The Remote CEO Life Podcast

Grow Your Business Organically Through Podcast Guesting with Candace Dudley

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 3 • Episode 18

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Can podcasting actually grow your business?

In this episode, I’m diving into the power of podcast guesting as a tool for business growth and real, authentic marketing strategies - with the amazing Candace Dudley.

Candace is a former teacher turned podcast guesting strategist and the host of Better Brave podcast, where she’s published over 175 episodes.

We talk about how podcasting helped her build a business that gives her freedom, and how guesting on other people’s podcasts is one of the most underrated ways to get visible, build trust, and attract dream clients.

Here’s what we talk about:

  • Candace’s pivot from teaching to podcasting and entrepreneurship
  • Why podcast guesting works better than most marketing strategies
  • Her exact system for finding aligned shows and pitching with confidence
  • How to turn guest spots into long-term business growth
  • What makes a great pitch - and what makes one get deleted
  • The kind of freedom podcasting has given her (and how it can for you too)

If you’ve been wondering whether podcasting is worth it - especially if you don’t want to start your own show—this episode will shift your mindset and give you a strategy to take action.

Connect with Candace:

Website

Podcast: Better Brave (on all major platforms)

Instagram

About The Remote CEO Podcast:

This podcast is for freedom-seeking online entrepreneurs, offering practical, actionable advice to help you step up into your new role as CEO by building an online business that works for you - not one you work for.

Hosted by Sophie Biggerstaff, an online business mentor, e-commerce founder, mental health advocate, and full-time digital nomad. 🙋‍♀️

👆Want to start an online business? Take my quiz to help you get started

👆 Want to achieve more freedom in your life? Find out how you can make it happen in my free masterclass.

👆Need online business advice? Get my best business tips directly in your inbox by signing up to my newsletter

👍 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share to hear more conversations about starting and growing an online business.

🔗 Stay Connected:

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🗣️ Connect on LinkedIn

...

Sophie (00:01.145)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Remote CEO podcast. Today I have another guest with me. Her name is Candice Dudley and she's a former teacher turned multi-passionate entrepreneur and stay at home mom. Candice supports entrepreneurs in growing their businesses by launching, growing and guessing on podcasts. So could it be a more relevant topic? I'm super excited to get into it. And she's also the host of the Better Brave podcast and she's published over 175 episodes.

which is a massive achievement in the podcast world because I know that quite a lot of podcasts don't even make it past the first 10. So I'm very excited to get into this conversation as podcasting is very much one of my favorite ways to market my business. So welcome Candice, super excited to have you here.

Candace Dudley (00:40.952)
Thank you so much. I'm excited to dive into this topic.

Sophie (00:44.385)
Amazing me too. Do you want to go into your experience in a little bit more detail? us a bit about you in the background and what made you become this podcast genius?

Candace Dudley (00:54.272)
Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's quite the leap from what I started as a teacher. But really the big change there was that I had been teaching for 10 years and then I started having my own kids. So the last three years, I basically had three kids like back to back to back. And I never didn't like to teach. I liked my coworkers. All of that was great. But I didn't like how I felt when I came home. it was really weighing on me that my kids were kind of getting my leftovers and like that version of me. it was not sitting well with my

mom heart. eventually I had a tough conversation with my spouse who's also a teacher. And we decided that I would take, I would request like a year sabbatical and luckily enough the school granted it. And so that's kind of how I bridged that gap and dove in. But before I had left the classroom, I did start my podcast. I was working with other moms. We just had babies postpartum, feeling all the things, feeling lonely, feeling like our wellness was

taking and all the things. And so I just, I was hosting groups and accountability things for us. And I wanted to start my podcast because I wanted to feel like I was always giving them free value. felt like my story as a mother at the time wasn't being talked about. And so I thought I'm going to start this and hopefully other people will feel seen and heard and validated just like I wanted in my journey. so that's how it was born and it's transformed from more.

motherhood in the beginning to now entrepreneurship and podcasting advice and things like that, because taking that leap into entrepreneurship is just really where my heart lies. And so I do have a lot of moms on as guests and things, but still supporting women for sure. But entrepreneurship is the heart of it now, but that's really where it started. But again, the premise though is to still have entrepreneurs feel seen, heard. And I just think once people feel seen like that, like, she really gets me. It can be really a game changer in your life and your business.

because up until that point you can feel so isolated and lonely. I think giving more people a voice through podcasting and guessing on podcasts can allow that to happen and create those really awesome ripple effects, which is kind of my whole reason why I kept going with that. There were a lot of pivots in between there, but I won't go into all of them. It's just the alignment for me was in podcasting. And about a year and a half ago, I really honed in on this is the skills that I love. This is the thing that never went away through all those pivots.

Candace Dudley (03:18.218)
It's where I want to really build the foundation of my business.

Sophie (03:22.689)
makes sense and I love that you mentioned pivots because every business goes through pivots and hopefully we take the right course of direction for us and that helps us continue to grow and it sounds like you've stayed really true to the thing that you love doing which is ultimately podcasting and I think that's amazing to be able to build a business through something that you really enjoy because clearly you do if you're working with other people's podcasts and also your own so that's incredible but take me back to that moment where you kind of left your teaching career you just had children

and you're pivoting and starting this new business, like what was that transition like for you?

