Mastering Podcasting and Strategy with Aeoliana Elliott

In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Aeoliana Elliott discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.

Aeoliana (pronounced a-o-lee-ana) is a podcast launch strategist, lucky wife, hockey mom, paralegal, and spiritual journey enthusiast. As a podcast strategist, she specializes in helping female podcasters who are facing overwhelm and losing sight of their purpose, reconnect with their vision and their passion.

You can connect with Aeoliana on her website, in her Facebook Group, on Instagram and TikTok.

Transcript

Rita Suzanne: 0:27

Hi, this is Mom Owned and Operated. I am Rita, suzanne, and today I have my guest Aoleana with me. I am so excited to chat with you today all about podcasting. So, yes, please tell us all about you, your family and your business.

Aeoliana Elliott: 0:45

Hi Rita, thanks for having me. Like you said, my name is Aoleana. I am from Tampa, florida, originally from Puerto Rico, but we've been here since I don't know forever. I'm married. My husband and I just celebrated 19 years last Tuesday and we have a 12-year-old son who plays hockey hence the hockey stick back there. And I'm a paralegal and I also have my own business. I'm a podcast launch strategist and basically what I do is I help podcasters get their voices out there with authenticity, integrity and just balance and self-care.

Rita Suzanne: 1:31

And how do you do that?

Aeoliana Elliott: 1:33

So I am working on creating a framework and so my framework, I'm calling it BECAME. And the B stands for balance, the C's there's two C's the C's stand for community and collaboration, the A it's authenticity collaboration. The A is authenticity, the M is mindset mastery and the E is for empowerment, and so I try to infuse all of those things into podcasting. So we'll, as my clients, we talk about the tech stuff, we talk about all the background, all the work that goes into creating, launching, producing, recording, editing, marketing a podcast. But I try to focus a lot on the self-care part of it, on the balance part of it, on realizing that you can follow your passion, you can follow whatever you want to do and still maintain balance in your life. You can do everything. You just can't do it all at once. You have to pick and choose what you do, when and how much focus you put into everything.

Rita Suzanne: 2:39

So what led you to decide to do the podcast, marketing or launching?

Aeoliana Elliott: 2:45

So in I'll give you the short version. So in 2019, right before COVID, I was working as a paralegal and I ended up in the hospital with a double kidney infection. The law firm I was working for fired me while I was hospitalized, and so I had to really quickly find something else, which I ended up finding something. I was working as a scheduler for a construction company and then COVID hit. But because I was working for construction, we were considered essential workers, so I still had to go into the office, so there was a lot of time on my hands.

Aeoliana Elliott: 3:25

I've always listened to podcasts, and but it wasn't until 2019 2020. While I really noticed the learning power, the teaching power that it had, and so I dove into learning how to produce, how to edit, how to record, how to publish all of those things, started doing VA work, doing that, had a couple of clients doing that, and then I transitioned into more of the strategy part of it and I did some management, some launch strategy, and then realized that I really like helping people launch their podcasts. I really like guiding people through that process. I'm a projector in human design, so I really that guiding part was really what drew me, and so I just I like helping people realize that they have a voice, they have something to say, they have something that matters, and if you have that pull to have a podcast, it's because someone's waiting to hear what you have to say. So I like to help people find that.

Rita Suzanne: 4:36

I love that. So I started my business in 2014. And one of the reasons why I started my business was because I was driving to work every day. I was living in Southern California and, you know, commuting is a thing there, and so this was before I even considered being a designer or you know, doing any of the things. I just knew that I wanted to start a business. I just didn't know what I was going to do, but I was listening to podcasting. You know. It was like Pat Flynn, smart Passive Income, the Fizzle Show back then, and Amy Porterfield. Those were the three podcasts that I listened to on repeat every single day.

Rita Suzanne: 5:20

And this is obviously back when podcasting was newer. There wasn't a lot of competition back then and it was something that I just loved and I, you know, and I feel like it was really kind of what drove me, like my desire to want to start a business, you know, because I was so intrigued by it and I always wanted to start a podcast. But it wasn't until all this stuff happened with, you know, my own personal life, that I realized, like, how I was going to start a podcast. I feel like a lot of people they think that they want to start a podcast, but they just don't know what type of podcast. Do you feel like that's an issue that comes up with?

