Binge Factor Media

If your business is hard to sell because it is too niched or hard to explain using traditional promotional methods, podcasting is a great way to increase your lead generation by showing your potential customers what value they will get from you. If you’ve just started a podcast or planning to do so in the future, this episode is definitely for you. What things do you need to work on to leverage your podcast so that it brings leads and conversions to your business? Take it from celebrity psychic and veteran spirituality podcaster, Laura Powers, host of the Healing Powers Podcast. Over nine years in podcasting has taught Laura the value of finding the right niche, reaching out to the right people, working with a team and other things you can do to power up your podcasts’ reach. Most importantly, she learned the power of authenticity – how being true to yourself can be the greatest thing that attracts people to you and makes your show binge-able. She talks about all these in this conversation with Tracy Hazzard.

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Powering Your Podcast Lead Generation With Laura Powers of The Healing Powers Podcast

This episode is about Healing Powers Podcast. Doesn’t that have a great name to it? The host’s name is Laura Powers. That’s a great play on words. I love that. She’s a celebrity psychic who’s been featured in Buzzfeed, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Motherboard Magazine, Vice and other media outlets. She’s a clairvoyant, a psychic medium, a writer and actress, a model, producer, singer and speaker who helps others receive guidance and communicate with loved ones. Laura has the biggest heart. Ever since she was a child, she’s seen ghosts and spirits, and she’s chosen to learn how to manage those experiences and using this ability to connect with the angelic and other realms. She now uses her experience communicating with angel spirits and other energy to help her clients better understand and change their lives. 

I love the name of her podcast. She’s been podcasting for many years. She’s got lots of experience doing it the hard way and figuring out how and where the value is in podcasting for her. What I want you to read is because many of you out there are working on podcasts that have long–tail results needs. You don’t realize it because we all want that a short–term boost, but you have a product that’s hard to sell, consulting, coaching, a niche that you’re in like Laura is where it’s difficult to explain. Sometimes showing is better than telling. That’s where podcasting can come into play for you. I want you to read some of her advice here because that’s going to be completely applicable for those of you in this realm. 

Welcome to the show, Laura. I’m excited to talk about the Healing Powers Podcast. I love the name because I love that it’s a play on your own name. It’s a great name, to begin with. It invites people in because it’s describing what you do and what it’s about, but then they get to know you and there’s that nice play on your last name. That does it. It makes people love it even more. 

Thank you. I feel very grateful for my last name. When I was starting my company and I was like, “I need to a hook.” It’s nice because it catches in and it’s easy to remember. 

Congratulations are in order. You’ve reached over 100 episodes. How does that feel? 

It’s over 200 at this point. It’s good. I’ve been podcasting now for many years. Every podcaster starts out very excited and everyone hits a point where you’re like, “This is a lot of work. Do I want to keep going?” I don’t know if you’ve ever hit that wall. I remember very distinctly when that happened for me and I did consider stopping and I’m so glad now that I kept going. 

What was the decision point? What were you feeling before it happened that you said, “Maybe I should quit?” Then what tipped you over to say, “Let’s keep going?” 

I was at a point in my life where I was feeling a little burnt out, maybe over–committed, maybe not doing enough self–care. At that point, the podcast wasn’t monetized in the way that it is now. I was working on those things, but it wasn’t there yet. It was feeling like a lot of output for me and I wasn’t yet feeling like I had the input. I already was, but I was at a point of feeling a bit of burnout period. It was one of those things where I was like, “I don’t know if I want to keep going.” Thankfully, I paused for a while. There were several months where I was like, “I’m not going to do an episode. I’m going to do what I needed to do.” I got back going when I had that energy and I’ve been grateful ever since. 

From a lot of clients and a lot of podcasters, I hear the same that they didn’t realize the result, the outcome, the things that they were getting in return until they stopped it or until they took that pause. They were like, “I’m not having the same connections. I’m missing phone calls. What’s not working here?” They didn’t realize how rich that was changing their daily work habits. 

