The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast Interview featuring Joanne Bolt
[00:00:00]: I'm excited today to have Joanne Bolt on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. I am thrilled to be here today. I love your name. Like it's just energetic. It's just you're going to be like a lightning Bolt and energize our conversation today. We're going to talk about marketing.
[00:00:20]: We're going to talk about women in podcasting and As we dive into the questions, why don't you set the stage for listeners and tell them about the exciting podcast network you've created in your own podcast? Oh my gosh, thank you so much. The thing is I started the B word a couple of years ago and I have loved podcasting like way more than I ever thought that I would.
[00:00:45] : I think I started Kind of started podcasting. Like a lot of people do, like you open an Instagram account thinking, well, we'll see what happens. You open, start a podcast. Well, we'll see what happens. And the next thing I know, the podcast skyrocketed and became like the [00:01:00] number one marketing piece for my business.
[00:01:02] : And so I started thinking back to when I ran a 56 million real estate team. I was like, well, how did I grow that business? Cause you know, if you think about it. There's a real estate agent on every corner of every block. There's a podcaster on every corner of every digital page on the internet. Right.
[00:01:19] : And so it was like, I grew a business where it was over saturated and now I'm in another business where it's over saturated, how do I stand out? And I thought back to my real estate days and. The one thing that I did really, really well was I worked my sphere of influence. So the people that knew me recommended me, like I never took out ads.
[00:01:38] : I didn't do all the cold calling all the, the pieces of marketing I didn't like. I didn't do them. And I was like, well, how can I do that in podcasting? Angela, this is what happened. I looked around and all of my favorite hosts were in these networks. You had HubSpot or GrowthJ or Yap Media and I was like, clearly this is the way to do it.
[00:01:59] : These are [00:02:00] the big kids and I want the big kids mentioning my name on their podcast. So like, how do I get in with the big kid, the cool kid club? And here's the reality. I literally every single day for a year HubSpot's network and I never heard back. And I never heard back and I never heard back.
[00:02:19] : And I was like, okay. So then I went to yap media, turns out that's 10, 000 a month. And I was like, well, maybe I'm not quite ready for that yet. And then I went to growth day. My podcast doesn't meet their requirements either. And so I started investigating the why. And the why I heard someone from HubSpot on a conference stage one time and he said we love to work with small podcasters.
[00:02:41] : And I'm like, well then why didn't I get in? I'm like mentally raising my hand, right? I'm a small podcaster. And he said, our average podcast gets about 500, 000 downloads. And you know me, I'm sitting in the audience and I'm like, per year? And he's like, per episode? Okay. Now I know [00:03:00] why I'm getting ignored by the networks.
[00:03:02] : I wasn't big enough. I wasn't getting rejected. And so I sat back and I thought back to my real estate days and how I built this team. And I thought, well, if I can't get into HubSpot Yap Media won't have me because I'm not good enough, I'm not big enough. Then I'll just create my own network. And so I will create a network for the podcast hosts that have a legitimate podcast as a piece of their business.
[00:03:24] : And they're struggling to get visibility and gain some traction. Someone has to serve the little guy, or in our case, the little girl, right? And so that ultimately is the long winded version of how the podcast Her Network came to be. Mm hmm. I love that. I, I mean, there is, uh, creating a podcast when you don't have a seat at the table is one of the most effective ways to bring your own chair and build your own table.
[00:03:52] : Oh yeah. So I love that you did that because. It's, it's our time it's, and you can [00:04:00] do what you don't have to wait for anybody else. If they're not giving you the opportunity to create your own opportunity. I have a sign in my office that says, create the things you wish existed. Yeah. And that is something that I look at.
[00:04:12]: Every time, every morning when I walk into my home office and every afternoon as I shut the door and walk back into my, kitchen and stuff. Cause I obviously work from home. I look at that every single day and I'm like, yes, I am creating what I wish existed for me. And then I'm opening the doors for others.