Aeoliana Elliott: 6:06

100%, 100%. And also one of the big things with people is that a lot of times they think, okay, well, what I have to say has already been said, and it's been said better than I've said it. So what can I add to it? There's nothing I can add to it. You and I know it takes almost seven or more times for you to hear something, for it to really register.

Aeoliana Elliott: 6:35

So repetition is key, and it might be something that you've heard a thousand times or that person has heard a thousand times, but it's until they hear it from you that it's going to resonate, that it's going to click something in their brain that's going to say, oh yeah, I should do that, cause I do that all the time, like, for instance, with my son. I tell him things all the time, like one thing we tell him is that you don't lose. You either win or you learn. My coach has been telling me this for the last year you either get the result you want or you get a lesson to get you to the outcome that you want. It's the same thing, but it didn't like I'm saying it but I'm not following it, like it's not registering. Until she said it, I'm like well, I'll be damned Like I say this all the time and I'm not practicing it, so it's even with ourselves. We do it all the time.

Rita Suzanne: 7:32

Yeah, I think it's hard as parents like we want the best for our kids, but we are sometimes hypocrites because we don't really even follow our own advice. We just try to, you know, be a better version of ourselves. You know we're so hard on ourselves anyways, so, yeah, so. So then you, I feel like a lot of times, businesses develop out of a need that we see in other people, like I felt like when I started my business, I was, in addition to listening to podcasts, I was reading blogs all the time, and everybody would always talk about websites.

Rita Suzanne: 8:11

And so I was like, oh, I was reading blogs all the time and everybody would always talk about websites, and so I was like, oh, I'll just be a web designer. You know, um, because and and it wasn't as if there was no competition it was just like I thought this is something that everybody needs, um, and so so did you feel like, by being some launch strategist, that was a piece of podcasting that you saw your clients getting hung up on, like they would get to a certain point and then they would just stop.

Aeoliana Elliott: 8:41

Yeah, so one of the things I noticed with a lot of my clients and with a lot of people in general, is when they want to start a podcast, they start researching how to do it and then when you start to see all the work that it takes to launch one, you kind of get stuck because you're like, well, where do I start? What do I do? How do I do it? Where do I get this information? Where do I get that? And so you're like almost stuck, you don't know where to go. And so, yeah, I did.

Aeoliana Elliott: 9:11

I noticed that I know even for me, like I'm launching mine end of this year, and even for me helping other people launch, it was even hard for me, like, what do I want to call it? What do I want to talk about? How do I want my format to be? What do I want my style? Where do I want what platform? How often do I want to publish it? You know things like that. Do I want to have guests? Do I want to do it by myself? What's my cover art going to look like? You know what is it going to be branded? The same as everything else and all of those things. When listening to podcasts, you don't realize how much work it takes to get one up and running, and so, yeah, that that was. That was my push.

Rita Suzanne: 9:57

I know I feel like I've been wanting to have a solo podcast, right, like I've always thought, because I have other. I have clients who have solo podcasts or have their own podcast where they actually use it as a driving force to get clients right. It's the reason why, like, how they are filling their funnels is by using their podcast, and I think it's such a smart strategy if you know how to do it. But if you have never sat down to record a solo episode, oh my goodness, it's so hard, it is. It is so hard. And to hear people do it and then where it sounds so effortlessly done, it is amazing.

Rita Suzanne: 10:47

I find an interview style to be so much easier, right, because you're playing off somebody, somebody, you're looking at each other and you're acknowledging the points and whatnot, and it makes it easier. But when you're sitting there by yourself, even if you have no feedback yeah, you have notes, there's not a it's so much harder and I, and and I just um, I, I just think that it's such a good when somebody comes up with a good solo podcast like you. I just have to admire that, because it's hard yeah, yeah, I agree.

Aeoliana Elliott: 11:25

Yeah, it is hard like for I. I'm starting it solo, but I'm just taking my blog posts and reiterating those and talking about those. Um, but definitely for me, at some point I want to do an interview one because I'm just more comfortable talking to someone like the. The back and forth talking with someone is a lot easier than trying to make something interesting for 20 minutes all by yourself.

Rita Suzanne: 11:55

Yeah, I just I and I think that, um, I think that it's a really good strategy, though, to use it like that. Do you feel like? A lot of your clients are trying to use podcasting as a strategy to to increase their business income or like what are their goals?

Aeoliana Elliott: 12:17

So it varies, but that's. I'm glad you said that, because at the beginning, when I start with my clients, the first thing I have them do is figure out what their goal is for their podcasts. And goals are flexible, they can change. So maybe for these, you know, for this quarter your goal is, you know, more listeners. Next quarter it might be monetizing it.