Candace Dudley (03:56.526)
it was scary. It was a season of anxiety. Like, I mean, to be real, it was not glamorous. You know, it was a season of like unlearning a lot of things and creating my own new story. It was a big identity crisis almost like a shift. it took about a year out of the classroom. I'm going just over three years out of the classroom now. So it kind of gives you a timeline. It took me about a year where people would ask me, Hey, what do you do? You know, that question that people love to ask. And I,

was still answering it out of the classroom, having left that job as I used to be a teacher. It was just very difficult in the beginning to start saying, I'm a podcaster, I'm a podcast host and producer, you know, I help people with this and that. And it just felt much more comfortable to say I used to be a teacher. But then what I was attracting into my life was my school that I live close by would call me to see if I would come and substitute teach. So living in that past version of me,

kept me in like calling in past version of me thing. So I'm a big, big promoter of saying, you know, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it doesn't feel good in your body, cause it's change and our bodies want to stay away from that. Yeah. So you have to kind of put those new shoes on and really start saying either your future version. If you don't think you are that yet, it's okay to say I'm this or that and start practicing that. You know, you want to say your present.

Sophie (05:09.293)
Tuesday.

Candace Dudley (05:25.324)
version or a future version, like we can't keep saying the past version. So that was a learning moment that took a long time. I wish it was faster. That's why I love to share it. Cause it could hopefully speed up somebody else's journey. But so yeah, there was lots of ups and downs. it was a time where I really dove hard into personal. Well, I was already doing personal development, but I took it even further and started therapy and lots of things where I was like really doing that inner work, which I also think.

is important in entrepreneurship because there's days you want to burn it all down and start over. So if you aren't doing that or have that foundation that you can fall back on, that can be really tricky.

Sophie (06:03.084)
for sure.

I think it's like the, and you don't realize this at the time, right? Like it's definitely an afterthought and you look back on it and you're like, oh, I should have really started doing some of this work a little bit earlier on because that would have helped me overcome many of the hurdles that I did in the first six months a year. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. And I think the most important thing is that somebody does actually take the steps to do that personal development and mindset work. Because like you say, it is basically the foundation of you as a business owner.

Candace Dudley (06:05.4)
You

Sophie (06:34.329)
It really is. And it's something that I now teach in everything that I do. I've done so much of my own mindset work. And now I put that, include that in everything that I do. I won't actually work with anyone without incorporating that because actually I know that they're not going to get results if they haven't done any of that work or at least get the results that they desire to get. And I love that you're talking about like the old version of you, the new version, the current version and the future version, because we do have to think about what our future version wants and is, we're trying to get to because ultimately

Candace Dudley (06:48.558)
Absolutely.

Sophie (07:04.219)
that is the fuel to our fire. If we want to be that version of ourselves, we have to figure out like how we're going to transition to that. But if we don't understand what that looks like, there's no way for us to get there. The path is very unclear and that's when we go on all of these like pivots and random directions. But I get, I completely resonate with the fact that you're like, took you a minute to catch up and say what you do because...

Candace Dudley (07:14.83)
Absolutely.

Candace Dudley (07:18.86)
Right.

Sophie (07:26.937)
part of you is actually grieving an old version of yourself and it's like, well, I'm not really a teacher anymore. Like that's not what I do. And if I stay in that energy, then naturally, yeah, you're going to bring in an attraction other opportunities in that space. But equally, maybe your mindset and your beliefs hadn't quite fully evolved to think, this could actually work for me. Like this podcasting career could be a thing. At what moment did you kind of realize and step into that identity as this podcast host, as this podcast producer?

Candace Dudley (07:29.357)
Right.

Candace Dudley (07:38.957)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (07:57.454)
About a year and a half ago is where I was grasping at straws and kind of thinking, should I go back to teaching? Like, maybe this was dumb. And I was just looking for clarity on where to go and what to do next. I had done a lot of things in my own journey. I had used Amazon KDP to publish a journal that I made. All these different things that you do for yourself and you just figure out through Googling and whatnot, but then they become skills you have that a lot of people don't have. So I thought,

What should I do? Should I help people build websites on Squarespace? I? But nothing like was really exciting or didn't feel exciting. And that's why I was like, I just, I just wish someone would tell me. And so I had hired a coach and like, can remember this day vividly. And I thought that I hired her to just help me with a marketing plan and we were just going to hash it out and we were just going to grind it out for the last quarter of the year. And she luckily was the person for this call because she stopped me and was like, wait now.

I, what are, what are you passionate about? Like this, what you're saying, like this isn't what we build a business on, you know, like, cause I was saying like, well, what should I, I was asking her to tell me like, which of those options I should do. And I was like, I don't really care too much about either one, but happy to do any of them. You know, I'm just looking to build a business, looking for, know, what's going to make me money. Cause that's what I think we all start with. And it was really that call where she asked me some really deep questions. Like what did I.

done for myself or what would I do for free? Like don't do it for free, but what would you do for free? And it took about two weeks after that call where I was just really reflecting on her questions. And it came to me like a light bulb moment where it was like, you've had burnout, you've had all these pivots, you've left teaching, but throughout all of it for four years now, podcasting has never stopped. It's always been the thing that you were like, I'm inspired, let's go record an episode. And so weekly episodes were consistently going out.

during this whole time. that was my light bulb moment where I was like, I have to allow myself to sort of niche down. That felt scary too, but really it was the best thing I could have ever done because now people think of me when they're thinking of, I need help podcast guesting. They think of me. Whereas before you're like this generalist and you don't come to the top of the mind because you are talking about 50 different things. And so there's just nothing that people can really like know for sure what you're doing. So that was my experience.

