How I Use This Podcast for My Virtual Summits
I recently realized that I often recommend that people look at their past podcast guests as a starting point for finding summit speakers, and it got me thinking about just how much this podcast has a part to play in my summits!
Today I’m going to give you a little background on this podcast and break down the 6 main ways that I use it for my virtual summits. And as a little bonus, at the end, I’ll share a couple of ideas for how you can grow your podcast through your summits too.
This is the first part in a 2-part series about podcasting, so stay tuned for next week's episode with a podcasting expert to help those of you who are thinking about starting a podcast, or who already have one and want to make it do more for your business.
It's been 4 years and 251 episodes of the Summit Host Hangout Podcast, but feels like forever ago! Over the years, I've experienced all kinds of benefits from podcasting...
- It's an easy way to publish content (thanks to an awesome team for handling most of the work!).
- It's the perfect place to direct people who ask strategy questions without being in our programs.
- It's great at building know-like-trust for my listeners.
- And it's a lot of fun!
It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I realized how many ways I was also using my podcast for my summits! I'd like to tell you that I had a master plan for this when I started, but the reality is that I didn't!
It has just been a series of happy accidents. But I'm excited to be able to look back and see the ways that this podcast has helped with my summits, and share what I've learned with you today.
Listen to the episode
How the Summit Host Hangout Podcast Started
When I started Summit in a Box in 2018, I knew that publishing content was going to be important to me, but I quickly realized I had zero interest in writing blog posts every single week, so I switched to a podcast.
It's funny to think about this because publishing a podcast is way more work than a blog, but it feels like less pressure when I can have a quick outline and talk about it versus writing a perfect blog post. I also feel that it's served you all better in the long run as well.
I love that my team can make it into a blog post for accessibility purposes and for those who don't want to listen to a podcast episode.
I also had a previous podcast from my last business that made it to 100 episodes, so I knew the drill.
Another benefit is that we have a lot of clients and customers come from this podcast. I think it's just part of the process where people get to know me by coming to the podcast to listen. They get to hear me talk through the things I teach, and I think it builds trust and lets me connect when them.
You don't need a "Top 100" podcast for it to serve your business well.
I've learned over the years that the numbers don't matter as much as I thought they did in the beginning. I've never shared the numbers of our podcast before, but we still don't have 100,000 downloads. I'm not concerned with the numbers though, because the podcast works for us, and as long as I can see that people are enjoying them and liking the content, we're going to keep doing it.
How I Use This Podcast In My Virtual Summits
I've never been very intentional in how I use this podcast in my summits, so I'm really excited to see how I can be even more intentional moving forward. It's always fun to see that there are benefits to something you're doing, even if you didn't notice them right away.
Benefit #1: Heightening perceived status
When I pitch people for my summits and I'm introducing myself, I include that "I'm Krista, creator of [whatever program I'm promoting], and host of the Summit Host Hangout Podcast." I don't really say much other than that, but I feel like it adds a little extra to my list of qualifications and why people should trust me.
Benefit #2: Connecting with new people
Asking people to speak at your summit is a pretty easy ask if you do it the right way and you have a well-positioned event. The only thing easier than that is to ask them to be a guest on the podcast. They hop on a 30-minute Zoom, there's no strings attached, and they're done. I don't put pressure on them to promote, but it's great if they do.
Benefit #3: Finding speakers
It's really nice to be able to sit down for my speaker brainstorm and be able to start with my podcast guest list. We keep a list in Airtable of all our podcast guests, and you can bet that I pull that up to start with when I'm trying to think of speakers for my summit. We already have a connection, the topics and ideas are right there, and we've already collaborated. It helps me vet them based on how the podcast collaboration went. I've never invited someone as a podcast guest as a way to vet them as a speaker before I pitch them, but in hindsight, it's a good way to use it.
Benefit #4: Perks for speakers or sponsors
I don't do ads on my podcast, but I can easily offer a guest spot on the podcast to my summit speakers and sponsors. If you look at our speaker lineup from our last summit in December 2022, and then look at the guests that were on the podcast in the months following, you'll probably notice some overlap. I gave all my speakers the opportunity to come on the podcast, and it was nice to have that extra perk to offer them when they were deciding on being a part of the summit.
Benefit #5: Event promotion
Sometimes I get myself in trouble with this one because my team works ahead on podcast episodes, which means I have to work even further ahead. At the beginning of each episode I used to say what episode number it was, but I recently stopped doing this. I ran into the issue where I'd planned something last minute and wanted to promote it on the podcast, but my podcast calendar was already booked way further out and I couldn't promote my event in an episode. Now, I can plan better for this and move things around. I like to have a couple of episodes that tie into the topic of my event that's coming up and maybe an extra episode that's more straight promo to get listeners to sign up for it.
Benefit #6: Staying connected
So often, virtual summits can be "transactional". You invite a speaker to be a part of your event, you communicate a ton leading up to and during the event, and then afterward they don't hear from you again. Part of it is natural; you have 20 new connections and it's hard to stay connected with everyone. However, being able to invite people on the podcast to have conversations and continue to build relationships can only benefit you both.
2 Bonus Tips!
There's also a big opportunity to include your podcast as a part of your summit. For our 2022 summit, we published mini-trainings and bonus sessions on our actual podcast that people could listen to before the summit started.
Tip #1: Publish bonus summit content on your podcast. If you have a big goal of growing your podcast through your summit, you could publish summit-related content on your actual podcast and send attendees there to get them to subscribe, listen, and get to know you before the summit starts.
Tip #2: Use podcast engagement on your Bingo card. Another big way I can see you using your podcast in your summit is if you follow our strategies and use a Bingo card for attendee engagement, you could include a square where they mark it off by subscribing to or reviewing your podcast, or both!
Resources
- Episode 23: How to Make a Virtual Summit Accessible with Erin Perkins
- Episode 99: 4 Reasons Speakers Say "Yes" When You Pitch Them for Your Virtual Summit
- Episode 125: Your Speakers' Role in Promotion and Pressuring Them to Promote
- Episode 200: The Journey of Summit in a Box
- Episode 208: Top Takeaways from our December 2022 Virtual Summit
- Episode 233: A 4-Step Process For Positioning Your Summit For Success With Elli Runkles
- Summit Host Hangout Facebook group
- Launch with a Summit Accelerator
- 6-Figure Summits Workshop Bundle
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