23. Introvert Entrepreneur Podcast to award nomination in less than 60 days with Petra Jones

Petra Jones is the host of the very popular podcast, The Mumpreneur Show. On this show, Petra Jones interviews real mums who are also entrepreneur podcast, bloggers, makers of handmade products, social media gurus and guests that are an extremely motivating force for an audience who wants education, inspiration to help them grow their small business. As a host, she has recognised there is a constant and continuing search amongst the mums in business for better solutions around business start up, online business or being a mompreneur.

Petra is a fashion designer, stylist and mumpreneur herself. Starting her children’s fashion label in 2012, Petra left corporate life behind to study fashion design and to pursue her passion of designing clothes for kids that are all about standing out, encouraging individuality and confidence. With an online boutique and stocked in children’s wear stores around Australia, Petra shares her experiences from her first two years of running a successful fashion business.

In this episode we talk about:

Petra Jones’ biggest learning curve throughout her podcasting journey
Being an introvert and going back to her childhood years
How podcasting served as her personal chance to reclaim her confidence, find her voice and her strength
The obstacles that would have prevented Petra from going ahead and what really pushed her forward
The specific feature that really helped her along the process of podcasting
The one-on-one coaching calls
What she has managed to achieve from her Mumpreneur podcast show
The reasons she started her own podcast
The visibility that her show is creating
The incredible relationships she builds with other women
Keeping in touch with people who give their valuable time
Her experience speaking at the We are Podcast Conference
The importance of making a podcast with the right intentions to achieve good results
Petra’s interesting and great experience at being recognised through making podcast shows
Why podcasting is so hot all of a sudden
The beauty of a voice
The importance of connecting with your audience and delivering your message in a powerful way
The benefits of podcasting
Why podcasting is such an accessible platform
The disadvantages of podcasting
How Petra Jones prepares herself when it comes to interviewing her guests
How she enjoys researching and finding out about her guests before the interviews
Creating conversations in various different scenarios
Spending hours creating her show notes
Being more proactive and avoiding procrastination
The importance of time management
The complicated aspects of becoming a podcaster
What’s coming up for the Mumpreneur show
Petra’s plan to create educational chances for women to support them in their journeys and help them in their businesses
Allowing herself to conquer her fears and become visible through webinars
The importance of going deep, interrupting and following up questions in order to have a real conversation

What would’ve made it easier/what would you have changed?

“It’s probably less procrastination. I had a lot of audio trouble at the start. I feel like I lost two months just trying to figure that out and it was holding me back. I wish I could have just jumped in and not worried so much about the whole thing. That was one thing. I wish I could have just been more pro-active and procrastinated less.”

How often should I podcast?

“I really couldn’t sustain three episodes a week. I’ve had one episode a week for probably two months and my downloads are greater than they were before I dropped. It was purely just a decision that I needed to work on other things as well.”

How do I know if podcast as a medium is for me?

“I always think that when people actually go and do an interview on a podcast, they realise “Yeah this is actually a pretty cool platform to explore more for my own business.” That’s my experience. I find that once people go, “Ok, I should include podcasting into my PR strategy” they start to get in touch with various podcasts and start to experience the benefits that come with being on a podcast.

“I think that people should definitely, first of all, understand who they’re going to create the podcast for. I think that’s the main thing right at that initial start. You need to understand who your audience is going to be, who you are targeting and how it ties into your message, into your business. And once you understand that then I feel the structure kind of falls into place. Just structure everything around that. That’s the key.”

How complicated is it to do a podcast?

“It’s funny. At the start of the journey, it felt like it was very complicated. There is hardware, software, the interview skills, finding people to interview and finding time to interview them. There’s a lot of organising that happens around the creation of a podcast, but looking back a lot of those problems were not really problems at all. It was just something new that I hadn’t done before. And it all just felt a little bit too much because I hadn’t gone through the process previously. So, once you actually start, once you get the tools together and you start interviewing, once you publish your stuff on iTunes, then you’ll find that all of that is only going to get better.”

What are the most important things to consider as an Entrepreneur Podcast?

“I research a lot. I actually enjoy that part. I love researching. It’s interesting. I like finding out possible ways that conversations could go and create various scenarios. I spend one to two hours just looking at stuff about the people I’m interviewing.

“I actually just started to outsource because that was one of the things that I think I was sort of wasting my time a little bit on. It was one of those things that I felt I could use my time a bit better on. And then there are my show notes that take a bit of time to use. So I spend about half-an-hour to an hour doing show notes.

“It’s a time-consuming thing. You just have to be prepared that there will be some time you will have to put into it.

“Sometimes you need to really get deep and get the emotions out. You need to really interrupt and follow up questions. And I think that really makes the connection in the end and makes it real.”

Which podcast should I follow, why and how often?

“I just think there are too many cool things out there so I like to sample a lot of different things. A lot of what I listen to depends on where I am at personally. If I am trying to solve some business problems or something that’s been eating me up I would choose podcasts like Darren Rowse or any Amy Porterfield – ones where I can just go and I know I will get some sort of answer from. But if I’m feeling like I need a bit of solving, fixing, that kind of stuff, I would go and listen to Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic. Occasionally, I listen to WTF podcast. And Alec Baldwin. He’s got a really interesting interview style.”