071 Taking Messy Business Action with Podcast Strategist Aeoliana Elliott
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My guest this week is Aeoliana Elliott of Top Shelf Virtual Services. She’s a podcast strategist helping her clients monetize their podcast and use it to market their business. Listen in as we talk about entrepreneurial topics such as developing intentional community, managing your energy and time (especially if you have a side hustle), and taking messy action to get to your business goals.
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00:00:00 Regan Bashara
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00:00:21 Regan Bashara
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00:01:00 Regan Bashara
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00:01:02 Regan Bashara
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00:01:03 Regan Bashara
Notes to get enrolled and mind the gap today. All right, welcome everybody to an episode of money. Through ease, I have, Aeoliana Elliott today with top shelf virtual services to talk to us about podcast strategy and marketing for your business. So please tell us, who are you, what you do and about your business?
00:01:21 Aeoliana Elliott
Yes, thank you.
00:01:22 Aeoliana Elliott
For having me, Regan. So like you said, my name is Aeoliana and I own top shelf virtual services. And outside of that, I am a mom. I'm a wife. I am originally from Puerto Rico, but have called Florida my home for well over 20 years.
00:01:39 Aeoliana Elliott
I was a paralegal and now I do on the side podcast strategy. I've done VA work, I've done podcast management and just really like helping people maneuver through the mindset and get over the burnout and the overwhelm that comes with podcasting.
00:01:57
Hmm.
00:01:59 Aeoliana Elliott
Because when a lot of us get into it, we don't really know what we're getting ourselves into, how much work.
00:02:04 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:02:06 Aeoliana Elliott
It is and how time consuming it is and how easily it is to burn out with it, even though we really it's something we really wanna do. So I try to help my clients focus on taking a break, taking time for themselves, self-care mindset, all of those things so that they can have a thriving podcast.
00:02:27 Aeoliana Elliott
And still enjoy the life they have.
00:02:30 Regan Bashara
Yeah, that's amazing. Thanks so much for sharing your story. For being on, like, we connected through a mutual and I was.
00:02:38 Regan Bashara
Like, do you know anybody else that wants to, like, get on the podcast and talk?
00:02:41 Regan Bashara
And she sent me a bunch of y'all.
00:02:44 Regan Bashara
Was like, OK, cool. So here we are. And you kind of helped.
00:02:49
Books.
00:02:50 Regan Bashara
Make that a strategy in their business and a lot of times when people think about marketing, they're just like, oh, I just need to, like, make sure I remember to post on social media. But what does that even look like that takes the strategy as well? So if somebody's thinking about, like, it'd be cool to, like, do a podcast, how can I, what do I need to consider before I?
00:03:11 Regan Bashara
Make this part of like my business strategy for outreach or for sales.
00:03:16 Aeoliana Elliott
So the first thing and a lot of people don't think about this is, well, actually, it's twofold. So first, you need to make sure you have goals set up for what you want your podcast to be, and.
00:03:28 Aeoliana Elliott
To do 2nd and it goes tangent with that is make sure that you have a clear definition of what success is for you for your podcast and for your business. I know a lot of us are podcast listeners, that's why we got into the space. We enjoy them and so a lot of times we tend to compare ourselves.
00:03:49 Aeoliana Elliott
Two podcasts that have been around a lot longer or podcasts that are already established, have a team behind the scenes and we forget that a lot of us when we start out in podcasting, we are.
00:04:02 Aeoliana Elliott
Solo. So we are doing the recording, the editing, the publishing, the promoting, the marketing. We're doing all of the things by ourselves. So our reach may not be as far as a podcast. Who has been around for five years and has a team of five to 10 people, so.
00:04:11
Yeah.
00:04:23 Aeoliana Elliott
Making sure that you define what success is for your podcast, even if it's something as simple as my goal, is to release a podcast once a week.
00:04:34 Aeoliana Elliott
And my success is that I get it done that way for three months. So I work with my clients in quarters. So we do three months at a time and we evaluate what are your goals at the beginning of the three of the three months of beginning of the quarter and how did you did you reach those goals and where do we need to look at going into the next quarter?
00:04:39
Hmm.
00:04:56 Aeoliana Elliott
And I think that helps with the burnout and that helps with the overwhelm, because you're focusing on smaller things rather than looking at your podcast at the beginning and comparing it to someone whose podcast is farther along than yours is.
00:05:12 Regan Bashara
Yeah. And I think like if well obviously people that are listening listen to podcasts. We all have those like popular podcasts that are like, you know, getting millions of downloads each year. And like everybody knows that podcast like and comparing ourselves to that is, like really not fair to us, especially for just starting out. And I see that that.
00:05:22 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:05:32 Regan Bashara
Can lead to burnout. As with anything else right? That like you, if you don't start with that clear vision.
00:05:38 Regan Bashara
Of where it's going to go. What do you want it to do? Then you're going to end up burning yourself out, asking yourself to do something like this every week is a lot to ask when you're not already doing it. So what? How do you kind of like, take your folks through that? Like, what kind of expectations do I need to set for myself for, like, how often I want to even commit to?
00:05:48 Aeoliana Elliott
Right.
00:05:59 Regan Bashara
It's not just recording. It's not even just editing. Like you said, it's the marketing and everything behind it, like how.