As a general rule, podcasting is a marathon and not a sprint. We’re in a society that wants the results of a sprint. You want instant gratification and you want the rewards right away and that’s great. That’s not to say that there aren’t things from podcasting where I immediately hear back from the listeners or something, but generally speaking, you release an episode and you don’t hear back. That’s the nature of it. I’ll hear occasionally from someone it’s like, “I’ve been listening to your podcast. I’ve binged all the episodes. I listened to the episodes. It changed my life.” That’s great. That’s not every day, especially when you’re starting out and you’re building your audience. It’s easy to dismiss the results and what it’s doing for you, but then over a longer period of time, as it builds, it becomes more apparent. 

Let’s talk a little bit about that monetization that you’ve put in place. How did it happen and what does it look like now? 

With a lot of podcasters, when I was thinking monetizing, my initial thought was, “I need sponsors. I need advertisers.” I have had a fair number of sponsors and advertisers, but what I realized was that for me, the far easier way to monetize is through my own products and services. I still do occasionally have advertisers, but I’ve realized financially, for the most part, it makes sense to promote whatever it is that I’m doing. It’s direct money to me and it’s promoting everything that I do. That was part of my learning curve because I remember spending so much time and energy on a $60 ad spot. I was like, “This is a lot of work.” This was several years ago. I felt honored to have advertisers. I’m still open to it if the budget is right, but I quickly realized this makes a lot more sense for me to promote the things I’m doing. A lot of podcasters also have a block against “selling,” especially selling themselves. You can think of it as sharing whatever it is that you’re offering. If people are listening to you, they’re interested in what you’re doing because they’re listening to you. 

They chose you. Why wouldn’t they be interested? 

Exactly. It’s a mental shift reframing it. When you do that, it becomes a little bit easier. I did have to work for some resistance about that, but like, “I don’t want to sell and put myself out there.” 

What products, services and programs have been the most successful for you in terms of sales over your podcast? 

Everyone’s business is different, but private sessions are still my biggest breadwinner. It’s my main thing. I do have many courses and I have seven books and my podcasting book is going to be my eighth book. I definitely have things from all ranges, like high priced courses to $10 books. The main way that I make an income is through private sessions. It’s pretty common. I share this with other podcasters that I will hear from someone and they will have listened to all my episodes, then they buy my book or they buy several books and then maybe they buy a small priced course. They book a session with me and my sessions are high priced. They’re $200 to $800 for an hour. If someone comes in at that rate, it’s often they become a long–term client. It’s great. On the other hand, it’s good to have something for people to build towards so that they can feel comfortable thinking in a large amount of money like that. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the genesis like when you decided that, “Podcasting is for me.” You’re working on a metaphysical space. It’s talking about healing and spiritual things. There’s a lot of skepticism to this space that you’re in and that the long tail media that is podcasting is ideal. How did you realize that?  

Honestly, as a psychic kid, because I think about that frequently how strange it was that I started a podcast because I started a podcast many years when podcasting was not known, especially as a woman. I remember the first podcast conference that I went to and it was like 90% or 95% men, very tech–oriented. It was a certain type of person that was there. I was a psychic. I was a woman. I was not fitting in that box at all. It was a thing I felt intuitively like, “I need a podcast,” and I wasn’t even a podcast listener at that point. I decided to start a podcast before I had listened to podcasts. It was this feeling like, “I need to do this.” It was appealing because of the idea of being able to start something. There are no gatekeepers. That was an intuitive hit of this is going to be important. When I first started and I would say I was a podcaster, the first thing people would say is, “What’s a podcast?” I’d say for several years, that was the standard response. 

Luckily, we get it less nowadays. It’s great that you felt like this was the right thing. I had the same thing when we started ours. It was like a decision of video or podcast and it was like, “Podcast.” It felt right. It seemed easier and more accessible. When you started though, there weren’t a lot of courses and tools and easy things that you have now. You’ve got a podcasting book coming out. There’s a lot more out there now. What big mistakes did you make? How did you find your way? 