Candace Dudley (10:23.366)
And about a year and a half ago where it was like, need to allow myself to just make this pivot niche down and go with this route. And it's what I know now and how I can tell that it's aligned is I always feel like I have things to say posting on social media. Yeah, sometimes I don't love social media, but I always have tons of things to say. Whereas before it was like, should I talk about? What should I, you know, those feelings. And so I just feel like deep alignment of like,

this is where we're going and this is a path and this also works with the values that I had about giving people a voice and helping people feel heard and seen.

Sophie (11:00.267)
Yeah, definitely. And like you say, like when you're trying to focus your attention on so many different things, it is really hard to speak to the person that you want to attract in. And to be honest, also you don't even if you're trying to do all of these things, you don't even know who that person is to get them in. And a big part of the work that I now do is is focused around trying to figure out like, well, what is are you passionate about? What do you want your life to look like? And then build a business around that. Like, and not everybody agrees with that advice. But like, I personally think

Candace Dudley (11:14.177)
No.

Sophie (11:29.931)
Why would you create yourself a business that you don't enjoy doing? Or the thing that feels really out of alignment for you? Because like you just said with the social media stuff, when you're not passionate about the subject, it is so hard to show up and create that content. It is so hard. And I say that from experience. Like I had a whole business over the past five years of like me doing e-commerce consulting. And don't get me wrong, e-commerce, I know everything about e-commerce. Like I really am an expert in that field, but am I passionate about it? No.

Candace Dudley (11:43.352)
Terrible.

Sophie (11:58.711)
I'm really not, I couldn't care less honestly. And that's not to say that I couldn't care less about people's businesses that I've worked for. I love working with those businesses, like I don't, e-commerce is a subject.

Candace Dudley (11:58.925)
Right.

Sophie (12:08.921)
It's not, it's not that exciting for me to talk about. And like, I think that came across in my content because I didn't really want to show up for it. So now I'm very much like all about building a business that I am super passionate about that. can talk about that. I've got energy when it comes to thinking about new ideas for it, how it's going to move forward, what I'm going to put out there. And I think so many people underrate that over the fear of like not earning money because like what you said around, like, just want to make money. Yeah. People that's the first, first, first route for somebody that starts a business usually is how can I make money?

Candace Dudley (12:31.117)
Mm-hmm.

Sophie (12:38.875)
But actually, sometimes you have to play a of a longer game and get really clear on what it is that you want to achieve in the long run and allow yourself to get there a bit more gradually and slowly, which sounds like exactly what you've done, which is amazing. That's cool. then talk to me about the journey of like, what are you actually working on with podcasting? You've obviously got your own podcasting and then you're mentioning podcast production. What does that look like in your day to day?

Candace Dudley (12:42.893)
Yes.

Candace Dudley (12:52.654)
Yes, yes, for sure.

Candace Dudley (13:07.916)
Yeah, sure. And the day to day, looks like, you know, making sure my podcast is taken care of. And that's just something that seems really easy to me now. Obviously in the beginning it wasn't, it was like all these new skills, but that's something I love. And a lot of my solo episodes focus on some mindset, cause I also love that too. And I don't think we can just skip over that topic, but it's a lot on podcasts, guesting, do's and don'ts, how to really hit your, your, speaking points and keep everything aligned.

as well as just general podcast things as to, and then I have guests on to kind of fill in different entrepreneurial stories and things. I like to highlight that. But then as far as the day to day, I edit other people's podcasts. So video or audio edits. So I'm just kind of working behind the scenes. I enjoy that part. That's another thing I had to learn about myself was I love behind the scenes work. I love helping people push their own businesses along. It's fun to be part of another person's great message. So editing is something I really like to do.

It feels easy to me and it also feels exciting to be part of that person and just being able to take it off their plate. And then the thing I spend the most time like one-on-one with clients is podcast guesting. having like one-off calls or also doing the legwork and finding them aligned shows that would match with their messaging and what they're talking about. And then kind of handing off that contact information or helping them make those connections.

anywhere from finding the shows to helping them with their speaking points and really keeping their offers and things really cohesive about leading that person that's listening to the podcast to potentially getting into their world and downloading a free resource that makes sense for them or joining them on social media and things like

Sophie (14:48.353)
Yeah, that makes sense. I have so many questions because obviously I love podcasts and I have two podcasts myself. This one and then I also have a mental health focus one. And I also use podcasts as my main source of information for absolutely everything, honestly. I scrap Google and I go straight to podcasts. I'm like, right, how can I learn about XYZ? And I'll try and find a podcast for that business purpose, for mindset work purposes, self-development purposes, for meditation purposes. I use podcasts for absolutely everything.

Candace Dudley (14:51.02)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (15:14.413)
Yes.

Sophie (15:16.841)
And I think podcasting is such an underrated marketing channel, honestly. So tell me a little bit more about like why you think people more people aren't podcasting. I mean, a lot of people are obviously podcasting, but it's not always the top of mind when it comes to like a marketing strategy. So why do you think so many people overlook it as as a marketing strategy?

