22: 5 powerful business lessons I learned from launching a podcast in 2022

 

Welcome to the 22nd episode of ill communication! I launched this podcast on August 23rd, and it’s one of the most exciting and scary things I did in 2022. Honestly, it’s been a pretty fun ride!

Because it’s the end of the year, I want to take some time to reflect on what it’s been like to launch a podcast, what’s working, and what’s not working. So in this episode of ill communication, I’m sharing some of the biggest lessons and takeaways I learned that I think are important for any entrepreneur or business owner.

In fact, a lot of these lessons apply to life as well, not just business. So along with each lesson, I’m sharing tips for how you can apply these lessons to your life and business as well.

I’m also going to share a little bit about what you can expect from the podcast in 2023 and I have a special announcement about how you can work with me for free.


Topics We Cover in This Episode:

  • Trusting your intuition

  • Showing up in an act of service

  • The beauty of getting support

  • Saying F-you to perfection

  • Repurposing content


So those are my five biggest business lessons and takeaways from starting a podcast in 2022! As I’m looking ahead to 2023, you can expect the same kind of content. You’ll get writing prompts, copy formulas, and some tips to improve your copywriting.

Overall, this podcast has been a fun form of creative expression for me, but it’s uni-directional! I share things with you, but I don’t have any way to hear back from you. So I created this feedback survey.

I would love it if you would take a few minutes to fill it out and share your opinions and suggestions for this podcast. You can submit it anonymously, or leave your name and be entered to win a free website or sales copy audit from me. You’ll also get my Joy of Copy recipe cards!

  • Welcome to Ill Communication. Copywriting Tips and Sales Strategies for Small Business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and changemakers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soul mate clients. Let's get started. Hello, my friend. This is the 22nd episode of Ill Communication Podcast. Can you believe it? I launched this podcast on August 23rd and it was one of the most exciting and scary things I did in 2022. And honestly, it's been a pretty fun ride. But because it's the end of the year, I wanted to reflect on what it's been like to launch a podcast, what's working, what's not working. So today in this episode, I'm sharing some of the biggest lessons and takeaways I learned that I think are important lessons for any entrepreneur or business owner. And actually, now that I think of it, I think a lot of these lessons apply to life, not just to business. I'm also going to share a little bit about what you can expect to hear on the podcast in 2023 and make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a special announcement about how you can work with me for free.

    So listen to the whole episode and check the show notes for how to get your hands on that. So business lesson number one, which I think is the most important lesson in life, is trusting my intuition. You see, I've had the nudge or intuition or calling to create a podcast for a long time, like a couple of years. It was nudging at me. I just couldn't shake the idea of creating a short form podcast that delivers just one tip or one strategy per episode, something bite sized, something that would be easy for a business owner to consume and take immediate action with. And after ignoring this intuitive nudge for years, I finally took the first step this spring by sharing my idea for the podcast with a mastermind coaching group I was a part of. These women gave me all kinds of words of encouragement. They told me it was a great idea and that gave me the confidence to take one step forward. Plus, one of the women in that group referred me to her podcast manager, which is exactly how this podcast got launched. And it's being produced every week. So I'd say it was the right step to take. And I have to say launching and creating the podcast has been one of the most easy and joyful things I've created in my business. My intuition served me so well, and even though I'm still a very new baby podcaster, the weekly downloads and lessons put the Ill Communication podcast in the top 50% of all podcasts, and a few times since launching in August, I actually charted among the top rated podcasts.

