Lorraine Ball - Ep 10

Tori Barker: [00:00:00] Welcome to A Journey of Empowerment and Amplified Voices. This is the Creative Visionaries Podcast. Your guide to unlocking the full potential of podcasting and beyond. Our vision is bold. To empower and amplify voices through creative marketing solutions, expert podcast coaching, and a vibrant, inclusive community.

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Hi everyone. Thanks so much for joining us again on the Creative Visionaries. Podcast today. I am [00:01:00] super excited to introduce you to our guests. Our guest is an entrepreneur, an author, a professional speaker, and a host of more than a few words podcast. She brings creative ideas, practical tips, and decades of real world experience to every conversation.

Welcome Lorraine Ball.

Lorraine Ball: It is so nice to be here. Thank you so much for the invite.

Tori Barker: So tell us a little bit about who you are for those who are not familiar with you.

Lorraine Ball: So, um, the short answer is I, I consider myself a digital strategist. I fell in love with digital marketing and I've had a lot of fun playing with it over the years.

But my background is classic marketing. I started in corporate before there was such a thing as the. Internet is a marketing platform. I remember when companies used to say things like, well, we don't really need a website. Who's [00:02:00] going to look for us online? And went through that journey with them all the way through to digital advertising and content generation.

And the thing that I love is that the through line is still Marketing basics, which apply to both.

Tori Barker: I love that. And you and I have a, you know, we're talking before we hit record. We have a similar kind of background and, and corporate marketing, and then starting your own digital marketing agency and falling in love with podcasting and, and just continuing to grow and help other people learn, um, marketing for themselves.

So talk about, so you had a digital marketing agency and. At what point did you start

Lorraine Ball: podcasting? So I started the agency as a traditional company back in 2002. And so we were doing traditional marketing. We were just getting our toes wet in digital marketing and had this intern who was like, you know, you really [00:03:00] like to talk.

And I went, yeah, I do. And he said, you know, you should do a podcast. And so this was actually late 2009. The. Current version of more than a few words. We, we officially have launch date of, I think, January 3rd or something, 2010. But in those early days, it was kind of the Wild West of podcasting. People really didn't know what the medium was or how it was different from radio.

And so we were treating it like internet radio. Um, we had a call in show, if you could imagine. I don't know how long we did that, but I will tell you the answer is too long. We absolutely, uh, the nightmares of doing that and we finally went, okay, this is crazy. We're going to stop doing that. But we continued, we were still tied to [00:04:00] the idea of Internet radio 30 minute programs.

Well, you know, as a host, some guests are good for 15, some are great for 45. And every now and then you have one that it's painful to get them to talk for 20. So going through that process and also as the medium was maturing, recognizing podcasts aren't internet radio. They are a being unto themselves and you can be as long or as short you, you can do it any way you want.

You can have sponsors or not have sponsors. You can aggressively promote your business or. Not even really talk about your business and it's really up to you as the host and the podcast creator and I Loved that and I loved experimenting with all those different formats along the [00:05:00] way

Tori Barker: I love that because for somebody who's been in podcasting so long you've seen the changes from like you said What is podcasting?

Right. Is it's an online radio or, you know, is it just a show or how does, how does it differentiate itself? And now it's like all the rage, it's the huge buzz. People are jumping on the bandwagon while it's still moving. Right. So you've seen the evolution of podcasting and, and you still see the value in it.

Lorraine Ball: Oh, absolutely.

I love that you have an opportunity to bring something of value to your audience. And in doing so, it's really not any different than when you would go networking. And when I would be in a room with people and I'd be sharing information that I knew and making introductions between maybe my customers and someone else [00:06:00] that I met, but I'm doing it through this vehicle of the podcast. So that's the first thing is that that credibility that establishing yourself as a knowledge expert, but also in this. age where the push to create new original content is more important than ever. Podcasts are a wonderful source of that content with video clips and transcripts and there's so much that you can do to reuse that content.

