52: An Extrovert's Guide to Podcasting with a Co-Host with Veronica Valli
"I love my podcast so much. It’s one of the top three favorite things I do in my business."
Veronica Valli has been joyously sober since May 2nd, 2000. Originally from the UK, she is a Psychotherapist, Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner, Recovery Coach and Author of the books, Why You Drink and How to Stop: A Journey to Freedom and Get Sober, Get Free: Your Practical Guide. She is also co-host of the Soberful podcast.
Veronica passionately believes that anyone can recover from an alcohol problem if they are given the right tools and support. She has personally helped thousands of women transform their lives. Veronica believes that alcohol is only a symptom of the problem and that to recover, thrive and become the women we are truly meant to be, we need to embrace a process of change.
In this episode, Veronica discusses why her podcast is one of her favorite things she does for her business, her advice for having a co-host on your podcast, how the show has evolved over time, how she and her co-host plan their content, the advice she has for anyone wanting to start a podcast for their business, and more!
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Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Veronica Valley has been joyously sober since May of 2000. Originally from the UK, she is a psychotherapist Emotional Freedom Technique practitioner, recovery coach and author of the books, why you drink and how to stop and get sober get free. She is also the co host of the sober full podcast, Veronica passionately believes that anyone can recover from an alcohol problem if they are given the right tools and support. She has personally helped 1000s of women transform their lives. Veronica believes that alcohol is only a symptom of the problem and that to recover, thrive and become the woman you're truly meant to be. We need to embrace a process of change. Now based in the United States, she works with women all over the world through her online programs and Facebook groups. She is married and lives on Long Island with her husband and two sons. So that's Veronica's formal bio. My bio for Veronica is that she and I have worked together on silver foil from the very beginning. She is absolutely amazing, one of the easiest clients to work with. Veronica, thank you so much for being on the show. And why don't you just give us a little bit of an introduction into your podcast and how it fits into your business.
01:55
Thank you, Brittany, that's so nice to hear. I love my podcast so much. It's one of the top three favorite things I do in my business. I just love it. Back in the day, years ago, I did a few kind of radio shows back in the UK and I just loved radio. I loved it. It's there's an intimacy to it, you know, there's a real intimacy. And I have always harboured ambitions to have my own radio show. And, you know, for my business, I help people stop drinking and transform their lives. And you know, I had books and so I had a blog and all that kind of stuff. And honestly, it takes me a long time to get a blog posts and stuff together. It really does. I'm dyslexic, and it just, I like writing and like doing it. But it just takes me a long time. I've always believed in the response that I get is that I'm so much better at talking like presenting on stage. Give me a microphone, I'm all good. So it really it just became very clear that a podcast was the way to go for me. And I've been working on this for some time. I mean, least a couple of years before I came, you know, met you. And I benefit guests quite a few times. And I've seen other people, you know how it really helped them in their industries and in my niche as well. I tried to do it on my own. And it's just, I mean, there's just no way. Yeah. And you can really tell it's, it was so worth making the investment with you because I really wanted it to be professional. And I really wanted you know, I was very serious about it. So yeah, by the time I kind of came to you, I knew I wanted to make that investment. And I really wanted to, you know, had knew exactly what I wanted to do with the podcast and what's great about it, how it grows and changes over time. And all that can you kind of get used to you know, I have a co host and kind of getting used to doing that together. And I love it. I mean, I just absolutely love it. And you've made it so easy. Oh, well, I
03:49
appreciate that. So I kinda want to talk to you about working with having a co host on the show. So for those that don't know, do you mind explaining what that dynamic is and his role in the podcast and his business?
04:03
Sure. So my co host chip summers is actually my former boss from we're both psychotherapists. He founded and ran a treatment center in the UK called Fox 12. And I work there and so it's been a boss, my mentor for a long long time is semi retired now. And I knew I wanted to co host I did try doing an episode on my own and I just, I'm an extrovert I bounce off of people like I want to have a conversation. I just have a friend of mine who does hers on her own. And she seems to do really well with that. But I just tried it it just really didn't work. So I was thinking like who can I do this with? Who can I do, you know, really want someone with depth and weight and experience and chip kind of came to mind? And I was like, hey, do you want to do this? I was like, Sure, why not? You know, we started and I'm sure you've you know seen us kind of evolve over the year that we've done it. We've really kind of settled into a really nice dynamic because some of the feedback we get now is people love our kind of banter. At the beginning of the show, we just kind of chat about our lives a little bit and, and poke fun at each other a little bit. And we're both British, and we have a, you know, strong sense of irony and quite dry humor. And I think that comes out quite a lot as well. So it's really interesting, you know, our relationship has really evolved, you know, and I've actually learned a lot more about tip than I didn't realize I knew before we started. So if you're going to do it with a co host, finding the right dynamic is so so, so important. And I'm really love I dynamic. And, you know, chip has, you know, a lot of experience in our industry in a lot to offer. And that's, you know, some more feedback that we've got that's been great is how, you know, we've just ever able to impart this knowledge and experience to people who were trying to stop drinking, and you know, they can listen to us and really get all of that. So it's fantastic.
