095: Reflecting on Business Changes, Alignment, and the Year Ahead
This is the last episode of the year, and I’m reflecting. Aren’t we all at this time of the year? I think it’s fair to say that 2022 had its share of challenges for everyone in the business world, our own podcast management business included, but it also offered an opportunity for us to slow down and get clear on our goals and plans for the future.
In today’s episode, I’m talking about changes I made this year in my business, how I’m finding alignment in the clients I work with and how I run my business, as well as some personal updates for the year ahead.
[04:02] How we took advantage of the quiet moments in our podcast management business in 2022
With all the uncertainty in 2022, this wasn’t quite an ideal year for our podcast management business. It wasn’t a bad year, but where we usually see a dip in business in the summer months, that drop continued into the fall for us too.
Instead of feeling defeated, my team and I used that time to rethink the ways we can provide value to our clients. We revamped our file management system into a client dashboard for our clients to make their files easier to access and organize and added tools to help them plan and manage their content even more efficiently. We also made it easier to share all the resources we have available to our clients through our new client dashboards, an Insider podcast, Close Friends training on Instagram, newsletters, and a newly refocused company podcast (this one you’re listening to right now!)
[05:09] Why getting clear on my messaging around our podcast management business allowed me to provide higher quality strategy to our podcast clients
This year has also allowed me the space to rethink the way I talk about this business and step into my confidence as a podcast strategy and management expert. I’ve been working with a mentor who really encouraged me to lean into my own expertise and to stop being fearful about sharing that knowledge on all my platforms. This has allowed me and this podcast management business to offer even more advice to our clients and create even more focused and well-rounded growth strategies.
[07:26] How getting aligned with our goals has helped us grow into a podcast business that partners with our clients instead of just checking off boxes for them
Throughout this year of change and reflection, we also rethought some of the services we offer. We wanted to really dig into how we can give our clients exactly what they need to grow. We don’t just want to be the podcast business that gives our clients assets. We want to give them plans, action steps, and a clear path for growth for their podcast. For us, that means a renewed emphasis on strategic planning and consulting, including additional strategy calls and more targeted assets for our clients to boost their podcast reach.
It’s been a good year, even if it was hard at times, and we’re so grateful for you! Thanks for tuning into Podcast Your Business and allowing me to share all the podcast knowledge I’m so passionate about. Can’t wait to see you in 2023, so stay tuned!
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
095: Reflecting on How We Run a Podcast Management Business and the Year Ahead
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull I think this year, even though it had its hard moments and I didn't necessarily do as well as I wanted to as a business owner, I feel like things are much more aligned and I feel like there is a path forward and that that feels really good instead of trying to chase down 30 to 50 podcasts a week. I just feel like we're really focusing on having more of an impact. And again, I'm working with people who are super aligned and who want our help in the way that we want to be there for them. We want to partner with them, right?
[00:00:36] Ready to start a podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week we share how to start a podcast and make sure it's working for you and your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager and consultant, and I've seen the power a podcast can have. Ready to share your voice. Let's get started.
[00:01:03] Okay. Me trying to record this podcast episode has been a comedy of errors, and since this episode is supposed to be a reflection of the year as we head into the holidays and the New Year, I just share. I homeschool my kiddos and for the most part take care of them all the time. And I do the bulk of my work during my daughter's naps, nap time hustle. And I also get up early in the morning and work. And today the baby monitor went offline so I couldn't see her. So I thought she had like dismantled her room, which, you know, she's a toddler that happens. Went upstairs. She's sound asleep. So I literally ran down here to try and get this podcast episode recorded so I don't get behind. And I was trying to set up my microphone and of course my computer wasn't identifying it. So anyways, here we are. And the really fun thing right now as well is as I am trying to pull up my notes, I had created an entire new system for my podcast and I put my notes in the wrong place. Anyways, you guys, I wanted to just share the like the real behind the scenes because it's not always glamorous and put together. And you know, this episode is going to be a little bit different than what I normally do because I really don't have too much of a plan. But I wanted to share kind of a review of the year, and I feel like this year was really fun, really difficult. And there are some things that I learned and some things that happened that I feel like would be good to share with you all as you're growing your business as well, because it's it's not always easy, right?
