The EcoSend Podcast

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[00:00:00] Chris W: Welcome to the EcoSend podcast. Be inspired, educated, and entertained by the world's most ambitious leaders putting climate at the top of their agenda. Welcome

[00:00:27] James Gill: to another episode of the EcoSend podcast. I'm your host James, and I'm thrilled to bring you a show today. A podcast episode all about podcasting, and I'm speaking with Chrissa Stowe, who is a seasoned podcast consultant and manager for ethical businesses. Chrissa works with human centric marketers, coaches, and changemakers who want to connect with their audience, increase business leads, and expand their network through impactful podcast conversations.

[00:00:55] I'm so excited for today's conversation. Chrissa, how are you doing today? Welcome to the show.

[00:01:00] Chrysa Sto: Thank you so much for having me, James. I'm thrilled to be here. So excited for the conversation. And I think we have a lot to share with the, with your listeners.

[00:01:10] James Gill: Awesome. Awesome. I was just speaking with Krista before we started recording and I felt like we've already done a podcast talking about all of the ideas here, Krista.

[00:01:17] So, I'm really excited to chat. It'd be great to hear a little bit more, maybe to start with what are you up to today in your own words? What are you working on? What are you doing day to day, Krista, that you're up to?

[00:01:30] Chrysa Sto: Yeah, I'm working on thanks for asking. I'm working on you know, building relationships with my business because I'm, I'm in the middle of a transition from being a freelancer to trying to go full time in my business.

[00:01:44] Yeah. So a lot of marketing staff, you know, a lot of marketing tasks and efforts and a lot of conversations because I am a big believer of that in business, either you're an agency, freelance and solopreneur, whatever business you have, you cannot do it like alone. Partnerships and People and conversations are what in my humble opinion, what brings growth in one's business.

[00:02:13] So I'm working on that.

[00:02:16] James Gill: Yeah. Amazing. I yeah, it's, it's no easy journey, right? No. So so what has led you to be working, what you're working on now and what got you involved in particularly in the world of sustainability? I'm curious to hear how the, how your journey progressed.

[00:02:32] Chrysa Sto: That's a great question.

[00:02:33] So in terms of sustainability I, I've been always a minimalist in terms of like going for shopping, living sustainably, things like that. And this led me to discover my, my passion and love for living sustainably, you know, making an impact, making an impact in terms of how I live and what I use products, things like that.

[00:02:58] And. Bringing that into the business side, I thought like I've been, I've been in business for five years and although my needs changed a lot all over these years a year ago, year and a half ago, I thought, you know, I want to have a relationships and I want to interact with people who share the same values with me.

[00:03:24] So I completely changed my niche and trying to and try to decided to work with people who are in the sustainability field in the heart led business field, you know, people who have at heart ethics and who care about people in the planet.

[00:03:45] James Gill: So this was very much from within you know, how you are living in your personal life, you wanted your business life to reflect that.

[00:03:52] Chrysa Sto: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:03:54] James Gill: Very cool. Because

[00:03:56] Chrysa Sto: we are in business like so many hours a day and every day. You, in my opinion, you need to, You know, everyone needs to work with people who genuinely want to work with and who might have a coffee with them unless like it was the business.

[00:04:16] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:18] Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's, it's like you can't shut one off from the other, you know, it goes along.

[00:04:25] Chrysa Sto: Yeah.

[00:04:26] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. So so I guess Talking about your business today, really all around podcasting, talk to me about, you call it human centric podcasting. I would like to think we're a human centric podcast, but maybe, maybe I've got it wrong.

[00:04:44] I don't know. I'm keen to hear.

[00:04:46] Chrysa Sto: Thanks for asking. So this approach, it's about the approach I have in my communications, marketing and work that I do for my clients. So I like to think of podcasting. As a way for people in business who want to expand the network, build relationships that lead to, you know, opportunities, referral opportunities leads, things like that.

[00:05:18] So growth in terms of one's business. And I like to do this or help my clients do this from a business perspective. From a human centric approach, you know, looking from this lens because it's easy to just start the podcast with a goal in mind to have money. Nothing wrong with that. So many people want to, you know, monetize a podcast and make money.

[00:05:43] But when you start the podcast with with a, with a goal to Make an impact. First of all, money will come along down the way down the road. And second, you know, you have a greater purpose that drives you that drives all the passion and all the effort that needs to run a podcast because it's a lot of work, you know, better than me.