And, you know, one of the things when, uh, we were working with a lot of our SEO clients, we got to this point where we're like, stop creating new content. You've been blogging for five years.

Let's go into your archive. Let's add a picture. Let's let's repurpose some of that. And podcasting is just that next layer of content that you can break [00:07:00] apart, put back together, rearrange, and never bore your audience.

Tori Barker: Yeah. And I, you know, I talk about, um, podcasting as a marketing tool. So a toolbox, you know, something that you have in your toolbox.

It's just like social media marketing or video marketing or email marketing. Like it's the new form of creating content. And marketing, but through video, through blogging in it, it's almost like it encompasses everything, which is what I love about it. Right? So it's the digital marketing and all of those aspects that you can just take from one piece of content and it just explodes into all of these other areas.

And so, so talk about how. So you talk to people or the people that you come across, um, how they use the podcast for their toolbox, if you will.

Lorraine Ball: So for, and I'm talk [00:08:00] for a moment, um, specifically my show, and then I'll talk about some other shows. I really spend some time, and I think if you're going to create a podcast to really think about who your audience is.

My audience is. Early stage business owners is the same people that I used to run through a lot of my seminars and classes. Well, the truth with small business owners is they got a lot going on and they don't have time to sit down and watch a 30 minute video. So even if I created a 30 minute video video version of my podcast, that's it's not where they're at.

And so we made decisions about specifically creating little 10 minute episodes and that's what the shows are. And they're designed for a very specific purpose to educate. A business owner on a particular topic and very often with my consulting clients. When I was doing agency work, I'd be having a [00:09:00] conversation with the client.

I'd be like, you know what, I got a podcast episode on this. I'm going to send it to you. Listen to it in your car. On the way to your next meeting so that and okay, here's the other thing after I've been podcasting for almost 14 years. I've been a marketing professional for way more than that. We're not going to talk about how many more years.

I probably could do the show all by myself, but. There is an advantage, just like when you are trying to get your kids to do something and you've been telling them and telling them and they don't listen, but they listen to their friends, parents, or they listen to one of your friends, having a podcast where you're bringing in other experts and you're rubbing shoulders with these people, you start to get perceived to be on the same level.

With these other experts, [00:10:00] and if you're using it in your business, now you can deliver important information to your customers in a voice they haven't heard before, so they pay more attention to it. Love

Tori Barker: that. That is so strategic, and, and I want people to, if you didn't catch that, hit pause, go back and re listen to the last, like, 30 seconds, 60 seconds of what you just said.

Because that's so important and, and reiterating to your audience what they need to hear and being a resource for them, whether it's from your voice or like you said, maybe they need to hear it from somebody else, but you're associated in that conversation. So you're not discounted in any way. I think sometimes people fear like, well, if I bring somebody else on my show, they're going to think they're the expert and not me.

And so it's like, you have to get that out of your mindset because it's. It's the [00:11:00] conversation that you're facilitating and the association and the connection in the, in the relationships that you're building with the guests as a host are exponential beyond the content. Right? That's like a whole, like, there's, this is an onion and we're peeling layers and layers of this onion because there's so much that comes through podcasting that I don't think people really understand.

They, they see at face value, but they don't see the underlying pieces of the value that podcasting can bring.

Lorraine Ball: And, you know, while you said that, I really want to touch on something else that I think is incredibly valuable if you do it well, and that is the strategic alliances. If you are inviting other people that are in your industry, that Are connected and relevant to your customers beyond just the podcast.

There is an opportunity to introduce them to your audience for them to introduce you to their audience [00:12:00] in the last two years. I've been a speaker at several virtual summits that have been organized by people who've been guests on my show and the organizers have come to me and said, Hey, do you know anyone else?

I got hundreds of people I can bring to the table. Um, I have, um, done giveaway promotions where a bunch of, again, Digital marketers all with their own areas of expertise put together a promotional bundle one email sign in, you get everything in the bundle and we all get the contact information from the people that were interested in our offers.

So those collaborations happen when you have. The right people on the other side of the microphone.