Candace Dudley (15:39.832)
Well, I think we overlook it because one, it's easy to say it's so saturated. You know, like you mentioned in the beginning though, there's how many, it's like a staggering statistic. It's like in the 90 % of podcasters don't make it to episode 10. So, I mean, yes, if you looked up like how many podcasts there are, there's a lot, but how many of those are still going? So to me, podcasting is a long game that some people aren't ready to commit to, but also, you know, guessing doesn't need to be a long game. But I think we write it off because of things like

if we're an introvert, we're like, which I am, we're like, Oh, I can't do a podcast. I'm too shy. I'm an introvert. But that's really, it's like the perfect thing for us because it's deep conversation. It's no small talk. We can control our environment. This is like amazing connections and networking that we don't need to go to a big stuffy business card type event to do, which is draining. Um, and then the other thing I think is the thought of building an entire podcast is very overwhelming. If you've never done it or you don't,

you know, have any knowledge in that category, which so many people don't in the beginning. And so if you haven't done podcasting, then you don't really take it a step further and think about guesting, I think. I think that's the biggest reason why it's so overlooked is that we're not most people aren't even thinking about it because they like, don't want to start a podcast. And so then anything in podcasting world then is just dismissed off our plate when really you don't have to have a podcast to be a really great podcast guest.

Sophie (17:08.801)
No, and I think for anybody that particularly like service business owners, course creators, even like e-commerce business founders, like the level of exposure that you can have.

Candace Dudley (17:18.978)
Yes.

Sophie (17:19.491)
from guesting on somebody else's podcast can make or break your business in some cases, depending on which podcast you're going to go on to. But if that audience, if that podcast has a very similar audience to the one that you're trying to sell to, it's one of the easiest, like you said, most organic ways to market your business because it's a conversation. And that's why I personally like it. Like I am not the biggest fan of social media. Like, yes, I feel a little bit more excited about the content that I'm creating now that I've changed subjects I'm talking about, but I'm still not the biggest fan of like.

like building connections with people through social media. Like I actually think it feels really unauthentic to me, but when I podcast, I feel like people can actually listen to who I actually am because I will be very authentically as a podcast. I'm very honest. I will like have engaging conversations with people. And I feel like the conversations I have with the guest, but also the people listening, then hearing how we're engaging, I think that that is one of the best ways you can build trust with.

your audience you can build relationships with them they can make it feel like the feedback that i've always had from this podcast is that it sounds like i'm just listening to someone have a conversation in the living room kind of thing i'm like well literally you are but like i like that and i want it to feel like that i don't want it to feel like this stuffy like professional podcast like it that feels to me like too engineered doesn't feel authentic to me because i'm not

this polished person. So I personally agree with you, like it's perfect for introverts because it is actually a deep conversation and about a subject that you already know loads about. it shouldn't be this big scary thing. And I think it's been made to be this big scary thing because we see all of these like massive productions of podcasts, like where we sit on the couch, we've got the mic and we've got everything going on, but it doesn't have to be that way, right?

Candace Dudley (19:05.838)
Yeah, the camera crew and all that, which no, we're not, we're not doing that. We have sometimes maybe a old pair of headphones and then just a really basic microphone. That's, that's really it.

Sophie (19:15.701)
Yes. This is all we've got going on here right now. It's got a fancy light, so that's why I bought this one. talk to me a little bit about the strategy for somebody that does want to get more into the podcast world. What would your best advice be for someone that wants to be a guest specifically? Because I feel like starting a podcast, yeah, might not be for everybody. That's quite a niche.

Candace Dudley (19:19.342)
Yeah, he's saying.

I love it.

Sophie (19:44.141)
thing to want to do and also it is time consuming and there is the editing piece. There's a lot of barriers to entry with that, but there shouldn't be many barriers to entry for podcast guesting. So talk to me a little bit about how to kind of get into that world.

Candace Dudley (19:56.406)
Absolutely. Podcast guessing can be a really simple thing to jump into. tell people first, if you do a little bit of intentional thought about this, you're going to get such a like bang for your buck, so to speak, if you think ahead a little bit. So what kind of topics do you love to speak about? And to figure these out, think about, you already have offers? Do you already have most people...

in this, like you said, in the service injury or digital products, we have a free resource or a free guide or a free video or something that is just a no brainer that adds value that someone can download. Now, if you have like five of them, think about which one leads you to your dream client signing because that is how it's going to stay really cohesive. If you get on a show and I've done this, which is why I could speak to this, where I'm in the midst of all those pivots and I'm going to just talk about all these different things.

it probably at the end of the show, people aren't going to like really know for sure if you are for them or not. And so they're just going to have listened and then that's it. And we really want them to come join you somewhere. So whether that's on your email list, downloading a free resource or jumping over and following on social media, because maybe throughout your story, they really connected, but something or you send them to your podcast, but getting them into your world is kind of the goal because that's where you can serve them. And, you know,

To be honest, we're running a business. So we also want the people that want our help and our services to be aware of us and then join us. So you have to have a little bit of systems in place, but thinking about those things can help you figure out what, you know, two or three things that I'd be really excited to talk about. And the more specific I find that you can be the better. So we've probably all seen on social media or especially over on threads, which I think is where we connected, which has been fantastic place for podcasters and podcasting. I've noticed in 2025, it's been

just dialed in over there. But people make a post that they'll say, I have a goal to guest on 25 podcasts this year. Like who wants me on their show? But that's really hard for a podcast host to look at and be like, really identify if they want you on their show or how could you serve their audience? It's kind of like a me focused goal type post, whereas one that could actually book you a show would be to list the three specific things that you would love to talk about and say, Hey, this is how I could serve.