[00:06:06] So that is what the human centric podcasting means to me is the approach that we take with my clients and people that I help over the years to run a podcast and to produce a podcast that speaks to their audience from within. And also helps them you know, growing their business depending on the goals they have.

[00:06:33] James Gill: So I guess what I'm hearing there is it's very much about a podcast really thinking about the listeners and the audience, first and foremost, and prioritizing that rather than say, A podcast is that we want to grow our business. Let's do a podcast and hope, hope that people will listen to it.

[00:06:53] Chrysa Sto: Yeah, exactly.

[00:06:55] Exactly. Yeah. And it's a combination. Actually, it's looking, looking at this from the lens of like the listener. Perspective and how we treat, how we frame the podcast, how, like how long the episodes are depending on the specific audience that we have. And also looking at our specific goals, which might be like growing our business.

[00:07:20] It's nothing wrong with that. Again, it's a goal, but to grow your business through podcasting, you need to have a good look, a deep look into your audience and. Listen to their needs, their feelings and their desires or issues that you aim to solve. If that makes sense.

[00:07:40] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think there's a lot there that really resonates for me with how we've always tried to approach our own marketing and our own podcast, but why the, our own marketing at Eco Sound where, you know, if, if you.

[00:07:58] I think a lot of people sort of, they put their marketing hat on when they're a marketer but they, they forget that they're also a reader and like, thinking about the audience as actual people and I think it's just such a, a great way to produce much better quality content and work when you, when you think about your audience as yourself reading it?

[00:08:18] Would I read this? Would I listen to this? Would I find this helpful?

[00:08:22] Chrysa Sto: Absolutely. Yeah. Because again it's, it doesn't matter if you put the podcast out there. If you, if you don't have like, People looking for you every week or other week to consume content from you. So yeah, it all, it all comes down to building relationships.

[00:08:43] If you ask me, and this takes time. Certainly it's time consuming. It's has a lot of work, but it's worth it because it is a relationship that you build with someone who intentionally giving, giving you their time. It's not like scrolling on Instagram, which we all do, but you're not like, you're not like, Someone is not likely to build a relationship with a million like content creators that they see on their phone or because you see a million reels and you just scroll, scroll, scroll mindlessly.

[00:09:22] But when you dedicate like 30 minutes of your time to listen to a podcast episode, You are likely to like the host or the topic. I hope

[00:09:34] James Gill: so.

[00:09:35] Chrysa Sto: Yeah.

[00:09:36] James Gill: No, that's, that's a really good point actually, Christa, because yeah, we, we, when podcasting is this wonderful medium where it's truly an honor to be in someone's ear for for 30 minutes.

[00:09:48] And, and there's not, you know, when you think about Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, all of these platforms, you, you don't have. You don't even have a second with someone. And

[00:10:00] Chrysa Sto: you don't even have a second. Yeah.

[00:10:02] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. And that that's, I guess, I guess, I don't know how much to dive into this side of things.

[00:10:09] But I guess one of the challenges, of course, with podcasting, though, is how it's a lot easier to be seen for a split second than to get someone to subscribe to a podcast. So I don't know, do you have any thoughts of how, how people, how people can, can improve their chances of, of people actually finding and discovering their podcasts in the first place?

[00:10:31] Chrysa Sto: Yeah. In terms of gaining subscribers the most effective strategy that I always recommend, I always tell people, like it's no secret, it's to get people into your email list. Or If you have the time bandwidth, like capacity and willingness you can host like a 15 minute connection calls with people who might be interested to hear from you, connect with your connection calls.

[00:11:02] The, the second is more, more time consuming, although it's quite effective because you get to. You get to meet people like over video, but you get to meet your listeners that you get to ask them questions. And in exchange you can offer you know advice on a specific topic that you can offer advice on, you know, if you're a coach, business coach, whatever you do marketing.

[00:11:27] But in terms of gaining subscribers, what I've been doing with most of my clients is again, bringing people into their email list with A freebie with a resource that you offer in your podcast and you have the link to it on each episode. And like to that about that, what people tend to forget is that the fact that you have a resource and the link to each episode doesn't mean that people, you know, know about it.