Tori Barker: And I think to that point, it's, um, abundance, right? You have to think in the mindset of abundance that there's [00:13:00] enough business out there for everyone that not everyone's your ideal client. And when, like, both of us have been a part of digital marketing networks and memberships and groups with people who do exactly the same thing we do.

But not exactly, right? Like just like six degrees different or whatever it might be. And so that it doesn't mean that you can't co mingle or network or be connected to those people. You should absolutely be connected to those people. Because like you said, there's so much more that can come from collectively joining together to help one another.

Um, you know, introduced to new people, bring into your community, go on speaking engagements have on podcasts. Like, there's just so much more that can come from it. And, and just like you said, the introduction or relationships that you build from podcasting just. Sims, that next step. Absolutely.

Lorraine Ball: Absolutely.

And, uh, we, uh, I did something fun and it worked out really well. I'm going to do it again [00:14:00] is, you know, all of these really smart people dropped by my show. And so I pulled 18 of them. collected articles, and published a book. You know what? In the first book, there are really no articles for me. I'm just the editor.

Now in the second one, I'm going to do a few more. Six months after the launch, I still see things popping up in my feed as Lori tags Danielle and talks about her chapter. They're talking to each other. They're talking to me. And together we are building awareness for everybody that is in that collection.

Tori Barker: Yeah. Tell everyone what the name of your book is.

Lorraine Ball: So the podcast is more than a few words, and the book is more than a few written words. I just love that. I do too. Um, and I, I wish I could take credit, but actually [00:15:00] a friend of mine who's been with me through a lot of my podcasting journey, I was talking about it and she's like, yeah, you know what you should call it.

And it was Rebecca's idea. And I just love it. I just love it. And um, it's available on Amazon. And, uh, I, I just think it's a fun way to, again, Educate my audience, demonstrate my connections to other professionals and what I bring to the table.

Tori Barker: Yeah, so for our listeners who may, um, either be thinking about a podcast.

That are business owners or just getting started with a podcast. How do you, what would you say to them to keep them motivated to jump into podcasting, go all in and, and stick with it like you have for so long?

Lorraine Ball: Okay, so full confession. Um, I'm not the, well, I, you know what, I think I'm fairly [00:16:00] typical. We did it for a few years.

I had a co host. I lost my co host. I kind of lost steam for about a year and then, and then really came back as I re, sort of figured out where I wanted to be. So it's evolving. It is evolving. Um, so the first thing I would say is if you think you want to do a podcast, record five or six episodes before you ever go live because The initial adrenaline rush wears off.

All of a sudden, you know, you have six episodes in the can and then you get busy and you have three episodes in the can and then you're even busier and oh my god, I need an episode this week. And so I would say, um, number one, really think about who your audience is and really focus in on them. There are too many podcasts and if you're generic, no one is going to care.

If you don't have that, just like in [00:17:00] your business, why should I listen to your podcast? If you can't tell someone, here's what makes this show different. Here's why this show is going to be a good fit for you. You're going to have a hard time building an audience. So that's number one. Number two, I think, um, having the episodes in the can, I think listening to a lot of other podcasts and Trying on a couple of styles till you figure out what works for you.

And don't be afraid to change. I mean, oh my God, you know, if, if, if we hadn't changed, I'd still be doing a live call in show. Oh, never, never, never, never want to do that again. And but but you know if you go far enough back in my archives you can find those. You know, and we experimented with the length of the show.

I've had [00:18:00] a full, a regular co host and I've done this with just a lot of guests and do do it because he'll love it. Yeah. Um, there are a million ways to generate business and create leads for your business. And if you don't love podcasting, don't do it. Don't, don't do it because it comes through. I can hear it in your voice, your guests feel it.

Don't do it.

Tori Barker: Yeah. Now, what about, um, the, like, podcasting conferences like PodFest, Podcast Movement? Talk about those. Have you attended those? Are they beneficial? What can people gain from stuff like that? Um,

Lorraine Ball: I went to ShePodcast. In

I'm trying to remember it was it was obviously pre pandemic and I loved [00:19:00] loved loved the event. I want to say, I think I went in 2018 so I didn't go when I first started out and I loved it. I. Met some other amazing podcasters. So, um, met some people I ultimately had on the show learned a ton, even though I had been podcasting for a long time, the medium was changing a lot at that point.