00:06:04 Regan Bashara
Do I how?
00:06:05 Regan Bashara
Do we set ourselves up for success with that?
00:06:08 Aeoliana Elliott
So one of the things I like to tell my clients is to honor their energy. So if you know you are someone who thrives on.
00:06:18 Aeoliana Elliott
Doing a lot of things every day, then you might, you know, you could probably get away with doing more episodes a week versus someone who knows. I only have this amount of energy for this amount of time and I can't get anymore. So you really need to look at what does your schedule.
00:06:35 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:06:38 Aeoliana Elliott
Look like are you able to add something in? You know, do you have a family? Do you have a full time job? Are you trying to build a business? What other things in your life are gonna come in and require time? And so I I would suggest.
00:06:57 Aeoliana Elliott
Start off slow, so at the beginning if you think your energy is only allowing you to do one episode a month, then focus on that. Get that ball rolling and then you can always transition to doing more. It's harder to start with more and then transition to less.
00:07:17 Aeoliana Elliott
It's easier to add than it is to subtract. I think it's like that with everything like it's, you know, and every. Yeah, like fall or whatever. Like you can always add more, but you can't take it away. So that would be my suggestion. And then also if you have a fan.
00:07:22 Regan Bashara
Yeah, like salt in a recipe, yeah.
00:07:29 Regan Bashara
Totally.
00:07:33 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:07:35 Aeoliana Elliott
Only involve them in what you're doing, you know, make sure that they're aware that for this time block. And that's another thing. Batching is a great way to make sure that you are focusing on one thing at a time so your brain isn't spazzing out doing 10,000 different things, which as women.
00:07:54 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:07:56 Aeoliana Elliott
We do anyway, but we try.
00:07:57 Aeoliana Elliott
Not to, yeah.
00:08:00 Aeoliana Elliott
So yeah, just have a specific day where you're recording. Unless you're doing interviews and then you can even batch interviews too. You can pre record the interviews and release them later on. I tell my clients when they when they want to have a podcast is along with the goals and the the defining success.
00:08:19 Aeoliana Elliott
Write down 52 things you can talk about your topic.
00:08:23 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:08:24 Aeoliana Elliott
That way, if you ever run out of ideas, you have that list to go to, and with 52, like even if you're doing one a month with 52, you have 52 weeks of content right there that you can use.
00:08:29 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:08:38 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:08:39 Aeoliana Elliott
And then another thing is repurposing that content. So you're setting yourself up for success by putting your content on different flat platforms. So not everyone who listens to podcasts.
00:08:42 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:08:52 Aeoliana Elliott
Is on social media. Yeah. And by the same token, not everyone who's on social media listens to podcasts. So the more that you put yourself out there in different forms, whether it's Social media, podcast, YouTube, e-mail.
00:09:05 Aeoliana Elliott
Marketing. You can take your podcast and transfer it into all these different mediums and you're saying the same thing, but in different ways, so you reach different audiences at the same time.
00:09:11 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:09:18 Regan Bashara
Totally. Yeah. It's such a struggle to, like, make sure that we're touching everybody or, like, putting ourselves in front of people because, like, some people will pay attention to their inbox. And then I have people that tell me that they've got, like, 300,000 unread messages. And I'm like, who?
00:09:23
Yeah.
00:09:34 Regan Bashara
Are you? Why? Why?
00:09:36 Aeoliana Elliott
Same same I can't. I can't even like if my inbox has more than five emails in it. I'm like, what is happening? Why are there so many? Like, yeah. And like my husband can leave e-mail like he has emails in inbox from like 10 years ago. And I'm the wife who will go through his.
00:09:42 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:09:45 Regan Bashara
I start to sweat a little bit.
00:09:50
Yeah.
00:09:55 Aeoliana Elliott
E-mail and delete stuff. No like he doesn't.
00:09:58 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:09:58 Aeoliana Elliott
Even know they're?
00:09:59 Regan Bashara
Fine. Yeah. Nobody cares. About 10 years ago anymore, like, especially not the promotion from Walmart.
00:10:03
Yeah.
00:10:06 Regan Bashara
Was, you know, it's not applicable anymore. So like we got to make sure as business owners in any type of marketing that we're doing that like we save ourselves time and energy by repurposing stuff. But like understanding that everybody has their attention pulled in so many different directions. And if you're repurposing things for e-mail and social media.
00:10:06 Aeoliana Elliott
Right, absolutely.
00:10:26 Regan Bashara
It's all coming from your podcast, like you're buying back a lot of your time and you're buying into like, and not even like actually paying money. Like you don't even have to run ads, just making sure that.
00:10:39 Regan Bashara
Your content is out there and I think it's super important, like you said, to set that success story or what it's going to look like for you at first, because if you don't know what you want people to do, they don't know what you want them to do like.
00:10:53
Absolutely.
00:10:53 Regan Bashara
Unless you're telling.
00:10:54 Aeoliana Elliott
Them. Yeah. Yeah. I never realized it. Yeah, I never realized.
00:10:56 Regan Bashara
Thanks for listening. Go get on my e-mail list.
00:10:59 Aeoliana Elliott
How much you have to tell people what to do. Until I started a business and then it was like because you think to yourself you're like. But I know what to do and I would do it. But then you think you're like, but I know that doesn't mean everyone knows.