[00:04:27] : Cause they don't even know that they need this, and then you just, we just, as women, we have to do that. Sometimes we have to say. I want my seat at the table and I'll bring my own chips and salsa. Amen. Yes. I spent so many years of my career and like waiting for my opportunity and somebody to recognize me and appreciate me for various things along the way.
[00:04:52] : And then finally, one day I was like, What the heck? Why am I waiting for other people to create, give me an opportunity? I'm going to create my [00:05:00] own. Let's just keep passing that along. So tell us about the B word. What is your podcast about? My podcast has had, I think like most people, several evolutions along the way.
[00:05:13] : That's just natural in the world of entrepreneurship. When it first got started, I was actually coaching real estate agents because that's what I felt confident in. It's what I had the experience in. And then the longer that went on, the more I was like, you know what, I'm really evolving as a person.
[00:05:29]: I don't really want to be coaching real estate agents anymore. I'm really more of a business holistic type coach. Let's look at the whole business as a, as a piece. And then, so I started shifting the message out of the real estate, just into business. And then I shifted it a little bit more into a little more nuanced of the marketing of And so now we talk a lot about marketing.
[00:05:53] : We talk a lot about social media. We talk a lot about podcasting because I do believe it's the top of your marketing [00:06:00] funnel. And I bring in a lot of really great guests because. The way I grew the real estate team, I always met, I always go back and I say, if I've done it before and it worked, like it's got to be able to work in this industry.
[00:06:12] : So the way I grew the real estate team so successfully was I always had the best referrals for my clients, whether they needed a dentist, a plumber, a painter, it didn't matter. I was the Angie's list of real estate agents. And I never had to actually tell my clients, Hey, Do you remember I'm a real estate agent?
[00:06:29] : Like I never led with what I did. I led with who I could connect you to. So I've taken that now into the B word and we do a lot of interviews with who do I need to connect you with? Who is, if you're going to make Instagram reels, the chef's kiss of person to go learn from for Instagram reels.
[00:06:47] : That's the person I'm interviewing on the podcast. So I like to think of the B word is again, I own personal Angie's list of the, who do you need to know to run a business? Yeah, and I think the most successful entrepreneurs are those [00:07:00] people that are just so incredibly resourceful, and just have this capacity for not only figuring it out, but just in that process, creating this network of people that they just know and can connect others with.
[00:07:15] : So I love that. So you have a new marketing webinar coming up. Tell us about that and tell us like why it's needed. Oh, it's super needed because most podcast hosts in particular get trapped in that constant headache and hamster wheel of how do we grow our podcast? Now, honestly, you could come listen to the webinar if you just want to grow your social media, your LinkedIn, because everything I'm going to teach in this playbook is applicable to any form of content creation.
[00:07:48] : My, my jam just happens to be podcasting, but what I'm going to do on this webinar is. Legitimately unlock for everyone how I went from gaining visibility in an [00:08:00] oversaturated area of real estate to gaining visibility in an oversaturated area of podcasting with a very small audience. I mean, my Instagram following is less than 4, 000.
[00:08:09] : And when I first started, I think I had like 800. So I managed to go from 10 downloads per episode to over 10, 000 with a small audience because I did this framework three steps. And I teach it on the masterclass. And if you just rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat, then your podcast grows for you almost while you sleep.
[00:08:31] : Because what you're doing is you're teaching other people to spread the word about your podcast so that you don't always have to be the one spreading the word. I have this huge theory and I alluded to it earlier when I said I never really told people I was a real estate agent. One of the things that drove me nuts in that industry, there was always those agents that you could see them coming from a mile away.
[00:08:53] : And you wanted to turn around and leave because you knew that the second they came up to you out of their mouth, almost [00:09:00] instantly was, Hey, do you have anyone looking to buy or sell a home? And when people lead with what they do, it just gets obnoxious. And then you don't want to talk to them or listen to them.
[00:09:08] And so I teach that concept in the masterclass when you're podcasting, when you're, creating content on Instagram or LinkedIn, you can't always be the one to grow your own material. If you're always saying, Oh my gosh, will you please rate this podcast? Will you share this episode? Will you, will you, will you people stop listening and they don't give you the ask because they're just over it or worse.
