3 Business Lessons I’ve Learned From 200 Episodes That You Can Apply Right Now

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED [00:00:00] Hey, Hey, well, it is episode 200 of coffee and converse, and honestly, it's, it's blowing my mind a little bit and it's maybe take a moment and. Really reflect on what I've learned in the last two and a half years. And where I want to take the podcast in maybe the next two and a half years. But what I noticed is that some of the lessons that having a podcast has taught me are actually kind of bigger business lessons. And I wanted to dive into some of them. With you today because you've been with me on this journey. So you get to share in the lessons and the experience that it's brought me. So listen to them. One is that you will never feel ready, but it will probably be easier than you think. I don't know that you will ever feel. As naked as you do, when you put your first podcast episode live. It's hard to describe the experience. If you haven't been there. And. Honestly, it's even a little different from video because there's nothing between you and your listener. It's only your voice. Everything has to be conveyed in your tone and your words. There are very few. Gimmicks, you can't bring in like special graphics to make things better. ? So there's this intense nakedness. But ultimately the only way. Through that fear through that. Unreadiness. Is to actually do it to actually hit the button. And. It doesn't miraculously get easier. Pushing go live on episode two. It's not easier. Publishing a sales page. Doesn't miraculously get easier. Telling someone about a new offer stating your price. For me, even before I do a guest interview, I have moments where I have to psych myself into it and I've got. I don't know, coming up on a hundred guest interviews under my belt. And this is not about a [00:02:00] fake it till you make it. This is about understanding that as much as you want everything to be perfect. As much as you want certainty and comfort. That convenance is only going to come. By you having done the thing. So for me, the thing was finally putting my podcast out into the world. For you, that thing at the moment might be something else. It might be a new offer. It might be raising your prices. It might be publishing a sales page. It might be reaching out to someone you want to collaborate with, who you've admired from afar. It might be going to that networking thing. So lesson one from podcasting. You will never feel ready, but it will probably be easier than you think it is. Lesson number two is to focus on persistence. Instead of consistency. So we hear a lot in the entrepreneur land about you just need to be consistent, pick a social media publishing schedule and stick to it. Pick a podcasting schedule and stick to it. Publish on YouTube on a regular schedule, a consistent, consistent, consistent. To me. Consistency is an outcome. It's something that you've done. And it doesn't speak to. The thing that you actually need in order to be consistent. And lesson number two from podcasting is. That if you focus on persistence. Consistency will come. So persistence is doing something continuing. With what you're doing, even in the face of challenge or struggle or difficulty. And look, some of that persistence is going to come from you building resiliency. Some of it's going to come from mindset, but I want to give you. A practical example of this from the podcast. So for me, I know. That external deadlines work really well for me, I am very good at delivering on someone else's deadline. Right. I've had a lot of corporate [00:04:00] training where that was required. I have done, I have worked in a lot of regulated industries where deadlines are no joke. Yes, there's mindset around. Why am I not meeting my own deadline, et cetera. But I also know that the quickest way to get me to do something is to have an external deadline. And so for me having a pod cost. Gave me that where having a blog didn't. So I've spoken about this numerous times on the podcast, but I chose to start a podcast because I simply could not blog. I can write not a problem, but I couldn't push, publish. I got super in my head. Super perfectionist about it. And. Turning on a microphone and just talking. Was a million times easier than pushing, publish. And when things get difficult, I am very aware. Of iTunes, Spotify. My audience. Waiting. For that next podcast to appear on a Thursday morning at 8:00 AM UK time. Say very clear deadline for me. And it's one that I will not miss. And so I know that even when. I don't feel great. When I have a guest interview lined up and I am. Exhausted. When I don't feel like I have anything to stay and I'm putting out a solo episode. That I will still show up. Regardless. I will show up and I will produce that podcast episode. Despite everything. Now you might not need an external deadline and that might not be your thing. Whatever your thing is, I want to encourage you to stop thinking about. The consistency you're trying to produce. And think about what is going to help you. To persist when it is hot. is it reward-based, is it, showing up weekly and having a money date with your biz bestie, where you both do your accounting for the week together? I would pay attention [00:06:00] to things that you all consistent with and asked what it is that allows you to persist. At those things in the face of challenge. And then look at how you can implement those strategies. Consistency will be the byproduct of you persisting. Lesson number three is that it's okay to change. Uh, people are probably not paying nearly as much attention to you. As you feel that they are. So when I started the podcast, I wanted people to, who didn't know me, to have the ability to get to know me without needing to commit to say a 40 minute episode. So I produced two episodes a week on a Tuesday. I did a five to 10 minute micro episode. That was a solo episode of me talking about a particular point. And then on a Thursday, I did a guest interview, which tended to be longer and more in depth. I think I did that for nearly the whole first year. And it's exhausting, right? Two episodes a week is a lot too. To produce. And so I changed it to predominantly guest episodes for the next year or so. Where I started thinking, like I did maybe one solo, which was maybe a little bit more in depth in a month. And then like three chunky guest episodes. And then as I came into this year, I wanted to change the type of conversation that I was