[00:11:56] So yeah, it's good to remind people and talk and talk like over and over again about this resource. So you have people sign up for it. Another thing you can do or people can do is have instead of like sending them just to a resource to sign up for you can have form to your website, a dedicated question form, question page, like web page to your website where people can ask questions via form or something like a tool.

[00:12:30] tool that allows them to record a voice note, something like speak pipe, something like that to ask questions, feature them on your show and have a consent like button that says That asks them to subscribe to your newsletter. This goes like this is a double Double sorry, I'm trying to find the word but it's a double benefit.

[00:12:58] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

[00:12:59] Chrysa Sto: because you also provide them with The room to get feature on your show. They ask you a question, they get answers to, and they also subscribe to your newsletter or whatever you have. So you have them in your email list as well. And I think it's, it's an overlooked strategy because people say, people think, you know, yeah, but the signup form, who is going to get there?

[00:13:27] But the answer to that, if you're thinking about this is if you speak. About this dedicated web page on each of your episodes, people will get there.

[00:13:38] James Gill: Sure. Yeah. You're making me think now that we need, we need that for this show. So

[00:13:45] Chrysa Sto: it's

[00:13:46] James Gill: a really good point. So I hadn't really thought enough about that sort of that two way conversation with with listeners.

[00:13:53] I, you know, what you're saying there is really for it to be. genuinely much more of a conversation than just the get the host speaks and the the audience listen. You're really inviting the audience to become part of the show, which I think is a really wonderful idea.

[00:14:09] Chrysa Sto: Yeah,

[00:14:10] James Gill: I

[00:14:10] Chrysa Sto: can send you afterwards if you if you want an example of a page that we crafted with our clients.

[00:14:17] And so to add to that is that it's not only a two way conversation, but it's Again, you're gaining subscribers, they're getting answers to their questions, you're nurturing it, you're starting, not nurture, you're starting a relationship with your listeners and this relationship can lead, like, you can even ask them questions in terms of market research.

[00:14:44] afterwards while you're nurturing their relationship, right? And it's generally okay. As, as you know, it's okay to do that if they are giving consent to reach out to them or feature them or email them. Sure.

[00:15:00] James Gill: No, that's that's really, really inspiring. And you're making me Want to go away and change some things up for this very show.

[00:15:06] What a, what a cool podcast. I should have done this as episode one, Chris.

[00:15:12] Chrysa Sto: I'm happy. I'm happy that you like the strategy. Yeah.

[00:15:16] James Gill: So that's, that's really, really cool to hear about. I, I guess there's, there's tons more, I guess, we could talk about on the podcasting side of things, but, but overall, I guess your, your view, though, is that podcasting is just a, is a really, is a, one of the best ways for brands to build, build an audience online and to, and as a way of growing their, their business, it seems.

[00:15:38] Chrysa Sto: Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

[00:15:41] James Gill: Yeah. And, and I, I guess you know, one of the reasons we've done the Ecosend podcast is is to, to really share stories and inspiration and I think, I think from our side in the early days of EcoSend, we really wanted to talk to people that knew a lot more than us about the world of sustainability.

[00:16:03] And I think for us, it was really just a great way to, to speak to people that may not have spoken to us before. And the fact that we were doing a podcast though, gave the, the guest of the show A really good reason to join us, because it wasn't just speaking to us, it was a chance to raise their profile and speak to more people.

[00:16:24] So, I, I, I think there's just so many aspects of this where I love, I just love the medium. And yeah. Yeah,

[00:16:30] Chrysa Sto: I second that, like For people who are thinking to start a podcast and they're maybe battling, they're struggling or, you know, debating about it. Again, what you said the best not the best tip, but what you said is like you have the chance to speak to people who, if you haven't had the podcast, you might haven't had the chance to speak to them, you know?

[00:16:55] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. People are much more willing to speak to speak in front of maybe thousands of people than just one to one, but Maybe even more scared

[00:17:09] Chrysa Sto: Because the other part like just jumping on a connection call it might my Make some people uncomfortable, you know But if you are a guest on the show, you know, the topic that you might speak, it's much more, it takes the pressure off.

[00:17:26] James Gill: Yeah.

[00:17:27] Chrysa Sto: I think.

[00:17:27] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess if what would also be really good to hear from you about Christopher is, is your own journey and your own story. You're, you're not just focused on podcasting, but it's, it's narrower than that. You're, you're really focused on, like, this human centric marketing.

