“How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting” with Kara Loewentheil
As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a “binge-able” podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kara Loewentheil who is a Master Coach on a mission to help women get patriarchy out of their brains. As a feminist confidence coach and Host of the UnF*ck Your Brain podcast, she teaches women how to overcome insecurity and anxiety through a two-step process: By identifying the ways society has taught them to feel insecure, and then using a concrete method to change their thoughts so they feel truly confident instead. Since its launch in 2017, UnF*ck Your Brain episodes have been downloaded over 3.5M times, proving listeners can’t get enough of Kara’s radically new and helpful approaches to topics like self-care, confidence, Imposter Syndrome, FOMO, and people pleasing.
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Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
I started my podcast about a year into my coaching business as a way to get my name and teaching out there and expand my client base. I found my own coach and teacher through her podcast, so I knew it was a really powerful way to reach and teach people. Having a podcast is a win-win situation for coaches; it helps new clients find you and it also serves as a way to teach and serve those who can’t afford to work with you.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
After about six months of doing my podcast, which was originally focused on lawyers, I revamped my business to focus on women’s confidence (in any profession). I changed the podcast, too, and I had so much mental drama about it. But that’s when the podcast really took off — it turned out that I had hit a nerve. My podcast and my business blew up really fast after that — the podcast was downloaded almost 4 million times in the first 18 months after I rebranded and expanded it. It’s been a wild ride and one I wasn’t really expecting.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
I’ve been podcasting for just over two years — I launched in April 2017. I’ve put out 115 episodes, and I record one a week, with the occasional bonus.
What are the main takeaways or lessons you want your listeners to walk away with?
Just because you think something doesn’t mean it’s true. So many of us believe everything we think, and it ruins our lives. We are totally at the mercy of our unmanaged minds. Learning how to manage your mind and process your emotions are life skills you need to be taught, and they are the secret to an amazing life. For women this is especially important because growing up in a sexist society teaches you to be hyper self-critical, and all of those negative thoughts about yourself are holding you back more than you can imagine.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Kara Loewentheil!
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Podcaster Influencer, Kara Loewentheil of the UnF*ck Your Brain Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. I don’t book guests, so I can’t say too much from this perspective. BUT what I can say, as someone who gets pitched a lot, is do your research if you are pitching! I get so many copied and pasted podcast emails from people who haven’t even looked at my podcast — if they did, they would see I don’t do interviews! And those people will follow up with 3–4 more emails to me. They could save everyone time if they did some research first.
2) Increase Listeners. Everyone hears that if you produce value, people will listen and share it. And that’s true. What people don’t always understand is that your value has to be ACCESSIBLE. What you are interested in as a coach, for instance, is going to be light-years beyond where your listeners are. They don’t even know what coaching is, what you do, or anything that you know. You have to meet your listeners where they are. You have to enjoy teaching. If you don’t enjoy teaching — which requires knowing where people are and speaking to them there — then your podcast isn’t going to resonate with people.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. I hired a professional podcast producer right away, so I don’t have any insight into this except that if your podcast is part of your business and you can afford it, hire someone. It’s not a skill set that will really make you any money later on, so don’t spend time or money on it now if you don’t have to.
4) Encourage Engagement. I think engagement depends on what platform you want people to engage on. I tell my listeners to follow me on social media or join my programs to get additional teaching. If I want to get their email addresses for my list, I will do a free giveaway where I give away something they want — like a workbook or a reading list — in exchange for their email address.
5) Monetize Your Show. I have found it more effective to monetize by never running ads, and instead using the podcast to get new coaching clients. If you are selling a service from your podcast the way I do, as a coach or teacher, I think it’s better NOT to take ads. It makes the podcast feel like a genuine act of service — and you still get clients from it. You do, however, have to sell yourself on your podcast.
People will tell you that selling your own stuff on your podcast will turn people off, and I think that’s stupid. It will turn off people who don’t want to buy from you, sure. But they aren’t your clients. People need to be told about working with you 10 million times. They are busy and most likely listening to the podcast while multi-tasking. So even though they may WANT to work with you, they still need to hear about it a lot to remember to do it. As long as you are providing free value, you are keeping up your end of the podcaster bargain — they listen for free value, and you sell your services or programs. I grew my business from $50,000 in my first year to $200,000 in my second to $1.1 million in my third, and I wouldn’t have made that much from selling ads.
What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Kara Loewentheil!