I did whatever research I could at that point on the internet. It was definitely slow going. There was a big learning curve. The biggest mistake or learning thing for me was being a little nervous about putting myself out there. I was also starting with an interview format, which I still think is great, but if I could look back on it, I would have earlier done some solo episodes and focused on what I was offering. When I started, I didn’t feel like I had as much to offer individually but I was like, “I could talk to people.” I found people I could interview and connect with. That was a great way to start. If I had earlier on sorted to focus on what I was doing, what I was offering, I would have monetized it, for example, faster. 

When did you make that switch? 

I’d have to look at the episodes to know for sure. It was probably a few years in and it was also a little tiny something, but it wasn’t for several years before I did start doing solo episodes. 

This is the one thing I hear from people so often. They wish they had made that switch to adding solo. They don’t completely replace all the interviews, but adding it sooner is a critical factor for them. For some of us, our listeners reach out and say, “Can you do more of those?” It happens by accident and you’re like, “I need to produce one.” I have my guests fell through. We’ll record. All of a sudden everybody is like, “Do more of that.” 

People want to hear from you because they’re listening to your show. It again is a little bit of a block of putting yourself out there selling or being too self–focused or whatever, but that’s not what it’s like at all from an audience perspective. 

What’s some advice that you’re working into your book? What’s advice do you have for someone who is starting? 

Some of it is what we’ve talked about. You can monetize and start to get that financial reward much earlier on. Even with advertisers, it depends on the niche of your show. The more niche you are, often the more successful you are. There’s this idea that you have to be super broad. When you get niched in, that’s when you can connect with your ideal listener and you can then also monetize and start to generate benefit and income. 

Do you have specific advice for those in your niche or those that are in that spiritual healing world? 

I’d say be authentic and don’t be afraid to be 100% who you are. Especially in this spiritual psychic realm, there’s this what I call the spiritual coming out of the closet that happens. Some people will gradually do it or only to a degree, but they don’t want to be too weird. They’ll tone it down. The more that you’re fully whoever and whatever you are, the better and faster success comes for you. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the five things, the best ways to. What are some of the best ways you found to get great guests? 

One of the things that a lot of podcasters don’t think to explore is to get press passes for events, conferences or festivals. I figured that out pretty fast. This was before all venues or all places where considering podcasters as traditional media, but I also did a video. That helps because I could sometimes get a video pass and offer to give them a video if it wasn’t for my podcast. Once podcasting started to be more recognized, I use that right away. There are so many benefits to that. One, you often get access that you wouldn’t otherwise. You can get access to speakers that you wouldn’t as a regular Teddy. You don’t have to pay for the conference. If you go to a conference, it’s like $1,000 or something. Over the long–term, there’s a lot of net income that I’ve made from not having to pay for those things. 

Podcast Lead Generation: Be really authentic and don’t be afraid to be a hundred percent who you are.

Also, you’re likely to get access to high profile guests. One of my early interviews was with Dr. Bruce Lipton. If you’re not in this space, he’s well–known in the woo-woo space, but also in the medical space because he was in the front running part of epigenetics, which is the study of what impacts our genes. He was a keynote speaker at a conference and he’s one of those people that normally have like gatekeepers and handlers. I walked right up to him and was like, “Can I interview you for my show?” He was like, “Sure.” I handed him a release form and I talked with him for 40 minutes. Once I had him, when I’d be asking someone else to be on the show, they’re like, “You had Bruce Lipton?” They would be like, “I want to be there too.” That would be one tip I’d say. If you can get one well–known guests, whether it’s through connections or boldness or happenstance or whatever, it’s going to be much easier to get others. 

What about ways to increase listeners? Have you put in a concerted effort to it or did you let it happen organically? 

