Finding Your Unique Voice: Strategic Podcasting for Solopreneurs and Professionals w/ Isabella Sanchez Castañeda

This is Tools of the Podcast Trade, where you can learn about the tools and resources you can use to start and grow your podcast Tune in this week, as we talk about the help you need to remove the mystery from podcasting so you can become a successful podcaster that can reach your audience where they are. My guest today is Isabella Sanchez Castaneda. Thanks for coming and talking to us today on Tools of the Podcast Trade, isabella.

Thank you so much for having me today, Jennifer.

Of course. So before we get into what you do, could you tell us who is Isabella?

Wonderful question. I am a pandemic graduate. I tend to start with that. I graduated in 2020 and I found myself in entrepreneurship. I don't know why I ever expected anything different. I'm also the child of two small business owners. They did it out of necessity of having come to the US, having emigrated to the US and really having to make their own path. I'm originally from Columbia. I was born in Columbia, but have been raised and have stayed in the Philadelphia area this whole time, so a little bit of just that personal passion and that personal background for making my own path has been standard all along.

Okay cool. Thank you for sharing, and I had a feeling you were from Columbia. It's on my bucket list.

We'll go together.

Cool, yeah, that works All right. So you by your says you're a podcast strategist. What does that mean?

Yeah, so I specifically help small businesses and professional service providers create podcasts to market what they do. So that looks like starting a show typically a solo show with some guests that really focuses on their thought leadership. So, say, a lawyer wants to start a podcast about divorce law and they want to share what they believe is the most important things to know, what people should know before going into the divorce process and really building trust with an audience so that when they no one wants to think that they're going to need a divorce lawyer, but let's say that when they have a friend who needs a divorce lawyer, they think of that person first. Okay, and really just focusing on that. So I help business owners strategize how to start the podcast, how to maintain it and what to say on it.

Okay, all right, I understand that, and a lot of individuals, especially like solopreneurs, will have their business and then they'll realize, oh, I should start a blog and they write about what they do. Why is it so challenging to transfer that thought process to a podcast?

I think… we can't hide as much when we hear, when we speak right, when we listen to someone's voice, we hear their passion or we hear their doubt, and so I think that when we do a blog as business owners, you can hide, you can refine, you can rewrite that sentence 12 times, but when you're on a podcast and you speak, you know the truth, you know if you actually believe what you're saying. And so many of us have come up against like posture syndrome or just fears that are really natural to doing what we do, and we worry. We're like can they hear that? Are they gonna find out that I'm an imposter? And it's really just the power of podcasting is the authenticity of our voice, but it can be really scary to own the authenticity of our voice.

Yes, for sure. All right, okay, I really enjoy this topic because it's something I talk about myself and I, but do you think that every solopreneur let's focus on the solopreneur for a little bit need the podcast?

I think that it is a great vehicle for most solopreneurs, because most solopreneurs today need a personal brand. They need that personal connection. What the power of a solopreneur's business really is is the fact that they can provide a personal touch that a huge corporation can't. And so many solopreneurs try to become that big corporation. They try to pretend, and instead I encourage them to go in the opposite direction of embrace the fact that you are an individual who can bring an opinion, who can bring a special touch that those corporations can't, and then you can translate that into the podcast because we go back to I can hear the truth in your voice. I can't hear the truth in Coca-Cola's voice, because it's hundreds of people workshopping that. But a solopreneur who is willing to go on a podcast and say this is what I believe and this is how I can help you one to one, because we're people together, is going to create a level of connection, of intimacy that the big businesses can't really compete with.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. And you talk about competition. Is that if you're a lawyer, a divorce lawyer, then I'm a divorce lawyer and we're living in the same area. We can be viewed as competitors, right? But if I have a podcast where I'm talking to my clients or potential clients, I have an advantage, right, absolutely.

And you have an advantage in two ways. You have an advantage in the people who love your style of divorce law are going to come to you and say I found my person as someone who is going to hold my hand in this very difficult process, whatever the circumstances. Divorce is hard, so I've been told right and so they know that they're going to really connect with you during that really difficult period. Or they know, hey, she's doing her thing but that's not the divorce lawyer for me and you're not going to have that conflict when you work together, and so it really helps you stand out and find your people and then, if they're not your people, they can go to that separate divorce lawyer who's also in the city.

Yes, I like to say there is no competition in podcasting because we have our own voice.

And the average podcast listener has about eight different podcasts in rotation on any given week. So we are not competing. We're actually going to help each other because maybe you come up under the suggested list of mine and it just keeps people engaged with podcasts. So the more people listen to podcasts, actually the better all of us do.

Yes, yes, awesome, thank you. All right, so tell me about your work, tell me what you do for your clients and how we can get in touch with you.

