but I wanted you to be able to refer to it when it was convenient for you.”

It’s so interesting that you said that about dropping these nuggets because I swear, the universe had sent a message through you to me. When I was on your show and interviewed, in the end, you were mentioning how you had interviewed someone who was talking about sympathy and bereavement, and what you should say to someone who has lost someone. Would you not know it, but the next morning I woke up and one of my employees lost her husband? I was like, “I need to talk to Vicki.” I was so glad you were on it because I need to write this note to her. I thought, “I’m going to ask Vicki at the end of our call what I should say and what tips you have because your podcast had an air jet,” so I couldn’t find it. That was it.

You dropped that to me and it was something that I needed at that moment. That’s one of the things that I love about podcasting. It can be right there at that right moment. How do you make that happen? The only way to do it is to go with your gut and remember. It’s sparking your memory and sharing that back through social. That’s a great way to go.

The other great thing about it is that we should always be learning and developing. I truly believe in lifelong learning. It keeps us young and it keeps us active, but that is why it’s so great to have all these guests, even people that do the same thing I do because there’s always a nugget. There’s always something that I didn’t think about or I forgot. That’s the thing too. It’s like, “I remember I learned that a long time ago and I didn’t use it anymore.” There’s always something that you didn’t know you needed to know that was there for you.

I’m going to interrupt our three things because I want to stop right there and hit it on your binge factor because you mentioned it right there. This is what I believe. The binge factor for Find Your Leadership Confidence is that you are very skilled at chasing that golden nugget that I need to hear. You go and you dive into it and you don’t drop that path.

A lot of interviewers drop that path, but you don’t. You continue on it and follow that thread all the way through to get to that heart of what is different about what I’m saying, or is unique about the message that needs to come out or well rounding that message so that it gets the whole story in there, and you are going for that. That’s what makes your show unique. There are lots of shows on confidence and business. When you get to something that’s getting in there and getting the whole amount that I need to do something with, that’s valuable.

You want to leave them wanting more. That’s so important.

You want to leave them wanting more but not missing out. That’s the key balance.

TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting Confidence

Podcasting Confidence: The coaching world works because you want to have a person that is comfortable with you and that you’re comfortable with them to make that connection.

 

You always should have paper and pencil when you are listening to my podcast.

I do. I’m getting notes here. Let’s talk about return on investment and monetization. You are not monetizing your show yet in terms of traditional thinking, but you’ve gotten a return on investment already. Has it gotten you speaking events? That’s the one thing that a lot of speakers out there are thinking, “If I start a podcast, I’m going to get speaking events right away, and this is going to magically work.” What is the return on investment that you’ve discovered?

I have not gotten any speaking events, paid ones. I have spoken on three summits since I have done my podcast, and then two books that I have been in compilation. It is coming in those ways, but I changed over or added that I could be a guest on PodMatch. I thought, “I love interviewing people, but I should probably go out there and show people that I can speak on my own too, and talk about what I do.” my goal is I spend about 90 minutes a week trying to find speaking engagements outside of my podcast guests. I think that it’s going to be from my collaboration with my podcast guests that will evolve into speaking, because it’s that whole know, like and trust, and understanding of what I do and how I could help you.

That’s so true that podcasting builds it a little bit faster than other places, especially when you are consistent and constant like you are. You are prolific about it. It makes event organizers look at that and trust you faster than someone else. They are like, “They show up every week for their audience. They are not going to miss my event. They are going to show up. They are going to be reliable.” There’s a certain amount of that they can gather already from checking that out, and then they listened to you and they hear your energy. They hear how you command an audience. That goes a long way to getting you more out on that side of things.

That’s my goal. I would like to speak at least two times a month at the minimum. I think because you can reach a larger crowd, especially from a virtual standpoint. Maybe that will end up with them coming to one of my courses. For 2023, I’m going to do a retreat. That’s a goal I have out there. When you get people away from their normal environment in that retreat mode, you can make such a difference. I did that with my Toastmaster leaders and it was so impactful. A goal that I have is to be able to help them with not only their virtual experience and their presence but also to be that 21st-century leader. I don’t think I had my tagline for you.

Events have to come back up back. I’m so excited you are thinking about retreats. People are starting to think about that. I think it’s time.

Ten or twelve people all looking to find ways to be better leaders.

Tell me about the books that you mentioned before. What books are you working on?

I have one that is a collaboration with Suzanne Evans. It is on leadership finding pace in what you do. That’s being persistent, having active listening, being courageous, and also having emotional intelligence as you lead. That’s the one that I’m working on right now. It’s in the final edits of putting together.

I like the term finding pace. That’s a great way to say it.

Success doesn't bring you happiness. When you are happy, success follows. Click To Tweet

I do a great webinar on that too. My other item is Unstoppable: Being Fierce, Fearless, and Unf*ckwithable in Life and Business. Rochel Marie Lawson is the main author. She and I did a podcast together. She was my very first guest on a podcast and we became best friends. She asked me if I would be in her book. I have that book done. That came out in February 2022. I launched my podcast in March. In May, I did my final for the Suzanne Evans book. Now, I have until September 2022 to do another one of my coaches. I have a compilation book with him.