I’ve let it happen organically. Doing guest spots on other successful podcasts or shows is always helpful if you have something to offer. If you’re like, “I’d love to have you on my show,” you can either offer right away to have guest slots on each other’s shows or you can offer for them to be on your show. If they have one, a lot of times they will offer for you to be on their show as well. 

You’ve been producing a long time. It was in the early days of not having as many producers to help you out. How do you produce your show in the most professional way? 

The key to that is to get help and support. Most beginning podcasters are trying to do everything themselves. I understand that. Sometimes they have a budget issue or they’re trying to figure it all out. The sooner you get a team, the easier it’s going to be for you. Also, the faster you’ll probably rise in terms of making money and professionalism. I remember that point where I was like, “I can’t do this.” It was one of those times where I was like, “Should I stop this?” It seemed like so much work, but I was editing. I was hosting. I was doing all the things. It was right after that, that I hired my first help, which was an audio editor. If you don’t do anything else, at least hire an audio editor because I’m a firm believer now that if you wouldn’t hire yourself to do something, hire someone else to do it. I never had any interest in audio editing or becoming an audio editor. It’s not my skillset. It’s not my dream. It’s not my desire or my strength, “Here, thank you. Do this for me.” 

That’s what I did early on. That’s why we have this full team. That’s great advice. You have a community that you’ve built around everything that you’ve done here, including your products and services and all of those things. How do you encourage engagement in that community and in the podcast listenership? 

An interesting thing with podcasts where a lot of times it’s like there isn’t that communication, there isn’t that engagement. I found it could be difficult to get people to initially reach out. One of the things that were successful for me was I started to do these giveaways for reviews. Meaning if someone left a review, they could email me a link to their review and I would enter them into a drawing for surprises. I made sure that the prices were significant because people are busy and I’m like, “They’re not going to write in for $40.” My prices were like $400 to $600 each time. It’s high value. It’s hopefully worth it for their time to have a chance to win that. What amazed me was that would be like the start of the conversation. 

They would email me to enter for the prize and then I say, “By the way, where are you based? Thank you for listening,” and I would start a conversation. Some cool things have unfolded for that. One example is one of my winners who ended up winning that prize was based in Ireland. She’s like, “You should come to Ireland.” She has a nature sanctuary. I was like, “That would be amazing.” I went to Ireland. I got to see her amazing nature sanctuary. She helped organize a class for me. I taught a class and saw clients in her town. We went to the Cliffs of Moher. It was magical and amazing. That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t done that review contest. That’s one story, and now she’s become a more significant part of my life and I would consider a friend as well. Having a reason for people to engage is important. Whether it’s a review contest like that or something else, give people a reason to reach out. 

A reason and value, obviously. We already talked about the best ways to monetize and that was our last of the five things. Is there anything else out there that you think is a missed opportunity in monetization? 

The biggest one I already briefly mentioned, but was your own products and services and treat it as if it was an advertising spot. I don’t always do pre-roll. Sometimes I do pre-roll, but I generally do mid-roll and post–roll and it’s going to be either an advertiser or an affiliate or something that I’m promoting myself. Also, a lot of podcasters don’t know about affiliates. That can be a great way, especially if you don’t have sponsors to start to build in that revenue. It is important to try to find one that’s a good fit. I would say, don’t even mess with affiliates if it’s not a significant payout. If it’s $10 per payout or something, it’s probably not worth it. Over time it can be significant. With affiliates, it’s definitely a marathon. I had one affiliate where I didn’t have any commissions or any referrals for about a year. After a year, all of a sudden it started doing well. I still don’t understand what that’s about, but then it became thousands of dollars. 

It built up over time. Who knows? 

All of a sudden it was like, “It’s time after a year.” I don’t know why.  

You’ve said multiple times that you have binge listeners. Did you ever expect to have binge listeners and why do you think they binge listened to you? 