[00:17:47] Talk to me about why, why that is and, and why you went down that path.

[00:17:53] Chrysa Sto: Thank you for asking that question. So I started the business about five years ago and the, you know, at first you don't know what you don't know. And you have so many things to learn and be exposed to, and you know, a lot of information a lot of new things.

[00:18:14] So I've been exposed to. Unethical marketing practices and you know, people saying things like, Oh my God, I shave. I hate this thing, but you know, I got to say it because it adds to the story. But I, I've been exposed to tactics like, you know, you need to get the sale and we're wild and discovery call.

[00:18:36] You need to get their credit card, things like that. And as much as I been like, exposed to this information, I wanted to go the other way. So that's why I discovered I, you know, I searched, I actively search about the opposite of that side of marketing of that traditional marketing. And I discovered ethical marketing, which relates to.

[00:19:07] That relates to a lot of people who are in the sustainability field that plays also a role because, you know, people who care about people usually care about the planet as well. You know, they have a, they care for all of it. So that is why. I started working with those people. I want to also, you know I'm starting a show as well.

[00:19:33] And I want to amplify those voices, voices of people who are in the sustainability field and people who are in the ethical marketing and ethical business field. So yeah, this is pretty much what led me to discover all of this because I've been, you know, fed so many in so many manipulated marketing tactics from course and things.

[00:19:59] And I wanted to just, it just didn't feel right to do this approach and trust me. I tried not to be aggressive or something because it's not in my, you know character, but I tried to, you know, find pain points, things like that. But I figured out like, Afterwards, like being in business five years, I realized that when people want to share with you what they're going through, if you think, if they think that you have something like a service or product, That might help them.

[00:20:43] They are going to share. Even if you just ask, you don't have to push people to do something or to decide, make decisions like during a discovery call, if I want to work with someone, and this is the approach I want for my clients as well. And I want to work with those people. If I want to work with someone I take like deep consideration, I think on it, I sleep on it.

[00:21:09] And then I make the decision without the push or, you know, without being sold to, I don't need to push me to do something or convince me.

[00:21:26] James Gill: Yeah, absolutely. I, I definitely seeing this more and more this sort of rejection of. More traditional marketing and sales tactics and I think I think it's just so much of that aggressive Sell, sell, sell, push, push, push in the world that, like, I think there's almost this backlash, this Retaliation against that which is to try to find calmer More, I guess many would say, more ethical ways to approach selling and marketing and yeah I know that it can be a very difficult path to navigate for, for people because You As a founder, especially as a solo founder, it can be very difficult to for people to, you know, I'm just, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have a co founder on a team, but I, I think for, for many people, it must be very difficult when you're on your own, trying to do the right thing.

[00:22:23] but you've also got to pay the bills

[00:22:25] Chrysa Sto: and

[00:22:27] James Gill: find that right level of push to, to have is, is a very difficult balance, isn't it?

[00:22:32] Chrysa Sto: Exactly. Yeah. What I what I recently started doing in terms of like finding that balance is just ask questions without like worrying, without having expectations. In my discovery call.

[00:22:48] So for example if I, if I get in on it, this, this is out of topic, but I think it's worth saying, yeah. So when, when I get in the discovery call and where, like, I see that the client, the potential client is interesting, things like that, I just ask, like, it is okay if I go ahead and send you the proposal.

[00:23:10] It is like something that you're still interested in. And they most likely like to say yes, you know, but this is getting the confirmation and not just sending an email with you know, a huge offer or a affordable offer, whatever the offer is and just wondering why they haven't replied back or following up a million times.

[00:23:34] I follow up one time and that's it. Yeah. If they want to work with me, they, they will. Yeah.

[00:23:41] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. I, I, I think there's yeah it's, it seems like a great approach to be taking here. So I, I love it. I, I, I guess I know we're almost at the end of the half hour. So I, I guess one of the things I like to ask guests is what do you see for the future of, of maybe your business, Chris, or maybe the future of podcasting?

[00:24:04] I don't know if that's too broad of a topic, but I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts. Any thoughts on that? I'm not asking for a, a prediction or a guaranteed outcome. But do you have any thoughts on how things may change over the next few years?

[00:24:17] Chrysa Sto: Yeah, I think that with the rise of you know, so many platforms investing in short form content definitely video will will be like top things.

