Transcribed (unedited) by https://otter.ai.
Kim Stewart 0:04
Hey y'all. I'm Kim host of book marketing mania. And I'm so thrilled you're tuning in today as my guest is my sweet friend bellmunt nose. Velma is a leadership coach, author of the valuable leader and host of your leadership chat podcast. I couldn't wait to talk to Velma and share with you all about her starting her podcast to help market her book, how she connects and collaborates with guest as a podcast guest herself to land speaking engagements and client or reader referrals and tips that she shares with you. If you are thinking of starting an interview podcast yourself. You're in for a treat today. So let's get to it. Hey, Velma, welcome to but marketing mania. I'm so thrilled you're here today to serve my listeners.
Velma Knowles 0:57
Well, thank you so much, Kim. I'm excited to be here with you and everyone else that's listening in. Yeah,
Kim Stewart 1:02
me too. So y'all heard me in the introduction. Talk about Velma being the author of the valuable leader book, which I love so much and think everybody should read it to learn how to grow their own leadership skills no matter who you're leading, but also Velma host, your leadership chat podcast. So Velma, tell us a little bit about starting your podcast and how that's helped you market your book.
Velma Knowles 1:24
Okay. Well, thank you so much, Kim. And thanks, everyone for tuning in. First, I should say that I am not the expert on podcast or video podcasts. That's Kim. No, but but, you know, I wrote the book The valuable leader and contributed and then wrote another book and contributed co authored two other books. And it's been a while of just putting that out there. And the Lord laid it on my heart that I should use video and audio as a means to share with other people about the books that I've written and the content and workshops and things that I provide for my clients. And in 2022, I kept feeling called to use video and audio. And I need to tell you all okay, yes, I am a professional speaker. But I did not want to use video. I don't like to hear my voice on audio. And then I had to get over myself and say this is not about me. So what happened was I kept feeling called to do it. And that calling came with resistance because I felt very much afraid to do it. And so fear struck in and I was like, no, no, no, and I procrastinated. Like I think maybe some of you had been in my shoes, wanted to do something and you just like, let fear stop you. But I just decided that it was time for me to obey. And I was chatting with another friend of mine business colleague and speaker. And I was telling him that I wanted to do a podcast and I wanted to use it as a way to help my listeners and my audience learns from some of the things that I have learned from and from other valuable leaders as well. And he said, well, let's just turn on the audio and video right now let's turn on Zoom. And so of course we did. And I, you know, I recorded it. But then I put it on the site and say, Yeah, I did it, check the list. And I didn't publish it for a couple of weeks. And then someone else I was talking to asked, and so few people started raising their hand saying we'd I'd love to be on your podcast. And I was thinking I don't really have a podcast. But anyway, I just went ahead and I recorded a few sessions. And we're during the process for signature questions to surfaced. And what I mean by a signature question is, it's a question that I, I ask every guest, so I go through the same questions every time. And I realized that it's a great way to collect research as well, because you hear different perspectives. And we launched live your leadership chat, which is a video podcast on YouTube. And it is where we just talk with valuable leaders and you get to listen in on some of the lessons that they've learned and valuable tips and strategies about how they grew as a leader, how others have influenced them and how they are now paying it forward to influence others to become valuable leaders in their lives. And so that's kind of how it happened. And I use the book the valuable leader, as the springboard to talk about leadership and use video and audio to help get that message out on your leadership chat. Yeah,
Kim Stewart 4:45
that's so great. You do such a good job of it, Velma, and I'm so glad you talked about because I think you talk about this a lot in your book is you're in a position of leadership when you are in a position of you know, influence. And I think that sometimes as writers and authors we don't always think about That, like, you know, we feel like we do have readers and listeners of our podcast or viewers of our YouTube channel. And we are influencing them right by sharing our messages. But I mean, and I struggle with this too, it's like, but then you kind of step back and realize, oh, yeah, you aren't, you're a leader. By doing that, you know, God has called us to lead in this way. And we are leading people. So I want to just really, you know, have people think about that and follow Velma, because, you know, I think we just all really need to embrace that, that we are leaders, and we want to be developing those skills as well as you know, writers and speakers and things like that. But at the the soul of it is that we are leading people. And so you definitely want to have skills to do that. And so I love that there's, there's so many great points in your book. And then as well as like what you're saying, You're bringing the the points of your book into your podcast, and I love what you were just talking about, you can use that also as a research tool. Like, I think that's so awesome. When people may be thinking about maybe they have a book idea. And you know, by getting on a podcast and talking to other people, you can kind of sort out some of those things you want to talk about in your book and get valuable opinions. And like Velma said, you may just have some core questions that you ask every single person that you interview like that makes it so much easier, I'm sure to, you know, for the but it's just so cool to see how you're working all of that. And I know relationships are a huge value thing for you Velma. And so talk about that, because I think people often think of, you know, when they have a podcast, and they have a book, they're thinking of marketing the book specifically. And they're looking at that as their you know, they're looking for results. And that versus just all the incredible relationships that get built between you and a host if you're a guest, or you and your guest, if you're a host like you're doing both. We just talk about that a little bit of just like all the collaborations that come into that have that have come through your podcast. Yeah, well,