Candace Dudley (22:16.908)
your audience with these three topics. Does your podcast need this type of conversation or does your podcast need this type of guest? And when I've done that every time so far, I've had at least one podcast host say, yes, that would be such a great fit on my show. And then you just head over to the DMS and you set it up. So that's a really great way to just kind of dabble or dip your toe into that arena and just share because you aren't going to guess on podcasts if nobody knows that you want to guest on

podcast. So you kind of have to take that first step and the bandaid off and put yourself out there and share that you want to do that. But if you can get specific on those speaking topics, that's going to help people know or help people refer you to the right shows already, which is really easy. But then if you want to take it a step further, you one should definitely be listening to their show, right? Like we should know some things about ourselves. Like I know you're all about like building a freedom filled entrepreneurial life because I've listened to your show.

So we don't want a big mistake we can do is go and message someone and say, I just want to guess on your podcast. And I'd to talk about this and this, but you didn't listen to their show and you don't have any idea what their messaging is about. You didn't even scroll to see like, do they even have guests? Some shows don't. So doing your homework and it doesn't take that long to listen to a few parts or episodes and just, you can get a good vibe check and see if you're aligned. So

doesn't mean you need to be like the exact same person as that host. In fact, you probably shouldn't be there'd be no point of you being on the show. But there should be some overlap in your messaging. Like, are you a mom and they interview moms are like there needs to be something that would make sense for you to message them. And then I know we all get emails like how many times you get a pitch email that is like copy and pasted. They don't spell your name right. And you can just tell it's just like all about them and they haven't mentioned your show or like why

So my advice always is send a DM or even a voice note if you can feel comfortable doing that because one, it's more likely to get opened because who's gonna get a voice note and not be curious enough to open it because we're curious people, but also it's just gonna let them feel you out really a lot easier than just an email. A lot of those, we're just podcast hosts, we're just putting those right into the junk folder without giving them much thought.

Candace Dudley (24:40.736)
If you're going to message someone, make sure you've listened to their show, make sure you've checked for alignment, and then focus on how you can provide value to their show. And because you're mentioning things that you know that they are about and that connect with you. So being very genuine and being authentic goes a long way in doing that.

Sophie (25:00.909)
Yeah, definitely. And so I get a lot of these emails. And how do you feel about it when I and I completely get people busy and they don't always message you themselves. Like my VA does a lot of my outreach initially for me and then I follow up afterwards. But like, for example, like when you get the email from somebody's like podcast.

manager, be like, Oh, this person is going to be a great fit for your show. In my head, I'm like, why didn't you just email from their email account? Because then I'm going to think that they personally outreach to me. Like now I'm not that interested, even though they might have a good subject, but because they haven't bothered to take the time to actually email me might themselves or make it look like they've emailed me themselves. I'm not actually that bothered to have you on my show. So how do you feel about that style of email? I'm just intrigued to know about that.

Candace Dudley (25:23.565)
Yes.

Candace Dudley (25:49.442)
Yeah, I mean, I get why people do it. like, yeah, why is there that ick feeling though? Because I'm in the same boat. Like, it doesn't feel good. So for my clients, I don't offer that as a service of like me, unless I like know the host, then I might get on a voice note and say, hey, know, Sophia, Sophia, I really think that you would really connect with my friend Megan, because maybe I know her well enough to know like, this would be cool. I think you guys could talk about this. Let's take it from there. That's a genuine like connection referral.

Sophie (25:52.76)
Sure.

Sophie (26:18.946)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (26:19.394)
But as far as like doing it through email and saying, this person would be great. I think you can do it. I don't do that for my clients because I think it's better when it comes from them. So I'll go find all the contact information you need. But I think it goes a lot further in your benefit if you take the couple minutes to send the message yourself or like you said, make it look like it's coming from you. But yeah, I always tell people that if you can find them on social media, DM them because that's going to go.

lot further than an email. There's a ick factor about emails. You sign up for a free download and you get seven emails right out there. So there's this feeling about that maybe that people have and I would just do it for myself. But I know why people do it. And it's not to say like I've never booked anyone that has done that, but it needs to be done pretty well. I love a media sheet. There's a one page thing where I can have a picture, maybe a timeline of you.

Sophie (27:10.008)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (27:17.086)
The speaking topics you like, questions that you would love a host to ask you. That to me is like, you've done your homework and I can glance and get a really good vibe check on that. So if you don't have like stuff like that where I can really just glance very quickly and tell, because sometimes they don't even have like the person link. just give you text about them and I want to be able to jump to their Instagram. I want to be able to go do some stocking on the web, you know, and if you make that hard, I mean, I personally am not going to.

Sophie (27:36.769)
Yeah, so it's classic.

Candace Dudley (27:45.058)
follow up, it's going to go in the junk, you know?

Sophie (27:46.815)
Yeah, I'm glad to hear you agree on that because I feel I was like, is this a strategy? Like, is this what people do? And like, I completely understand why you don't have the time. I get it. But like, at the same time, it is not hard for that person to log into your email and send it from your email address to make it look like it's come from you. Like, there is just things that could make that process a little bit better, I think.

