Ep 162
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Melissa Kellogg Lueck: [00:00:00] Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Leuck, and this is the Doing Business like a woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom, one business at a time.
hello. Hello. How's it going? How are you? I hope you're all doing well
I wanted to tell you what's going on and talk with you about podcasting and the story behind my podcast, how I started it, and also tell you what I'm up to today. 'Cause I have some exciting things happening.it just so happens that I have a podcast interview scheduled with my amazing client Monique Eckes of Silver Paw Studios. And so I'm gonna be going to her studio and recording at her studio.
Which I'm sure is gonna be [00:01:00] quiet and professional and very lovely. And so I'm gonna take you with me on that on that little journey But I wanted to come in and just do some behind the scenes around how I'm preparing for that recording and how I prepare for, doing interviews and how I prepare for my podcast.
I thought I would chat with you a little bit about that. And so if we don't know each other it's so nice to meet you. Thank you for being here this morning. And my name's Melissa Kellogg Lueck, and I am the CEO and founder of the Avanti Business Academy for Women. I absolutely love helping women to grow their confidence and their connection to their best fit clients and bring in more business and revenue. I teach marketing and sales and coach on all things entrepreneurship. [00:02:00] So that's what we're all about. And so let's see. So I have this interview today. And I'm preparing for that and coming up with my questions. And it's gonna be a little bit of a different format for me because I don't think I've ever recorded a podcast interview in person with my interview subject. I feel like they've always been online and so that's gonna be super fun and interesting and something new. So I'm finding myself having to prepare a little bit mentally for that. Because when I'm in my own environment, it's easier for me to get into my zone.
But then when we go outside of that normal environment, it can it can throw me off a little bit. I'm preparing mentally and thinking about being in her studio. I've been to her studio before and so thinking about, [00:03:00] just visualizing myself there and what it's gonna be like and how I wanna show up, that's one thing I really like to set an intention anytime.
For any part of my day I wanna be setting an intention of how I wanna show up and how I wanna be in that environment. And my podcast interviews are generally very informal and I really like them to be conversational. I like them to have the feel of you and me and the interviewee that we're all just sitting around whether it's a living room or sitting around the table at a restaurant and just having a great conversation.
but in order to do that, I have to have planned what I want, what my intention is for the interview. and so this is the marketing teaching part of what we're talking about today. I have this idea that it would be [00:04:00] really fun to have some interviews with a few of my students from the 90 Day Marketing Accelerator.
Because I'm gonna be opening up the doors for that accelerator and so I thought it would be really fun to have some podcast episodes that correspond with that launch and showcase the women that are in the accelerator currently. So giving you all an idea of who's in there, what it's like, what kinds of things that the current students are learning and how it's been going for them.
I'm really excited to do these interviews. So that's my intention for this interview, but it's not gonna be all about the 90 day marketing accelerator. Really what I want it to be, my intention is to have it be a real highlight of my client, because I absolutely [00:05:00] love my clients. They all are amazing women doing amazing things in the world, and I feel so honored to get to work with them and get to really help them on their journey and lift them up and encourage them and offer all of my, education, expertise, experience, and wisdom to help make the journey easier for them, really is what it is.
So I'm so excited to get to have them on the podcast and to really get to highlight them, highlight their businesses, and also get to talk about the their experience and the accelerator. that is my idea and my intention around the podcast episode that we're gonna be recording today.
I'm really excited about that and thinking through the questions and how I want that to flow. And I know it's gonna be so fun because,
Monique is just an amazing, [00:06:00] joyful, really fun person, great energy, and she's a professional photographer and videographer. And she's really great at putting you at ease. I know that it's, it'll be a great environment, but it's a little out of my normal, right?
It's out of my comfort zone. So I know that I need to prepare for that and I need to have my questions prepared. And then when I get there, I just wanna be in an energy of let's see, what's the word? It's not informality, but just like friendly in informal, just like the two of us sitting down having a chance to chat and you getting to be there with us and talking to the behind the scenes of what it's like to be an entrepreneur and talking about her journey she's, been building. She's been an entrepreneur for a long time and there's always so much we can learn from women that have been in business for a long time because it's not easy. [00:07:00] And every year that goes by it's like we're beating the odds of quitting.
I also thought I would, just share with you my story behind starting my podcast.
I've had quite a few friends, clients, colleagues telling me recently that they're gonna start a podcast. And they always ask me like, what is it like and how'd you start your podcast? And why did you start your podcast? And what has come out of it for you?
So I think early on in my journey as a coach, podcasts and listening to podcasts were highly impactful. For me, it was really the way I started with, what opened me up to coaching and to learning about the power of coaching.
I think, probably the first podcast I listened to regularly was Amy Porterfield's podcast. And then I heard a coach on her podcast that I began listening [00:08:00] to, and it's just one thing leads to another, right? It's like when the student is ready, the teacher appears, so it was podcasts that really helped expose me and opened me up to coaching. And I ended up, I think, from listening to so many different podcasts I think it was my first two coaches were women that I had originally found and learned about by listening to podcast interviews that they were on.
And I'm so thankful for all of that. And there became a time in my development as a marketer where I thought maybe I should have a podcast. But I've been the same way about writing a book too. It's like nothing exciting has happened to me enough that I could, have a podcast or write a book about it.
Which is not true. I think we all have a story. Like my client, Frankie Rollins on the episode that we had her on, [00:09:00] talked about how, we all have a story in us that the world needs to hear and see and read, right? And, so I had this idea, I really had a desire to start a podcast because of the profound effect that listening to podcasts has had on me and my life and my business.
but I just didn't really think that I had much to say. I didn't really trust my ability to speak well, and I've been a writer my entire life. I started journaling when I was eight years old, and I've been journaling for, the last 46 years, and I think I still have all those journals too, which is crazy.