[00:02:48] And sometimes you have a hard year. And I feel like that was my year this year. This year was a little wonky. I feel like I think that it's just adjusting to a new way of of being. You know, we were basically in our house for two years with a baby and a pandemic and all the things. And now that we're coming out of it, it feels like we went from like 20 miles an hour to like 150 really quickly, just running around like crazy, trying to figure out this new stage for my my older kids who are involved in all kinds of activities. And that keeps us busy while also managing a toddler and having a business. I feel like it's been really hard this year to kind of find my rhythm and my groove. And what is this new normal going to look like? How are we going to do all the things? We had some pretty exciting things happen personally this year. And then, you know, it's also personally just been kind of a struggle this year with a lot of things with my family. And then on top of that, you kind of layer in a business here that was not my my favorite. So I'll share a little bit about that. I know I have talked to a lot of people and this year was kind of weird business wise. We saw some patterns that we've seen before, but then some things that we didn't see before. And really for us, what that was was a quiet summer, which is not unusual, but then also a quiet fall. And that is kind of unusual. And so I always take these quiet moments as it's a time to look at how we can align things more, look at what we can improve, you know, never sitting still. And so that's exactly what we did. We kind of looked at everything and said, okay. You know, how can we have a business that feels more aligned and feels right for us and right for the kind of lives that we want to lead? And so, you know, this did mean like going from a bigger team to back down to a smaller team, which is something that I didn't really envision. But as we started looking more and more at what we wanted Wild Home Podcasting to become, it made a lot more sense.
[00:05:09] I think a lot of this alignment has been coming from the fact that this year one of my really big goals was to work on marketing and messaging. I felt like I had these tools, you know, a podcast and social media and that they just were not fulfilling 100% the need that I wanted them to fulfill, which was to give me a platform to really build my authority and to share what I love talking about. And one of the things I realized this year is, you know, we've been talking a lot about launching a podcast and having a podcast. But what I really love talking about is digging deep into the why and the purpose of your podcast. And I really I learned a lot of this while working on my messaging for Instagram. So I started working with Melanie of MelanieLea.com, and she was actually on this podcast, so I'll link to her episode in the show notes. I started working with her at the beginning of the year. It started out with me just wanting to have a better sense of how to show up on Instagram. So I wasn't really utilizing Instagram stories and I knew that I should be or could be, and I wanted to. I just whenever I would do an Instagram story, it was like, Hi, here's my house. And I wanted some guidance. And so Melanie happened to have a course at that time, just about stories. And I took it and just really connected with her, connected with her thoughts on content and everything that she was putting out there. And so then I did another program with her, and then now I'm in a mastermind with her. What's really cool is that in all of our conversations about how to do Instagram better, what we end up talking more about is How can I share my message better, right?
[00:07:07] And I don't know, like if you've been paying attention, you notice like a shift in the podcast we rebranded and I kind of shifted the episodes a little bit, and that also came out of having conversations about messaging. And the neat thing about all of this that I just said, meet, love, that word not used enough. The neat thing about all of this is that by focusing on our messaging and really honing in on what we wanted to talk about the most and what I wanted to share and where my expertize lay, all of those things, it has created this really amazing sense of alignment, not only with our messaging, but with our clients and how I speak to my clients whenever I have client meetings now. Like there's just so much more confidence in myself that I was severely lacking to talk about all the things I know, to talk about and to come up with plans and to come up with strategy. I think that I kind of shied away from that for so long just because I felt like I wasn't good at it or that's not where my like, I wasn't a coach, that's not where my strengths lay, but where my strengths really are is that I'm super passionate about talking about these subjects. And so that led to being more aligned with our messaging, which is giving me the confidence to be super aligned in client calls, strategy calls, all of those things. And I think that has been the biggest lesson this year is just that I need to be confident in what I know and what I do. And just like now, I approach everything from making sure that I do have this sense of alignment and that has led to us really looking hard at the business itself and our packaged structures and are those in alignment. And because strategy has become such an important thing to us, because we don't want our podcast clients to just have a podcast, we want them to have a podcast that's going to help them grow and grow their business. My friend Angie was on the podcast and she came on to talk about PR, but she said the term growth strategy and I just that was such a light bulb for me because a podcast strategy is so much more than marketing and sharing. It really is a growth strategy. And that's what I. Love talking about is like, how is this going to help you grow your business? And we really realized that, like, we want all of our clients to have access to this level of partnership with us.
[00:09:50] And so that was a huge piece this year in restructuring all of our packages. Literally taking a look at everything we do, how we work with people and restructuring them. So that way they all get to have the strategy because it's so, so important. And so that's just been huge, is knowing that we can show up for our clients in that way, that our time with them is, is more meaningful. And I don't know, it just again, it feels so, so much more aligned. I love that word. I'll probably overuse it, but right now I think that's just where everything is. And so I think this year, even though it had its hard moments and I didn't necessarily do as well as I wanted to as a business owner, I feel like things are much more aligned and I feel like. There is a path forward and that that feels really good instead of trying to chase down 30 to 50 podcasts a week. I just feel like we're really focusing on having more of an impact. And again, I'm working with people who are super aligned and who want our help in the way that we want to. We want to be there for them. We want to partner with them, right?
