Social Audio With Julie Lokun, JD

Sometimes, what keeps us from sharing our message is the thought of having to show ourselves on camera. What a waste of wisdom that would be. But what if you can connect through your voice without the pressure to be seen? Our guest for this episode shows a platform perfect for you! Juliet Clark sits down with Julie Lokun, JD, the Founder of The Mediacasters, a mission-based company that elevates the visibility of entrepreneurs and creatives through podcasting, publishing, and public speaking. Here, they zone in on Social Audio, walking us through various platforms from Clubhouse to Twitter Space and more. She also talks about the features on Clubdeck, helping you enhance your social audio content. If you’re looking for more opportunities to grow your business and brand, you better tune in to this great conversation.

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Social Audio With Julie Lokun, JD

Our guest is Julie Lokun. This is going to be great. She’s going to talk a lot about social audio, which includes platforms like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Fireside, and Breakout. She mentioned a few others. If this is something you’re interested in hearing more about or seeing, I would recommend that you go over and view our YouTube channel at Superbrand Publishing because she walks us through a few of the features over on Clubdeck, which is part of Clubhouse. Before we get started and before I tap you into this training, don’t forget to go over to www.BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com and grab your free subscription. Take it away, Julie.

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Welcome. I’m super excited. I’ll talk a little bit about social audio. I know nothing about this topic. Julie is a magazine contributor. She is much techier than I am. She’s out there on the cutting edge on different platforms that I’m not yet a part of. I’m super excited to hear about this. Hopefully, I’ll have some intelligent questions. Kris is on too. If you have far more intelligent questions than mine, then I will get them asked for Julie and get her opinion on them since she has been doing this for a while. That’s exciting.

I’m excited to hear about this too. Julie, thank you so much for coming on.

I’m so excited to be here. I’m so excited to be a part of Juliet’s brainchild. I love writing for Breakthrough Magazine. It was amazing meeting Kristy. I impart any information that I have that could help you as an author or a coach elevate your brand and messaging and test out social audio because it’s super fun.

Let me introduce you. Julie Lokun, JD, is a very smart girl. She went to law school. She is the Founder of The Mediacasters, a mission-based company that elevates the visibility of entrepreneurs and creatives through podcasting, publishing, and public speaking. Julie is the author of four bestselling entrepreneurial books and hosts three podcasts. She also writes in her spare time. You have four boys too.

I have four boys and a new puppy right here.

In her spare time, she also writes for Entrepreneur Magazine and is a contributor at Mindvalley. Let us see the dog. I love bulldogs. Is that a bulldog?

I have two little puppies. This is Axl. He’s a good boy.

He’s adorable.

He has a sister named Violet Rose. I always knew if I got a little boy puppy, I would name him Axl Rose.

There you go. You’re a fan.

He loves it. He’s good. I’m training him to sit while mom is busy having amazing conversations.

Are you an Axl Rose fan?

I loved Guns N’ Roses back in the day. Axl Rose had such an amazing voice. I don’t know now. He has gone downhill a little bit, but he does if you think about those old rock ballads.

Your cute little bulldog is going around the house, tearing up the hotel room, bashing cars, and smoking a little weed.

He could use a little, probably. It’s legal here in Illinois.

Tell us about the social audio. You’re going to tell our people about something new.

I love it. I think to myself, “Why hasn’t Juliet or Kristy been on social audio?” Social audio is like social media, but it is just our voices speaking to people. You get to know people in such a different way. You can’t hide behind filtered pictures and curated or edited videos. It is your voice. Personally, it has changed the trajectory of my business, not only as an author but as someone that does works in public relations, someone that does love podcasting, and someone that loves to communicate and elevate the voices of others. It has changed my business.

Social Audio: Social audio is like social media, but it is just our voices. It is our voices speaking to people, where you get to know them in such a different way.

Are there specific platforms that you do social audio on? How does it all work?

There are apps. The biggest app is called Clubhouse. It was launched at the perfect time when the pandemic hit. People were lonely. People were feeling that they needed that connection. It is like LinkedIn on steroids in terms of networking. It has faltered a little bit in 2021. It has changed because people are wanting to interact and be in person again, but it has been an amazing networking tool.

There’s Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Fireside. The newest one that caters to content creators is called Breakout. It’s in its infancy, which I love. I love being on the bottom floor of different apps and ways to connect with people. You have the ability to meet anyone in the world. Who have I met on social audio? This is the crazy part. Why would they ever talk to me unless they were on social audio?