Velma Knowles 6:47
actually, you and I collaborated on several things, because you've been a guest on your leadership chat, too, which I appreciate. And I think your topic, if you haven't had a chance you got to hear Kim, your topic was all about community and collaborating. So you were talking about the importance of that. For me, it's been just an awesome journey. And I think anyone that if you have a book, and you want to leverage podcasts and video as a medium to do it, there's so many wins to it. First and foremost, you become really good at listening to others, and you become skilled, because you're the podcast host. So if you're hosting, you become very skilled in listening and leaning in and just what you're doing, Kim, you're like, summarizing, I like that nugget, or what you just said, and that helps the person that you're interviewing feel like you really being heard. And I think people more than anything in the world, they want you to hear them and in what I say here, really hear their heart. And then the second thing is the, you know, besides the honor of having people want to be on your guests, they also will be willing to refer others to be on your guest. And that's huge because it helps you build a pipeline. I mean, we're recording this, you know, almost with 2023, ending the year, and I've had more referrals to be on the show that started really small than that. Now I'm batched up and people that I have recorded are like, Oh, can you tell me when it's going to air when it's going to air because you'll get such a demand from the referrals, because they will want to build a relationship with you and your guests will want to refer people. But then the flip side of it is, you know, that's your audience and you're building that. One of the cool things is ever since I've done the podcast and been recording, I've had invitations to be on other people's podcasts. And I think right now I'm at 15 Almost 16 In fact, just as a recording as we recording this, I had another invitation from someone just blind invitation saying I saw you out on social media I would love to talk to you about being a guest on my podcast so you get an opportunity to pour into someone else's audience like Kim is giving me this opportunity to really help them you know, find their value share their value with others and just grow to their full God given potential. So there's so many win wins to that and my network has expanded tremendously because you meet so many cool people in the process. Yeah,
Kim Stewart 9:35
that sounds good to get back because you again you are you devote so much time to your relationships Velma and I so admire that and I love that you are a big proponent of other people doing that especially leaders you know, you talk and you teach and coach on people to do that, you know, with their, the teams that they're interacting with or whether they're leading them you know, directly as a manager or just you know, people they're influencing in their lives. So I admire that so much and, and I know that through Whoo. You know, the relationships you've built, there are so many opportunities that come out of it, like you said, so many fruitful things. And I've seen, you know, we've talked through and I've seen you get speaking engagements, you know, people that got referred to you, or they saw you speak, and then they refer you to someone else. And it's just this constant ongoing relationship things. So I would love we just talk a little bit about that, like, just what benefits you have seen for marketing your book, or just, you know, building relationships through these like, what what are some just things that you have seen as wins? Yeah,
Velma Knowles 10:30
sure. So using the podcast, I think, a couple of things that come to mind as far as wins, and helping to market the book. And so they, you know, your leadership chat focuses on the valuable leader, and it focuses on first and foremost, how are you a valuable leader? What are the ways that you're paying it forward? And that helps people to realize what does it take to really lead and my book talks about the seven keys that help you increase your growth, value and influence. And so on the podcast, I kind of hint on some of those or someone will share that. And it helps to reinforce the book and why you would get the book, folks that have listened in have always said they love the fact that it's such a diverse group of industries. And so I've been able to get speaking opportunities because I speak my guests are from the association world or they're from the you know, the finance, war industry, or manufacturing industry, or medical industry. i It's been all across the board. And they bring such different perspectives. So that has helped me to get speaking opportunities and with the speaking opportunities. In fact, Kim, just recently, I spoke to a manufacturing industrial supply Association, and they bought 75 copies of the book. Wow, for the conference attendees on just one session that I was doing. So I was doing one session, I was not their keynote speaker. I was a workshop speaker, and they bought 75 copies of the book for their attendees for that workshop. And that all came about because people are hearing the recordings and videos, they've seeing it that's get shared on social media, and the relationships you build. They're like, Oh, she's hosting your leadership chat. And it makes people realize that you're fully invested, not just in writing the book, but in other people growing from the book as you have. So that's, to me, that was the big win. It's, yeah, I get the speaking engagements out of it. But the best feeling in the world is when someone heard your show, they got your book, and then they write on social media, one or two things from the book. It's just, I couldn't believe it. When I first saw that happen, that kind of benefit is, is something that's just, I don't know, it's a level of significance versus a level of success. Yeah. This over and over the it's kind of something you don't even know is going to happen. So very.
