Boss Your Business - The Podcast

[00:00:00] Yvonne Heimann: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Boss Your Business. And I'm excited today to actually bring you one of my besties. I have worked with Victoria in the past, and today you guys get to meet her. So a little bit about Victoria, she is the founder of Victoria Bennion Podcast Booking Agency.

[00:00:23] That's how we met where you work with expert business owners to build their brands and grow their business through leveraging podcast interviews. There might be some of your clients on my podcast too. You also host the best part, best guest podcast, and you are the co author of the most amazing marketing book ever by Mark Schaefer and friends who I got to meet.

[00:00:51] Last year? I think last year in person here in San Diego at an Agora Pulse meetup. How did you guys [00:01:00] meet? How did, because I'm like, he is US, you are UK. How did that happen?

[00:01:07] Victoria Bennion: Also in San Diego.

[00:01:08] Yvonne Heimann: Ah!

[00:01:09] Victoria Bennion: Last year, I went to the social media marketing world and he was hosting a lunch and I went to the lunch and that's how I met him.

[00:01:18] Yvonne Heimann: So before we dive into all of the nitty gritty and all of the fanciness where you are today. My favorite question, because this is where the best stories come out or sometimes the nuts are the best, but the most interesting ones. How did you get here? How did Victoria become who she is today?

[00:01:38] Victoria Bennion: That's a good question.

[00:01:39] Thank you, Yvi. It was a really roundabout route when I started my career, podcasts probably didn't even exist, I'm sure they didn't exist. So I trained as a journalist and that was my plan. So I really, I trained as a journalist because I liked writing, but there's quite a lot more to journalism [00:02:00] than just writing.

[00:02:01] So after about a year of working on a paper, I moved over into communications and marketing. Part of that was that it was more flexible with where it could be based. So I wanted, I'm from Dorset. So I've jumped around a bit from London to Dorset in the UK quite a bit. But. I felt if I did communications that would give me a bit more flexibility on location and I also quite liked the scope of arranging events that came with it and doing a bit of websites and that kind of thing.

[00:02:34] So it fitted better. So went into communications and marketing. Then I had my daughter in 2011 and we were living in London and then I definitely wanted to come back. So I decided to build my freelancing career. So I was doing more general marketing. I was working with a couple of authors at the time. So I'm trying to think what year this would have been because [00:03:00] this wasn't 2011.

[00:03:01] It was fast forward a few years, probably about 2017, 2018. I did this course to update my skills on marketing for authors. And one of the modules that they taught was podcasting being a brilliant way to get the word out about your book. So we did this training and I thought this sounds really good.

[00:03:20] I've not even heard of this before. So I had a couple of clients that I asked if they'd like us to try this with their marketing strategy. And also there was somebody else who was on the course who had done the course but didn't actually have the time to do his You know outreach for podcasts and he said can anyone do this for me?

[00:03:40] I want this but, so I said i'd give it a go. So that's how it began And developed from there so that podcasts became our sole focus.

[00:03:51] Yvonne Heimann: Did you start out being, I always want to be an employee or I don't know, because I'm [00:04:00] where I'm going with this is some of us are like, Oh my God, I'm never going to work for somebody again.

[00:04:04] Some of us are like, I always seen myself as an employee and now suddenly here I am running my own business. How did you grow up? Did you have any of. Any other idea

[00:04:15] Victoria Bennion: you're going to be here? I never wanted to work for anyone, never. But I thought that was the path I had to take. I think both my mum and dad were self employed, so I'd always seen that as the model.

[00:04:27] And I always struggled with that, honestly. And I think the job I was most happiest in was a three year contract and it was because I knew I wasn't tied in to working for someone else beyond that. So yeah, I've I always saw myself as being you know, it was working for myself and it was really having my daughter that like gave me that real " I'm never going back". I really wanted that autonomy over my day, how I did it. I [00:05:00] don't mind working early. I don't mind working late, but I want to be in charge of that.

[00:05:04] Yvonne Heimann: How does life look for you right now? So you're not doing the whole nine to five anymore. You have the podcast agency, you get some amazing clients.

[00:05:13] How does a day or a week in Victoria's life look like now?

[00:05:17] Victoria Bennion: It's really been a weird few months as I said, so I've got two children, one is autistic, so he's been on a reduced timetable at school for the past year, so if I wasn't running my own business, I don't know how I would have actually managed that because of the days he did go into school.

[00:05:35] It would be, I would take my daughter in the morning, come back, have an hour and a half, take him to school, come back, pick him up from school at one, come back, pick her up from school at half three, come back. So a very interrupted day. The way, yeah, not ideal.