You can meet anyone in the world through social audio. Click To Tweet

Dr. Laura Berman was Oprah Winfrey’s right-hand woman for relationships, love, and sex. She then became a guest a few times at Clubhouse. I always admired her. I was sitting there with her. I couldn’t even believe that she would talk to me. She’s an amazing person. When you think one way about yourself, you’re like, “How are these famous people talking to me?”

I met the National Security Advisor to the President. Personally, I would call him one of my dearest friends now. He and his wife are amazing. I have had the most amazing time meeting people. I know his authors. You tell me, Juliet and Kristy, “Authors aren’t always articulate. That’s okay.” I was not articulate. I’m not saying I’m articulate now, but years ago, I was not articulate, at the very least. It gave me the ability to practice speaking in “public.”

Julie, I have to agree with you because we sit, craft, edit, and then write. You can’t do that when you’re speaking live. You have to go with the flow. Authors are shy and introverted. That’s good for them.

That’s why social audio seems like a great platform because, for most of them, the big deal is, “I don’t want to be on videos.” I have days when I don’t want to put makeup on, either. We see this with our I Love Content class. It’s not a matter of, “I don’t want to do that.” It’s a matter of, “I’m scared. I’ve never done it. I’m going to fall on my face.” I’ve told people before that there was a platform that Twitter had for a while. I can’t remember the name of it. It has failed since, but it was the first video. Do you remember what it was?

No, but I’m thinking about random videos. That seems like a lot of work to me.

It was one of the first lives. I remember going on. I was horrible. The next day, a group of realtors got on. One of them talked with their hands. They knocked the microphone off the table. You could hear them dropping F-bombs, “Give me that.” I was like, “I rock at this.” You have to get on and do it. You can’t compare yourself to other people.

There is that layer of vulnerability in making those mistakes. You’re not perfect as well. You have to present yourself in a certain way. You already can tell that I am not perfect at all. It connects you to other people when you show them that you’re a real human being. It creates those relationships. We know, as authors, that the most important thing to do is create a relationship with your audience even if you don’t know them because you need to connect with people to sell books.

As authors, the most important thing to do is create a relationship with your audience even if you don't know them because you need to connect with people to sell books. Click To Tweet

One of the things we have been telling our clients a lot, and you’re going to know where this fits in, is that we get people who bring us books. That book is a nurturing tool for those bigger programs, products, and services. Any campaign needs that awareness phase. That’s what that audience is building because if you come in the nurture phase, you have no one to nurture.

You have to be able to put yourself out there. This seems like a way to do it without having to get on camera. We all know how to talk. It sounds cool. I never did Clubhouse. I was jumping off a lot of social media back in 2020 because I got tired of it. What kinds of things are you looking for over there? Are there groups? How does it all work?

There are groups. You jump on and explore at first because it can be confusing and overwhelming. You jump on. There are stages and rooms. You can make your room. I’m going to challenge Kristy and Juliet to do a room in Clubhouse after this. We will keep them accountable if they want to. I’ll support you. I’ll be there and teach you the ropes. You get on, and you can either start a room or join a room. You get into a “room.” There’s a stage. People are moderating and talking. There’s an audience below. You can listen to people talk about whatever if you want to.

There are a lot of rooms about building businesses, writing books, and all these different topics. You can sit in the audience and listen or you can raise your hand. It’s a button. You can come up and join in the conversation. You get to know people. You have a profile like on social media. You can get to learn and meet people. It’s so important to take the conversations off the stage or the app because that’s where the magic happens, as you know, in social media. I feel the same way. Nothing drives me crazier than to feel like I have to get likes or follows or I have to post. It’s a vanity metric.

This is where social audio is different. You can have conversations and meet these people. You can help. You don’t want to go and take. You can mentor or give advice. Kristy and Juliet would be amazing at giving out their information. It doesn’t mean giving your business away for free. It means giving people a different vantage point. They will be interested. You’re creating that know, like, and trust. That’s what you need as business owners. It’s a different way. You don’t have to brush your hair. You can be in your pajamas and wear a silly hat.

I do want to address one thing you said because this came up on one of the one-on-ones with the I Love Content, “Why am I giving my stuff up for free?” You can’t look at it that way. You have to look at, “I’m providing value.” There are going to be a few people who pick those tidbits up that you share and go and be active.

Even though you are providing value to an audience, not everybody is going to pull the trigger and go into action on what you say. Not everybody is going to do it at the level that you are. They’re going to dabble in it and see if they like it. They probably are going to hire you to streamline the process. You should never feel when you’re giving away your value that people won’t buy because it’s completely the opposite of that.

