The Value of Your Story with Tim James

02/22/21 • 23 min

Interview Connections | The Leading Podcast Booking Agency

On today’s episode of Rock the Podcast, Jess speaks with Interview Connections client Tim James! Tim is one of those guys that will leave you feeling younger and more energetic just by hearing him speak.

After suffering from multiple health issues, including chronic acid indigestion and surgery to remove one of his organs due to serious digestive issues, Tim knew something had to change. But it was only after watching his closest ones die of cancer and the untimely death of his younger brother that he finally decided to take action. Tim’s journey led him to a shocking discovery that helped his friend beat cancer and transform every area of his life.

Feeling charged with a duty to help others he started sharing his knowledge with anyone that would listen. This led him to produce his own chemical-free food products. Chemical Free

Body was born. Tim’s inbox is constantly flooded with people singing and dancing about how his products have given them a life they couldn’t believe was possible. His story will have you laughing, crying, and gasping but most importantly he will give you the recipe to a longer, happier, and healthier life!

Since Tim owns a product-based business, Jessica asked him why he chose podcasting to promote his business and increase his visibility. With products, many other entrepreneurs will choose more direct advertising.

“Why are you passionate about going on interviews to tell your story and educate the market?”

Tim had been selling mostly over the phone. He built his business over the phone, but then the Covid pandemic shut everything down. Tim didn’t really have any tech skills and had previously invested money with the wrong people.

But, Tim had been invited on some podcasts. Every time he went on a podcast, he saw that some sales would trickle in, however, Tim never really put a lot of thought into podcasts.

Tim decided to call up a friend to get on some podcasts. He guested on three shows and did an enormous amount of sales. Tim thought, “This could save me.” Within a few months of podcast guesting, Tim tripled his sales.

Once Tim began working with us here at Interview Connections, he created half a million dollars in sales.

Tim loves podcast guesting because he gets to do what he does best: tell his unfiltered story and educate people. Podcast guesting is simplifying the business for Tim, so he feels like he is getting his life back while still expanding his business!

For Tim, podcast guesting is a no brainer. As a guest, you just get to show up on someone else’s podcast, who has put in all this work to establish trust and build an audience. Tim explains that it’s like getting in front of a stadium of people and having their attention for an hour

It’s a fantastic organic marketing strategy --no ads necessary-- and it’s just your unfiltered story doing the selling for you. Tim also points out that these podcast hosts need good content! They need good guests or they don’t have a show.

If you’ve got a story (and really, don’t we all?) Tim recommends that you get really good at telling your story. When Tim really started focusing on podcast guesting, he doubled his business.

Jessica asks Tim to expand on what kind of shows are giving him those amazing results.

Podcast guesting was uncharted water for Tim. He just tried to get on as many different types of shows as he could. Tim would also track sales from podcast interviews by giving out a unique discount code on episodes, and tracking if that code was used. This would allow Tim to see exactly what podcasts were creating momentum for him.

Tim was interested in reaching audiences that he could relate to, and offer solutions to. These audiences excised in a variety of shows, so Tim went on a large number of different shows! Tim tracked his results and had a clear understanding of his client avatar, which was incredibly valuable for his podcast guesting strategy.

Tim understands who wants and needs his product, and understands his ideal client’s mindset.

If you’re thinking about doing a show, you have a great message but you are scared about how you are going to share it, Tim explains that you’re really getting in your own way. A friend of Tim’s paid $25,000 for a coaching program, and the first piece of advice the coach gave was to go live every single day.

A lot of people would respond, “I don’t have my message yet, it’s not perfect!” Tim explains that the first 45-75 lives are not for the audience, they are for you to find your message and to refine your message! You will find your message and you will start getting comfortable sharing it.

The best way to hone your message is to start going live, hire a booking agency to get you on podcasts, and just go on the shows. You don’t have to be an ad expert, you don’t have to know how to build a website. You just have to ha...

Feeling charged with a duty to help others he started sharing his knowledge with anyone that would listen. This led him to produce his own chemical-free food products. Chemical Free

“Why are you passionate about going on interviews to tell your story and educate the market?”