[00:05:53] Yvonne Heimann: I'm somewhere in between crying and laughing because it's I think of that schedule and I don't know how moms do it.[00:06:00]

[00:06:00] I don't know how moms do it. It's like back in the day when I remember my school time in Germany, I'm like, I got dropped off in the morning. I came back late lunch, did my homework and that was it. But nowadays, I'm like, especially looking at school in the States, it's like you're constantly just driving the kids around from school to soccer to this.

[00:06:23] I don't know how moms do it. I don't.

[00:06:26] Victoria Bennion: So for me, it was really early mornings. So I would get up quite early, so I would have a lot of work under my belt before they even got up and then I had to go into the craziness and I just had to time block my day, knowing the gaps I had straight back to the computer and growing a team has helped so I don't have to do it all as well and then some evening work.

[00:06:52] So yeah, not ideal, but just a very broken up day.

[00:06:56] Yvonne Heimann: How, I'm curious, how do you time block? [00:07:00] Because there's different ways of time blocking where it's like client work there. My work there. Creative there. Admin there. How do you time block?

[00:07:09] Victoria Bennion: Yeah. I'm not sure if I do it the best way or not, but so I

[00:07:12] Yvonne Heimann: As long as it works for you. I say, it is the best way.

[00:07:17] Victoria Bennion: So I've got, I use Google calendar and. I've got a special calendar there for Victoria's time blocking. So that's mapped out in the hours I've got, say six till eight or whatever to work and then another section. So I've got it in sections like that across the day and I've got And then I've got more kind of themed days.

[00:07:42] So Monday is client work, Tuesday morning client work, and then time for sales calls, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday content day Thursday client work stroke sales calls, Friday business building. Sometimes [00:08:00] there's a tiny bit of client work, but that's how I try to theme the week and then I've just got the times in it.

[00:08:05] When I first started, I added it all to the normal calendar and then I couldn't see any of the appointments or anything. I was like, this isn't working. So I had to put it on one that I can turn on and off and see.

[00:08:20] Yvonne Heimann: I don't even know how many calendars I have in my Google calendar because I'm such, it's like having the big picture yet having the granular and it's, yeah.

[00:08:31] And I'm like, guys, if you are not setting up separate calendars, you probably also haven't watched my ClickUp Google Calendar video.

[00:08:39] Victoria Bennion: Separate them out. Really need to separate them.

[00:08:41] Yvonne Heimann: What are some other processes or tools that help you in your everyday life to make that busy mom schedule happen?

[00:08:50] Victoria Bennion: Okay. So I what I've created as we've gone along is, SOPs for everything, I would say. So yeah, we've just got the [00:09:00] processes mapped out. So that's, I use Google Docs for that. So everyone, all our team members can access that. Yeah, I think the SOPs are really fundamental actually. And then all of our clients, we have spreadsheets set up for them.

[00:09:16] Google Sheets. So we have a sheet where we record our outreach to podcast host. Sheet where all their confirmed bookings go. So anyone can. Anyone in the team can just open it up, see where we've got to, see any notes, see everything. So yeah, that's really helped tighten and streamline everything I would say.

[00:09:41] Yvonne Heimann: How do you manage your team? So I love the whole SOP thing. So guys, if you're listening or watching, I'm also going to link a couple of the SOP videos we created on YouTube for you. If you need to meet you, you need to get started on that. But also make your life easier when it comes to SOPs and having a database for your clients, [00:10:00] which I got to experience to, definitely is a huge help.

[00:10:05] How do you guys work internally with the team, with the outreach to know things are happening and who is working with who? How do you manage that?

[00:10:16] Victoria Bennion: We have, we use Slack as well to communicate generally in the week and we have Monday and Friday check ins. Also, everybody has a sheet that they update during the week saying what they've done on which clients.

[00:10:31] So I can go in at any time because I really need to know that it's all progressing. Obviously in, in what we do, it's very much, it's on the results as we promise a certain number of bookings, we need to make sure that we're delivering them. So yeah, everyone fills in a sheet too, that I can check.

[00:10:48] And yeah, that's it really.

[00:10:52] Yvonne Heimann: Absolutely. You know what it's. I'm a big friend of the best tool is the one you actually [00:11:00] use. So for me, it's Hey I'm a screw on a console technology. Me, it's I come across something new. I go dig, I have fun. But yeah, guys listening and trying to figure out how you guys going to run your business.