05:52
Yeah. And so I'm, I want to know if you can kind of explain how it works with you having this co host who, you know, is semi retired, and then you have your business where you work with women, do you find that there's any kind of a conflict in the podcast in terms of what the listeners want to take action on who they want to work with how that actually gets people into your business?
06:14
No, I don't think so. tool we I mean, chip has his own thing. He's a very, very sought after, you know, psychotherapist, across the globe, we both work internationally with people, I work as a coach, now, I don't work as a psychotherapist. And really, the podcast was to elevate my brand. So before and within that, we have a couple of joint programs, we have a joint program that's launching pretty soon. So it's really it's my business and my contract with chip to deliver various parts of it. So it works really well. So, you know, the more popular the podcast is, the more I can contract with him to deliver certain things within my umbrella of so before. And it also benefits the programs that we have designed together.
07:02
Yeah, and I think that is a great way to go about things because for the vast majority of coaches or consultants or service providers who are podcasting, they feel like it needs to either be just them, or just them interviewing other people. And they're forgetting that there is this hole or option where they can have a co host, if they're not completely comfortable having the show, you know, ride entirely on their shoulders that they don't necessarily want to be the main spotlight, they can share that and they can have somebody to bounce off of and be creative with while it still can serve their own business. And you and chip are a perfect example of that. So that's why I wanted to dive into that a little bit.
07:36
Yeah, works really well.
07:38
Yeah. So for the year that you guys have been going, What has that looked like in terms of your business? What has the podcast done for your business specifically?
07:48
Well, it's definitely brought, you know, more eyes on our business more members into my membership group. But it's really elevated, I think the biggest thing that it does is that we do know what we're talking about in our niche, we have a lot of experience, we have the qualifications. And I think that that comes across that we do know what we're talking about. I think that you can tell that actually with a podcast, because over time, you know, we can talk endlessly about subjects, you know, we just have right, there's so much to cover in the addiction field. And, and I feel that our depth and weight is very well communicated by having these conversations with each other and with guests. And that that really transmits to our audience and our potential clients.
08:37
Yeah, and I would absolutely agree. I mean, I think I don't know if maybe this is where you were kind of heading towards when you hesitated a little bit was it becomes very clear eventually that somebody has run out of content. And at that point, they're just kind of grasping for straws, or grasping for anything, just to put another episode out. And it never sounds like that
08:54
with you, too. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Because sometimes you do find yourself like thinking I told this story before. And I'm sure you know, that happens to most people. And I try and be aware of when that's happening. But yeah, I kind of worried at one point like, Oh, my God, are we going to work? Are we going to run out of content? And chip was like, No, you're kidding. We're gonna talk about this, I'm gonna talk about that. And there's always different angles and all that kinds of also having we do break it up with guests. And because we were in different time zones, it's really been I do the interviews with guests, because trying to get three time zones to work is pretty impossible. But we do have hopefully a couple of guests coming that will will be all three of us. It's just logistically, it's very challenging, and kind of harder to manage a three way interview a two way conversation is is easier. So that's working for right now. And that kind of gives chip a little bit of a break every so often that we don't have to record every week.