I’ll tell a story about one client and I can share this story because he has shared the story a bunch of times publicly. There’s a man who heard me on a podcast. By the way, in terms of podcast guesting, it doesn’t have to be a big show for it to have a significant impact. This was not a massive show. It has a following, but it wasn’t a show that everyone knows about or something. He heard me on that show and then he found my show from that. He listened to all my episodes and then he reached out and booked a session and ended up booking several sessions over time. In that session. I said, “Eventually you’re going to write a book about spirituality and that’s going to be work.” This is a Silicon Valley partner in a tech firm and a graduate from Princeton. He was very analytical. He was like, “What?” A year later, he wrote the book and it was a bestseller. He released his second book. He quit his work in tech and is focusing on this full–time. It’s cool for me. He told me that story. 

Could you share that book with us? 

His name is Mark Gober. 

I interviewed Mark. I had a feeling that’s who you’re talking about. 

You’re very intuitive. He wrote the book, An End to Upside Down Thinking, which is about consciousness. The next book that he released is An End to Upside Down Living, which is how to live. 

I have to check that one out. I had no idea he quit his job. An End to Upside Down Thinking was probably one of the hardest books I had read in a long time. You think it’s going to be about spirituality. It’s about some of this woo-woo stuff and it’s going to be an easy read and it is not. It is a brain challenging to read this. 

It’s very academic. It’s cool for me because I’m a psychic. I’m super woo. I don’t need science. I experience it. I know that it’s happening. For people who need to understand why this is a thing we should consider in consciousness to understand it more fully, that’s a great book. It gets them to think about and question some assumptions. 

Our worlds are all connected here as we start to find that out. This is the other thing. I usually like to give everybody a little bit of hint on why I think your show has bingeable. It is because you’re in a niche. You’re in a realm that is can have a lot of fakes. It can have a lot of fakeness to it, it can have a lot of overstatement and you’re not. You’re understated in the process of how you communicate and how you interview and even how you talk about your topics. You have this laid back, easy–going way about it. It is what it is. That’s part of what’s so bingeable and so attractive to it. It doesn’t feel like you’re pushing this idea on us or any of those things. I’m sure that’s very authentically you, as I’m getting to know you here, but it is a trait that you don’t see and listen to as much in the niche that you’re in. 

Thank you. If you are authentic to yourself, whatever that is for you, you will attract people. That’s with Mark Gober and also at the time, there weren’t as many shows in this space. I was one of the unusual podcasts. There are more and more now as time has gone on. Being authentic to you and being comfortable and that also comes with time. When I first started podcasting, I was definitely nervous with some of my guests. You’re interviewing this big famous person, but now I’m like, “We’re just talking.” That comfort comes across and people enjoy hearing a casual conversation between two people in something that’s interesting. 

One of the things that I always like to cover and understand is do you have a plan for the future? Do you have things that you’d like to try or some new challenges with your podcast? 

I’d love to expand and I would say grow with it. I love my podcast. I will always be a podcaster, but to continue wanting to do more video. I want to do my own television show. I’m not sure if the podcast will morph into that or if I’ll have a second thing, but that’s definitely a vision that I have to get out there and get even more mainstream. Even though I’m fairly mainstream at this point, I want to bring some of these ideas about the psychic realm and spirituality to a major place. It’s so important right now, especially when we’re in these major trauma and transition. It’s so helpful. For me, my opening into the spiritual realm happened during the recession. I feel like there are a lot of parallels between what’s happening right now with the pandemic and everything as a result of that. The recession, it’s on a bigger scale and a more global scale. What saved me was spirituality and my abilities, my intuition. I want to share that with people because it’s such a lifesaver, literally. 

You’re tapping into something that I always like to talk about on the show and that is the authority value, the increase in industry expertise and being seen, heard and found. What are some of the things? It seems that you’ve gotten a lot of press. You’ve been on a lot of television spots. How has that happened? Did some of it happen because of the podcast? 

