My Podcast Lessons from Season 1

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:
Hi everyone.
And welcome to another episode of No Bullsh*t Talks.
So this episode is actually going to be the last one in the season, boohoo.
But it means that we’ll be back for Season 2, which will be bigger and better than ever.
But onto that in a moment. I’m going to explain what’s happening in this episode.
You’ll have noticed that I am by myself today.
So I’ve got no guests.
So apologies for turning up expecting more interesting chat with someone else.
You’ve just got me.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:You’ve just got me.
So this is the last episode of Season One, and I thought I’d close it out by telling you everything that I’ve learned about podcasting.
So, if you’ve seen the pilot episode you would have heard that was the first time I’d ever podcasted. Not just recorded one, but even listened to one or had anything to do with one. I had absolutely no idea what was going on.
I was a full-on podcast noob and I pretty much still am, to be honest.
So I’m 30 episodes in, and I have still got so much to learn, but I’ve learned a ton of stuff along the way.
And so I thought I’d share with you some of those things I’ve learned because some of you might be listening and thinking, “I want to do my own podcast. It sounds like fun.”

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:You just get to have interesting conversations and put stuff out there.
But it’s such hard work. I’m telling you, it’s so much hard work.
One of the questions that people always ask me is, “How much money do you make off your podcast?” And it’s such a ridiculous question because you just don’t know. Through your podcast, do you put it out there and do you know which of your clients, unless they specifically tell you, actually came to you because of your podcast?
Maybe not. You know, you just can’t measure it exactly when you’re starting out, and I certainly can’t yet.
So for me, it’s not about that. I absolutely love all the conversations I’ve had. I’ve learned something from every episode. I’ve come across amazing people, so I see insane value just from that conversation.
However, it is a lot of hard work.
Now, I think I probably spend about 15 hours a week on my podcast. That’s going through guests applications and seeing who’s right for the show. That’s prepping for it, doing the research on them, that’s obviously recording it, that’s editing it.
That’s finding the right clips that will be good, putting those out on social media, and then just doing stuff around it. Like now, we’re turning each episode into a blog post.
There’s a lot of stuff that goes into each podcast.
So I’d say that if you don’t have the time to dedicate, then probably don’t do it.
Although I’ve done a video podcast. Those of you who are listening to the audio, we’re also on YouTube. We also put the social media clips online, and editing video is a lot more of a commitment.
So if you’re just doing audio, I think that will slash that workload by more than half.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:So I think the video is what takes up a lot of the time, and I think an audio one is easier.
But what else have I learned?
I’ve learned that these people are really fame-hungry.
I get so many applications, and just to give you some context, I get at least five a day coming in.
And we’re a really tiny podcast compared to the likes of all the big hotshots out there. So God knows how many they get every day.
But at least five a day, and most of these people all seem to do the same thing. They all seem to have the same story, the same angle, and there’s nothing interesting about them.
They’re only looking for fame. They think they’re God’s gift to whatever they’re doing, and they think that we’d be so lucky to have them on the show.
Now, I’m a new show with a small audience, so getting guests isn’t that easy.
But for some reason, we’re inundated with applications.
So there’s obviously a big pool of amazing people out there.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:What I realized is that there are some incredible people out there, so I would very much like to be more selective about who I get on my show in the future.
So I’d say that if you’re about to start a podcast, be surprised at the amount of people who are going to apply to be on your show because you might think that you’re just a newbie, you know, just starting out, but it reaches a lot of people.
And suddenly, if you put yourself on social media and you type in #podcast, that is what a lot of people just search for, and they will spam every single person with a show in order to contact you and just be a guest.
So you’ll be inundated with loads of people, and when I first started, I just thought yes to everyone because I thought, “I’m not going to get anyone on the show. It’s going to be impossible to find guests.”
So Season 2 is going to be a lot more selective about who we have on the show to make sure they are definitely all game for a no-bullshit conversation because that’s what it’s about here.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:We want to have people who have no-bullshit talks.
So what else did I learn?
I think I was probably a little bit biased with who I thought was going to be popular.
So some of the people that I interviewed, I thought, “Oh my God, that was an amazing episode. This person was so inspirational. They’re incredible. Everyone’s going to want to listen to this and put it out.”
And at the same time, I did one with someone where they were okay. It was good, but they weren’t as good as the other person.
People don’t agree with me, it seems.
Some of the ones that I thought weren’t that good have been the most popular podcasts on my list.
So it shows you that you’re not your audience at all.
You need to think about who your audience is, which is ironic, considering my job and considering I tell everyone this from a marketing and branding perspective, that your branding is not for you, you need to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and work out what they want.
I didn’t do this myself, and I just thought, “Okay, well they’re great.”
So Season 2 is going to be all about my audience.
I’m going to find out what you guys want to listen to, what you guys value, what you’ve learned the most from, and try to bring those people to the show.
So after this episode, it’s a little break before I do Season 2, but I’m going to use that break to gather information about what your favorite episodes have been, what you’d like to hear, what are the lessons you want to hear, and what sort of guests you want to have on the show.
So I’m going to be putting some stuff out to my audience.
So be prepared for that.
What else?
I think marketing.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman: That’s been hard. I think that, you know, we’ve got a lot of good content in the show, episodes have been great, they’ve been some incredible advice, but it’s a lot of work to actually get it out there. So we are putting stuff on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, sort of social media.
But now there is pressure for us to put stuff on TikTok, so that’s a whole other medium that we’re going to have to look at. And then you know what, can also convert them into blog posts, and I will have to put them into email newsletters, and a lot of stuff.
So we are working on that, and what the best thing to do is, and trying to build up a bit of a community for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want no bullshit conversations, who want to learn from other experienced people.
So that’s something to come, but something to think about, and you probably need dedicated people in your team to help you do it, because this is a lot of work for one person, especially if you have a day job.
I’m a marketing fan again. I think it’s people who are looking at hashtag podcast as an angle, and I’m getting spammed by people who are wanting to promote the podcast, who are saying I will guarantee you to get you thousands and thousands of people, all this kind of stuff.
It’s only X amount per month. I’ve not taken any of them on because I don’t think they’re serious. Yes, I kind of asked a few questions and it seems a bit spammy, but I get a lot of that as well.
So be prepared, you’re going to get spammed by all these people. I don’t think any of them are any good. I don’t know if they’re using bots like the rest of social media, or it’s just the case of they’re putting it in certain Facebook groups where they’re not targeting your audience at all.
I ask them questions on it and they say they are, but they’re not. They don’t seem to have listened to the show.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:So that’s another thing.
What else? I’ve learned things about myself as well. So with everything, there are always people who could give you some negative feedback. So, you know, I’ve been so proud of what I’ve achieved with this podcast and it’s generally been positive feedback so far, but there has been some negative feedback too.
The most common feedback is that I speak too damn fast, is what people say. And I know this. I mean, I could try and slow down. I mean I have tried to slow down in the past but then I get excited. I get really passionate about a topic and then it just comes out. It’s rambling, ranting, and I just can’t stop myself.
So I am sorry to everyone listening who just does not understand a word I say. But I give a piece of advice is, listen to more episodes and you’ll get used to my voice and then you’ll kind of understand what I have to say. There you go, a way to get more viewers, very clever.
But now on a serious note, I’m going to try and remember this for next year and work on it. That’s one of the things I’m going to work on. But my apologies if it’s still too fast for you. My only recommendation is that you change the playback speed and slow me down.
So, but then my guests are probably going to be ultra slow, so I’m sorry. I don’t know what else I can do, but that’s definitely something I have learned.
I guess the other thing is that I would have assumed that every guest that I interview would be so happy to have free PR material they can share on their social media profiles. But often, once we finish the episode, most guests don’t care. They don’t share it, they don’t even like or post anything, or say thanks for having me on the show. It’s like we just didn’t even exist.
And you know, they say yes to doing things that sound exciting at the time, and then they think actually at that point I’m not really that bothered by it. So we don’t even get a shout-out from some guests. They don’t really seem to care.
So that’s also interesting, but that takes me back to a question.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman: That I’m often asked by so many people who are trying to put content out there, and that is what’s the point of doing all this? This is a lot of effort, and I get asked that a lot about my podcast.
Well, you know, if you have to put in this much effort, you’re already doing so many things. You’re running your agency, you’re doing all your chess coaching, you’re running events. Why are you then committing to your podcast every single week as well? Not even like once a month, but every week. Why am I committing to that if it’s so much work? And that all comes back down to your classic why: why are you doing this?
If you want to do a podcast because you think that it’s going to make you loads of money, then probably rethink it through. Because yes, okay, the big guys make a lot of money from their podcasts, but it takes time. It takes a lot of time. Like with anything, you’re not just going to put a podcast out there and expect it to reach millions of people. It’s a lot of effort.
And coming up with content every single week is again difficult. So you have to think, why are you doing this? Is it worth your time?
And for me, I started a podcast because I loved having conversations with interesting people. I mean I still do. I will now have ramped it up even more. I will go ask random people out for coffee just so that I can have an interesting conversation, and now I’ve got work on it, so I’ve got an excuse to do it.
So I will find the most intriguing people and think, wow, I want to know more about them. I’m going to ask to interview them for my podcast, and I absolutely love it. Personally, I learn so much from it. I think that the conversations are fascinating, and I’m asking them questions that other people wouldn’t have normally done.
So we can find out information about these people that isn’t already out there, that we can learn from, and I love helping other people. I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost 15 years now. That makes me feel so insanely old, but I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve learned so much along the way. And where I can, I’m always happy to help other people not make the same mistakes that I did.
So if I can interview people, bring out those key pillars of advice, those little hidden gems that help everyone along their journey, then I’m going to do this. So this is why I’m doing a podcast, and this is why I’m going to come back for Season 2.