09:48
Right, right. Well, and I know that for us working together on silver foil, that has kind of been an ongoing discussion is having three people on the show or how to handle interviewing a certain big name guest or yeah we've had some unique situations that i think a lot of podcasters are maybe intimidated by and i mean we can come up with solutions there's technology out there you and i are we were talking just before the show about potentially using squad cast to have multiple people on one call and get better quality so there are solutions out there so i don't want people listening to this to feel like they just can't figure it out because you can and i also want to touch on something that you mentioned right there that you were worried you wouldn't have enough content now most coaches or consultants who are listening to this i mean most of them are like millennial female women so they haven't been in the industry they don't have the combined experience that you and shipped you but they still have an incredible amount of knowledge in their field and so do you mind talking about what that planning process is like when you guys are going through and planning your content to make sure that you don't run out of things to talk about what does that look like for you
10:52
well i definitely say for the first few months i would message him the night before say what are we talking about tomorrow and he would go this and i go no this and then we would kind of like the day before like alright we'll talk about that and to be honest most of the subjects we can both talk off the top of our head but as we've kind of gone on with needed to you know i've done some more research on different stuff so i run a membership program for people who want to stop drinking and that has a monthly theme in the membership group so we always do one podcast episode around that so for instance this month the theme was vulnerability so we did an episode talking about vulnerability and next month is cross addiction so we'll do an episode about that a lot of it sometimes is you know what's going on around us you know we've talked when the supreme court nomination process was happening last year we did talk about the role of alcohol and sexual assault so there's always something currently going on that we can talk about yeah so i we didn't do a whole lot of planning at the beginning but now i'm doing a lot more planning and kind of thinking about that because i'm also kind of we are going into subjects that we do know about but it's also good to kind of i'll do a little bit of research and you know that kind of stuff so we are getting quite a bit more consistent or one of us would just have like hey we should talk about this and like add it to the list kind of thing
12:11
and have you found that the more you think about the ideas the more ideas come so basically i kind of have this theory which i mean i'm not the only one that does it's very common theory but that creativity breeds more creativity has that been the case with you guys like once you think of a topic it kind of tends to lead to oh well we can also talk about this this and this
12:32
absolutely i mean for instance like one thing that we've touched on in different ways is relationships and sobriety and then we've done loads on love sex sexual abuse and i think there's a lot more that we can say about actually relationships in recovery so you do kind of one episode and then you realize there's actually so much more you could say about that and you know when i'm we're recording the episode i think oh man yeah we should talk about that that's really absolutely and that that's kind of definitely how i work and that's i don't think i would have that if i did that on my own necessarily i think maybe it would be harder or maybe it's just my personality and because i'm an extrovert it just having the co host just really helps that happened for me
13:15
right
13:15
okay well
13:16
i have one final question to wrap up this interview and that is it kind of as a two fold question so okay if you were speaking to someone who was going to start a podcast they just decided i'm gonna start today what piece of advice would you give them in the very beginning and if it's different what would you go back and do differently if you could start yours all over again
13:39
so someone's starting the podcast and i'm assuming it's something to do with their business this is kind of like the general business advice i would get because i'm in lots of groups and all that kind of stuff and i think there's still this like oh it's a side hustle and i can like launch this product and make $20,000 and that's probably going to be unlikely in the beginning right is that you need to really be prepared to invest in it some people are very very very very techie and can do all of that and if you can do all of the tech yourself then that's great that will save you money i'm not and i also don't have like i am so limited with my time to work that if i can farm out tasks then i absolutely will it's worth it for me because then i can use that time to create content and work with clients it's not worth me spending five hours dicking around trying to figure out how to upload this sorry that that that would just kill me so i think you've got to really lean into what you're good at if you're not be prepared to invest in it and you know i'm not just saying this to promote brittany but the best thing i did was hiring you like i just i never would have got there you know i really wanted to sound and look really professional and also you were very countable you sent me this checklist that was kind of daunting at first but it was actually you could get through a tip that i've done that i've done that Dun, dun. So I would be prepared to invest in it a little bit. And again, it's not huge. And you know, we look out and what in your niche because there's a podcast for every niche. It's amazing. I love that about the digital era that there's the niches are just there's something for everybody and look at seeing, you know, offering something fresh and different. What would I do differently? That's a really interesting question. Probably, again, this is not just because of my podcast, this is my business in general, I just probably done more planning, I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants a lot at the beginning, and just sort of like winging a lot of stuff. And I'm not now I'm now planning and thinking ahead, and all of that kind of stuff. So that's the only thing I can really think of. I mean, obviously, you can look back at earlier episodes and feel that you're doing better now. But you've got it. That's the process, it's always going to be. I mean, the professionals on TV and radio feel the same, I'm sure when they start Episode One is when they do Episode 100. So I think know that you're going to grow and change, and it's going to feel more comfortable and all that kind of stuff. And what I do love now is that we've really grown, like sort of unleashed our personalities. I think at the beginning, we were sort of professional, let's talk about this subject. Whereas now we spend a good 10, sometimes 15 minutes chatting and laughing. And that's actually the bit that people really respond and like to that they've got to know us. So perhaps done a bit more of that at the beginning. Okay. Well, Veronica, thank
16:31
you so much for being on the show. It was a pleasure getting to talk with you in this sort of way and getting to grill you about your show because I work with you on it every week. But I don't necessarily know what happens on your side of it. So this is really interesting. And I know that you are impacting so many people what you are doing is extremely important work. So thank you for doing that.
16:52
Thank you Britany. And thank you, you're just a lifesaver so many times and it's really I wouldn't have done it without you.
17:01
And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches calm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world.