[00:09:32] : They stop following you because your call to action is always the same versus when you train the other people around you to do it for you and then you help them in the same manner, it grows so much faster. And that's what I teach in the masterclass. Ooh, that sounds really interesting and a lot different than the other messages out there on growing your podcast.
[00:09:54] : And, I really love too, when people lead with service and it sounds [00:10:00] like that's the principle that you have is serving other people and helping them with their pain points. And that kind of leads into what I was going to ask you next is what do you think are the unique kind of challenges that we have in our approach to marketing, especially as mom entrepreneurs, what's getting in our way?
[00:10:24]: Our own head, honestly, as a mom, you're like, you've got so many things going through your head at any given time, I am not only focused on this interview we're doing right now. I've also got the laptop next to me and I'm keeping myself from reading the emails that are coming in. And I'm also thinking, and Oh, by the way, in an hour, I've got to run Gatorades up to the baseball team, but the school, like we have got such a hamster wheel going at all times in our head, that a lot of.
[00:10:50] : What stops us from really growing our businesses is we can't just stop the hamster wheel and say, wait a minute, fluffy, get off the wheel, go eat a snack, settle [00:11:00] down, take a nap. You only need to do one thing today. Just do it really well. We think we have to do it all because as moms, we're used to doing it all.
[00:11:08] : And the reality is in business, you need one good marketing tool and one good offer. If you've got those two things, everything else just falls in place. That's all you have to focus on. Mm hmm. I love that. The power of focus is it is, if you can really focus on what your priority is in the moment and just be there for that and let everything go away, it's ah, it just sort of happens.
[00:11:35] : We are often so busy doing everything that we're doing the wrong thing. And that's why the business never gets, gets any traction. And I'll equate this to my experience as a mom, I can do all the laundry, every basket, there's four people in my home. That's all. And Multiple sports and private school uniforms like that's a lot of laundry by putting it in the washing machine in the dryer and then dumping it in the baskets.[00:12:00]
[00:12:00]: However, if I just concentrate on putting the clothes in the lawn, the washer and then getting them into the dryer. And never folding them, then they never make it back to the closets. And therefore my family doesn't even know the laundry was done. So if you look at that from a business perspective, if you're concentrating on all the things you think has to happen, but you never get it in front of your clients, they have no idea you're there.
[00:12:23] : They have no idea about your services because you're so busy doing the other stuff. Yeah, no, that's a powerful story because yeah we're definitely on this track. Sometimes you can find it as a trap to really just focus on putting the work together, but maybe not the messaging and the marketing.
[00:12:47] : Are there any other misconceptions that you think you're going to be debunking in your webinar? Oh, best misconception. This takes a lot of time. Oh, yes. [00:13:00] No, like an hour, maybe two hours a week. That's it. It is your main marketing piece. And when you run a visibility engine, like I'm going to teach you how in the masterclass, you can do this in an hour to two hours a week, and then you're done.
[00:13:13] : And then the marketing's done for you. We have a, we use AI for a lot of what we do. And I'll teach that some in the class too, but we've got this thing so automated and so on AI that I'm really just checking in at this point. Like it's being done for me and it's growing my podcast. It's growing my business and I'm not having to sit.
[00:13:32] : Every single week for hours on end creating content. It's being done. Yeah. No, I love that. And that also touches on the point of having a system in place. And if you're not using AI, please find some way to get over that hurdle. I don't know. There are just some people who are still resisting it. I knew new things can be very scary, but.
[00:13:55] : Find a way to embrace it. Yes, for [00:14:00] sure. I don't want it to replace everything, but right. There's no piece of any there's no one out there that has a business that couldn't find one piece of it that could be automated with the AI. Yeah. Whether it's your email, copywriting, your landing page on your sales, the, content for a solo episode, a background dossier on who you're interviewing something could be automated in your life.
