I have with me today a phenomenal business woman and a good associate of mine. Her name is Jessica Rhodes and she is founder and CEO of Interview Connections, the premier source for booking outstanding podcast guests. The Interview Connections team of Booking Agents works with podcasters to find and book guests for their shows. Jessica has made very bold moves in her company and I am excited about the nuggets of wisdom that she can impart to all of us today. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

- When Jessica was pregnant with her first child, she wanted to be a stay-home mom but she knew that it was not an option for her to be a stay-at-home mom with no income. She started as a virtual assistant for her dad, who was a business coach, and as she was working for him, she started booking him for podcast interviews. What she realized was that she was getting entrepreneurs ask her about what she did and one by one, they were asking her to book for them as well. That is how her business was first conceptualized and Interview Connections was born.

- If you want to reach people, you want to put out content in multiple places. People who listen to your podcasts may not exactly like video, and people who are on video might not be reading your blog. It is an important strategy to have your content in multiple places so that you are able to reach more people and for you to be visible to more people.

- She says the relationships that you build when being interviewed for a podcast show are so powerful. It is not a sales conversation and there is no pressure – it is a conversation where you get to know each other and make a valuable connection. It is also beneficial for you as a guest because you are being presented to targeted listeners who are really paying attention.

- A lot of people think that they need to guest on a podcast with a huge audience. What you need to do is to get connected with a podcast which has your target audience. It doesn’t matter how big the downloads are or how many the people listening – if you are in front of an audience who are your target market, you are going to have tons of business coming your way.

- For people who want to get interviewed as a podcast guest, they need to focus on what do they look like to the person that they would like to be interviewed by. Always start with the online presence. Make sure your online presence is looking good and “media ready”. It important to have content on your website coming out to your community. Also, having consistent branding, engagement and activity on your social media sites is very important. You don’t have to have the biggest following, but somebody that is engaging with the community and posting on a regular basis.

- Anyone who is a speaker or who would like to speak to the media should have a media kit or a press kit. It contains your bio and your speaking topics and this is something that you would present to the media or an event coordinator. A podcast one sheet is like that, but it is specific to podcasts. This is a one page document which gives people your bio that the podcaster can read to introduce you to their show, the topics that you talk about and the questions to ask you and how to contact you. This is basically a document that gives podcasters everything that they need to have you on their podcast. You want to have a one sheet that sells you as a great podcast guest.

- You need to decide if you want to be a solo-preneur or an entrepreneur. As a solo-prenuer you find your clients and you are marketing, basically doing everything on your own. As an entrepreneur, you are working up to a point where you are the chief marketer of your business and the rest of the work is delegated to your team. Don’t be afraid to invest. You have to invest money to make money.

- Jessica outsources everything except for the marketing. Outsourcing helps in the positioning too – it sets business owners apart as the founder and CEO of the company and it makes you look more successful. When you are too accessible is a double edged sword – people like you, but at the same time, they take you for granted.

You can reach Jessica through her website at www.interviewconnections.com and www.jessicarhodes.biz or you may email them at [email protected]. You may also connect with her on social media at Facebook (www.facebook.com/JessicaRhodesBiz), Twitter (@JessRhodesbiz) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jessica-rhodes/20/910/9a2).

For listeners of this podcast, you can also head to www.jessicarhodes.biz/brandy where you can find some great free stuff about podcasting.