A lot of new technology, a lot of new platforms and getting a chance to be exposed to that. There were some people that were doing things that I had just never thought about. So I really enjoyed it. Um, one of my favorite speakers was actually, the breakout wasn't even about podcasting. She was, she worked for, um, the moth radio hour, if you're familiar with it, it is a [00:20:00] storytelling, um, movement.

And they do live storytelling events, kind of open mic, they work with with people who think they have a story. You can also catch. They have a great podcast too. Yeah, but she did a workshop on building a story. And that was, it was so much fun and it was so interesting and different. And then it. There was this thing called COVID.

Tori Barker: Not sure if you've heard of it.

Lorraine Ball: So that. Um, took the wind out of the sails. Um, I would like to try, uh, if my schedule allows it, I would really like to try in 24 to get back and again, do another conference. I got a lot of friends, a lot of people I have met that I met virtually and never met in person. And I don't know that it's something you have to do every year but I think.

If you're [00:21:00] really getting into it, um, look for a conference that's got multiple tracks, the beginning, intermediate, advanced track, right? Go mostly to your track, wherever you are. But then if there's a topic and one of the others hop over, yeah,

Tori Barker: for sure. So we'll wrap this up with a marketing question cause we're both marketing gals, right?

So one, what is one of the best marketing, um, what is the, one of the best ways that you've used marketing to promote your podcast?

Lorraine Ball: So, um, I think so much of what you, um, the audiences that you reach with each episode are so dependent on your guests, um, creating good social share graphics for my guests, tagging and cross tagging.

And the other thing that's [00:22:00] actually kind of fun now that I've got enough in the library. I put together collections. Because my episodes are so short, three, you know, they're 10 minutes, I'll do three interviews on the same topic, and I will deliberately pick people who were good guests. And by good guests, I mean, not just that they were interesting, but they played well when the episode went live.

And I look at the numbers and I'm like, Oh. They were sharing it. I can tell they were sharing and promoting it. And so then I put together a collection of three people. I do a totally different graphic. Love it. Maybe I do a little animated graphic to promote it. And I link to a page where you can download those three related episodes.

And, um, as you start building your library, I think one of the things that we forget Is you look at your listening numbers, maybe you don't have that many downloads [00:23:00] for a single episode, but over time you've had a lot of people that have listened, go back and re share. Right. And reconnect with that fabulous guest and say, Hey, I know you were on the show two years ago, but.

You know, your episode was really good. Here's a new graphic. Let's share it again. Yeah. Nobody says no to that.

Tori Barker: Oh my gosh, that is so great. I mean, Lorraine, you have been, uh, phenomenal sharing some, some amazing nuggets. Like I'm seriously people, if you are listening, like there's so many little pieces that Lorraine has, has mentioned that you can just cherry pick and pull from and implement one at a time. into your podcast, into your business to help move you forward and continue that momentum for growth in your business, your podcast and your life.

Lorraine, so people should definitely listen to your [00:24:00] podcast. How can they get in touch with you? Where can they find

Lorraine Ball: you? So the best place to find me is on LinkedIn. You know, I, um, yes, I'm on Facebook all those other places. But. Where you're going to see the majority of my business content. And you want to talk about business, come find me on LinkedIn.

Tori Barker: Love it. Well, thank you again so much for being a guest on the show. It has been a pleasure to talk with you and to share this message. So thank you so much again.

Lorraine Ball: Thank you.

Tori Barker: Thanks so much for listening to the Creative Visionaries Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe, leave us a review, or share with a friend. Also, make sure to visit us online at creativevisionariespodcast. com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, and stay tuned for more episodes to come.

And remember, it's time to tap into your true potential and unleash [00:25:00] your inner visionary.

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