    At one point I was rated eighth for marketing podcasts in Canada. Like, I don't even understand that. It was such a thrill to see that happen. And of course, that's all thanks to you for listening, downloading and sharing. But what about you? Is there something your intuition is telling you to do in your business or in your life? Something that's calling to you and you just can't shake? I want to encourage you to tune into your intuition. What's one step you can take toward it? The rest of the path will open up, I promise. Lesson number two for my business was the importance of showing up in an act of service. Because here's the thing. There's a lot of investment in launching a podcast. Either you're investing oodles of time to do it all yourself, or you're investing a good chunk of change to get support to help you to do it. And unless you're a famous actor, comedian or celebrity, the return on investment is slow. Podcasting is a long game, and I'm okay with that. My primary goal with the podcast is to be of service and deliver value, to deliver high quality copy tips and maybe a little edutainment to my listeners. I'm trusting that over time some of those listeners will choose to work with me privately or join the Joy of Copy club or refer me to someone else who needs help with writing sales copy.

    But to be completely transparent, it is a decent financial investment for me to create this podcast. And while I have faith and trust, I will see a return on my investment. It ain't happening yet, but because I'm committed to being of service, first and foremost, I'm willing to make that investment, at least for now. We'll see how I feel about it and how my financial coach and accountant feel about it a year from now. But what about you? Is there something in your business that feels like a huge investment with little ROI? Perhaps if you look at it through the lens of service and impact, you'll find the motivation and momentum and inspiration to carry on. Lesson three is a lesson I think all entrepreneurs, but especially working moms, need to learn. And that is the. Beauty of getting support. Now, look, the only reason why ill communication exists is because I've hired an amazing team to help me. I would have never launched a podcast on my own if it wasn't for Stephanie Judis and her kickass team. Yes, people can totally launch a podcast on their own, but because I'm running my own business and I still have young kids in the house, I'm busy and I don't have the bandwidth to add too much more to my plate. I knew I needed someone to guide me and give me all the steps and then do all the things to produce and post each episode.

    All I do is record the episodes and then promote them when they're published. Stephanie's team handles all the mixing, editing, uploading. They create the show notes and the awesome social media graphics. And let me tell you, I love having that level of support. It's definitely investment, but there's a huge ROI for me to know that all of that will be handled and I don't have to learn how to edit and mix my audio or fart around with all the tech or do any of the social media bits and pieces. Outsourcing this piece of the podcast puzzle makes it possible for me to create and share this content and create an impact. And as I've previously mentioned, I have faith this investment will result in clients or sales or keynote speaking gigs in the not too distant future. So is there something in your business you could outsource to make things easier for you? What could you outsource to help you grow your impact or revenue? And look, you don't need to outsource everything all at once. Could you hire a friend to help you organize your emails or help you with your invoicing? Can you outsource your copyrighting website design or social media management? It's just really, really beautiful to get support in areas that are not your zone of genius, excellence or competency. And maybe it's not something in your business. Maybe you could outsource the laundry or grocery shopping or meal planning to give you a little bit more breathing room and feel fully supported.

    Lesson four is a big one. Learning how to say F-you to perfection. Well, this was a big and important lesson for me this year. Throughout my business, I've spent inordinate amounts of time perfecting my own content and copy. I want it to be perfect. I want to have the perfect idea and execute it perfectly. And I'm pretty sure you can relate to that, especially if you're a Virgo. But with a podcast and having to create lots of content on a schedule, I've had to throw perfection out the window. I've had to come up with ideas quickly and script and record them fast, which means things are far from perfect. There are lots of episodes where I listen back and cringe. There are several mistakes mispronunciations or that time I tried to sound like Mary Poppins. When I'm recording, I listen back and rerecord sections that are really off. But to preserve my time and sanity, I've had to say f it to a lot of minor imperfections and just go with it. And you know what? Nobody has pointed out the errors or mistakes. I know you hear the errors and mistakes and flubs just the same as I do. But at the end of the day, those tiny mistakes don't matter. What matters is the message. What matters is showing up and regularly creating quality content for you. At least I hope you think it's quality. But what this has taught me and what I hope the takeaway for you is that we can do things fast.

