How Storytelling Helps Coaches Get Clients with Jessica Rhodes

Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success. I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders and experts who will share not just their expertise, but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements. So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place.

Subscribe now and discover the milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick. And today, my special guest is Jessica Rhodes.

Jessica founded Interview Connections, the world's first and leading podcast booking agency. Back in 2013, back when no other agencies like it existed. And since its founding, Interview Connections has booked over... 50 ,000 podcast interviews for over a thousand coaches.

Jessica is passionate about helping coaches who feel like the best kept secret grow their business online through genuine human to human connection. The podcast interviews Jessica and her team have booked have helped their clients generate millions of dollars in sales, sell thousands of books and transform countless lives. Welcome to the show, Jessica. Jessica.

Thank you so much for having me. So tell us a little bit about yourself before Interview Connections existed. What did your life, your world look like? Yeah, I started Interview Connections when I was 25 years old.

So prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I, you know. I was a college student. I went to Temple University. I worked for a nonprofit organization called Clean Water Action all the way from my freshman year of college, all the way through right before I started my business, actually.

And I led a door to door field canvas. So I have a background in going door to door and community organizing and fundraising. So I was very passionate about environmental and public health policies and just. I have always loved the human to human connection.

It's, you know, anyone who's done door -to -door sales or door -to -door canvassing, community organizing. knows it's not for the faint of heart, but I really enjoyed always meeting different people every single day, house to house, meeting different people. But then after I got married and I was pregnant with our first child, I wanted to be a stay -at -home mom. That lifestyle of being out on my feet for multiple hours every night, going house to house was no longer in alignment for the life that I wanted to have as a mom.

And so I asked my parents for advice. I wasn't even necessarily thinking about starting my own business. I just wanted to think of a way that would allow me to stay at home and still have an income. Maybe that was stay at home during the day when my husband was working.

So I was like, do I get a job at night on weekends? And my dad is an entrepreneur. He's a business coach. So he knows this online world.

And he told me I should start my own business and I should start as a virtual assistant and that he would be my first client. So that is how I. got started. And my dad has been, you know, he had a podcast starting in 2012.

And this was 2013. And so he already kind of was leveraging podcasting. And so I started my virtual assistant business and started working with my dad and helping him out in his company. And that's how things got started.

I love that. And so that also allowed you as a mom, which is very similar to me, to be able to work from home, not just for the income, but also to keep your mind active and to pursue something that you love, that you're passionate about, and then have that flexibility to be able to raise your children. Absolutely. Having a lifestyle business has always been the priority.

I've always wanted to. And there was, I will say, a period of years where I had an office outside the home. And I had a nanny and the kids were in school, but I've kind of come back as my kids are, my daughter will be 11 years old next week and my son's 13. And so they're a little bit more independent.

They don't need like childcare all the time. So I'm very much home and I love it. I love having a business that supports my lifestyle as a mom. And I always find that kind of healthy tension, that healthy push and pull as an entrepreneur of like growth and wanting to grow, grow, grow.

And also like keeping my values as a mom at the center of it. And so I find that's kind of a fun game to always be mindful of because it's very easy to just like slip into grow, grow, grow. But it's like, wait, why am I growing? It's to be with my family.

So let's not stop doing that. And I know that you can't see her because it's an audio conversation, but she has the most beautiful sign behind her desk along these orchids. And it says. M -O -M, mom.

So your values are very instilled in what you do. Thank you. Yeah. So now back in 2013, what was that time like?

What did it feel like? And who did you lean on to be able to get you where you are today? And was it harder than you expected? periods were harder so in the beginning I look back I've been in business now for 13 years and there's been you know phases the early years the first phase you know probably 2013 through 2017 ish was just kind of starting out and just kind of wide -eyed and bushy -tailed.

I was happy with anything. Every time I got a client, I'm like, this is amazing. I didn't really have set goals. I was going to say I didn't really have set goals.

I did. When I started, I was like, I would love to have a six -figure business. And I achieved that goal pretty early on. So then I was just like, this is great.

I have everything I wanted and more. And then things started to shift. I started to really like spend time with other business owners. My sites expanded as I saw what was possible.

And as I, you know, my dad used to host these business seminars. He's retired now. So he has like a couple of clients, but he's not in the hustle mode anymore. But back then he was hosting these business seminars.

So I would go and I would see other people speak. And I was learning so much. I was like this sponge and I was just soaking everything up. And the second phase of my journey was after I saw somebody speak about having employees, I thought, wow, I would love to have full -time employees, having people that are 100 % focused on my business rather than a contractor who has other clients too.

So then that was phase two is hiring employees. I then brought on a business partner. Together, she helped me with this kind of like building out a local team. And so that's when it got really hard.

It got really hard when I totally expanded outside of what my comfort zone was, which was just like doing the booking and having some support team members, then bringing on a partner, bringing on employees. That's when things got challenging, but still helped me grow, you know, not in a bad way, but just like, well, okay, this is like a real business. This isn't just. like jazz booking podcast interviews with some people helping her.

This is like, it has taken on a life of its own. So it's, there's been easy times and there's been hard times over the years. So tell us a little bit more about exactly what you do, who you serve, the process. Yeah.

So we are the world's first ever and leading done for you podcast booking agency. So we are the company that coaches use to get on shows that their ideal clients are listening to. So our clients are coaches who often just feel like the best kept secret. They have a great service.