00:11:03
Thank you.
00:11:14 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:11:14 Aeoliana Elliott
And I like what you said with the marketing and your business and and no ads. The beauty about a podcast is that if you're running your own business, you can use that podcast as your own ads. You can advertise your own things in the podcast. And another great thing about podcasting is that it allows people.
00:11:34 Aeoliana Elliott
To take back their time. So rather than, you know, a video or, you know, a show or something like that where they have to say.
00:11:43 Aeoliana Elliott
It and be present. Watching it or learning from it on a podcast. Someone can be doing 10,000 other things and still listening to them right and still listening to the podcast. Absolutely. I my my coworker and I do it all the time. Like we just listen to podcasts all day while we're at work cuz I still work full time too.
00:11:47
Yeah.
00:11:50 Regan Bashara
Yes, driving, cleaning, we all do it.
00:11:55
Yeah.
00:11:59 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:12:02
Yeah.
00:12:04 Aeoliana Elliott
And you know, that's what I have in my ears is. And so everybody can do that. You don't have to listen to an episode live.
00:12:13 Aeoliana Elliott
You can go back and listen to episodes previously. You can, you know, replace things like that. So the content is always like, I guess they call it Evergreen where people have access to your stuff anytime they need it.
00:12:17 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:12:23 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:12:28 Regan Bashara
Exactly. So tell us a little bit about like what your typical.
00:12:33 Regan Bashara
Day in your business. Which.
00:12:35 Regan Bashara
I know you.
00:12:36 Regan Bashara
Do have a day job or a full time job and then this is kind of separate. Tell us a little bit about like what a typical work segment if it's not a whole day, what that looks like for you, like what are you actually doing with your clients like take me through that experience. Yeah. So I do a lot of strategy.
00:12:55 Aeoliana Elliott
Calls, so those look like I you know, my client books 45 minutes or 60 minutes or 90 minute call.
00:13:04 Aeoliana Elliott
And we work through whatever roadblock they're having. Whatever issue they're having. Sometimes we workshop if they're getting ready for a launch, I have a program where I help people in eight weeks to launch their podcast. We go through the whole background of launching it because one of my biggest pet peeves.
00:13:20
Change.
00:13:25 Aeoliana Elliott
Is when people say you can launch your podcast in 24 hours or in a weekend. No, you can't wow you like, and it and it's. And I know what they're saying, like you can.
00:13:30 Regan Bashara
Oh.
00:13:38 Aeoliana Elliott
Do all the background work. You know you can do all the all the back end work before that weekend and then yeah, you can probably publish in a weekend, but they're not going into.
00:13:44 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:13:47 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:13:49 Aeoliana Elliott
The specifics of.
00:13:50 Aeoliana Elliott
All that back end work like figuring out what platform you're going to use. Figuring out your equipment figure. I mean iTunes alone. When you're putting a podcast on iTunes.
00:13:54 Regan Bashara
In here.
00:14:00 Aeoliana Elliott
Last I heard, you have to wait like a week or two to even get approved to have your podcast show up on iTunes. So last time I checked, two weeks is not a weekend.
00:14:12 Aeoliana Elliott
So you know, so we go through all of those, you know, their cover art, they're show notes, you know, how they're gonna their format for their.
00:14:22 Aeoliana Elliott
Podcasts. Are they gonna do solos? Are they gonna do interviews? You know, what's their topic gonna be? Do they have?
00:14:28 Aeoliana Elliott
Those 52.
00:14:28 Aeoliana Elliott
Topics I also do I have a couple clients that I do voxer support for where whenever they're stuck they just.
00:14:38 Aeoliana Elliott
Walkie-talkie me a message and you know I give them an answer on my time. Usually my time is I do Monday through Thursday 5 hour blocks in the evening because that's just what I. And then sometimes I do. I'll do a weekend here and there if it if it warrants it. But my son plays.
00:14:57 Aeoliana Elliott
Hockey. So that's where my weekends are. But you know, the boxer calls, you know, I can do those on the weekends and and then I do, you know, podcast interviews like this where I talk to, you know, podcasters about what I do and and things like that. And so that's, you know, in a nutshell, the.
00:15:00 Regan Bashara
Uh-huh.
00:15:16 Aeoliana Elliott
That's how I help my clients. I also do quarterly calls with my clients where I will do a 60 minute call at the beginning of the quarter, set up their goals for the for the for that quarter and then at the end we revisit what the goals were. What did they need, how did it work out, what can they do differently.
00:15:37 Aeoliana Elliott
And then you know, we set up the call for the following quarter to start up give about a week or so to kind.
00:15:44 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:15:44 Aeoliana Elliott
Of.
00:15:45 Aeoliana Elliott
Rehash everything and then you know we start, we start from scratch there. So yeah. Yeah. Do it all over again.
00:15:49 Regan Bashara
Do it all over again.
00:15:52 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah. What kind of like, goals?
00:15:57 Regan Bashara
I mean, I feel like most people are going to be like, well, how do I make money? Like, if I'm going to be doing this, I want to make money. Like, if you're not getting a lot of downloads, you're probably not going to get.
00:16:06 Regan Bashara
Like host read ads.