    And getting out our imperfect message is far more important than wasting time, overthinking, revising, and not sharing our message because it's not 100% perfect. I bet you're sitting on a lot of content or copy that could be shared if you just said F-you to the perfectionist and got your beautiful message out there. And a lot of how I've been able to execute fairly quickly is related to the fifth lesson I learned this year. The beauty of repurposing content now, because I run a solo show that's not interview based, there's a bit of prep and scripting involved. It's partially why I choose to keep these episodes short for your benefit, but also for mine. And regardless, one of the biggest hacks I've used for coming up with podcast episodes is mining my old content. I've gone back into my email newsletter vault to find emails that people really loved and I turned those into podcast episodes. If I've taught something inside the joy of copy club, like a copy formula or a writing prompt that seemed to resonate with the club members, I turned that into an episode. And you know what? Nobody's reached out to me to say, Hey, you sent that in an email last year. But maybe it's because my listeners are kind, gracious humans. But honestly, I think it's because for the most part, people don't actually remember. And not everyone who's on my email list listens to the podcast and vice versa.

    So I know if you're a business owner, you've heard about the importance of repurposing content. And often when people talk about repurposing content, it starts with creating a new piece of content and then resharing it on multiple platforms. What I'm suggesting is you take a piece of content you created in the past and then repurpose and reshare it in new ways. I found that looking at what my audience enjoyed in the past or what I enjoyed creating is worth re sharing in a new format or on a new medium. So how can you make this work for you? Take a look at your top performing social posts. Can you turn that into an email, a blog article, or a podcast episode? Is there a checklist or a resource inside your digital course? You can repurpose into a teaching carousel to post and share on Instagram or LinkedIn. Can you turn three of your most popular YouTube videos into a mini course that you could sell at a low price or use as a free lead magnet to attract new email subscribers? You just don't need to create new content all the time. I guarantee you already have a lot of content in your archive that you could just dust off, refresh and reshare. So my friend, those are my five biggest business lessons and takeaways from launching a podcast in 2022. As I'm looking ahead to 2023, I think you can expect just a little bit more of the same kind of content.

    I'll be sharing some writing prompts, some more copy formulas and more tips to improve your copywriting. I might even experiment with interviewing an expert or a guest, but I'm honestly not sure about that yet. Overall, launching the podcast has been a fun form of creative expression for me, but I have to be honest, there is a downside. The problem with podcasting is it's uni directional. I'm sharing content and information with you, but I don't always receive information or engagement back and I don't really know what you like. What's working. What you'd love to hear more of or what you'd like to hear less of. So I'm giving you a chance to share some feedback with me. And I really, really hope you'll take a moment to share. Linked in the show notes is a link to a very short feedback survey. I would love, love, love if you would take a few minutes to fill it out and share your honest thoughts about the Ill Communication podcast, the content I share and offer any suggestions for me to go forward. You can totally fill this out anonymously, or if you include your email and name, you'll be entered into a draw to win a free website or sales copy audit. This is where I'll review and make recommendations for how to improve your sales and conversions on your website or in your sales funnel. And you'll also get the joy of copy recipe cards, which is a premium collection of writing prompts and copy recipes to help you create at least six months worth of copy and content.

    The recipe card deck is only available to my private clients and the prize has a total value of $100 and it's really an awesome prize if I say so myself. So please share your feedback and ideas and get entered into the draw. Click the link in the show notes, fill out the survey, and you'll be entered to win this fabulous prize. Well, my friend, as we wind down the air, I want to take a very special moment to thank you for all the times you've tuned in or even shared the podcast. I appreciate every rating and review. My goal is to demystify copywriting and take the overwhelm out of writing sales copy and to bring a little delight and joy along the way. So thank you so much for tuning in. I'll catch you next time. And that's a wrap on today's episode of Ill Communication. Hey, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, I would love if you would leave a rating and a review to let me know. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss out on the tips, prompts and strategies I share in every episode. They're designed to make you an ill communicator, too. As always, you can check out all the links and resources from this episode on the web page. Just head over to Kim Dotcom slash podcast. I'll chat with you again next week.


Resources Mentioned

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