[00:11:13] It really comes down to the best tool is the one you actually use. And it sounds like you and your team have an amazing communication going on, which is another big part of being able to run a business. It's like when you don't have clear and ongoing communication with your team, things are just going to fall through the cracks.

[00:11:38] Victoria Bennion: Oh, and I should have said that the clients are divided between the teams. So they've all got an account manager. So sometimes it makes sense that one account manager might have certain contacts for podcasts. So we'll liaise if there's a crossover, it might be best that they speak to a certain host, but again, that's where the spreadsheets come in because [00:12:00] notes can be made on that.

[00:12:02] This person's going to talk to this person. And then we have the processes that we follow for the bookings. And that's all, our follow up emails are, all those things are there and they can be ticked and initialed. And so we can see where everything is.

[00:12:18] Yvonne Heimann: So how do you bring clients into this process.

[00:12:23] So we got everything behind the scenes. There's amazing communication happening with the team, keeping track of everything. How does that work client facing, how do you bring your clients in? How do you keep them updated?

[00:12:38] Victoria Bennion: Okay, so Gem, when we start working with a client now, we have an onboarding document, which they can access, which is in Google Docs again.

[00:12:48] So this is shared with them. So they've got access to that. That's got a number of their notes on. Then they have access to the confirmed booking sheet. So that's where they're [00:13:00] confirmed. Bookings all go and every time we get a yes in, we're emailing them, letting them know, but also we include a link to that spreadsheet so they can just check at any time, see what they've got coming up.

[00:13:13] Then on that sheet, we prepare briefs for them for each show that they're going to be on and we link it there so they can see it. They've also got a folder that we keep the confirmed booking spreadsheet in which they can access and then sometimes there's extra things like forms, maybe hosts will have us fill in and if we feel they need to see that also gets saved and shared with them, but they can access that.

[00:13:39] Oh, and then we work slightly differently with different clients. So some clients like to see a list of podcasts, so they can approve them before we do the outreach. So for those, we'll keep a different spreadsheet and we'll put the date that we contact the host so that a client can just pop on if they want to see the progress.[00:14:00]

[00:14:00] And they've got that spreadsheet there to see how the list is going.

[00:14:04] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah, like getting booked on podcasts can be so different where it's like some guests want to be like, Hey, I want to pre approve others are like. I am on promotion base. I go wherever you tell me to go, which brings me to your book launch. I want to hear a little bit about that.

[00:14:26] I've seen, as I mentioned, seen Mark Schaefer around. There were a lot of people involved and I don't know, did you handle the podcast outreach for the book launch on that?

[00:14:39] Victoria Bennion: Not solely, but I did some of it. Yeah, it was a big team effort, the whole book. Yes, I handled certain areas and certain authors and helped with some of the podcast bookings.

[00:14:50] But, yeah, 35, 36 authors, I think. And everybody had their own area. It's quite a mammoth project that Mark pulled together there.

[00:14:59] Yvonne Heimann: [00:15:00] It's a few people that need to be managed there. Tell me about your chapter. I'm assuming it might have had anything to do with podcasting.

[00:15:08] Victoria Bennion: Now you might have assumed that, yes, but no, it didn't.

[00:15:11] Yvonne Heimann: I'm getting called out, I haven't read the book yet.

[00:15:14] Victoria Bennion: Yeah, that's totally fine. No. I couldn't persuade Mark to add a chapter to this one on podcast guesting.

[00:15:20] Yvonne Heimann: Mark, really?

[00:15:21] Victoria Bennion: It's maybe volume two, he took suggestions, but he asked me if I would do the chapter on blogging for SEO,

[00:15:28] Yvonne Heimann: Which does feed into, yeah,

[00:15:31] Victoria Bennion: it does.

[00:15:32] He placed some of us, I think it's just slightly outside our comfort zones. So there was a little bit of a stretch. That's it. Exactly. So Mark gave us very clear guidelines on our chapters, the format that he wanted it to follow. And he managed the whole process. He gave us deadlines and everybody's chapters have to be in by a certain point.

[00:15:55] And then he'd review them, give you any feedback, changes by a certain date.[00:16:00] I think he was surprised. I think all of us were surprised that it actually came together. Actually, everyone met their deadlines and did a great job. And then we had the audio book recording, which he added on to it. Can you imagine getting 36 people from around the world to record their chapter, all with different backgrounds, all with different accents, and try and lace that together in a way that sounds good.

[00:16:26] I, yeah, I think he had a little bit of back and forth when he was trying to get it through to be published, but he did get there.