It’s a slippery slope between giving it all away and people taking advantage of you and following up. There’s a slippery slope but you are positioning yourself as a thought leader. Isn’t that what you want to do?

If you have a book, you are a thought leader. You’ve taken all the time to write a book. That’s very true. How is Clubhouse different from Twitter Spaces? Clubhouse is the one most people know the best. How are Twitter Spaces, Fireside, and Breakout different from that?

I’ve tried to do Twitter Spaces. I don’t dabble too much in Twitter Spaces. There’s one called Wisdom as well, which is interestingly different. I can speak to that. Breakout is a new one. It has a lot of possibilities to monetize for content creators. I love that. I’ve never done Fireside. That was started by the Shark Tank guy.

He owns the Dallas basketball team. Mark Cuban started that one.

That’s great that you recalled that, Juliet. That’s amazing.

At my age, I don’t recall much anymore.

Juliet is freaking brilliant. Don’t let her modesty fool you.

I’m like, “How did she pull that out of the air?”

Especially since I’m not a basketball fan.

You knew his basketball team too.

If you were going to start on one as a beginner like us who has never done it before in our lives, which one would you start with?

I would start with Clubhouse because it is the biggest social audio app. Play around. Make a profile for yourself. Make sure it’s keyword rich. You can take a look at mine too. Juliet and Kristy, we’re going to do a room together. You’re like, “I don’t even know what a room is.” Don’t worry.

I’m so excited about this.

Tracy Hazzard has talked about this to me endlessly.

I love Tracy.

I love Tracy too.

I tried to get her on there too to do a room but she’s busy too.

She has a room because I know she and Tom started on it. She was mentioning it to me. It was during my, “I hate social media. I hate people,” phase during COVID. I’m like, “I’m not doing it.”

We all have one of those once in a while.

Clubhouse would be the one to go. What do I need to start if I’m opening up a profile? You mentioned keywords. Do I need a banner? Do I need a headshot? What do you need?

Being on social audio does help with your searchability too because it’s picked up on Google if you do rooms. This is going to get confusing. You can open up a club. Maybe you want to do a Superbrand Publishing club. You and Kristy can start your club and then bring people into your club. If you ever open a room, people get notified. It’s more brand recognition. A room is like a talk like what we’re having here. This could 100% be a Clubhouse room. We’re having a conversation.

People jump in and ask questions. You give out information and meet people. The question is, “Where do you start the profile?” Do you need a banner and a profile picture? It’s the first three lines. You want to make sure they know what you do. I am a Superbrand Publisher. I promote authors. I teach authors to take their books to Superbrandom. Give all stats. You can have fun with it but it’s the picture, your name, and then those three first lines of what you do. I’m going to try to see if I can find this.

Jules, can you put your brand logo in there?

You can put your link to your Twitter and Instagram but I would rather see a picture of your face than a logo.

It’s more personal. We always talk about the value of being able to transition people off of social media into your list. Are there opportunities for that or not? I tell our audience all the time, “You don’t own the social media. You need to come up with a way to transition from there to your list.” Can you do that with social audio? I would imagine during the talk, you can throw out a lead magnet and bring people in.

Typically, you can only do it from your phone but there is an app called Clubdeck, which you can bring it up on your computer. I can show it to you. That would be pretty interesting. You can put links at the top. Kristy and Juliet, what is the name of your room going to be? Tell me.

Publisher’s Corner.

That might be your club but maybe it’s How to Publish a Book.

You name the room for the talk.

The thing is that you can do whatever you want but there is a link at the top of a room. It’s like a funnel that can send them directly to wherever you want them to opt-in to a course or sign up for my webpage so you can get their email. We all know emails are queen. We need to take people off of social media and social audio and build that relationship in an email list or even a community. I use Mighty Networks for communities. If you don’t use it, I can talk to you about that next time I do this.

Social Audio: We need to take people off social media and in social audio and build that relationship in an email list.

We will have you in another month to talk about that. A couple of my clients would like that. I want to touch base on why you need to take people off social media and into your list. You don’t own social media. A lot of people got burned when Mark Zuckerberg was going through his, “I’m going to change the algorithms and what we do,” phase. They lost entire audiences. It used to be that back in 2013 and 2014, everybody went to your business page. He decided that communities were in. You lost visibility on your business page.