Aeoliana Elliott: 12:41

Um, but what a lot of people get hung up on is not knowing what that why is not knowing what that goal is? And so they're comparing their beginning podcast to someone who's been podcasting for five, six years, you know, and that person that's been podcasting for five, six years could have a team of people whereas you're starting out. So you're the one recording, you're the one editing, you're the one publishing, you're the one promoting, you're the one marketing. So you know, just realizing what is your goal for your podcast, what is your purpose for it. For this, you know, for these three months or however long you want to set the goal for, yeah, I, that's that. I really like that you brought the goal thing, because that's very important.

Rita Suzanne: 13:28

Yeah, I think it's super important, you know, to have goals for all the things that we're doing, especially when it comes to your marketing. I think that a lot of people don't really have goals. They just, when it comes to your marketing, they're just out there just throwing shit up against the wall and like let's see what sticks, let's see is this going to work? But you know, and then oftentimes it doesn't, and then they wonder why and it's frustrating. So, as far as marketing your podcast, what are some strategies that you have seen that are actually working in today's landscape?

Aeoliana Elliott: 14:07

So, in today's landscape, I'd say, starting with what I heard called a launch squad and that is a group of people from the beginning whether it be friends, family you know followers that you already have whatever already following your podcast, already waiting for you to do something.

Aeoliana Elliott: 14:27

The other thing is, like you said, if you have your own business, whether that's coaching services, whatever it is that you're doing use your podcast as an ad space, um. A lot of people spend a lot of money on ad space, um to be on other people's podcasts and a lot of people will actually pay people you know, affiliates or whatever to um advertise on their podcast, where you can just do it for free for your own stuff. You know, if you have a launch coming up or you have a product you want to talk about or you have something specific that goes with the theme of the podcast you're talking about that week, use that space. It's free, it's yours, it belongs to you, and the beauty about podcasts is that they last for so long. Like I've heard a lot of podcasts, followed a lot of podcasts who aren't around anymore but, their information is still out there and it's still valid and it's still true.

Aeoliana Elliott: 15:29

And then just take your time With marketing. Just take your time. You can try a bunch of things. You can try and fail at a bunch of things. You can try, you know, try and fail at a bunch of things, but keep trying. Don't give up because if in three, three, six months it doesn't work out, Podcasting is a long haul kind of game. It's not very few podcasters will go viral quickly. Usually those people already have bankroll behind them and, like I said before, have a team, you know, an army of people working behind the scenes. When you're on your own, you've got to give it time. Keep doing the thing, keep taking the action, but realize that you're. It's going to take time, so be patient with yourself.

Rita Suzanne: 16:15

I like to look at it as a so for marketing I like to think of. In today's world, we need a three-tiered approach, right? So we have our local networking. Right, we have our social networking. But then we have our social networking, but then we have our online networking, and so our online is our website, our seo, our email list, and podcasting is inside of that.

Rita Suzanne: 16:48

If you have a podcast, and the reason why you have your podcast as a marketing channel is just because it's more of like a long form strategy that you can utilize and, plus, it's so good for relationship building, right, for nurturing, absolutely Right. And even if you don't have guests on there, the good thing about it is that people can hear your voice and there's a connection that people make with you based on hearing your voice versus just reading your content. And so I think that you know it's it's super important to actually have some form of long form content, whether we're talking about YouTube videos, whether we're talking about a podcast or some type of content strategy that is long form, long term, but, like you said, they take a long time in order to just like. Seo is a long term strategy. It's going to work for you, but it just takes time.

Aeoliana Elliott: 17:52

Yeah, it just takes time. You got to give it time. And then, too, with you know, other forms of long, long form content. You not everyone takes in information the same way. So like I have friends who they love email marketing but they don't love podcasts, and then I have people who love blogs and love podcasts but not email marketing. And then I have people who like audio and love podcasts but not email marketing. And then I have people who like audio podcasts but not video. Then there's people who like video but not audio. So the more places that you're in without burning yourself out, the more places that you're in, the more likely people are to find you and the more likely you are to build relationships, because you're catering to all these different people without really doing anything different, if that makes sense.