[00:14:22] : Right. , and we're just talking about greasing the wheels. We're not Talking about delegating everything and right running with AI and whatever it creates, but it can just free up a lot of mental energy as if you have added an assistant to your staff, honestly. So I'm glad that you're addressing AI too.
[00:14:43] : Cause I still run into people are like, Oh no, no, I'm not using that. There's something wrong with it. And I'm like, one of my really good friends and I had, Rather heated discussion the other day and she'll laugh because I'll share this episode with her and we were talking about, [00:15:00] automation and I use many chat.
[00:15:01] : I love many chat on Instagram. I think that. You're just you're leaving potential opportunity on the table if you don't really use many chat. Her theory was, Oh my gosh, I would never use many chat. I answer every DM myself. And she's because people know when they're getting a bot. And I was like, well, yeah.
[00:15:21]: I don't hide that. It's a bot. Our culture knows that many chat, when you say reply the word, blah, blah, blah. Like that's, that's an, that's a bot, and I'm like, girl, how many DMs have you missed over the last three months? Because you refuse to automate. She tried to tell me she hasn't missed a single one and I'm like, yeah, but you have to live on your Instagram 24 hours a day.
[00:15:43] : Yeah. I want my time back. I want to go, to the kitchen and cook dinner instead. Yeah. I'll be, being sitting on Instagram, making sure I'm following. Yeah. No, I mean, I get in my Instagram all the time. I answer my own DMs when they're not being answered by many chat, but [00:16:00] there's times when many chat works and times when you need to be in it, but if you are automating, like you are literally handcuffing yourself to your business.
[00:16:07] : Mm hmm. That's not what we became entrepreneurs for. No, it's not. And it's probably related, there's this belief that things have to be difficult and hard and you have to work really hard for it to work or to be worthwhile. We have this, this belief. This belief that, the more complicated and difficult something is, the better.
[00:16:31]: But actually the opposite is true. Yeah. I agree. Can we unsubscribe to hustle mentality? Yes. Easy is not lazy. It's just efficient. Yes. Yes. So you're a mom of two. Let's talk about some of your advice for the mompreneurs who are listening on how you can balance it all. And, automation is certainly, a key part of that.
[00:16:55]: I think the other thing you really have to understand as a mama. There are [00:17:00] seasons, and every season has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And they're all beautiful in their own seasons. So if you are in the season of toddlerhood, you're going to have different working hours. You need to maybe hire help in different areas, because when that little guy is running around your house, like you don't want him running around the house on his own.
[00:17:19]: We don't know what they're going to do. And maybe when they're in nap time is a great time for you to sit down and answer emails or be really stringent about your schedule and your boundaries. It looks different when they're my kid's age. I have a 14 and a 16 year old now. And so I can get a lot of stuff done while they're at school.
[00:17:39] : But I know that come three o'clock in the afternoon, I'm done. Like work has to shut down for me because I have to be a mom, go to baseball, go to the equestrian center, be, carpooling back and forth. Cause my kids are in a private school. So there is no bus. I got to go to the grocery store. I've got to start dinner.
[00:17:56] : Like it just, it's different. This season of life means the [00:18:00] hours that I work look different and my boundaries look different. And you just have to be okay with adjusting as your kids. blow and ebb through the whole, season of how they're growing. And bless your heart if you've got them in both seasons.
[00:18:12] : If you've got the little guy and the older guy, you're going to have to juggle your calendar a little bit more, but you can do it. All you have to do is figure out when your best working time is. Be stringent about that and then let the other stuff be a little bit more flexible. Yeah. It's amazing what we can accomplish when we actually prioritize it and focus on it.
[00:18:35]: And so yeah, I think it's so important for moms to hear just over and over because we have this. Temptation to compare ourselves with moms who are in different seasons or in different situations, but it's really just comes down to where you're at. And if you do have those toddlers, we're here to let you know that one day they're going to grow up.[00:19:00]
[00:19:00] : They are. And oh, by the way, I'm going to, I'm going to give a very unpopular opinion right now. You ready? Cause I'm a little sorry. Hey, mamas, good for you. If you hand make the muffins for mom and muffins at preschool, my kids are now 14 and 16. I bought the muffins and my kids do not know the difference.