00:16:08 Regan Bashara
From people that want to pay you to advertise their product just yet. So it may be that like you have your own ads to read or is it gonna be downloads like?
00:16:17 Regan Bashara
How do you?
00:16:19 Regan Bashara
Do most people come to you with like some a specific set of goals, or do you kind of coach them?
00:16:24 Regan Bashara
Through like we need.
00:16:25 Regan Bashara
To be a little more realistic about this or I want you to you.
00:16:28 Regan Bashara
Know focus on.
00:16:29 Regan Bashara
Something different that we can actually achieve.
00:16:32 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah. So it depends on the person, but a lot of times, like you said, a lot of people think that, you know, like we talked earlier.
00:16:40 Aeoliana Elliott
Because of those bigger podcasts, you think that automatically you're gonna go viral and your podcast is gonna go viral, and you're gonna make tons of money when in reality, that's not the way it works. Podcasting, like, blogging, like YouTube.
00:16:52 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:16:56 Aeoliana Elliott
Is a long form content type of of of thing, so you need time for it to develop. It's like a snowball, you know, it needs time to grow before you can see that the beauty of having a podcast when you have your own business is that at the beginning you don't need to pay for ads.
00:16:58 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:17:04
Hmm.
00:17:08 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:17:16 Aeoliana Elliott
You don't need to pay for other people to be on your podcast. You can use your own services, your own products, whatever it is that you have, and use that for the ads and you're getting a double whammy for it. You know, you're going to have people listening to it for.
00:17:20 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:17:34 Aeoliana Elliott
The content of your podcast, and also for the content of what you know, what you're selling, and one of the things I tell my clients too is make sure, excuse me, that when you're doing your show notes and when you're doing your descriptions and your titles that you make sure all that is SEO optimized podcasts.
00:17:39 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:17:54 Aeoliana Elliott
Are now searchable through Google, so if you know what keywords people are looking for and what keywords people are searching for, you're gonna pop up in peoples.
00:17:56 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:18:05 Aeoliana Elliott
Searches, I mean obviously as a solo, we're not going to pop up on the top rankings of Google because the companies and the people with the payroll have those spots, but you're still able to pop up on those searches. And now with podcast.
00:18:06 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:18:17 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:18:21 Regan Bashara
MHM.
00:18:24 Aeoliana Elliott
Going on to YouTube, that's another search engine that you're going to have the ability to be on and people are going to be able to find you so.
00:18:27 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:18:32 Regan Bashara
Right.
00:18:34 Aeoliana Elliott
Just, you know, don't discourage, don't feel discouraged if things don't pan out. I'll give you a little stat that I learned last year in. I think it was 2022-2023. Only 1/3 of podcasts that get started continue past 10 episodes.
00:18:55 Aeoliana Elliott
Umm, because people just burn out. They don't know what to do. You know, like once the excitement wears off. You have to have, like, we were talking about earlier. You have to have a reason why you're doing.
00:18:57 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:19:01 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:19:08 Aeoliana Elliott
You're doing, yeah. Otherwise you're gonna run out of steam. You're gonna run out of energy, and you need to know. That's why when you're in business, the first thing people ask you is what is your? Why? Like, why are you doing what you're doing? And it has to be more than money. It has to be more. It. It has to be. The money is only going to.
00:19:12 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:19:19 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:19:28 Aeoliana Elliott
Take you so long.
00:19:29 Aeoliana Elliott
You have to have a a reason valid to you specifically, otherwise you're not gonna have anything that's gonna push you through those hurdles and those obstacles.
00:19:41 Regan Bashara
Totally, I agree 100% and the money of course, like we're all in business to make money. I don't know anybody that's like just having fun out here.
00:19:52
It.
00:19:52 Regan Bashara
Could be part of it, but the money is also like, what do you need the money for? Do you want to, like, go on a beautiful vacation every year? Do you want?
00:19:59 Regan Bashara
To set up a college fund for your kids.
00:20:01 Regan Bashara
Do you want to buy a bigger house? Do you want to move?
00:20:04 Regan Bashara
Like the money is like what's on the other side of that, you know, like, what is your motivation beyond that and really connect into that and tap into that and I'll even turn that question around to you. Can you share with us like what inspires you to do this work because you said you're a paralegal or you were a paralegal and now you're doing?
00:20:08
Absolutely.
00:20:22 Aeoliana Elliott
I was, yeah.
00:20:24 Regan Bashara
Podcasting strategy and like, what inspired that shift? What makes you do?
00:20:30 Regan Bashara
Get up and do it, you.
00:20:31 Aeoliana Elliott
Do every day. So it's funny you asked that. So it did have to do with my paralegal. So in 2019, I was sick. I was in the hospital with a double kidney infection. And the law firm I was working for fired me while I was in.
00:20:42
Hmm.
00:20:45
The hospital.
00:20:45 Aeoliana Elliott
No. So I until that time I had been like all I knew was being a paralegal. I had been a paralegal for 20 plus years. I was a probation officer for four years and I love that.
00:20:59 Aeoliana Elliott
I I love that part of my life and to have something like that happen that was completely out of my control. I had to figure out what to do. And so I started working for a construction company over here in Florida. And at that time I had been listening to podcasts.
00:21:20 Aeoliana Elliott
For years, I love true crime. I was listening to True Crime podcast.
