Deb Boulanger is the host of the Life After Corporate podcast and founder of The Launch Lab for women entrepreneurs. She jokes that she’s an “accidental entrepreneur.” When she found herself burned out in her corporate job having excelled up the ranks as far as she wanted to go, she figured it was time to look for something more engaging that leveraged her skills, but also made a difference in moving the needle for equality for women in the workplace. It turned out she wanted to lean out more than she wanted to lean in. Deb now helps other smart, accomplished women leaders make the leap from corporate to entrepreneurship, teaching hundreds of new and aspiring women entrepreneurs to use these same proven strategies to test their business ideas and validate their money-making model.
Deb is the host and primary feature of Life After Corporate – exploring how entrepreneurship is the new feminism, where women are taking control of their time, their money and how they make an impact on the world. She connects the dots for smart, successful women leaders to turn their passions into profits and make an impact with their work – whether that’s to replace their corporate paycheck or scale their empire. The start up advice Deb shares is based on more than 20 years of launching services in the corporate world for Gartner, Inc. and the last 8 years as a coach and consultant.
What is Life After Corporate all about?
Life After Corporate is the ultimate guide for women leaders making the leap from corporate to entrepreneur. What I found with women leaving the corporate world with a new mission and vision is that they focus on the right thing, but at the wrong time.
As an example, a recent conversation with a leadership coach who was an SVP at a high-tech company, now had a leadership coaching practice. Her first step was focussing on building out a website, incorporating her business and getting good photos and graphics. But, she wasn’t having any success closing clients.
Life After Corporate teaches new women entrepreneurs how to get beyond “fake progress” and focus on the business strategies that actually result in closing new sales. How to package, price and message around your services. How to authentically sell without feeling “sleezy.” The strategies and tactics that really start new business growth.
Many of the shows focus on my coaching and what I’ve learned from my own experience. I also host leading thinkers on topics, such as the Entrepreneur Mindset (Tracy Litt), Rewiring for Wealth (Barbara Huson), Mistakes to Avoid from Veteran Women Entrepreneurs (Jane Wesman), as well as “Inside the Launch Lab” stories of women just starting out. I’m generous about sharing lessons learned and giving high-value strategies for how to launch and grow a business.
Tell us a little bit about your personal background – how, and why you started your podcast?
As someone with an extensive background in launching new service-based businesses – I was with Gartner for a total of 20 years in marketing and product development, generating hundreds of millions in revenue for the company, and ultimately running an internal startup and growing it to $32 Million in 30 months. When it came to launching my own business, I came armed with a roadmap.
When I joined mastermind and networking groups, I found that few new women business owners who shared my corporate background had any actual launch experience and were struggling to get their coaching and consulting businesses off the ground. Being a subject matter expert never guarantees success as an entrepreneur.
With 1,871 new businesses started by women every day, there’s a high failure rate – and those that succeed are barely paying themselves. I decided I could change that, and launched the Life After Corporate Podcast to address just those issues.
Do you have any other projects or businesses you are working on?
The Launch Lab for women entrepreneurs is my development lab for women leaders making the leap. The 12-week program trains them in the basics of finding and filling a market need; how to price, package and message their services; and to find proof that there is a viable business model before they break the bank trying to make a losing proposition work.
Do you monetize your Podcast, or plan on monetizing, tell us how or how you plan to do it?
There’s many ways to monetize a podcast before you hit the holy grail of 10K downloads a month and take on sponsors. Podcasts are a great awareness tool for people to discover you and learn about your business. Making sure you have a place for them to go after listening to the podcast is key. I drop great content and insights in each episode and always include a call to action to join my community, download a free tool, or apply for the Launch Lab. Many listeners reach out to me from the show and I have converted new clients from the podcast itself.
How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast?
The podcast is my passion project – I do it because I love connecting with people and pointing out the potholes on the path to building business momentum and sharing strategies that work. It helps that I’m extremely disciplined with my time and priorities. I block out time each week for client work, marketing, planning, and personal. All entrepreneurs struggle with resistance, procrastination and perfectionism. The most important thing is to recognize it early and prioritize only the things that matter. The biggest challenge is also prioritizing downtime!
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your audience?
Far and away the most effective way of raising awareness for my services is my visibility on all social channels where women are looking for inspiration and support on how to start and grow a profitable service-based business. Most recently Clubhouse has become a key channel to generate awareness and drive new connections to Instagram – my primary marketing channel for the podcast which is also driving new listeners.
My webinars are a particular favorite in my community and have been how I deliver valuable content to my prospects and clients. I also run my own training programs and masterclasses around packaging and pricing services, strategies to multiply revenues and key steps when you are first starting out. During this pandemic, without the option of speaking engagements or in person workshops, I was already building my multi-six-figure business online with a predictable way of generating revenue on demand.
If you had to start a brand-new podcast today, what are the steps you would take?
First and foremost – have an ideal audience in mind that you are speaking to and be sure you have a unique POV to add to the conversation. More and more I see shows with the same name and a similar focus. Just like print media and any other social channel it’s important to have a brand that stands out and a POV that gets listener attention. Make sure you record 3-10 episodes before you launch to create that stick factor of a binge-worthy show.
Second – good content needs good quality sound. There’s nothing worse than a poorly produced show. Get a pro to help you with editing and show notes. Invest in the right microphone, recording software and soundproofing so you’re not recording your podcast in your closet (I love my KAOTICA Eye Ball).
Third – I would do a combination of audio and video and repurpose the video to a YouTube channel. The SEO on YouTube is amazing and it’s a way to double down on your content and grow listenership by making your show available to people who prefer YouTube as a channel.
Lastly – your show won’t grow by magic. Invest in good marketing. I have a social media manager that handles marketing the podcast with graphics and clips on all of my social channels. It helps listeners discover your show and share with others – key to organic growth. If you have the funds – social media advertising is also a great way to go.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters?
Just do it. Podcasting is a great way for anyone to establish their voice as an expert. Make sure you have that unique POV. Don’t imitate someone else; although do learn by observing what works. Just do you. Create compelling content that is produced well and be CONSISTENT. When your show isn’t airing at the same time each week, your audience will suspect you are not truly committed and will lose interest. It’s a great discipline to be a producer and forces you to create value beyond the norm. And join a club – there are many clubs on Clubhouse and Facebook to hang out with other podcasters and keep up on what’s working now.
How can readers get in touch with you?
I love to connect with women who feel like they may be ready to launch their own business, but don’t know exactly how to start. If any of this resonates with you, please reach out to me on any of my channels like my facebook page for my podcast, Instagram or LinkedIn.
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