All of that can be avoided if you get those people on your list. A social media company goes out of business. The bigger ones do not so much but the smaller ones, we have seen come in and go out. MySpace is a great example of that. It was en vogue for a while. Now, I don’t even know. Is it still a thing? I could bring it up. That’s why it’s so important to get those people from social media into your list because nobody can take your list.

Getting those people from social media into your list is important because nobody can take your list. Click To Tweet

This is called Clubdeck. Typically, I like the app on the phone better but for purposes of this, I’ve never done this before. You can see the inner working of Clubhouse. This is Clubdeck. It looks a little bit different on your phone. This is my profile. It does look different but my bio has my picture, “Obsessed with podcasting, publishing, and presenting. Writer.” It’s got all my stuff.

You have to use a lot of emojis. Why do you have to use a lot of emojis? They told me to do that when I first started. The location is the United States. You can pick different topics. You can add tons of stuff here. That’s the bio. You could connect your wallet. That’s not my jam to ask for money on Clubhouse. I’m doing a room. Do you know who Alexa Bigwarfe is? I should introduce you to her because you would be amazing.

I have no idea.

She does this wildly successful convention or conference every year called Write | Publish | Sell Your Book for women. We’re speaking at it. She does Clubhouse but she hasn’t been on it a lot. I am the main moderator. I have Julie Rock, Alexa Bigwarfe, Marccella, Nicki, and a professor. These are the moderators that I’ve set up. Do you have questions? I feel like this could be confusing.

What is a moderator? When you said you set up moderators, what do the moderators do here?

It’s the person that’s in charge of the room that can un-mic people. You’re in charge of the room and the content. You can ask people. You want to answer questions, connect with people, engage, and bring people up from the audience. This is going to look a little different. I thought maybe we could take a look to see what’s going on here. There are some crazy rooms too like Kanye West Has Gone Crazy, The Power of One – How Niche Can Make You Rich, and Ten Things Rich People Don’t Do. Content Creation Power Hour is a good one because I know Steph. She’s a moderator. We will go in here because I like the people in this room.

“It needs to be so polished and perfect because we’re wondering, ‘How did somebody else do that?’ Elizabeth walked you through. This may not be the day that you want to see the Christmas tree grow out of your home office but maybe it’s next week. That’s why we save the ideas. We save the filters.”

I can raise my hand. I don’t want to go on stage because I might leave. She’s talking. That’s a brief look at one of the rooms. She’s talking about Instagram. She’s a content expert. You can do whatever you want to do. The Secret to Getting Clients on Clubhouse is interesting too. It’s an amazing way to meet people. You have to take it always one step further. You can meet people. There’s Sobriety and Unleash Your Best in This Hot 2023 Challenge. Speaking, Reading, and Storytelling might be an interesting room.

You can set the topic for the room. You are pretty much the leader of the room. This is why it would be helpful if I went to help you and guide you through it because I can. It’s a little confusing and intimidating but it’s fun. You get Tech Life Weekly. These are all the different fun things you could do. What are you ladies thinking? These are events because I’ve never presented Clubhouse like this.

I’m thinking. This is the stuff that’s educational too. When you’re not on the phone with clients, you could tap into this and listen to some of these as well. You listen and learn.

I have a question. This is Clubdeck on your computer. Does it translate over to your phone?

I downloaded the app. I like it better on the phone because, for me, the visuals make more sense.

Is it called Clubhouse or Clubdeck on your phone?

It’s called Clubhouse.

Thank you. I got confused.

If you do join, follow me @TheCoachJules. I wish that weren’t my name but I made it so long ago. You can block people if you don’t like them. Let’s say we wanted to make a room. We could start a room. You would want to be on your phone.

I can see Write | Publish | Sell Your Book. That’s what I was going to ask. How far is it in advance, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or 1 hour?

If I wanted to do one, I would have done it five minutes before because sometimes, I get inspired. I don’t like to be so scheduled, “In two hours, I have to do this.” Sometimes I get inspired. I could create Superbrand. You can do a little description. What would you do in the description?

Building your author platform is an essential first step while you’re writing your book. Learn more or connect with the steep learning curve on it. One of the things we find with authors is they don’t understand what a steep learning curve building a platform is.

She has better words. She has law school words. I don’t.

To be honest, I wouldn’t know what this means. I would be like, “Sell more books.” I have a club. You could start your club. My most successful one is called Impact Podcasts. For some reason, I do get a lot of people that like it. Replays are the best part. You are going to love this. People can come back and listen to it. Your brand goes on exponentially but you can download the MP3 audio and turn it into a podcast too.