[00:16:34] Yvonne Heimann: So yeah, it seems like he had a pretty good framework on getting the book done. It sounds similar to how a publishing house would manage it. And I'm like, if you don't set deadlines and you are not.

[00:16:47] I know me, if I don't have deadlines, it's getting keep it's just getting pushed.

[00:16:52] Oh my God. So what's in store, by the way, guys, you're going to find the link to the book in the description as [00:17:00] always. Everything is going to be linked. The team is going to take care of you. What is in store for. You and the agency for the rest of the year. Do you have any fun plans? Second, next book coming out?

[00:17:13] Maybe, who knows?

[00:17:14] Victoria Bennion: Oh, I'd like to do a book, but no, that's not on the plan now for the second half of the year. We've just been adding a training course to go alongside for clients for their podcast bookings with resources and everything. Yes, that, yes, that's what we thought. We thought there's a lot more to the strategy than just getting booked on podcasts.

[00:17:35] So that's what we've been working on for about six months, adding. And we've actually just finished it this week. So that's very good. So yeah, we're just rolling that out to our existing clients. And then we've got a couple of other projects that we're working on with some new clients. Yes. So that I feel is going to be taking up the rest of the year.

[00:17:57] Just so going through the process [00:18:00] and making sure that the course of works for everyone. And

[00:18:04] Yvonne Heimann: Do you think you might roll the course out for the public too? Or is that just going to be a bonus for your clients?

[00:18:12] Victoria Bennion: I think that we will. I think we'll change it slightly. Obviously, it's very focused on our agency clients, so we'll have to skew it slightly.

[00:18:20] But yeah, I think actually, I said that I wasn't, but yes, I think that we probably will do that.

[00:18:26] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah. I might have sent a reply this morning to a podcast pitch that was quite blunt. The German came out where it's Come on, people. It's obvious you didn't even look at my podcast. You're just sending an empty, ego polished pitch where it's like, Guys, really?

[00:18:45] I'm like, I get it. I get it. Podcast outreach is a lot. That's why you have people like Victoria that can help you with this, but please, at least take five seconds. If you are not even hitting the target market of a podcast, what are you [00:19:00] even doing?

[00:19:01] Victoria Bennion: I know. Are there some of the ones that we get for the best guest?

[00:19:04] It really surprises me, but I think one was a circus entertainer. or there was no, they didn't listen to the podcast. They didn't know who the audience was. And when you get added to like MailChimp or something, and it's clearly just gone out on a blast and it says unsubscribe at the bottom.

[00:19:19] Yvonne Heimann: Now I, yeah, as we Germans say, I get it. I don't even know if I can. I don't even know if I can translate that in English. Some hosts though, in their process too, where it's don't just add me to your email list because I'm a guest on your podcast.

[00:19:37] Victoria Bennion: Yes, that does.

[00:19:38] Yvonne Heimann: I don't, you don't even know if I'm your target market.

[00:19:42] If I'm not your target market, even though I am a guest on your podcast, because I might bring a value to your listeners , don't add me on your email list. Don't, just don't.

[00:19:52] Victoria Bennion: I know. Don't, I know.

[00:19:54] Yvonne Heimann: I'm not gonna refer any speakers to you if you do that.

[00:19:57] Victoria Bennion: Yeah. And I would've thought that was [00:20:00] against the laws, the spam and everything.

[00:20:04] Yvonne Heimann: It's varies. It is , you can't just add somebody, but often enough when you submit a guest application, little chat box on the bottom that you're gonna have to check to submit it . And it's like when you do the podcast outreach. Fine. I'll deal with it. I know what I signed up for, but often enough I had hosts that just add me to their podcast.

[00:20:28] Victoria Bennion: Okay.

[00:20:29] Yvonne Heimann: It's a general email list even, not just a podcast email list. And it's, you do realize now you are against anti spam laws because you didn't even ask.

[00:20:38] Victoria Bennion: Yeah. Yeah. It's not a good idea, is it?

[00:20:42] Yvonne Heimann: Oh, no, don't, guys don't do that. Don't do that. No, absolutely. And for everybody out there that does want to do the podcast guest route or get better at the podcast guest route? Victoria, you [00:21:00] actually have a checklist for the audience for them to set them up for success as a podcast guest. Do you wanna say something about that? Guys? You're gonna find the link in the description as always.

[00:21:14] Victoria Bennion: Sure. Yes. So we have a checklist that we'll run through with you, the things that you need to do ahead of your interview, some things to remember during your interview, and then some prompts for after your interview too, just to make sure that you're making the most of it really and that you're showing up and giving the best impression that you can, which is again, is going to benefit you so much more with your podcast interviews.