Absolutely. I could tie almost everything in one way or another back to the podcast. Even when I started to do television, I even heard about one of the ways that you pitch, which is through a podcast guest. I heard that. That’s where I got my first television booking. Little things like this that are significant, even hearing about resources through podcasting and guests is important, especially as you get into some of the bigger media. When I was on the Ron Burgundy Podcast when I was invited to be on that show, if I hadn’t had a reel and had something that was professional, I wouldn’t have gotten that. I wouldn’t have gotten there without podcasting. That is one of my pieces of advice for podcasters. 

If you haven’t had any major media, make a reel, even if it’s audio-only. There was a video that the team from the Ron Burgundy Podcast made it. It’s less than a minute. It’s a video of the audio and it has our pictures, Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy and me. It has the transcription of what we’re saying underneath. You can do a reel version of that. Meaning like little excerpts or highlights of various shows. If you do that, you’re going to rise above from others because almost no one does that, but it’s great. As you’re pitching yourself, you can say, “Here’s my podcast reel.” 

You’re writing a book on podcasting. What’s it going to be about? 

Podcast Lead Generation: A show doesn’t have to be big for it to have a significant impact.

It’s basically how to launch, grow and monetize your show. Wherever you are in your podcasting journey, if you want to learn about monetizing and you already have launched your podcast, that section is going to be helpful. I also have a chapter on how to get media. That’s been huge for me. There was a particular show and every time I was on that show and I’ve been there many times, their segment reaches two million. Two million people were exposed to me. That thing is so important. For advanced podcasters, those would be the sections that would be great for you. Also, basically starting from the beginning. If you’re starting out as a podcaster or want a podcast, how do I start? Where do I go? What are the companies that I have worked with that I would recommend? How to work through imposter syndrome and all that stuff. 

Laura, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for sharing all of your journey in podcasting. That’s quite a journey there. I wish you luck. I wish you another 200–plus episodes. I look forward to hearing more. 

Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure.  

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That’s a bingeable show. It’s definitely something worth checking out, Healing Powers Podcast by Laura Powers. She’s got an energy about her. You could hear it in her voice. You can feel it as you’re reading this. That energy is translating into her show and it’s creating this excellent bingeable factor that is helping people trust her faster. When you trust her, especially when you’re in the world of selling something that’s so difficult to explain where the results aren’t quite as tangible. It is in the intangible that her brilliance lies. You have a media that is working for her. It’s working on building her authority, expertise and visibility in the marketplace. It’s getting her more media out there like BuzzFeed, ABC, NBC and Fox. She’s got all of it going on because of her podcast.

That’s what she said. All those threads trace right back through to her podcasts. That’s the power. Laura Powers has the Healing Powers Podcast. It truly is a great example of what you can do in podcasting and how you can be successful in your core business and in your core programs and what you have to offer to the world. Check it out and I think you’re going to enjoy the show as well. It’s quite enlightening. Her interview style is nice and laid back. You’re also going to learn something from that, but take a listen to the two different types of episodes, because that’s useful. Remember we talk about how do we balance this idea of having a topic based and having interviews at the same time? She’s got that going on in her show. You can check that out nicely and see a great example of how you might apply that and model that for your own show.

As always, I’m always looking for great new podcasters. Laura came to me through recommendations and that’s how I’d love to receive you too. If you’re interested in being on The Binge Factor, you can go to TheBingeFactor.com and apply, but you could also send us an email. Send me a message on LinkedIn or somewhere on social media, and suggest a show that you love or suggest your show to me. I’m always looking for something new that I can bring you all some of the most successful and interesting shows out there and some of the best models for how to create success for you and how to create your own binge factor. I’ll be back next time with another episode of The Binge Factor.

Important Links:

• Healing Powers Podcast 
• Dr. Bruce Lipton on Healing Powers Podcast 
• An End to Upside Down Thinking 
• An End to Upside Down Living 
• LinkedIn – Tracy Hazzard 
• https://www.HealingPowers.net/ 

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