00:21:24 Aeoliana Elliott
And it wasn't until that shift in 2019-2020, right before COVID, where I realized that podcasting isn't just for entertainment, but we can learn so much from it as well. So I dove into podcast about VA work. I I did some VA work on the side.
00:21:29 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:21:34 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:21:44 Aeoliana Elliott
I also did some podcast management as well and just pivoted to podcast strategy because I learned so much. Yeah, from the podcasting community and had so much support during that.
00:21:57 Aeoliana Elliott
Time and it's been something that's helped me through, you know, my mindset and you know, like self-awareness and things like that. And it's just been such a help to me in all aspects of my life that I just wanted to see how I could help.
00:22:17 Aeoliana Elliott
On my end.
00:22:19 Aeoliana Elliott
Help podcasters get their message out there. Get you know what they want to say out there and you know, not have to worry about balancing everything or not balancing, you know, or having to worry about being burnt out, being overwhelmed, not having all this information.
00:22:24
Yeah.
00:22:38 Aeoliana Elliott
And not knowing what to do with it, having a burning desire deep within them that there's something they want to share but not feeling confident enough to go out there and share it. So that's what drives me. That's what I want to be able to do. Help them. A friend of mine coined it.
00:22:50 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:22:58 Aeoliana Elliott
Podcast frazzled to podcast dazzled. I love that I was on a podcast last night and the lady called Me a podcast doula, which I thought was really cool. I was like, OK, so yeah.
00:23:09 Regan Bashara
Noise.
00:23:13 Regan Bashara
You help bring it into the world.
00:23:15 Aeoliana Elliott
I help bring it into the world.
00:23:16 Aeoliana Elliott
Absolutely.
00:23:16 Regan Bashara
Yeah, that's.
00:23:18 Regan Bashara
Awesome.
00:23:19 Regan Bashara
Thanks for sharing. Like everybody always has such a brilliant story. And when you first meet somebody like you just don't know who they are. Like what they've been through. So I appreciate you sharing your story and kind of like being vulnerable with us on here because it is so important as business owners and entrepreneurs to have community and to like, see ourselves and other people. And I think when we share those moments where we're like.
00:23:43 Regan Bashara
I really gotta pivot like I've been.
00:23:45 Regan Bashara
Kind of throw a curveball and I need to figure something out, like recognizing that we all kind of have something like that in our stories that put us in this position where we are now where we can serve other people and help other people like it. It gives me, you know, like hope. But.
00:23:58 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:24:03 Regan Bashara
Like the camaraderie, like we all. Yeah. Have different stories, but we all share the kind of same experience of like, well, I need to figure this out now. So let's go do something to, like, make it work, make it happen.
00:24:13 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:24:17 Aeoliana Elliott
Or something needs to change. I need to do something different. I've been doing the same thing.
00:24:19 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:24:24 Aeoliana Elliott
For so long thinking that is what I was supposed to do, and then something happens and you're like, whoa, I guess that wasn't what I was supposed to do. That wasn't what I was meant to do. And I know for me, my husband tells me all the time. He's like when you talk about podcasting and you talk to people about it.
00:24:43 Aeoliana Elliott
You glow like you just you feel you can feel that you're excited about what you're talking about. Yeah. And I loved, you know, I loved crime. I love true crime. It's, you know, I would go back to it if I could, but I don't talk about it. This. I didn't feel the way I feel about helping people.
00:25:03 Aeoliana Elliott
With their strategy on their podcast the same way as I did about, you know, when I was a paralegal, even though I love that that part of my life.
00:25:05 Regan Bashara
Yes.
00:25:14 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:25:15 Regan Bashara
Yeah, it's when other people can see us so clearly and more clearly than we see ourselves, it's.
00:25:22 Regan Bashara
Like ohh that must be the thing.
00:25:23 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:26 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah, all the time. Yeah. People tend to like it. It's amazing how the people around us see versions of ourselves that we don't.
00:25:36 Aeoliana Elliott
Allow ourselves to see. And so I think like you were saying with the, with the whole community and podcasting, I think it's what helped so many people during COVID is having that outlet of I can share who I truly am without having to worry.
00:25:53
Yeah.
00:25:54 Aeoliana Elliott
About. Ohh well, what are people going to think? What are people going to say? Because everyone was yearning for that connection they were yearning for that community because we didn't have it.
00:26:03 Regan Bashara
Totally.
00:26:05 Regan Bashara
Yeah, between podcasting and social media, like, probably helped all of us stay more connected and even like become more connected than we were just by meeting people in real life. So yeah, yeah, I I agree, like having an online community of entrepreneurs as well as like, my friends and people that I know.
00:26:15 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:26:26 Regan Bashara
In real life that are also business owners and justice like every time I interact with them, it's always.
00:26:32 Regan Bashara
Like you know, we see each other. We go how hard it is in these streets.
00:26:34 Aeoliana Elliott
It's refreshing. Yeah, it's refreshing it. You know, we're hustling out here on these streets. Yeah, it's refreshing to know that there's people that are going through the same thing that you are. And then on another side, it's also encouraging because when you meet people who were.
00:26:55 Aeoliana Elliott
At your point at where you are at one point or another and are farther along, you can see yourself where they are, and that's something I was talking to somebody the other day.
