Practical communication skills & cultural intelligence ideas for international leaders & teams growing business globally

I am a communication coach and cross cultural trainer based in the UK, and my mission is to connect people through the power of communication and cultural intelligence, helping teams to work exceptionally well together as high-performing individuals, developing strong connections with their customers and partners, and supporting their organisations to expand around the world.

My business, Culture Cuppa, helps international executives to develop their communication skills to help them reach the next level of promotion, and teams working cross culturally to work better together.

My weekly podcast, Cultural Communication Confidence, shares practical 10-15 minute episodes with insights and exercises around communication skills, confidence-building strategies and cultural intelligence ideas for communicating better as individuals and teams.
My listeners are based all over the world and are usually mid-senior career in their organisations, or business owners who are scaling globally. They want to be able to share their voice and expertise spontaneously, speak up authentically with their full personality, and develop improved ways of working when working across borders.

They also want to expand their confidence and visibility, build connections and develop relationships with customers and partners that increase their impact and influence, which will have great career opportunities for them and their people.
 

My purpose is to help 100,000 leaders and teams around the world to speak up confidently, and support teams to connect and grow globally in 100 countries.

I have always wanted to give as much value as possible to my people and followers, and I had done this before my podcast launch through my blog, videos, social posts and emails.

However, I knew that podcasting was a great way to reach a broader, more global audience, critical for me to step up, share my ideas, for people to hear my voice and experience my training approach, plus importantly support even more people around the world.

I had been thinking about launching a podcast for a while, listening to many other podcasts and reading how to do it, so I knew the compelling reasons to launch and had some great insights into how to approach it.

In summer 2022, I realised it was down to me. I had to make this happen, and unless I took steps forward from reading and listening to actually starting it, and turning it into something tangible, this would always remain a ‘what if’ dream.

Was the podcast perfect when it launched in September 2022? No, and I had to get comfortable with that and get it out there anyway, and improve and learn as I went. I wanted to be one of the people who stepped forward and turned that podcast dream into a reality.
 

I knew from the start that I wanted my podcast to work for me, and set it up in a way which would enable me to start and keep going.
For this reason, I spent time planning and thinking about what I wanted to do and which areas I wanted support in.

I do the episode planning and recording in video format, write the show notes, and then I hand it over to my fantastic virtual assistant, who does the sound editing, creates subtitles for the video version, and gets everything ready to launch on the podcast platforms and youtube.

I release weekly episodes, and realised quickly that the best way for me to make this work was to record 3-4 episodes together, to maximise the set-up time and my readiness to record.

That means I generally record once every 3-4 weeks, and then my key role is to market the episodes when they go live!
 

Podcasting has given me a global platform to reach new audiences, bring my ideas to the world and help more people with my work, and it’s so rewarding when I hear somebody tell me they have found inspiration through my episodes to change their communication approach at work that is going to help them, their business and their career.

Podcasting has brought people to me, because they can hear my voice and experience my style and approach in coaching and training.
It also gives me an opportunity to develop new ideas, share new resources that I have developed and launch my paid programmes for my business to gain more clients.

Finally, it’s been a great way for me to learn that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, and I love continuing to learn from other podcasts about what works and new ideas to try out.
 

Currently the podcast features only solo episodes with me speaking on a new topic each week to do with communication or cultural intelligence, however watch this space as I plan new ideas as we move into the 2nd year of the podcast!

I usually spend 30 minutes preparing each episode, scoping out key points and writing up show notes that help me from my ideas ready for recording, which I usually do the next day.

I record video in OBS studio on my laptop, using a Blue Yeti plug-in mic, a plug-in USB camera and a microphone isolation shield behind my laptop.

I have learnt to my detriment to check everything before I start- phone on airplane mode and silent in another room, windows shut, blinds down, apps off etc.!

I then share the videos and show notes with my virtual assistant in our shared folder and she does the rest, editing and then releasing via Libsyn to all the major podcast platforms and loading up to youtube and my website.
 

When I launched the show, I decided to go with a big bang as I wanted to get as many listeners as possible in the first few days and weeks, which I knew was critical to success.

I created a detailed marketing launch plan, which included releasing 3 episodes in the 1st week, reaching out to my key partners and clients to share the show, and building up the mystery on social media about my new ‘news’ before launch. I created a promotional video to talk about the show, and also shared my motivation and journey on social media for launching the podcast.

The fantastic news was that this meant I became a top-ranking podcast host in that 1st week, reaching a top 10 spot in the Apple Careers chart in the UK!

My show is now listed on all the major podcast platforms, and I knew this was important for reach. The show gets pushed out every Monday at 6am, and then the marketing starts. I send out the episode to my email list, share it on all my social media accounts- Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram, and then it gets released on my website too. In addition, I am part of the Global Chamber, an international networking group, so they share it in their Linkedin group too.

All links go to the episode page on my website, so people can choose whether to listen to or watch the episode, and if listening, choose their preferred podcast platform.

When I share the episode on social media I feature a mini preview video, which explains the topic and asks a question to get people thinking- I record this at the same time as the episode. It’s a great way to get people curious, so they can start experiencing the episode, and encourage them to click and listen. I also make sure the post contains some intriguing facts and questions to get the conversation going about the topic on social media too.
 

My starting point was listening to a lot of other people’s podcasts and I think this is the best way to learn what you like and don’t like for your own show.

I read and listened to the audiobook, ‘Podcast with Impact’ by Anna Parker Naples, which I found incredibly helpful to understand the process and how I wanted to approach launching my show.

Planning and thinking about all the steps to physically making the show was helpful, and it made me realise where I could add value as a podcast host, and where I wanted to get support from my virtual assistant to do things I am not expert in and would take too much time.
I am also a great believer of ‘just do it’. It’s easy to stay in listening, learning and planning mode. At some point you have to bite the bullet and launch, even if it’s not perfect, and perhaps especially if it’s not perfect.

I’ve learnt you improve as you go and do more episodes. You experiment and see what works. Importantly you’re out there so people can find you, you can reach more people, and remember you are also inspiring others to take those steps on their journey to launching a podcast.
 

I would love you to come and listen to or watch my podcast, Cultural Communication Confidence: https://culturecuppa.com/podcast/

Learn more about my communication coaching and cross cultural training: http://www.culturecuppa.com/

Read the blog https://culturecuppa.com/blog/

Follow Victoria Rennoldson on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/victoria-rennoldson/