Sabrina Chevannes-Denman:So, as for Season 2, I am looking to focus more on the UK. A lot of my guests have been from the US, but that’s because podcasts are huge in the US. Everyone knows about podcasting, everyone loves podcasting, and they all know the value of podcasting. So I was able to find some incredible people there.
So I’m going to try and bring my focus back to the UK. I’m going to kind of do more in-person podcasts. I think I need to start doing in-person podcasts, which is a whole new level of what we’re going to do.
So hopefully you’ll see in this room a new podcast setup in a couple of months’ time. We’ll be bringing guests in and doing stuff in person, so that will be a new challenge, and I’m sure that I’ll be updating people on what I’ve learned about that setup.
And there’ll be more stories from people who have had really tough journeys, but have learned a lot along the way and are now super successful at what they do and inspiring others to make a difference. And that’s the sort of people I want to have on the show.
So if you’ve got any recommendations, please, please feel free to hit me up on social media. I would love guest recommendations.
But as a priority, I’m looking for people in the UK, people who can come into the office, have a good chat with me, and find inspiration for others and inspire them on their entrepreneurial journey. So that’s what it is.
And that’s the end of everything that I’ve learned from recording Season 1 of No Bullsh*t Talks. And I’m so excited to come back for the next season of No Bullsh*t Talks, where hopefully it will be bigger and better than ever.
So until then, peace out. This is me, Sabrina Chevannes-Denman, host of No Bullsh*t Talks. Thank you so much for listening to this season, and I’ll see you next season.