00:26:59 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:27:04 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:27:07 Aeoliana Elliott
Like the fact that the the fake is no longer viable. Yeah, you cannot be fake. Peoples Fake meter is so, so much more sensitive than it was five years ago. You know, people don't want perfect, they don't want.
00:27:27 Aeoliana Elliott
Cookie cutter. They want real. They want authentic. They want vulnerable. They want you to be a human being. You know they don't want you to be.
00:27:36
Mm-hmm.
00:27:38 Aeoliana Elliott
Be something that you're not. They don't want you to pretend they want us to be real. And I think that's that has a lot to do with the connection and the Community is that it opened up so many doors for people that now, you know, people don't want to pretend people don't want to go that route anymore. Right. And.
00:27:53 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:27:58 Regan Bashara
Like.
00:27:59 Regan Bashara
Like the the fake thing or just like seeing somebody else.
00:28:04 Regan Bashara
Who, like you know that they've struggled or they've shared with you like things have not always been easy, but you see them on the other side of it and you're like, Oh my gosh, maybe my struggle won't last forever. Because when you're in it, it kind of.
00:28:16 Regan Bashara
Feels that way sometimes.
00:28:17 Aeoliana Elliott
Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
00:28:17 Regan Bashara
Like, is this gonna be forever? Because I'll can't do this. But like seeing people who you can identify and see yourself.
00:28:25 Regan Bashara
And it's like very important to be like, OK, well, they made it through like I think might it might be the case that I will.
00:28:32 Regan Bashara
Also make it through that and it will not.
00:28:33 Aeoliana Elliott
Always suck? Absolutely. Yeah. Because when we're when we're in the thick of it. Like, we think that we're never gonna get past it. And everybody's like that. And it's only when you get through to the other side that you're like, oh, crap, I actually did it, you know. But when you don't have access to things like that and you don't have access to seeing people that have gone.
00:28:49 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:28:55 Aeoliana Elliott
Out of it. You know, you feel like it's the end of the world when it's not. And so how?
00:29:01 Aeoliana Elliott
I mean that's, you know, that's another thing that I appreciate about. Podcasting is the fact that so many people are represented. You know, so many different views, so many. I mean, you can literally find it. Like, I think there's a commercial where they're like the guys running through going. There's a podcast for that. There's a podcast for that. And it's funny.
00:29:22 Aeoliana Elliott
And I love the commercial, but it's true. You can literally go on the podcast platforms and search anything and everything you want, and you'll find someone that's talking about it because there's other people going through it.
00:29:24 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:29:37 Regan Bashara
Umm, one of the like things that just blew my mind was I follow like people on social media that do like arts and crafting. And then my mom has like a quilting channel on YouTube and stuff and she listens to quilting podcasts. And I'm like art podcast craft Podcast quilting podcast. I'm like, I can't see what you're doing.
00:29:48 Aeoliana Elliott
Oh.
00:29:58 Regan Bashara
How do you have a podcast where you're just talking about quotes, but it that it's like you just said it's the?
00:30:03 Aeoliana Elliott
That's the thing.
00:30:05 Regan Bashara
They're saying whatever you're interested in, there's going to be.
00:30:07 Aeoliana Elliott
Hannah.
00:30:09 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:30:09 Regan Bashara
That blew my.
00:30:10 Regan Bashara
Mind cuz I was like, you know, listening to like the true crime things or like mostly business podcasts. They're kind of like self help mindset podcasts and some, like, journalism stuff. But I'm like, crafts and things like that are and art. It's like such a visual.
00:30:15
Hmm.
00:30:25 Regan Bashara
And I'm talking about visual art. Like, how do we get on a podcast where we don't see anything and we're just listening and then we have, like, a whole conversation about it blows my mind.
00:30:35 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah, but it's it were a thing. Yeah, it is a.
00:30:35 Regan Bashara
But that's police.
00:30:39 Regan Bashara
Yeah. So what you started doing podcast strategy in 2019, early 2020, what like looking back now I'm going to ask you to kind of like reflect back on that time period and tell us like you know?
00:30:54 Regan Bashara
If I could tell myself.
00:30:55 Regan Bashara
Anything in that moment? Like, what would I like, remind myself or give myself a tip or some sort of encouragement?
00:31:01 Regan Bashara
Because you know, there's people that listen that have been in business for a while. There might be people listening that are thinking about starting a business and like, well, what do?
00:31:09 Regan Bashara
I need to know like.
00:31:10 Regan Bashara
Anybody got any?
00:31:11 Regan Bashara
Tips.
00:31:13 Aeoliana Elliott
I would say just do the thing like take messy action. I spent a lot of time doing something that I thought was right for me because it was easy and it was comfortable for me and.
00:31:18
Hmm.
00:31:31 Aeoliana Elliott
It ended up not being the right thing for me. So had I just taken the messy action because I tried, you know, entrepreneurship before and it didn't work out just because I wasn't invested in it. So I would say just take the messy action, try. You know, that's the beauty.
00:31:52 Aeoliana Elliott
Of entrepreneurship is that.
00:31:54 Aeoliana Elliott
You can try all kinds of things, and if it doesn't work, it's OK. It doesn't. Yeah. Mean anything about you as a person? It's just that particular tactic or that particular business maybe wasn't the right fit for you, but you can always pivot and go do something else. You know, we're not corraled.