They've grown by word of mouth and referral. And they need to reach new audiences. And they're not yet ready for a paid advertising campaign, which has a whole other host of challenges. When you do paid ads, you need a really good funnel.

You need a lot of nurture that's much more expensive. So our clients are these coaches that they need visibility. kind of that is the right next step after building by referral and word of mouth. And so I have a team of full -time employees who will research and find the podcasts that are a really good fit for them that have their clients listening that are well -established quality shows.

And we will get them booked as guests on those shows, make the connections. And then we also coach our clients on the strategy because we've been doing this for so long. It's more than just getting them booked. It's more than just a transactional service.

We're also really working with our clients on how to grow their business and looking at like, what's the right call to action? Where are you sending listeners? How are you networking and building referral partnerships with podcast hosts? How are you repurposing and like turning your podcast into a book, you know, like recommending great services like Pods of Book AI to help take their content and expand their reach.

and build a stronger business. So we work with clients in monthly memberships. We've got packages. I talk to clients, you know, before they get started, just to make sure that it's the right fit for them and their business.

Because sometimes it's not, you know, there are reasons why a podcast guesting strategy might not be in alignment. We kind of make sure it's the right fit first and then help them get started and have success with it. Do you only work with coaches? Because Pata Bokei now produces manuscripts and we help them.

become authors and publish their books? Do you also serve those clients? Because maybe I can start sending you some of the authors so they can go on different podcasts on a podcast tour and get booked. Absolutely.

Yeah, we definitely work with clients who aren't coaches. There's a lesson in this. So we have always worked with many different types of business owners and entrepreneurs. And something that I did kind of over the last year is like really niche down and really focus on the client that we have the most success with.

So when I look at the thousand clients that we've worked with over 13 years, our clients who have seen the highest rates of return on investment happen to be coaches, happen to be consultants who have a high ticket offering, who have a program that they need to educate people on their story and their methodology. And so that happens to be coaches. So when I speak about who we work with. I talk about the client that we do most well with.

That being said, I mean, we have some clients who sell health supplements. You know, they're an e -commerce B2C product. We have like financial advisors. So I just shared that kind of the thought process behind how I speak about who we work with, because I find that a lot of entrepreneurs are so general with who they help that they're missing out.

So it's good to niche down, but also know that you can still serve anyone. So it's a long answer to a short question, but that's the thought process. I think all coaches should have not just podcast episodes, but then also have a book. So they can hand that over.

So we'll mix the combination. If they're coaches and authors, that could be like the golden ticket to visibility and get them on stages as well. So after booking 50 ,000 bookings and over a thousand clients, what lessons have you learned about connection, about podcasting and about why it works? Yeah.

I mean, there's so many, like so much I could share here, but just to kind of give like a few top lessons that I've learned is number one, the strategy of podcasting or having a book, you know, we're kind of talking about different tactics, but similar strategy. It's about educating and sharing your story. This is not a silver bullet. This is not a quick fix to a business that's struggling.

These podcasting. podcast guesting, having a book, things that build a really strong business. And the things that make your business really strong, they're one piece of a much bigger platform, a much bigger strategy. So that's number one is knowing that.

Podcasting is not something that's going to work really, really fast. It can. And we give a lot of tips to our clients. And I share a lot on my podcast and in my masterclass, how you can accelerate your return on investment.

But it does take time for people to find you, for people to listen to you and to have it be the right timing for them to invest in what you're offering. So consistency is key. That's another. big, big lesson that I've learned myself the hard way and I've had clients share is that it's not something you just like podcasts for a year and then stop doing it.

It's something that every single month, you've got to be speaking to your current audience. You need to be speaking to new audiences because if Alex Rambosi talks about this, if you're not. growing, you're getting smaller. It's very, very difficult to keep a business just the same size.

So keep growing, keep getting visible, be consistent with your visibility. Another lesson is to not share enough stories on podcasts. A lot of people just go into it like wanting to tell, tell, tell, but people really connect with people that have stories to share and that there's some emotional connection between you and the audience. So where can we learn more about you or find you online?

Yeah, well, my home base on the web is interviewconnections .com. I host a free podcast guesting masterclass every month. So whenever you're hearing this, if you want to jump in and learn about how to get more clients from podcast guesting, how to repurpose your interviews and, you know, be a really great guest, share stories, there's always a tab on the top of my website with our free masterclass.

That's at interviewconnections .com. I'll make sure to leave that in the comments. And before we wrap up our conversation today, when someone comes to you, a coach, feeling like they're the best kept secret in their industry, what do you want them to know to walk away with after tuning into today's conversation?

What I want them to know, and I hope they got this from our conversation, is that. You what makes you unique is your story. And, you know, there can be other businesses that have similar pricing and packaging. But the thing that will put you into a category of one and make it like make you the obvious choice for your ideal client is your story.

And podcasting is just the best way to share your story in your own voice. So get your story out there. If you're feeling like not enough people know who you are, start. sharing your story.

And that's really going to shift things. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Jessica. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for tuning in today.

If this story resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you have a story of your own that you'd like to share or have ever thought about becoming a published author, visit 5milestones .com to be a guest on the show. One conversation is all it takes to become a published author.

You have a story that matters. It's time to tell it.