I like that a lot.

We’ve got an event but the thing is, I’m not sure if you’re on there yet. I would add you as moderators.

We’re not on there. We got the gist of it. I do have a question though. You have a club. Is it a paid club? Is it a free club? How does all that work?

It is all free. It is a club that people join. The thing is that when you have a room, it attracts people. It’s for the algorithms.

This is an example. If I were looking for publishing, I would put in, “Publishing.” Your group would come up, and I could choose to be a part of your club.

We have 2,800 members. What does that mean? I don’t know but people get notified if I open a room. It’s about the algorithms. If you want to go in and learn, you can see authors. I’m also thinking about you. You want to attract authors. You might want to learn from other publishers. It’s being very strategic in your time on here. You could join the Bestselling Authors club. I’m already a member. There are the Authors Pubhouse, Black Authors, and Children’s Book Authors.

There are a lot of different groups here. There are a lot of authors. I have to tell you one thing that I’ve noticed. This is something we can talk about if you want to. There are so many publishers that are shysters out there. I have seen them on Clubhouse. Do you know what I do? I shut them down. You have to be very cautious. It’s great and refreshing to have people that have that integrity and are teaching people the right way to publish their books.

Social Audio: It’s great and refreshing to have people who have that integrity and are teaching people the right way to publish their books.

That’s interesting. You and I had that discussion the very first time we ever talked after Tracy introduced us. All of the stuff that’s going on out there is not good. That’s exciting too because I wrote down that Black Authors. We have a book coming out by James Weeks in Black History Month. It’s a spiritual poetry book. We went to Amazon and asked for a new category because the Black community is very underserved with the categories over there.

Some of the TV shows and some of the stuff on Netflix are niched down. If you want specifics, I’m super excited about that. I made a note to tell him about it. This is amazing, Julie. I want to invite you guys too. Julie and her partner Corinna were on Episode 215. We got off-topic. They gave a great tutorial on Pinterest. These girls are always looking at new stuff. They’re playing around and finding this stuff.

Don’t forget to play. It’s fun to play.

I know it’s fun to play. I find it frustrating though, because I’m not very good at tech. Usually, when I go play, I end up burning something down. Go over and check out Episode 215 on the show because they get into the testing they did with Pinterest ads and the value of it sticking around, which is cool. Julie, thank you so much. Where can people find you? If they want to get signed up, do you do any coaching around setting up these accounts?

I do anything. Check out our community. It’s called The Medicasters. I don’t do everything.

She does everything, her and her snoring dog.

I take care of a lot of dogs and children. Google my name, Julie Lokun, or check out The Mediacasters. It’s Mighty Networks. It’s a community. I invite you into the community, TheMediacasters.mn.co. We talk about all this stuff in there. Part of my job is to always be checking out new ways, not just chasing shiny objects but real ways, to elevate your brand as an author, human being, business owner, entrepreneur, creative, and podcaster.

Thank you. This was awesome. Let’s chat. I want to get you back from Mighty Networks because I know some of my clients use it. I’ve never been on it.

You need a Mighty Network. I’m so grateful to you both. I’m so excited about everything you’re doing and all the authors you are helping. It warms my heart. Thank you for chatting with me.

Thank you for being a contributor to the magazine. If you haven’t gone over and gotten your subscription to Breakthrough Author Magazine, it’s at BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com. Julie is a contributor. Kris is a contributor. We’re bringing on new contributors. In January 2022, Jacquie Jordan, who is media booker extraordinaire, came on. There’s Nina Froriep, a video expert, with Robin Stift, her partner. Tracy Hazzard is coming on in February 2023 to write regular articles.

You are always asking about Sara because she’s usually on these. Sara is back. She’s bringing herself back in. Julie, you probably don’t know but Sara, who we work with very closely, lost her husband this summer. It has been a little bit of a road getting back into things and taking care of the rest of her family. Thank you so much for being on. I hope you go over and look Julie up. We’re going to see if we can book her for March 2023. We already have January and February set up. We will get her back on and talk to you about Mighty Networks too.

Thank you. I appreciate you all.

Thanks, Julie.

Thank you. We appreciate you doing this too.

About Julie Lokun, JD

Julie Lokun, JD, is the founder of The Mediacasters, a mission-based company that elevates the visibility of entrepreneurs and creatives through podcasting, publishing, and public speaking. Julie is the author of 4 best-selling entrepreneurial books and hosts three podcasts. Julie writes for Entrepreneur Magazine and is a contributor to MindValley.com