Candace Dudley (28:02.072)
Yeah. Yeah.

Candace Dudley (28:06.936)
Yeah. Well, for podcasts, we're a lot of us, like you and I, we're hosting our own show. We're kind of doing the like, we're not a big production company. We're not, you know, we're not the call her daddy podcast or like those huge ones. I mean, I guess obviously in that, if you're at that level, like you probably have an agent, you probably have people doing these tasks and it's expected, but for our like level of what we're doing.

Sophie (28:20.715)
Yeah, yeah.

Candace Dudley (28:32.238)
We're kind of looking for some humanness, some genuine authenticity. And when you get that, it sort of feels like, you're just chasing numbers. You just are trying to get as many guessings in as possible. And you're not really worried about the value or sharing the episode after. I don't know if you would notice that, but sometimes when I've had someone where I'm like, my gosh, they're so huge or so big, this is going to be so game changing. They're the ones that maybe don't put in the effort to share about the show after or.

Sophie (28:34.232)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (28:58.358)
so much because they probably have so much going on and so much on their plate that it just gets sort of dropped. But not to say that they all don't do that. I'm just saying that sometimes that happens. And so we can think that one guest or one thing is going to like change our life and then it doesn't and it can kind of feel disappointing.

Sophie (28:58.531)
Yeah.

Sophie (29:16.521)
definitely. I agree. And you mentioned earlier around like trying to find the podcast to guest on through threads. Do you have any other suggestions for people that want to start guesting but they're maybe not on threads? Don't we understand threads? Is there any other route to kind of go about that?

Candace Dudley (29:31.95)
Yeah, I'll share the process for my, the way I do things. I have a tracker and I can send you a link to it, but basically I use it because I'll go like on a deep dive and I'll listen to podcasts and what you'll find when you start finding podcasts that you like or connect with, they probably will have guests on and you'll probably vibe with them too. So you can hop over if they have their own show. It's kind of like ends up being this breadcrumb trail. And so I'll do that, you know, a couple of times a month and then I'll

while I'm doing that, I put things in the tracker like I'll link the show and I'll link the host and any contact information I can find. If they have an application, I'll link that and I'll just put this all in my tracker. So I'll gather as many of those as I can that feel aligned or I'll have a spot where I write notes too of like, because I'm looking for other clients as well, not just myself. So I'll make notes of like what categories these would be good shows for. And then the next different day I'll go back and I'll start to either

message these or I'll go through and double check, and, start sending messages into the tracker. I'll toggle like, have I sent a pitch out to them or message them and I'll mark like yes or no, or not yet that way I can keep track. Cause once you get going on this, what you'll realize is that there's so many referrals then that'll happen. It's almost like this ripple effect. And then if you don't have any way to like keep it organized or tracked, it gets, feels a little overwhelming and a little chaotic. And so that's why I

kind of set up this system for myself and my clients. So it's just easier so we can glance like, okay, this is where I'm at in conversation with this person. Cause following up is also key. How many times you get a message and you listen to it or read it, and then you are meaning to follow up or meaning to message them back, but then you get distracted and do something else and then a week has gone by. So it's really appropriate, I think too, to keep track of that and then follow up with those people. And then I have a few more tabs in the tracker to make sure once the episode is aired that you

do the work to share it with your audience. That's another thing I tell people. If you're not ready to share the episode when it comes out, then you are not ready to podcast guest. There must be something going on. You don't trust your message or you're speaking enough yet, or you need to do some inner work. But there is some reason if you don't feel comfortable sharing it, because that is the golden part where you get to share that you had this great experience. This is the value that you've given. Usually the hosts make

Candace Dudley (31:55.608)
things for social media. It's like free social media production basically that you can tap into. So if you're not ready to share that you don't plan to then like full pause, do not guest on a podcast, but that's kind of my system and the tracker I have to keep all of that sort of in check because it gets a little chaotic.

Sophie (32:17.891)
There's a lot of moving parts and lot of organization involved isn't there? So I get that and like definitely having a tracker helps. I definitely have a tracker.

And yeah, I think it's what I've, going back to that sharing piece, like I have been guilty because sometimes my VA will outreach to some of the podcasts and I've not necessarily seen it upfront or like realized exactly what that podcast is. And then I've turned up to the interview and I'm like, this is not the right vibe, which I'm now way more mindful of. And then afterwards I'm like, like I know that I said some good stuff, but like the host, for example,

Candace Dudley (32:37.539)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (32:46.422)
Yeah.

Right.

Sophie (32:55.711)
wasn't particularly engaging with me and I found that interview like very hard like because I had to almost guide it and then in that case I'm a bit like I don't even really want to share that because it feels a bit uncomfortable that I actually took the time to do that so I think going back to the point that you made at the end having that strategy getting really clear on who it is that you're best hosting for is super important, learn from my mistakes.

Candace Dudley (32:58.211)
Sure.

Candace Dudley (33:06.189)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (33:20.098)
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a good point because that is a case where like you wouldn't want to, but then like what you learn is I really should check out the show myself or like just to kind of dot the I's and cross the T's because then hopefully then that doesn't happen. Hopefully you get off the show and you're like, that was the best hour of my day. Like that was so fun. And then another great piece is stay connected with the hosts that you really did vibe with because they're

Sophie (33:28.185)
Thank you.