[00:19:19] : So if making the muffins brings you joy and love and makes you squishy inside, make the muffins. But if you're not the mom who has the time, energy, or want to make the muffins, don't stress that you didn't make the muffins. Because when they're teenagers, they don't know. They do remember mommy and muffin day, but they don't remember what they tasted like.
[00:19:38]: And they have no clue how they got there. Yeah. This conversation just gets down to the fact too, that as women and moms, we're so conditioned to over function and consistently give everything of ourselves, whether it's to our family or our businesses. And there are so many better [00:20:00] ways to do both.
[00:20:01]: It allows you to save part of yourself and to take care of yourself and actually really promote what you're doing in a better way. We have a tendency, Angela, to also compare ourselves. Like we get in our own head, if I, if I don't show up at the baseball practice this afternoon and watch the whole thing, because I'm working the mom next to me, when I do pick my kid up has been there the entire time.
[00:20:26] : Am I a worse mom? Is she going to think bad of me because I wasn't here? Chances are she didn't even notice. She didn't care. She's probably reading a book during practice. She didn't care. But we think that she's judging. Thus, we get all nutted up in our heads about it. And that's the other thing that really we've got to get over.
[00:20:43] : We've got to move past that whole limiting belief that other people are judging us for the choices we make on a day to day basis. Yeah, I love the story that a guest told about she was just really killing herself working 80 hours and trying to do all these things for her [00:21:00] daughter. And she asked her daughter is this really important to her?
[00:21:03] : And her daughter was like, no, I just want like the homemade thing. I don't like care about all this other stuff. It's really when we check in with our customers as parents who are our kids and are, our family and get them to weigh in. And like you said, get out of our head on what we think, the ideal situation is that, those around us might have a totally different sense.
[00:21:25] : And it's probably way easier because again, we overcomplicate it and think we have to do more and take more time than's actually necessary. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. I'm sure we could go on forever. We probably could. No, yeah, all the things. Yeah. Totally. Totally agree. But if you had a takeaway for listeners today on, something for them to hang on to, to give them that focus and clarity, maybe in motherhood and marketing their business, what would that [00:22:00] be?
[00:22:01] : Always do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yes. It's an old biblical saying. I was raised on it. This is my advice to everyone. If you're in a business and the world around you is telling you, you have to create Instagram reels to make that business grow. And it, you don't want to watch other people's reels.
[00:22:22] : Be okay. Not producing reels. If you don't want to watch them, Neither does your audience. So don't do them. If you want to, have a big, huge sweet 16 birthday party for your kid and that's not what all your friends are doing, go ahead and have the birthday party. It's what you want, it's what you would have wanted to have happened.
[00:22:42] : It's what your family needs. So always put it in the lens of, I don't have to do what everyone around me is doing to be successful either as a mom or as a business owner, I just need to do what I would respond to. Thank you. Bye bye. Because most likely your audience is going to respond that way as well.
[00:22:57] : Mm hmm. No, I [00:23:00] totally agree again. We, we do. We don't oftentimes have the courage to stand out and do what it is that we feel called to do. So I am sure listeners are going to feel called to check out your upcoming webinar. So where can they learn more about that and connect with you? They can do one of two things.
[00:23:20]: They can either go to podcasther. com forward slash masterclass and they can register or they can come find me on Instagram at it's Joanne Bolt and they can just DM me the word playbook and either way we can get them set up with the, with the webinar and I can teach them those secrets to gaining some visibility.
[00:23:40] : Yeah the savviest people are doing those things. So I'm interested to check it out and see if I will learn something new. So I will join, I love learning from others. So I can't wait to check it out. And I'll leave all of those details in the show notes. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne.
[00:23:57] : It's been awesome connecting with [00:24:00] you.