00:32:03
Yes.
00:32:07
Yes.
00:32:15 Aeoliana Elliott
Into doing this, having to do the same thing.
00:32:18 Aeoliana Elliott
For the rest of our lives, if that's not what our where our passions lie so that that would be my tip is just take the messy action. Try, fail, repeat. Don't be afraid of failure. We tell our son all the time. And it wasn't until my coach told me a month ago we tell him all the time he plays hockey.
00:32:29 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:32:38 Aeoliana Elliott
And we're like, OK, when you lose, you're not really losing. You either win or you learn. So my coach told me you either get the result that you want.
00:32:44 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:32:48 Aeoliana Elliott
Or you get the lesson you are supposed to learn to get to the result that you want.
00:32:54 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah. So it's never a failure. It's just a different way of of learning. And every time you fail, figure out what went wrong, and then the next time you try it.
00:33:05 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:33:07 Aeoliana Elliott
Change something about it to see if the outcome is different.
00:33:10 Regan Bashara
Yeah, I think that ties back into what you said in the beginning about like podcast strategy like define, what success means 1st and how you're going to measure it. And we've talked about that on this podcast in previous episodes like you need to, like, write some **** down and be like if I do this, then that means good. That's what I wanted. And if that doesn't happen, it was kind of like a.
00:33:30 Regan Bashara
Science experiment. Look, we were just collecting data like that's all. And now we just have data and that is the entrepreneurial experiment and.
00:33:36 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah.
00:33:40 Regan Bashara
Like, yeah, and when it when you say messy action, I'm assuming you mean like we're not trying to be perfect like the perfectionism needs to like go out.
00:33:46 Aeoliana Elliott
Absolutely.
00:33:48 Aeoliana Elliott
Yep, Yep. We the days of perfectionism are over. We are not perfect. We are gonna make mistakes. We're gonna. I mean, there's gonna be times where you're not gonna want to record your episode.
00:34:02 Aeoliana Elliott
There's gonna be times when you're not gonna want to publish. There's gonna be times where you're gonna do a podcast and you're gonna listen back, and you're gonna be like, oh, my God, that was absolute ****.
00:34:13 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:34:14 Aeoliana Elliott
And it's OK. All of those things are OK and you know, sometimes you're gonna have an episode. You're gonna be like, this is the most amazing thing I've ever done. Like, I know my coach. She said she's like I have a podcast.
00:34:26 Aeoliana Elliott
Where the sound was awful. I was sick. It was terrible and it's one of my most like the one of the most favorite episodes of all the episodes I've done because she's like because I was being real. Yeah, you know, like that's how it works. Sorry.
00:34:34 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:41 Aeoliana Elliott
Why?
00:34:42 Aeoliana Elliott
That's why people want to see who we really are. Yeah. You know, they wanna have that conversation. They wanna feel like they're having a conversation with you. And I had someone ask me the other day. It's like, should I edit out my umms and uhhs and likes and things like that? And I'm like, no, if that's how you talk. No.
00:34:52 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:35:02 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:35:03 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:35:04 Aeoliana Elliott
No, because then if they if you were to meet.
00:35:06 Aeoliana Elliott
That guest.
00:35:08 Aeoliana Elliott
Or that audience member that's been listening to your podcast, and you sound different in person, that you do on the podcast. They're gonna be like, what the hell?
00:35:13 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:35:16 Regan Bashara
Yeah, they won't recognize you.
00:35:16 Aeoliana Elliott
Like.
00:35:17 Aeoliana Elliott
Literally, yeah. Are you really talking? Is that really?
00:35:20 Aeoliana Elliott
You on the.
00:35:20 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:35:21 Aeoliana Elliott
Podcast. Or is it like AI or something?
00:35:24 Aeoliana Elliott
So you know you wanna make sure that you're real and life happens. You know, we get tired. We.
00:35:29 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:35:30 Aeoliana Elliott
Yeah. Overwhelmed. We have, you know, we get sick, things happen and it's OK. It's OK to take a step back. It's OK to.
00:35:35 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:35:38 Aeoliana Elliott
Take a break.
00:35:39 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:35:40 Aeoliana Elliott
You know, all of that is OK.
00:35:42 Regan Bashara
Yeah, I like.
00:35:45 Regan Bashara
I don't have a lot of data on like who or which of my episodes are most listened to, but I do a lot of like videos on TikTok. I do a lot of TikTok content and short form video content and I did a video this morning where I was just like ranting for like 4 minutes about debt and like debt payoff stuff and like.
00:36:03 Regan Bashara
Edited it down, posted it was just like alright, there's my video for the day. I checked the box like I did it. Somebody messaged me like a couple hours later. They were like I'm literally in tears. I've thank you so much for like validating my my experience about this like solidarity and I was like Oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing this with me first of all.
00:36:15
Hmm.
00:36:23 Regan Bashara
Like, yeah, solidarity about, like, the subject at hand. But I was like, damn like.
00:36:28 Regan Bashara
I just got on there and ranted and was just like cool. I'm done for the day, but you don't know how something's gonna land for somebody and you don't want to edit yourself in that way because like the things that you don't even think about will be like a light bulb moment for somebody else and you don't want to take that away.