But, Tim had been invited on some podcasts. Every time he went on a podcast, he saw that some sales would trickle in, however, Tim never really put a lot of thought into podcasts.

Once Tim began working with us here at Interview Connections, he created half a million dollars in sales.

If you’ve got a story (and really, don’t we all?) Tim recommends that you get really good at telling your story. When Tim really started focusing on podcast guesting, he doubled his business.

Jessica asks Tim to expand on what kind of shows are giving him those amazing results.

Tim understands who wants and needs his product, and understands his ideal client’s mindset.

Previous Episode

Thought Readers with Lisa Larter

On today’s episode of Rock the Podcast, Margy (virtually) sits down with Lisa Larter! Lisa helps businesses navigate modern entrepreneurship so that they can increase sales and profits. She works with her clients on everything from business strategy, understanding their numbers and measuring what matters, to online marketing, social media and the best way to turn connections into paying customers!

Lisa believes that business is all about the numbers and that you need to take lots of action in order to make things happen. She is known for her no-nonsense approach to helping business owners get results. You won’t get fluff from Lisa, only the facts and an expectation that if you really want your business to grow, you will dig in and do the work!

Margy and Lisa bonded over their love of numbers! They both agree that if you don’t have a grasp on your numbers, you will not be able to pay yourself and you will not be able to have the lifestyle that you want as an entrepreneur. Everything that you want as a business owner-- the freedom, the impact -- if your numbers are a mess your business will ultimately fail.

Margy and Lisa both loved the book The Ultimate Blueprint for an Insanely Successful Business by Keith Cunningham. That book emphasizes the importance of really understanding the numbers in your business and looking at numbers in a way that can benefit you and can benefit the people that work with you.

Every new coaching client of Lisa’s receives this book. Lisa has held mastermind retreats and spent entire days looking at and discussing concepts in The Ultimate Blueprint. A concept that Lisa loves to implement is comparing historical data year over year in your business to look for trends and exceptions. Lisa also ensures her clients are getting clear on their expenses.

Lisa explains that we have a tendency to throw money at problems. If you have enough money to solve the problem, then you don’t have a problem. The issue is that sometimes the money you’re throwing at a problem isn’t actually fixing the root of the problem. This is when you have to look at numbers and be able to understand what they mean in your business.

Lisa asks that her bookkeepers and accountants send her the numbers every month, so Lisa can unpack. Lisa knows that she needs to look at them and know exactly what is going on before she gets to the end of year, so she can make smart decisions based on that data.

Margy asks Lisa what advice she has for entrepreneurs who tell themselves the story of “I’m not a numbers person.”

People hire Lisa for marketing strategy, and she almost always ends up working on their numbers! Her clients don’t have a marketing problem, they have a numbers problem. Lisa will work with them to get to the root of their issue: Are they having a pricing problem, an expense problem, or perhaps a billable hours problem?

Lisa notes that her clients always think numbers are going to be very complicated, but really it’s just basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. If you can calculate percentages and you can look for outliers, that’s all you need to be able to do.

Lisa also observes that business owners often make a lot of emotional decisions to spend money. Business owners and entrepreneurs rationalize when they need to spend the money, but the logical side of the brain wants to avoid that, and that creates a lot of shame surrounding your numbers.

Instead, Lisa argues to look at your numbers up front. She tells her clients that they can reverse engineer what they want in your business, and together, Lisa and her clients can create budgets and forecasts to make that happen. That way, as an entrepreneur, you can spend the money the way you want because you’ve planned for it! You can still pay yourself and have a profit.

Margy has seen first hand how much emotional decision making comes with your finances. Margy really loves being analytical and looking at her numbers, but she also believes in intuition. When something feels right or wrong in your business, you shouldn’t ignore that feeling. But you should look at your numbers to either validate or disprove your assumptions and feelings.

It’s not “Never trust your gut.” It’s more “Marry numbers and intuition together.”

Lisa explains that many business coaches are doing their clients a disservice by not looking at the numbers. Business owners need to be able to interpret data to have successful businesses. The Ultimate Blueprint is all about tracking your numbers, what numbers to track, and tracking them over a long period of time. This allows you to see a comparison of month to month and year to year.