Absolutely so. I, first and foremost, really help a lot of clients get through that hurdle of using their voice and getting through the initial fear. I will say 90% of my clients come in saying what if no one listens? What if no one cares about what I have to say? And I have to sometimes tell them they don't care until you make them care, yeah, and that starts with you really wanting people to hear you, and so we practice through that a lot, and a lot of the practice is not just affirmations in the mirror of I'm important, even though they are. It's really okay. What do you have to say that people are going to care about? And a lot of times owning our opinions can be hard. So we talk about those opinions and then those different thought leadership, concepts, the things that you stand for and believe and are going to get really passionate about, become the topics for your episodes. And so, with my clients, we take those and we start to brainstorm them, we start to develop an argument, we start to develop a way of sharing that message with the world and for most of them, I end up scripting with them. So we develop a full episode together and we go back and forth. Usually I encourage seasons for most of my business owners because they're very busy and so we'll do 12 episodes of scripting and then we do a recording weekend. So I either go out to them or they come to me in Philadelphia. We record the episodes together. They have time to mess up, re-record, do it again, read off the script and really come into that authenticity, come into. We do a lot of exercises to get their voice warmed up and then we take care of the editing and all the boring stuff at the end so that really they're only worried about showing up to the recording and feeling their most confident, most authentic self.

Yeah, yeah, do you find that a lot of these entrepreneurs, even though they're bold with their own, their products and services, they're really timid when it comes to talking about podcasts, talking about the things they're passionate and excited about on a podcast?

Absolutely, and I think it's because they're afraid that they're going to say something that a potential client won't like, and it's that fear of being disliked. And they're saying well, I do believe that everybody should sign this kind of contract. Let's say that they're not a divorce lawyer, they're a contract lawyer and they believe everybody should have a non-disclosure agreement with everybody. And then we tell them okay, go say that on a podcast. And they go oh no, I don't want to say that, because what if that one client doesn't want to do that? And that's the reason that they don't work with me. And we have to go through the conversation of, well, do you want to work with them? It's almost like dating, right, we talk so much about people saying, well, what if they don't like me on the first date? And you say, but did you like them on the first date? Did you even think about that? And so many times we don't right, and so I think it's just a little bit of scarcity, too, of, well, what if I say something that they don't like and they don't want to work with me, and starting to slowly be okay with that.

Yeah, yeah and I think too it gets back to the basics of how I learned podcasting is that you start by serving the audience right, absolutely, and the ones who like you are going to stay and the one who don't like you are going to be moved.

So yeah, and even the ones who don't like you have learned something from you. They've learned that they disagree with you and that they have a different opinion, and that's also valuable. When we learn what we don't like or what we don't want, we're also getting a lot. So, one way or another, you're serving the people listening.

Yeah, absolutely All right. So how can we get in touch with you?

I am very active on Instagram at isamediaink. I S A media I N C or through my website, isamediainkcom, and you can book a call with me there. I have taken a small break from my own podcast but I will be back in January and that's called visible with Isamediaink.

Oh, okay, cool, and we'll put those links on the show notes. So everyone, yes, sure. So what is Isabella grateful for today? Oh, I love this question I am.

This is tough. I have like a list. I am very grateful for the ability to share on a podcast like this, to have an opinion and own that, because I know that for myself and for a lot of people it has taken so much work to be comfortable with. For myself, it's taken a lot of work to be comfortable with myself and I'm really grateful that I have worked my way there and that you have worked your way there to have this platform for other people, and so I'm grateful for the ability to share in a way that I feel comfortable.

Awesome, we're glad to have you. Thank you, thank you. Oh, I appreciate you. All right, so I'm going to ask you for one or two tips to an aspiring podcaster Now, whether or not they have a business.

A quick tip for when you are recording is to really focus on your posture. The more your shoulders come in, the more you sound out of breath, no matter how confident you are. If your shoulders are in, you cannot breathe to your full lung capacity, and so your voice will change, your confidence will change so much just by rolling your shoulders back, taking a deep breath and continuing to talk.

All right, thank you. Yeah, okay, thank you, isabella Sanchez that's Anita for coming and talking to us today. Thank, you.

I appreciate you.

All right and hopefully one day you could come back again and talk.

I like to do follow up interviews and Absolutely and I would love to do like we could do case studies. We could pull out maybe a different example than a divorce lawyer. That was just the first one that's on my mind, but yeah, that's fine. Yeah, like really allowing people in every business. I've worked with career coaches and also systems people, tech people who don't think that they have a lot to say, they think that they're super introverted, and so a whole range of things that I would love to continue talking to you about.

Yeah for sure. I actually worked with an accountant who wanted to start a podcast because she wanted to talk about consumer fraud, which I thought was interesting.

That is so interesting and for her think of all the people who she would save just with that information. Yes, so she needs to start one. I don't know if she has yet, but we got to get her there.

All right, thank you, zabella. Thank you, thank you for everything.