Kim Stewart 13:14
Yeah. Yeah. That's priceless. It's not something you can literally measure, but it has it makes such a huge difference. Yeah, and Hotspur, I have Velma back some time to talk about how you're really good at with your speaking engagements, you know, offering up the book and kind of including that and as part of the package. And yes, really, they people can learn a lot about that as in especially the way you talk about, you know, leadership is such a general topic, you know, but it could go so many different ways, you could talk to so many different associations and, and I like for our listeners to hear about that, because a lot of them most of our listeners are, you know, they're reading Christian nonfiction books, but yet their topics are totally applicable to the secular population as well. And they could be speaking to those too. And so yeah, you just have to really think of how you can really just take this message God laid on your heart and just really maximize it. And I think you're really good at that Velma. So we'll definitely have to maybe have a follow up and talk about that. So I would love for you to share any tips you have for authors that are thinking of starting an interview podcast, like what you're doing, either, you know, on audio one or on YouTube, like what you're doing.
Velma Knowles 14:16
Sure, I think, you know, first and foremost, leave perfection behind because I've been guilty of that, you know, we kind of want it to be perfect. It's going to be out there in the world. And we're like, oh, if I you know, it's got to be right. But, you know, I had a good friend tell me and I put this on a video that I recently did that practice does not make perfect. practice makes permanent. And so my advice would be to start you know, I always tell people don't face you know, don't forget everything and run which is what fear is what held me back, forget everything and just run don't do its face everything and rise. And so if I could encourage any You want today, I would say it doesn't take a lot of equipment. I've been there and I've used those excuses, Oh, I gotta have this kind of mic, I've gotta have this. No, you don't. You just have to have a willing heart and be obedient and know that if you have the call on your heart to leverage podcast or video in any way, to help get your message out to the world, that you're really doing a disservice one to yourself, if you don't just do it, and to your, you know, really depriving someone else of the gifts and the talents and the message that God's laid on your heart. Because he wants you to share them, then our gifts are not meant for us, they're meant for us to share. And so I had to get over my voice on audio, so you guys are gonna have, but my tip would be to not try to be perfect to just do it with whatever equipment you have, you can always get more and better equipment, and you will get better and better at it. I listened to some of the first recordings I did. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I was so off.
Kim Stewart 16:07
Yeah. Oh, me too. Yeah. But now,
Velma Knowles 16:10
I mean, not that it's the greatest thing in the world. But now I feel like wow, you know, it's it's smooth, it's flowing. My guests tell me how comfortable they are. So just know that every time you do it, you're just gonna get better and better. And give yourself some grace. You know, put it out there and let God you plant the seeds, and then he'll give you the harvest. Yeah.
Kim Stewart 16:31
Oh, gosh. That's a wonderful word. Oh, my thank you so much. Well, great. Well
Velma Knowles 16:37
tell everybody where they can connect with you online because I know they want to get in touch with you. Oh, okay. Well, it's really easy. I have a website. It's Velma notes. And so that's the spelling of my name. I know it sounds crazy Velma. Like the little girl in Scooby Doo, if you remember, yeah, it's ve l Ma. And my last name is notes. And the K is actually silent. So it's k n, o w l e s, and it's Velma knowles.com. And if you go there, you have a few resources, just hit the Resource tab in the navigation bar. If there's something there that can help you, I would be honored for you to be able to leverage that. And you can reach out to me, of course, right there through the contact form. And I do answer all my emails. So I'd love to connect with anyone that I can help.
Kim Stewart 17:23
Yeah, that sounds great. I'll be sure to put a link to Delmas, valuable leader book and her podcast as well as our free resources in the show notes that everybody can grab those. Well, thank you, Velma. So appreciate your time today.
Velma Knowles 17:34
My pleasure, Kim. Thank you and thank you for everyone that's listening. Go get it. I can't wait to see all what you guys are going to do on your podcasts and marketing your book.
Kim Stewart 17:43
Oh, y'all. I love what Velma shared about leveraging a podcast to market your book and how there are so many other wins like being asked to be on other podcast, being asked to speaking events. Plus, you get to hone your skills as a great listener and speaker. And if you need some help deciding if hosting your own podcast or guesting on other podcasts is your next best step to building your own audience or marketing your book. I'd love to strategize with you. Grab a session on my calendar at Kim Stewart marketing.com backslash strategy. Thanks for tuning in. And as always, I'll be there for you to help you build your audience and market your book one podcast at a time. See you then.