[00:24:29] People will invest on because it makes sense to have a video podcast and repurpose the video pull off like, you know, pull off shorts to spread to different platforms. It makes sense because repurposing it's easy with podcasting, but I think video will keep us occupied. And also with the recent changes on YouTube, I think.

[00:24:55] YouTube will surprise us with different things that podcasters can take advantage of and can benefit from. But yeah, I think video will be on the things that well, people will invest more and I don't have any, you know, any other thoughts on this, but yeah.

[00:25:18] James Gill: No, thank you for, for sharing. I, I guess one question I, I had to add on this is do you have any thoughts on the, I know everyone and their dog is talking about AI and Yeah.

[00:25:31] And how that seems to be eating the world or not. Do you have any, any thoughts on Yeah. How that could change anything in the landscape krisa, like good or bad? ?

[00:25:42] Chrysa Sto: Yeah. You know, we could talk like just for AI for one episode, but I think, I think that AI can simplify our workflows and, you know processes and can speed up things because the podcast podcast production takes a lot of time.

[00:26:01] We think of, or you can think of it for pre production to, to publish in an episode. But I think. You know that it will simplify our lives as, as podcaster or as podcast managers, but it takes it. You always need a human eye, a human, you know, ear, things like that to to make the process smoother and to ensure that what, whatever you, Put into their world is listenable is viewable, you know?

[00:26:36] Yeah. Is as it's supposed to be for

[00:26:38] James Gill: Yeah.

[00:26:39] Chrysa Sto: Depending on one's goals.

[00:26:41] James Gill: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I couldn't agree more. I know very, I know, I know everyone has an opinion on ai. I won't, I won't be. Adding mine to the mix, but I think it's really interesting to to hear your your thoughts on that. Okay, so thank you before we wrap up, did you did you have any other advice you wanted to share before before we wrap?

[00:27:02] I know you've already given some wonderful thoughts on on how people can engage their audience And use podcasting as a way to grow that business. I, I didn't know if you wanted to share any other tips or anything, Chris.

[00:27:14] Chrysa Sto: Yeah. So the last thing I would like to share is specifically for sustainability business owners and people in this field is that Because I've encountered like a lot, I've I found out that those people usually don't want to rely on or don't get along.

[00:27:35] Like they are not, they don't resonate with the approach of posting short form content or trying to get their message across. in 60 seconds. So if those people are listening and want to make an impact in terms of marketing their business, I would recommend podcasting for a lot of different reasons as we already shared.

[00:28:00] And usually like if you, if you don't want to be exposed on video and we don't want to be on camera. There are a lot of audio podcasts that crushing it out there. So yeah, you can do it from your comfort of your, of your home and also put your voice out there to speak to the people they want to hear from you.

[00:28:25] James Gill: Sure. Yeah. Sure thing. Sure thing. That's what a wonderful way to wrap up. A very helpful advice there, Krisa, for a lot of listeners of this show, I'm sure. So I, I think that's, that's brilliant and I'm glad we're, we're maybe taking some of your advice on board already and to make this show better.

[00:28:42] I'm glad. I'm glad. I've got a lot of homework to do after this, Krisa.

[00:28:47] Chrysa Sto: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Any of you have questions, please reach out.

[00:28:52] James Gill: Yes, no, thank you so much for joining me on the show. Chris. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you. For those who want to go and learn more, they can connect with you on LinkedIn, right?

[00:29:03] And and you have your website, Chris

[00:29:06] Chrysa Sto: don't try this.

[00:29:08] James Gill: You're gonna have to do that for me. No, we'll link to your website in the show notes. Unless you want. How do you say that Chris?

[00:29:15] Chrysa Sto: It's chrysostoyludy, but I think if you tap chrysostoy. com, it redirects you to my website. So, yeah. Amazing.

[00:29:25] James Gill: Amazing. I'll be sure to check that out and I'll work on the pronunciation.

[00:29:31] Chrysa Sto: No. Thank you so much for having me. It's been really fun to talk to you. I hope that we Got to, you know get some valuable tips for your listeners and yeah, I am excited to I'm excited for what to tune in to more episodes and keep continue, you know, keep connecting with you.

[00:29:52] James Gill: Thank you, Christa.

[00:29:52] Thank you so much for joining me and I'll catch you again very soon.