Candace Dudley (33:46.722)
They are entrepreneurs too, so they're gonna have people come to them with questions. And so if they can't help them, maybe they think of you. And the referrals that could happen after with the hosts especially are really amazing, whether that's a show that they refer you to guest on or a client that they bring you, just that networking and connecting piece with the hosts. If you feel really like a good vibe and good connection, like I encourage you to keep that relationship going, cheer them on on social media, cheer each other on, share their things because...

that can go a really long way in your business too.

Sophie (34:18.977)
No, I completely agree. think it's really important. Actually, since I've changed the subject of this podcast, like I said, used to be about e-commerce up until the end of last year. And then this year it's kind of shifted direction as my business shifts direction. I feel so much more connected to the guests that I'm having on this podcast. I'm like, I come away from recording inspired, motivated, expanded into so many different things. I'm like, yeah, this is how I want to feel when I come up.

Candace Dudley (34:33.955)
Hmm.

Sophie (34:43.993)
way, like rather than constantly feeling like I'm showing up for something that doesn't really make me excited, like the conversations I'm having, they're so much more aligned in which case, yeah, you build better connections. And it's not like most of the guests I have, they're all over the world. So it's not like I'm to go and hang out with them tomorrow, but like, we will, we will probably will connect at some point or another, because now I know better what you do. For example, we've just had a really deep conversation about what you do. So I'll be like, oh, later on down the line, if I need to start doing this for my business, or I've got other clients that want to do this for their business referral over to you.

Candace Dudley (34:58.349)
No.

Sophie (35:13.983)
You know, like it makes so much easier actually going back what you said earlier about networking. This is the perfect way to network. I now know everything about your business and you know it's perfect.

Candace Dudley (35:14.093)
Right.

Candace Dudley (35:18.85)
Yes. 100%. I know, right? Which also goes back to the knowing what you're going to talk about. Obviously we've talked about mindset thing or my story. Like that is key too, because sharing your story is how somebody might feel so connected that then they take action and they download your free resource or they go follow on Instagram. no, knowing what you're going to speak about and being really clear about that helps the host then know.

exactly what they could refer you to. But if you were talking about, if I was talking about Squarespace and podcasting and Amazon KDP, like you would get done and you'd be like, well, you probably wouldn't feel very good about the episode because your audience would be confused. And also you're not going to refer someone to me because I'm not going to come to top of your top of your mind when someone asks about something because it's so too general. So it doesn't mean you can't have other services.

Sophie (36:00.921)
you

Sophie (36:09.529)
and

Candace Dudley (36:14.7)
You absolutely could, especially once people are in the door and someone asks you and if there's some thing you want to do that they brought up, absolutely go for it. it's just when you're going to be on this guesting type journey, it goes a lot farther for you if it's a little bit more specific and intentional.

Sophie (36:33.849)
No, completely agree with you. Well, that's super insightful for podcast guesting. For someone that's got a bit of resistance to doing that right now, what would you tell them about that return on investment that it could yield to them? How could you sell this to someone that maybe thinks they might want to dabble in it, but isn't quite sure how to make it happen yet?

Candace Dudley (36:56.428)
Right, well, as I explained the system, you might think that is so time consuming. But yes, maybe that has a little time to it, a little effort, but you can hire people like me if you want to speed that up. There's other people out there that do it as well. But the time that you'll save though, because it's long form content, it's so much different than a social media post or things like that. This is living out there for however long and it's...

searchable and people could go to Google or go to a search engine and literally type something in. And if your title of your episode comes up, like it might be a hit and they could find you organically in that way, which is not how a social media posts, you know, it'll die in a certain amount of time. This is not. So this is really working for you in like a long game situation. It's working for you much longer than really any other kind of content besides maybe blogging.

That would be another podcast where you can take your podcasts and turn it into a blog so that you double up on the SEO, like all of that too. But yeah, but it's really a time saver because all that I need to do is show up to our call, give my best energy and effort on our call. And then I get to leave.

and you do the legwork, you do the work to edit and get it ready and schedule it and post it. And then I just get to share it and shout it from the rooftops when it comes out onto social media. And that's really quick and easy, a couple of clicks and a couple of buttons, right? So, and sharing it with maybe my email list. so the work, the little bit of work that you have to do, this goes such a long way because just think it's not just a picture on social media. We are talking and if this is video, you can, if it's a video podcast, you're gonna see us. And so,

You can feel so much more connected on such a deeper level with someone when you can hear their voice and see them than you do with that on social media and stuff like that. But yeah, it's long form content. It's really going to save you a lot of time in the long run. If you do a good job at it, it could end up being things that people organically find through SEO and things like that.

Sophie (38:56.877)
Yeah.

Ultimately, you've got to look at it, in my opinion, as like a publicity tool, right? Like you are getting, gaining publicity for your business. Like so many people that in the past few years, as I've been mentoring people, skip the, PR. Like I can't even, I would say about 85 % of the people that I work with don't even know what PR really is until later on. Like they focus so much on social media marketing and completely skip anything public relations. And I'm like, it is so powerful. Like whether you get

Candace Dudley (39:01.645)
Mm-hmm.

Candace Dudley (39:12.353)
Right.