Margy asks Lisa, for somebody who wants to implement tracking their numbers better but is overwhelmed by all the spreadsheets, what do you think are the key things that they should be tracking every month in their ...

Next Episode

Killer Pitches with Precious L. Williams

Jess and Margy are the co-owners of Interview Connections, the first and leading podcast booking agency. This is the podcast where you will learn all about podcast guesting and how to leverage podcast interviews to grow your brand awareness.

On today’s episode of Rock the Podcast, Jess (virtually!) sits down with Precious L. Williams, also affectionately known as the #KillerPitchMaster!

Precious can help you slay all competition with her “killer” elevator pitches, media pitches, and investor pitches! Precious is a world-class master communicator who works with successful entrepreneurs and speakers and helps them take their professional pitching and speaking skills to the next level.

With over 25 years of experience in creating unique speaking and public speaking techniques, Williams is also known for her innovative training programs and services to her clients and sales teams at Fortune 100 companies. These companies include Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and eBay!

As a 13-time national business elevator pitch champion, Williams has been on top television shows and publications for her pitching, branding, and professional speaking skills. She was featured on Season 8 of ABC’s Shark Tank, Forbes Magazine, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, the movie, LEAP, as well as several others around the world.

In 2019, Precious became a best-selling author of the #1 business book, Bad Bitches with Power Pitches: For Women Entrepreneurs and Speakers Only, and has been featured on time square billboards, top podcasts, and stages around the world!

The philosophy of her “killer” pitch is evident in the strategic and personalized creative communications and presentation solutions Williams puts forth. As a serial entrepreneur, international professional speaker, and corporate trainer, Williams is equipped to bring life, authenticity, strategy, and boldness to all your oral and written communication needs!

Jess wants to know, why does Precious love pitching so much?

Even though pitching scares most people, Precious, who has been a professional speaker since age 16, doesn’t feel any nerves during her killer pitches. For Precious, pitches present endless possibilities of where they can take you. When you think about it, you’re pitching every day. Every time you attempt to get someone to be interested in you, or your ideas, you’re pitching yourself!

Precious has had so many different opportunities because of pitches! She has been on Shark Tank, she has worked in corporate, she has been offered numerous speaking engagements, she has been in movies, and has been featured in massive publications like CNN, Forbes, and Wall Street Journal!

Not only has Precious been able to seize these opportunities for herself, but she is also now working to help her clients achieve these results as well!

Jess then asks Precious, what are the elements of a successful pitch?

First, Precious recommends that you get clear on the basics. Ask yourself, “Who am I? Who do I serve? What is my secret sauce? What do I do better than anyone else?” Once you know the basics, continue asking yourself questions like “Why should someone hire me? Why should they consider me? What stands out about me from everyone else?” Precious also explains that in order to have a killer pitch, you must have a killer call to action.

Precious then emphasizes just how crucial storytelling is to your killer pitch. She explains that you have to tell a compelling story. You absolutely have to be a master storyteller. For your pitch to be killer, you have to wrap everything up in a great story that is emotionally compelling to others.

As a Black woman, Precious has had to face incredible obstacles in the entrepreneurial world. Precious asks, how do you win a no-win situation? You have to re-write the rules. She explains, once you change your language, you change the game. The question is: how do you do it in a bold and unexpected way?

An example of one of Precious’s most exciting opening pitches is: “Ladies, raise your hands if you want to be a bad bitch with a power pitch!”

That pitch not only grabs your attention, but it is 100% authentic to Precious as a person. You don’t have to have Precious’s personality to create a killer pitch. The key is to embody your authentic self in your pitch and have it come across in a bold and attention-grabbing way!

Since telling a story is so imperative to pitching success, Jess then asks Precious, what are her top tips for storytelling?

Precious explains that you have to set a scene in the audience’s mind of where you really want them to go. As an example, Precious discusses her killer pitch for Curvy Girl Lingerie on Shark Tank! She sets up the story to take place on Valentine’s Day. Even if you don’t have a boo, you have an emotional connect...