But writing has always been my mode of communication, my most comfortable mode of communication. And I remember I [00:10:00] was but I'd had this desire to have a podcast just because of the impact that it had on me, and I wanted to be able to offer that to others. And I was in a coaching session with a coach, talking with her about this and I don't even remember why or how it was brought up or whatever, but really what came out of that coaching session was that having a podcast was really a call a next level challenge and call for me to grow and learn to trust my voice.
And there's probably a lot of psychoanalysis we could do around that. Especially being a woman and, being told many times that I'm too much. I'm not enough, all the different messages. But at that point, it was really an invitation for me [00:11:00] to overcome, those fears about speaking out and speaking my truth and speaking in public. And so podcasting became an opportunity for me to try that out and to really, I saw it first as an exercise in learning to trust my voice and learning to speak. And speak my story, speak succinctly, speak meaningfully,and communicate value through my words.
And so that was really for me, the initial intention. I guess it's been three years that I've had this podcast. So three years ago when I started it, that was my in initial intention. This is my opportunity to speak what I know, to share my value with my words verbally out loud. And if nobody listens, I'm completely 100% fine with that.
It was just [00:12:00] overcoming all of that, fear and things that come up inside of you when you step out into something that's outside your comfort zone. And so I had to actually think about it like, nobody's gonna listen to this. Because for me that felt comforting.
I know for so many they want, millions to listen. But I was like, I'm okay if nobody listens and I get to just be bad at this to start out. And so I did it. I launched my podcast. It was crazy. And I remember thinking, all right so I think I the advice I got was to record a batch of episodes and then just, and release those all at once.
And so I did that. I had, I don't know, I think four initial episodes and a trailer or something, I don't remember. And then, but when I was recording all four of those episodes, I was like it's just me here. I wasn't doing video at the time, so it was me in my office with my microphone. [00:13:00] And it was really fun.
I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed it because I was thinking it's just me and my office in my, with my microphone just, getting to teach which I absolutely love teaching. And, and then I released these and people started listening, which I was like, shocked. Yeah, I was shocked.
And I remember I was like if nobody listens, I'm totally fine. And then my sister and my brother-in-law listened and told me they listened to 'em. And then I was like, oh my gosh, people are gonna listen to these. But that's really how it all started and it really has been such a beautiful and amazing journey having a podcast.
And, I decided if you've been around me at all, I'm all about simplicity. How can we keep it as simple as possible? And [00:14:00] that's what I decided I was gonna do with the podcast, I wasn't gonna let worrying about if I had the best technology or the best environment, or the best sound acoustics and the best editor and all of that.
I wasn't gonna let all of that stop me from, getting my voice trust, learning to trust my voice, and getting my words out into the world, getting my value out into the world. And my podcast is not the most professionally produced, fanciest equipment, studio. So it's gonna be so fun to be in a studio today and actually have a professional experience. I can't wait for that. And I hope you come along with me because it's gonna be super fun to see. But I want to just challenge you today to think about, what is that next level of growth?
What is that? Next level of discomfort that I want to be challenging myself to explore. [00:15:00] And today for me, my next level of discomfort is taking this podcast show on the road and recording it on location and my client's studio.
It's gonna be challenging for me to like just be present like I've been able to do when I'm in my own little bubble here to be present with my thoughts with my the questions I wanna ask Just be present with Monique as I'm talking with her and present with the questions and present with the intention that I have for the episode.
And yeah, I wanna just challenge you to think about what is your next level of growth. What are you being called to, what is that whisper or that, tap on the shoulder As my friend Robin always mentions about that. That next level of stepping outside of your comfort zone into your growth, because as entrepreneurs especially and especially in our marketing, we always wanna be [00:16:00] trying new things. Experimenting, on that bleeding edge of technology, of comfort, of what we think is our capability, because that's how we expand and that's how we grow and the more we do that the faster we grow and the more alive we feel. Because for us as entrepreneurs, that is the thrill of creating new things, of solving bigger problems, right?
Of going bigger in the world. And it's so exciting and so fun, and so I just encourage you to experiment with that today. but, I also wanna mention that I also have some private coaching slots currently open and available. I just signed, two new clients and so I'm so excited to get to serve them. But I have spots open
That means you get an opportunity to have a 60 minute [00:17:00] meeting consultation with me complimentary, and we get to go into your marketing, see what is holding you back from creating the results you wanna be creating with your marketing. And I can really help you problem solve, get clarity and focus on where you want to be spending your time and your energy and really simplify your marketing so that it's actually fun because marketing is all about the transference of energy and connection. And so if you're not feeling connected or not feeling energetic in your marketing, it's probably not gonna be effective in bringing in the amount of clients and revenue that it needs to be. So if that is something that you would like my eyes on, I would love to help you.
This is something I've been doing, helping my clients with for over 20 years now, and I've seen it all, heard it all, experienced it all myself and my own [00:18:00] business. I would love to help you out. If you're interested in that, you're always welcome to visit my website, melissa m kellogg.com. And there's a book a call button right there on the homepage, or you can DM me on social media and, we can set up a time and I would love to spend some time with you and really dig into your business and your marketing. All right, so that's what I have for you today, my friends,
I hope it was helpful. I hope that it really challenges you to think about what's next for you and your growth.
All right, I'll see you later. Bye.
Melissa Kellogg Lueck: Hey, if you like this podcast, I wanna invite you to become part of my community Each Friday, I'm gonna deliver to your inbox my weekly celebration, as well as my thoughts on the latest and business and marketing. I wanna keep you in the know about my upcoming events.
Free trainings, book clubs, all the fun things, even some free gifts. And of course, I'm gonna let you know about these new podcast episodes. I'll [00:19:00] see you there.