You are busy, Vicki. I don’t know how you are managing to keep that all and keep that pace that you’ve been talking about, and making sure you have time for yourself. You’ve taken on a lot of challenges here and quickly found your pace. If there’s anything that I have learned from you over our interviews together before and this one now is you find your pace quickly. What’s the key to that?

I think COVID. It’s probably that and turning 60 before COVID in 2018. What it taught me was that life is not predictable. There are too many times when we say, “I should have” or “Maybe someday.” I decided this 2022, I’m already getting those wonderful Medicare things. I decided that someday is today. I would say yes and I would take action. Since July of 2021, I have been taking action. It has been so wonderful. It has been so revitalizing. It makes you want to get up in the morning, even though you don’t have to. Although, I did take on 40-hour project management in addition to everything else I do.

We all occasionally overburden ourselves.

Yes, we do. I remember my husband’s grandfather. He was 86 or 87 when I met him and he worked still. That was the first person I ever knew that at that age that worked. At about 89 or 90 years old, he quit and that’s whenever things started to go wrong. I don’t ever want to be sitting on a couch eating bon bons type of girl.

I can’t imagine myself doing that either. It’s just not me, so I get it.

I also remember all of the struggles that I had in my life to try to prove myself. Where I get my joy is to help people, especially women find their joy and find their place in life that’s going to bring them happiness. Success doesn’t bring you happiness. You are happy and success follows. What I’m trying to do is help them live a better life. Each business that I have is geared to help them live a better life. If I do that, then my life is good. I can check that box off.

That ties into what we talked about on your show, which was this idea that confidence isn’t a state. It’s all a part of that. It comes from these things. It’s an outcome. That’s exactly what you embodied in everything that you’ve been doing and everything that you come across as you embody that ability too. Be paced and empower others. Thank you for that. That’s amazing.

Before we go, I want to make sure that you’ve instilled some confidence-building tactics for anyone who might be sitting on the fence who hasn’t started their podcast yet, or who might be not feeling right about their show, and they are sitting there not feeling confident about it. What advice do you have for them?

One, you should join PodMatch. That’s a great start because what PodMatch does if you don’t have already a system in place like I do, it forces you to fill out the blanks to put a system in place. It allows you to say, “What’s my Facebook and all of my URLs?” As the podcast person, the host who has to put that out there, having all that information in one place makes our job easier and better.

TBF 138 Vicki | Podcasting Confidence

Podcasting Confidence: If you are a podcaster just doing it by the seat-of-the-pants kind of thing, that podcast is probably not going as well as it could.

 

For my system, I have all of the things prepared in advance so that I try to make you as a guest have less stress. When I know that you are prepared, then my job will be easy. If you are a podcaster out there that is doing it by the seat of your pants thing. It’s like, “I got a podcast in an hour,” and you haven’t done your homework, that podcast is probably not going to go as well as it could. I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad podcast, but it might not go as well as it could.

There’s confidence in the systems and the process.

I know that with the questions that I have, it’s going to hit about 35 minutes. I know if I book another person an hour later, I’m not going to go over. I’m not going to have to have any craziness going on. The thing that you need to remember is what is your presence like. Is your lighting good? All of the things I teach. Are you having that engaging presence as you are doing your podcast? That makes the people feel like they are sitting across the bar from you or in their living room, and you are having a conversation with the three of you. You, me and my guest.

It feels that intimate.

That’s what you want. That’s what makes a great show. I love that we do the video. I know that probably this is a vodcast or whatever.

Is that what we call it now? I don’t know.

That’s what I have seen. This is taking that to the next level. Clubhouse is great. You can hear, but I love to see your expressions. Even as you get excited and passionate about things, I love that. It makes it relatable.

In the very first show that I started, we recorded all the videos. We did it. We Skyped with people way back then. Skype was a terrible place to record, but that’s what we did. We always had it. We just never used it, but we did it because I never wanted to talk to someone that I couldn’t see. I felt better about that. It has an energy exchange. That’s why I love speaking too. I love the energy exchange of it.

Vicki, Find Your Leadership Confidence is a great show. Thank you for bringing it into the world. I’m so glad you started your podcast. I look forward to keeping up with you and keeping up our friendship to find out what’s next for you, where you speak, and what return on investment your podcast brings to you. Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much. It has been such a joy and you are my BFF for a while.

I love it.

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I told you, we were going to have some fun and that she is a busy woman. She has done so much. She has gotten a lot of confidence in her own ability to podcast. I think that’s amazing. She tapped into things she has already done well. She has already done a fast-learning process in the podcasting world on herself as well and built up this repertoire of being able to help people in a more full-service way.

I love that that’s what Vicki has built into all of this programming. She has figured out how to slot podcasting into her whole program of things that she’s offering. Her books, courses and speaking are starting to fit in together and pieces are all coming together, and podcasting is just a moving part within that.

It’s a successful model for anyone looking to do more speaking and more selling of books and courses. Model Vicki. She’s got a fabulous model there. Find Your Leadership Confidence podcast, Vicki Noethling. You will be able to find out everything about her and how to find her and connect with her at TheBingeFactor.com. Don’t forget to check her out on LinkedIn because that’s where she spends her time. If you want to connect with her directly, go straight to LinkedIn and her website. I look forward to talking with you next time and bringing you some more incredible podcasters like Vicki on the show. Take care.

 

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