Rita Suzanne: 18:46

Yeah, and I think that that's important too. So I think that AI and like all these tools and everything else has really helped us in order to do things like that, Like we were talking about before we started recording, about some of these tools that they have now, where where they will kind of extract some of the video for us and make the social media posts for us and make the content, make it more digestible for us and make it easier. So if you cannot afford to, you know, have this huge team because maybe that's just not in your budget right now, but you can afford to automate some things in order to kind of get everywhere you know without without burning yourself out, because burnout is really overwhelming.

Aeoliana Elliott: 19:41

And automating systems, all of those things. As you go through it, you'll learn your own process of doing things and you'll learn your own flow of how you like things done. But that's not going to happen until you start actually doing it. Like you can't pre-plan how your flow is going to be. I mean you can, in a way you can template it, but you you're going to have changes to it because you know things aren't going to always flow. Your energy isn't always going to be the same. You're not always going to have. You know you might have this week you might have six hour time block, but then you know, like school's about to be over this Friday, so the time blocks that I had aren't going to be there next week because you know he's off of school and we're doing you know things. So just being flexible, being able to look at what you're doing, see what's what's working, see what's not working, where can you improve it? Where can it benefit you? What kinds of things can you systemize? Can you make a template for? Can you, um, you know what's repeatable that you can just set it and forget it, kind of thing.

Aeoliana Elliott: 20:52

Like I have my my blog posts go out to my email list. I write it at the. I write all four blogs at the beginning of the month. I write all of my emails and every Friday my blog post goes out to my email list. It's scheduled, it's done, and then every Monday I set up an email and then it goes out every Wednesday, like a nurture email goes out every Wednesday. So those are things that I've, you know, learned to kind of make it easy. Yeah, like make it easier for me, like I know a lot of people don't like batching cause they're like, but I can't put that much time in. I'm not saying three, four hours, like, if you only have an hour, do that. If you only have 15 minutes, do that. I used to think that multitasking was a good thing until I realized that I'm not really doing any one thing efficiently. I'm doing a lot of things haphazardly.

Rita Suzanne: 21:50

Right right.

Aeoliana Elliott: 21:51

And so when I started to actually even if it's just 10 minutes of focused work, I ended up doing so much more than what I thought I was doing multitasking- yeah, the pressure, pressure planning or the pressure working works, I think, a lot better, especially when I'm doing recording.

Rita Suzanne: 22:12

If I say I'm going to take an entire day to record, I'm probably not going to get enough done, right, what I'm going to do is say, listen, I have two hours to do this, and whether or not I get five things recorded or I get two things recorded, it doesn't matter, as long as I get something Right.

Rita Suzanne: 22:35

Right, a minimum of two is the goal, right, but if I'm able to get more than that's great. But you know, by not putting those expectations of, like, I have to get six done, this is a, you know, it's a, you know a no, you know no negotiations. But I think that when you have that, I guess, leeway, that you know that takes that pressure off where you feel to where there, you know, I'll forget about it, I'll just keep working, I'll keep working, I'll keep working until I get those six. Then I don't know if you're ever going to get it, because you there's so much pressure that you're not going to be able to perform. And, um, I know that sometimes I feel like, you know, especially because we have so many things going on, I'm not really good. You know, like I'm not good to to write, or I'm not good to record that day, you know, and so I just don't, I just don't do it because it's not.

Aeoliana Elliott: 23:35

It's just not the day for me. Yeah, and that's going to happen. Like our energy fluctuates, you know, as moms, as partners, as women, our energy fluctuates depending, depending on the moon, depending on the sun, depending on the stars, depending on the day. You know, like all we have a ton of things going on all at once, and so you know that's another thing that I tell my clients a lot is honor your energy. Like if you say I'm going to, I'm going to batch for an hour and then not do anything for the rest of the day, be okay with that, you know, sell yourself on why that's a good decision.

Rita Suzanne: 24:12

And you know, maybe next week you'll be like, okay, I'm going to do four hours, and then you happen to be able to do four hours, but you know, it's almost like, it's like a form of self care, right, recognizing that you are just not there, you're not in that headspace, and maybe it's because you have you know some other things going on, or you know, it's just you know, it's just not the day, it's just, it's just not. It's just like you said, the hormones are going crazy or the pressure is just too much, or you know who knows what's happening. So, since we're mentioning self-care a little bit, let's talk about what you do for yourself. You know, I always talk about that because I feel like as moms, as business owners, we often will forget about ourselves, and I love to revisit that and just talk about what are you doing for yourself.