[00:21:38] Yvonne Heimann: I love it so much. And it's yeah, you spent the time. I actually had a guest on that. I just got into his follow up. What he does is he does a lot of guesting and he asks permission to get the video and turns all of it into short form content. So now he [00:22:00] is creating a ton of short form content from our episode and is adding me as a collaborator for it.

[00:22:07] And I'm like, I'm going to have you on any given time we do repurposing too, right? But not to the level that he is doing it where we have three or four short form videos based on each podcast. He is literally 10, 20 pieces of short form from each episode. He was guest on. And I'm like, I will send you anywhere and everywhere.

[00:22:30] It's and I guess you don't have to go quite that crazy guys. You don't have to go as far out as Trent, but even just tagging people, sharing the episode, keep it simple. Just celebrate. You've been on a podcast and give the host a little bit exposure. And believe me, you're going to be back on an episode.

[00:22:49] Victoria Bennion: Exactly. I think it's it's such a good idea to repurpose your episode. Like you say, it's. You don't have to go that crazy, but neither do you have to do it that week. You can, it's something that you can keep doing [00:23:00] over time, isn't it? Use that as an asset, and you can pull out a quote, you can make an audiogram, you can share it in a different way, but it can be months down the line that you keep doing this for as long as it's relevant to your audience. But then it helps, the guest grow their following on social media, build their authority. And as you say, the podcast host isn't going to hate you for it. You're going to help increase the visibility of the show.

[00:23:24] So everyone's a winner. So I think the more you can do that and work that into your process podcast guest, just the better.

[00:23:32] Yvonne Heimann: Further you reach podcast host, talk to podcast host. And once you make one happy, believe me, you're going to get onto other podcasts too. For the audience, Victoria, where can people find you?

[00:23:46] Victoria Bennion: They can find me, actually, we've put together a page with a checklist on and We also have a free Canva one sheet template that they can download if they'd like. And that is at [00:24:00] Victoriabennion.Com forward slash Yvi.

[00:24:04] Yvonne Heimann: Oh, I get a special page!

[00:24:08] Victoria Bennion: You get a special page.

[00:24:09] Yvonne Heimann: I get a special page. I get a special page.

[00:24:12] Yes, guys, this is going to be linked in the description as always. Thank you so much, love, for coming on. I promise I will finally get the book and actually read it before all of the authors call me out and I'm like, Yvi, how can you have Victoria on without even looking at her chapter? I was not a super well prepared podcast host.

[00:24:36] I was just an okay prepared podcast

[00:24:39] host.

[00:24:40] Victoria Bennion: We pulled up the interview, didn't we? You had a few more weeks and then you moved in a bit sooner. So that's why I'm sure.

[00:24:47] Yvonne Heimann: But, this is where I love my podcast. So some of my friends, what happened guys is something just happened and I needed to fill in a slot because we are a little bit short on, on publishing podcasts.

[00:24:59] And [00:25:00] Victoria just jumped right on, literally within two days we rescheduled it and she came on, so I have a slight excuse for not having read the book yet because we were scheduled in like a month and a half, but still. Bill, I'm supposed to support my people and get the damn book and actually read it.

[00:25:18] That also means we're going to have to meet in person, because I'm going to have to get my copy signed.

[00:25:24] Victoria Bennion: Oh, absolutely. We should definitely do that.

[00:25:27] Yvonne Heimann: Either way, me coming to London for AtomiCon or you coming back for social media marketing world.

[00:25:33] Victoria Bennion: Either way, I'm booked in for Atomicon, and not Social Media Marketing World next year because we're on holiday.

[00:25:39] They moved the dates, didn't they?

[00:25:40] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah, they moved a few things around. Schedules are going crazy a little bit right now.

[00:25:45] Victoria Bennion: Maybe, so I'm thinking you need to come over here.

[00:25:48] Yvonne Heimann: It is about time. I haven't been back since 2019. Yeah,

[00:25:52] Victoria Bennion: you'll do a visit.

[00:25:54] Yvonne Heimann: I definitely do. Let's make it happen. You enjoy the rest of your [00:26:00] evening.

[00:26:00] Yes, guys, because she's in the UK, we got a little bit of time difference and I see all of you again in our next episode of Boss Your Business, where we build businesses that support your lifestyle. Bye everyone.

[00:26:14] Victoria Bennion: Thank you so much.