00:36:44 Aeoliana Elliott
From them, right? Yeah. Yeah. You don't like.
00:36:47 Aeoliana Elliott
You could be talking to yourself going this is terrible. I shouldn't say this and it could be the exact thing someone needed to hear. Yeah, at the exact moment. Like I I I strongly believe that if you have a message to share, you have something to say.
00:37:02 Aeoliana Elliott
No one else can say it for you. You if you're, if you're sitting back, wondering, should I do a podcast? Should I not? If you have something to say and you're thinking ohh someone else can say it better than me. You're doing your people a disservice because the people that are meant to hear what you have to say aren't meant to hear it from someone else.
00:37:04 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:37:22 Aeoliana Elliott
They're meant to hear it from you, and if you don't share that, they're never going.
00:37:27 Aeoliana Elliott
Hear it and we can go as far as saying that you can change someone's life. You can save someone's life just by sharing your story, and you don't even know it. You may never know that. Mm-hmm. But I had a friend of mine who, when she started her podcast. And I think her podcast is in, like, 5 years now. When she started her podcast.
00:37:47 Aeoliana Elliott
Her goal was to just help one person.
00:37:51 Aeoliana Elliott
That was it.
00:37:52 Aeoliana Elliott
That was her goal. She didn't care about the download. She didn't care. She just wanted to help one person with her podcast not feel so alone. Yeah.
00:38:04
Yes.
00:38:04 Aeoliana Elliott
I mean, yeah, that's and it can. And that's that's a simple that's simple and it's complex at the same time, yeah.
00:38:13 Aeoliana Elliott
But it's it's a goal, it's it's definition of success. You know, you may not know that you helped someone, but just having that thought every time she recorded, yeah, helped her push through because you never know, maybe she is helping someone and she's never going to know that, but at least she got out there. She was vulnerable, and she went ahead and did it.
00:38:19 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:38:28 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:38:35 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:38:35 Aeoliana Elliott
She did the messy action.
00:38:37 Regan Bashara
Yes. And that's like all it is when we say Bessie action, when we say stop being a.
00:38:41 Regan Bashara
Infectious. That is what it comes down to, like if you're doing this in service of other people to help other people, that will come through. And if you're doing it for the likes or the downloads or whatever, that will come through like your intention will be known. There's.
00:38:54 Aeoliana Elliott
Absolutely.
00:38:58 Regan Bashara
No getting around.
00:38:59 Aeoliana Elliott
That good or bad people will know what?
00:39:01 Aeoliana Elliott
Your intentions are absolutely.
00:39:04 Regan Bashara
So can you share with us like where we can find you, how we can work with you if we want to get our podcast launched in more than?
00:39:11 Regan Bashara
24 hours.
00:39:13 Regan Bashara
Or in more than a weekend.
00:39:15 Regan Bashara
How we can work with?
00:39:16 Regan Bashara
You where we can find you on the interweb.
00:39:18 Aeoliana Elliott
Yes. So everything is on my website. So that's www.topshelfvirtualservices.com and there is the link to my blog. There's all about me. You'll get to see my kid playing hockey. My, you know, my husband, I have free resources.
00:39:38 Regan Bashara
There.
00:39:39 Aeoliana Elliott
I also have my paid resources in there. You can book a 15 minute clarity call that's completely free. You can sign up for my e-mail newsletter and the freebie you get is my.
00:39:54 Aeoliana Elliott
Guide to launch your podcast in eight weeks, as well as some nice little you know, e-mail newsletters that I send out here and there. I'm trying to get better with my e-mail, but you know, I just. I forgot. Yeah, I forget. Like, I send a lot of like, here's my blog.
00:40:07 Regan Bashara
That's another one of those messy action things.
00:40:14 Aeoliana Elliott
And this is what it's about. And then, you know, like, hey, I'm in this bundle, it's free. Get yourself some stuff, you know. But I send some tips and things like that and yeah, so all my socials are on there, I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. I have a Facebook group. I'm on TikTok.
00:40:20
Yes.
00:40:32 Aeoliana Elliott
And I'm I'm not on, I'm on LinkedIn, but I'm not really in LinkedIn.
00:40:36 Aeoliana Elliott
I'm just there.
00:40:37 Regan Bashara
Amazing. I'll have all of those links and information on how people can find you in.
00:40:41 Regan Bashara
The show notes.
00:40:42 Regan Bashara
And make sure you go follow Aeoliana and you know download her free guide and everything. If you already have a podcast you need some clarity. Get with her. She will definitely help you out over a top shelf virtual.
00:40:55 Regan Bashara
services. Thanks so much for being a guest on money through ease. It was such a pleasure to have you.
00:40:59 Aeoliana Elliott
Thank you, Regan. It was so much fun. I'm glad we.
00:41:02 Regan Bashara
Connected. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Money. Through ease. If you found value in today's discussion, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review your feedback really does.
00:41:15 Regan Bashara
Mean a lot to me. And if you're ready to take the first step towards organized finances, be sure to download my free receipt organization guide to chaos.com. Visit the link in the show notes to grab your free copy. Now remember your financial.
00:41:29 Regan Bashara
Journey starts with small steps. I'm here to support you every step of the way until next time. This is Regan bashara from money. Through ease. Stay empowered.