► Tell us about you and your podcast
Tonya Thomas is an entrepreneur and podcaster. She utilizes her 20 years of business experience to share her knowledge and love of business through her podcast and social media outlets.
Tonya is the founder of Team Delegate, a provider of elite virtual executive assistant support to seasoned executives turned small business owners. Team Delegate’s highly trained executive VAs provide comprehensive administrative support that helps time-starved CEOs to double their productivity so they can triple their earnings.
She hosts the Unbottleneck Your Business Podcast to help her listeners learn how to delegate more efficiently and effectively in order to grow their businesses. Her goal is to make an impact on the businesses of her audience.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
I have a love for podcasts, they are a way to gain a ton of knowledge and insights on various topics, both business and personal. So quite naturally, I saw podcasting as a way for me to share my knowledge and insights through a podcast of my own.
Once I decided that I wanted to start my own podcast, I enlisted the help of a production company to help me get started. So, I was up and running fairly quickly.
I started the podcast because a lot of people struggle with delegating, they have the desire to do it, but don’t always have the knowledge to execute it effectively. My goal with the show is to provide them with the tools that they need to overcome their delegating challenges.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
When I first started, I produced a weekly episode. However, six months into doing the show it became a bit difficult from a time and content standpoint to do it weekly, so I scaled back to bi-weekly releases.
My episodes would be considered short in length by some. I do have someone else edit it for me, so the only thing that I do is the recording, and it takes approximately 30 minutes to do an episode.
Yes, as indicated above, I fund the podcast myself. I pay for the hosting, editing, and sometimes the show notes. Delegating these things saves a lot of time, which is well worth it to me.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
I don’t currently do sponsorships. My focus has been on content. I’m currently under 50 episodes at the moment and I’m averaging around 50 downloads per month. I definitely have a goal of growing that number. The benefit to me currently is that it’s helping me to develop my speaking skills. I’ve also just begun to invite guests onto the show, and this will help me to expand my network.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
I use Zoom to record the episodes. I also use Captivate for the hosting and I upload all of the episodes for publishing. Initially, I only did solo episodes, but as of recently, I’ve begun having guests on the show. The guests that I’ve had were personally invited by me. I’ve developed a system for scheduling and signing of the release agreement.
► How do you market your show?
I primarily market the podcast on LinkedIn and Facebook by writing a summary of what the show is about and I provide a graphic with a link to listen to the podcast. Most of my listeners are on Apple Podcasts followed by Chrome.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Develop a system for how you will produce the podcast. For example, plan your topics in advance, you can use a spreadsheet to do this. Carefully decide on how often you will publish episodes and choose a schedule that will work for you in the long run.
Also, if you can afford to get help to produce the show, do it. It will save you a lot of time and make it more manageable for you to keep doing it.