Aeoliana Elliott: 25:09

So I journal, I try to journal every morning. I have a prayer journal that I write into every morning. I do EFT tapping, I like. I love affirmations. I've tried meditation, but I can't, my brain can't stop long enough to do a meditation. But I would really like to do meditation, but those are the things I do. But I would really like to do meditation, but those are the things I do. I like listening to music, going for walks, you know, watching, sitting down, just spending time with my husband and my son is, you know, really relaxing at the end of the day, regardless of what is it we're watching. Usually it's a hockey game, but sometimes it's a movie. Last week or earlier this week, we watched Bohemian Rhapsody, all three of us together. So just things like that. Spending time with my family, just kind of. You know, spending time writing, journaling, you know things like that.

Rita Suzanne: 26:06

Yeah, and and and that's good, Like whatever fills you and makes you it makes you feel good. I used to journal fills you and makes you, it makes you feel good. I used to journal so I used to be so good at all of my self-care stuff, right, I used to be so into the miracle morning and I don't know if you've ever heard of that.

Aeoliana Elliott: 26:24

I've heard of that, yeah, yeah.

Rita Suzanne: 26:25

Yeah, and I used to be such a advocate for that when my kids were younger. Now that they're teenagers, the schedules have changed and things are a lot different, but I used to make it a habit to get up a half hour early and do my miracle morning. And, you know, part of that is meditating and it's like five minutes, but still, it's still very hard, um, you know, but I used to love to do that because you, you know, you spend five minutes on each thing, and then you would be, and then you felt like, okay, I've accomplished these things for the day and, um, for whatever reason, I can't get back into any type of um of those things consistently. Yeah, you know, and it and, and I don't know why, I haven't been able to get back in. I'm still, I'm working my way back into it, but I haven't gotten there yet. So let's talk about where people can find you online. Where do you hang out on?

Aeoliana Elliott: 27:28

social Best place is my website. Everything's on there All my socials, all my stuff, free stuff, paid stuff, my blog, how you can get on my email list, all of the things, and that's wwwtop, t-o-p, shelf, s-h-e-l-f, virtualservicescom, servicescom, and I have a blog. Like I said, I have an email newsletter. I have a podcast group, podcast group, facebook group. Podcast is coming at the end of this year called podcast strategy with heart. That's the name of the Facebook group as well. I'm on TikTok. I'm on Instagram. The place where I'm the most active would have to be Instagram and Facebook. But yeah, I mean, you'll see all of my things, you'll see podcasting stuff, you'll see lots of family stuff, hockey stuff, just all of me in a nutshell, is through there. So, yeah, come find me, come say hi, tell me.

Aeoliana Elliott: 28:35

You heard me with Rita and yeah, if anybody has any questions, anything at all, I am an open book, I am. I love helping, I love guiding, I love leading people to what their purpose is when it comes to podcasting, cause I think there's so many people out there and it's a great form of self-care as well. You know getting sometimes, you know going through trauma and things like that. Putting it out in your voice helps with certain things, and I know it has for me, listening to other people realizing that I'm not alone. You know those have been really helpful and so, yeah, that's that's where I am, that's where you can find me.

Rita Suzanne: 29:22

Well, I will say, just to wrap it up, I will. I will agree with that last point that you made For me. When I started podcasting, it was after my big trauma, and the reason why I started podcasting was because I had isolated myself so much and I wanted to reconnect with other moms and, you know, specifically mom business owners. Because I had isolated myself so much and I needed to know, like, how were they doing it Right? I was at a point where I was struggling so much and I needed to know, like, how were they doing it Right? I was at a point where I was struggling so much and I wanted to hear, like, how are other moms able to, you know, raise their families and run a business? But also, like, take care of themselves?

Rita Suzanne: 30:07

Because I had stopped taking care of myself, and that's why I really highlight that taking care of yourself, because it's so important. You know, I had stopped really focusing on me because I was focused now on, you know, four kids and and all of this, and it was just, it was just overwhelming and so, by talking to other women, it really helped me and so it was. You know, it was and is a form of therapy for me and I love it, and you know so. To me I think it's great, and if anybody's, you know, wants it, I think that they definitely need to get in touch with you and, you know, figure out how they can launch their own podcast as well. Yes, please do, yeah. So thank you so much for being a guest. It's been a pleasure.

Aeoliana Elliott: 30:55

Thank you so much for having me, Rita. I enjoyed it.

Rita Suzanne: 30:58

Thank you.