Sophie (39:27.579)
whether on a blog, whether you get featured in a magazine, whether you get featured on TV, whether you're on guesting on a podcast, that is such a powerful way to get your name out there to such a wider audience. And I really think it is underrated and underused and so many more people could and should be utilizing this. And I get it. Like I get the time consumption piece, but if you can even outsource a very small part of the work, like you're going to be so much better off in the long run because you're going to have like such a bigger audience to market your business to.

Candace Dudley (39:31.916)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (39:42.542)
Yeah. Right.

Candace Dudley (39:56.622)
Right. Just think of the authority that you're building, the confidence you're building when a host lets you on their show. It's almost like telling their audience that I have vetted this person. I trust this person. I've checked them out enough where you can trust them too, because the host already has done the work of building their own audience and putting in that time to build that trust and know like, and trust factor. And so you get to just come in essentially to a warm audience, because if you've checked for alignment, you've checked for things like that.

This is truly a warm audience and not just a cold like first glance. So it's just a very different thing. Like we mentioned also the connections and networking that you're doing with the hosts and stuff like that. So I can say enough good things about it for the little bit of time that you have to put into it. is, it's huge and it's really going to be working for you so much longer than any other piece of content.

Sophie (40:46.071)
Yeah, I agree. It's such a, it's a long game, but it's a game that can get you so many more wins in the longer term, particularly if that podcast continues over past the 10 episode miles that we spoke about. Yeah.

Candace Dudley (40:54.338)
Yeah. Right. And you'll get better. You'll get better too. Like don't think like you have to walk in and be perfect. Your people aren't going to be worried about that. And you're going to get better at things like introducing yourself and you're not going to spend five minutes doing it and eat up a fifth of the episode, right? You're going to get better at those things. The more you do it, which also helps you, I think in so many other areas of your business and your social media and all these things, because

You're practicing on repeat your messaging, essentially, which is huge.

Sophie (41:26.871)
Yeah. I also think it's just like great practice for like public speaking. If you need to start, like this is so non-scary. Like we're both sitting in our living rooms, we're on camera. Like I can edit out anything that you say that you don't want put on camera. Like it doesn't need to be this big scary thing. Honestly, I think this is the easiest way to practice like articulating your messaging way easier than showing up on Instagram, honestly, which can feel really intimidating, filming to a camera.

Candace Dudley (41:36.747)
Right.

Candace Dudley (41:54.738)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. You have so much more control in this setting. Like you said, there's editing there. can pause. I don't want that to be in there. Like there's just so much more control than any other situation too.

Sophie (41:58.754)
Yeah.

Sophie (42:07.577)
Definitely, no, I completely agree. Well, that was very, very insightful. Obviously, as you know, this podcast is all around like how to create more freedom via starting your online business. So I would love to know a little bit more about what freedom means to you and if you feel like you found freedom through starting your business.

Candace Dudley (42:23.756)
I feel like that's just something that we're constantly striving for and making things better. But yes, it definitely has brought me freedom. And freedom to me is that my three young kids, if school calls and they're sick, I can just drop things and go. I have the flexibility to go get them. Or if they have a day off of school and we want to do something fun and I'm not working, I get to do that. So it's really, that's the most important part to me is my motherhood, pairing with this business and feeling, both feeling really great because both are important to me. I'm someone that wants my own thing.

but I also want to be a great mom and be there for my kids. I also want them to know that moms can also be entrepreneurs. Mom can have jobs and work on her dreams too. having those worlds mesh in a way that is aligned with me and my family, that's what freedom is to me for sure.

Sophie (43:08.749)
I love that.

perfect representation and one that so many people strive for. like, think sometimes what I feel is that I put out a lot of content, obviously, me traveling and like being a nomad. And that's not what freedom looks like for everybody. Like that was my version of freedom, but I want to through this podcast and through this content, I want to make it very clear. Like just because that's my version of freedom doesn't mean that that's what I'm promoting to the world. I want more people to know that there's other versions of freedom. Everyone has their own version of what freedom looks like for them. And I think it's really important that you build a business

Candace Dudley (43:11.692)
Yeah.

Candace Dudley (43:24.108)
Right. Yeah.

Sophie (43:40.779)
suit whatever that looks like for you.

Candace Dudley (43:44.236)
I love that you're spreading that message. That's so good. And it's just giving people permission is what we need.

Sophie (43:49.013)
Yeah, exactly. More permission to do things that you love to create a lifestyle that you love living. Because what is the point otherwise, really? Like, why? Why are we all here to make ourselves miserable? It's just not worth it, right? So thank you so much for that. That was so, so insightful. I love that you have found the freedom that works for you and your family. Tell us where we can connect with you if anyone wants to connect with you further.

Candace Dudley (43:58.124)
Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Candace Dudley (44:12.952)
Sure, you can find me at my name almost anywhere. Candice Dudley is my website as well, [candicedudley.com](http://candicedudley.com/). And then my podcast is Better Brave. So you can find that on all of the podcasting platforms.

Sophie (44:24.503)
And if you feel aligned with that podcast, go pitch to Tara to be a guest. Same here. Thank you so much. That was super insightful. I've learned a lot. Hopefully anyone listening that wants to start podcast guesting has also learned a lot. So I really appreciate you all having taken the time to chat to me.

Candace Dudley (44:27.342)
Yeah, exactly, right? Yes.

Candace Dudley (44:42.04)
Wow, thank you so much, this was so fun.

Sophie (44:44.375)
Love it. Thank you.