[00:11:07] Hey, podcaster, if you feel like you're getting a lot out of this podcast, but you want even more. I have the perfect thing for you. The WHP Insider podcast is a private podcast for Members Only, which features two episodes per month, plus a monthly newsletter that takes a deeper dive into strategies and tips, specifically for podcasters who are using their podcast to help grow their business. This is something that up until now has only been available for clients of Wild Home Podcasting, but for a small monthly fee you can join and be part of the club, so just head a WildHomePodcasting.com/Insider for more information and I can't wait to see you there.
[00:11:53] So I'm really excited about that. Personally, it's been such a great year of growth as a CEO, as a coach, as someone who sits down on Zoom calls and helps people make decisions about how they're going to continue with their podcasts and. I just feel the sense of confidence and I. Yeah, like, I just. I know what I'm talking about and I've always known what I'm talking about, but like now I actually believe it. And so that's really exciting. I'm just excited to see where this kind of momentum takes us and what is next for us. Unfortunately, I don't think 2023 is going to be the easiest year either. So if you follow me on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, I had posted in my stories about my hip and I'll share a little bit of that here. So I was a ballet dancer and I was a ballet pedagogy major at the University of Oklahoma. And my junior year, I hurt my hip. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with it. And so I ended up going home, seeing another doctor. I think he was like the third or fourth doctor that I saw. And, you know, he wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with my hip based on my scans, but he truly felt that I needed to stop dancing in order to preserve what I had left of my hip. And so I did. And I from there kind of wound through a lot of different jobs, end up in podcasting, which I've talked about a lot.
[00:13:27] But I always like I always think that it's so fascinating that that how how much of an influence ballet has on podcasting. I was a choreographer. I loved choreographing. It was actually one of my favorite things. And I had like ambitions of being a ballet master and executive director of a ballet company and choreographing works. And when we edit podcasts like I always relate to choreographing and finding spaces for breath and making sure things aren't awkward. So it's kind of funny because even though I don't dance anymore, I don't really have any sort of relationship with the ballet world. And if you want to know why, I'd be happy to tell you in another form. But yeah, it's just interesting how I feel like it's kind of come full circle. Well, unfortunately, the hip injury has come full circle as well. So I ended up having surgery in 2009. I have what's called femoral acetabular impingement. So back then it was a very new thing, and I had to find the doctor who pioneered the surgery for it. But flash forward now, I'm having so much hip pain these days, it's not even funny. And luckily I found a doctor here that deals with FAI so I don't have to travel to see a doctor, but it is looking like I am headed toward surgery again. And so that's just been kind of a it's been kind of a thing dealing with the fact that my body is just not not going to hold up. But, you know, when you have limitations, it can be really frustrating. There is so much I want to do and be doing and when my leg hurts, I tend to get very frustrated and I know that there is a path forward and it may not be the easiest one and it may not be. It's going to be hard. When I had surgery before, I didn't have kids and now I have three kids and I think I have to be in non weight bearing for it. Last time it was six weeks. I don't know what it will be this time because last time I had a lot of cartilage damage to heal. So it's going to be interesting. So I'll definitely keep everyone posted as that kind of comes up.
[00:15:36] And then some of the other things and I'm just looking forward to again, like I said, continuing this journey of alignment of everything. But I've been having a lot of fun with close friends on Instagram, so seeing where that takes me. And the other cool thing is that the podcast is nearing 100 episodes, this iteration of it is nearing 100 episodes. And so I'm really excited to hit that milestone. And yeah, just you all know, it takes a lot to do a podcast every week. I am so blessed to have the team that I have supporting me and supporting my clients, and I certainly could not do it without them. And yeah, I'm just really excited to see where next year takes us because honestly, who knows? Who knows what is in store? But I do know that if we focus on what lights us up and feels right, feels good, feels like the thing that we're supposed to be doing, then we're on the right track. So my encouragement to everyone as we head into this new year is, you know, find those things that light you up, that feel aligned and really lean into them this next year because I have a really good feeling about this next year. I think it's going to be a good one. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We will be on break for a couple of weeks for the holiday and then I'll be back in the New Year with some pretty good episodes to get us geared up for having a podcast that makes an impact for our business. Talk Soon.
[00:17:10] Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram @wildhomepodcasting. If you are ready to launch, uplevel, or grow your podcast, head to WildHomePodcasting.com To get started today.