having. So definitely if you go back to the beginning of the podcast, things are a lot more tactical. Yes. We talk strategy, but there are a lot more tactical around how can you do this? How can you build this business that doesn't run your life? As we started to get to the end of last year and this year. My goal with my podcast episodes is to help you think differently about something. because I've grown over the last two and a half years. You will also have grown over the last two and a half years. And I want to make sure that we're supporting this new level of strategy that we're thinking about. So you're like great, Diane. That's fascinating that that was your journey, but his. The lesson that I want you to take from it. When I went from two episodes a week to one episode a week, [00:08:00] I was convinced. That people would be like, oh my goodness. She's giving up. She's not able to keep up with the pace. Et cetera, et cetera. Right. I had this entire story in my head about what other people were going to think about me doing this. In any game, when I started to change the type of conversation that I was having. I had this moment of like, what if people stop listening? What if this is not what they want? We all really convinced that. People notice the changes that we're making now. I don't mean. If I suddenly started talking about, I don't know, heavy metal. On the podcast you would notice, right? So that's a pretty big pivot. But I think in our businesses, we're really terrified to make small changes to our offers, to our expertise, to our positioning, to our messaging, because we're convinced. That the world will notice. And. Honestly, people are just not thinking about us that much. And I know that's really sad. When you spend all this time creating assets to make sure that you're top of mind to people. Yes, you can be top of mind, but they are not paying attention. To the detail. Until they are all at the point where they're ready to buy. I want that to be like a permission slip. If something feels off to you, something feels like you need to change it. And the only reason you're not changing it, because you're thinking about what other people are thinking about this change. I want this to be that permission slip for you to make that change. Chances are it'll land better for people and they won't even remember that. It wasn't a hundred percent. Identical to what you did last week. Okay. Finally, a little bonus lesson from podcasting, which is less business specific, but I really want to throw it in there. If you are pitching podcasts as part of your visibility strategy. In 2023, please listen to me. I get to see a lot of podcasts pitches. So like when you have less than 50 episodes, you don't get many pitchers. Once you hit like a hundred, [00:10:00] you start getting more by the time you're at 200. You're getting. Quite a few. So I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. My job as a podcast. So if I have you onto my show to interview you, my entire job is to make you look good. It's to make sure I'm prepared with great interview questions that allow you to showcase your expertise. It's my job to make sure that we have the recording software working. That we, that everything's edited the things get published, that the links to your freebies and your social media are they, did you have promotional things that you can share? Like audio grams? My job is to showcase you. But I have a second job, and this is the one that people forget about in the pitch. Yes. I want to make you look good. But my loyalty is to my listener. You have to convince me that you are valuable to them. I need to know that you care What you can do for my audience. At least as much, but preferably more. Than you care about what I can do for you. I having you on the show. And that is never clearer to me than in your pitch. If you are doing a copy paste, you haven't even checked at the funds match. You've like substituted my name for someone. Else's one. You haven't spelled my name correctly. You haven't named the podcast correctly. You're vaguely referring to like last week's episode that, oh, I just loved this episode without any context. Or if you're providing me with, here are the 20 topics I could speak on. And expecting me to. Build an episode for you. That's a very different experience. If you're on the other end of the scale, if you have actually listened to a few episodes, if you can talk to me about an episode and how it made you think differently about something in your business, and you can talk to me about, Hey, I can talk on these 20 things, but what I really think your audience would relate to is this. And here's why. That is a considered pitch. If you come at it from that angle, I can't wait to make you look good. I can't wait to hear what you have to say to them. So [00:12:00] this is a lesson that I thought kind of went unsaid. But in a wider business context, this applies to everything that you do. If you will or asking somebody for a collaboration. You're applying to be in their bundle or speak on their stage or in their summit, or be on their podcast whatever it is, you have to come at it from a place of what's in it for them. And it has to be genuine. I'm invested. 200 episodes in my show. I'm not going to risk all of that. On a guest who doesn't seem to care. And that goes for somebody who's lovingly built their summit or they bundle. Someone is giving you access to their audience, to their people, to their community. And you need to respect that. So, if you are pitching someone for anything. Please take a moment, reread your email and asked yourself if you've made it clear why it's a great deal for them. Now, I know we've been talking about this from a business lessons perspective, but I also know that there'll be some people listening who are thinking about actually starting their own podcast. And one of the top questions I get asked is Diane, what tool do you use for this? What software do you use for that? And. After 200 episodes. I finally put all of that into a PDF. Instead of giving out piecemeal advice. So I have created a PDF that lists all the tools that I use in creating, editing, promoting my podcast. And I'm going to put a link to it in the show notes. You don't have to opt in for it. You can just grab it, simply click the link in the show notes and it'll download from you from Dropbox. No, opt-in required. Thanks for being there as part of the 200 episodes we've done so far and hopefully you'll be around for another 200 more.