Celebrating One Year of Podcasting!

Just because I'm talking about how a podcast for me has been really great. And something that I'm leaning into, it doesn't mean that I think everybody should have a podcast. So truly, it's really important to create a custom plan for yourself and your business that aligns with your goals that also aligns with your strength, and your interests. Because when it comes to visibility, consistency is absolutely everything. And if you're not going to do it, because you dislike it or something feels really painful to you, and you don't think you can build up both sort of stamina and momentum around it, then it's not going to be a success.

This is the Entrepreneur School Podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under three. I'm a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur School.

Hello, I am excited to welcome you to this very special episode of entrepreneur school. We are celebrating once a year of podcasting. And I can't even believe that that has already happened. Because this story of when I decided to create this podcast is goes a little like this. I had been working with this brand that I made called entrepreneur school for a while. And I just knew that it was something but it wasn't quite the right format yet. And so we used to do online workshops, and we invited people to come and we had amazing guests. And they did these big like 90 minute workshops. And I did that for the better part of a year. And I just didn't feel like that was the right fit. Like I think people were tired of zoom. And we were kind of, you know, losing a little bit of traction. And so I decided, okay, we need to make a shift here. And everything was telling me that this needs to become a podcast. And so finally, when I made the decision, and I pulled the trigger to make it a podcast, that was like December 2022. And within under 30 days, I had the first four episodes recorded, the podcast existed it was on and it was launched. And so it was a fast moving decision. Definitely not something I think that I would recommend or thing that most people could kind of pull off. But I had a really great team. So shout out to Amplifyou for the support with that.

But sort of the whole story. And I wanted to just kind of break this down a little bit for you today with respect to like, why I created this podcast and why I have leaned in to have entrepreneur school, the podcast be one of my Primary Visibility tools and a core part of my visibility strategy. Because you know that we are all about visibility here. That's certainly what I like to be teaching most of the time because it's such an important part of growing your business and building your brand and becoming the go to in your field. So for me why I chose to create a podcast by relation live, like the podcasts are a very big credibility builder. So right away becoming a podcast host increases your credibility and they just a really does sort of make that statement that you have decided that you are the expert at what you do and you want to share about it and it gives you that leader role to be put into the the seat behind the mic and credibility for your guests. Or sorry for your audience, but also for potential guests and people who you want to reach out to. Because now you have this amazing platform that you can share with other people, which gives you a bit of an easier ask when it comes to creating new relationships with people who maybe you want to connect with because audiences you want to support and serve and leverage into additional visibility for yourself. So that is one of the main reasons why I chose to do a podcast.

But I also believe that weekly long form content is a really important tool that you can use to help really get momentum and build your own confidence and clarity when it comes to your messaging, the way that you talk about what you do, the way that you show up just the ability to kind of come on here. And practice while you're at a talk about something like for me, it's always just trying new angles and finding new ways to talk about the same thing differently until I find what actually resonates the most with people. So weekly, long form content is something I have been doing for years and years, I actually used to do it as a live video on Facebook for a while. And I did that for two years, like I produced enough content over those two years, I could have had a podcast years ago, seriously. And I had this intention that eventually, you know, I'd be able to take all those videos or take all the audio then turn them into something else in the future. But you know, things have shifted as far as my own like messaging and the way that I speak that I don't really want to dig into the archives for that. But I know that that was really my training ground. As far as like coming up with the skill set, building my skill set and being able to write now. Ad Lib, basically these podcasts, you what I do is I create a really short outline with some bullet points. And then I'm able to sit down behind the mic and just like let it flow, which is amazing, except when I have to get up and running, let my dogs in and out. And they're annoying me and barking and all of that stuff. But whatever that is what it is. That's part of the process here. And so we just go with it. And but the other reason that I chose doing a podcast is because for me, I love speaking, I have been public speaking since I was nine years old in for age. And I realized that when I had the microphone, everyone had to listen to me. And I was like, oh, yeah, this is my jam. So I was a competitive public speaker all through my childhood. It's something that I've loved doing forever and is always been my vision to double down on being a speaker being on podcasts. And being kind of the known person, the experts come in, like guests train and do things like that. That's something that I'm definitely doing more of in 2024.

But the point of this is that when you're thinking about what to do for visibility, choose a format that works for your own preference and your style. Like if you get totally anxiety, by the idea of speaking, then that doesn't have to be your visibility strategy, like just because I'm talking about how a podcast for me has been really great. And something that I'm leaning into, it doesn't mean that I think everybody should have a podcast. So truly, it's really important to to create a custom plan for yourself and your business that aligns with your goals that also aligns with your strengths, and your interests. Because when it comes to visibility, consistency is absolutely everything. And if you're not going to do it, because you dislike it or something feels really painful to you, and you don't think you can build up both sort of stamina and momentum around it, then it's not going to be a success.

So it's kind of like choosing your low hanging fruit, what feels easy to you, creating a podcast actually feels easy to me. Because these don't take me more energy than I get out of actually doing and like I feel jazzed after I've finished recording a podcast episode. So that's the way that I look at it is when you're creating your plan, you have to do something that you're actually going to be able to follow through with, right, it's like you could go shopping around and see all of these different gurus talking about their thing. And I've had tons of those people even on my show to share like their one thing that they do. And you have to check off more boxes than just, oh, it works for them. So I should try it. It's like, are we aligned? Are we the same kind of person? Do I have the energy to do that kind of thing? Does that make me excited? These are sort of the softer questions that we really need to ask ourselves, before we choose how we actually want to move forward from a visibility standpoint. Because that's so important. You are going to create nothing good from a space of not wanting to do it. Let's be honest, like you're in charge here. This is your business. So you get to decide what you want to do that makes you excited. And that will serve your goals, right your goals of growing your brand, getting more visible, reaching new audiences and creating relationships, because there are tons of different methods to actually do that. And I talk about this inside my program, the visibility revolution. We have about 30 Different actual tactical things that you can do. And it's the mixture of them A little bit of this, a little bit of that, that helps you to build out your custom plan and to learn as you go about what's really effective, and what actually makes a difference and creates results for your specific business. And so that's my thoughts on podcasting as a visibility strategy.

And I just want to let you in before we go on a little bit of the What's New for 2024? Because it seems like been a year, it's a new year, it's a great time to be thinking about, here's our big plan for what, what's going to happen next, and I'm gonna be honest with you, I have no clue. Okay, I just know that I am going to keep showing up here. And I've already recorded and created the whole first quarters worth of content pretty much, which is amazing. So I'm excited about that. But what I'm really leaning into for 2024 for myself is to follow things, to follow things that are exciting to follow my intuition to follow opportunities that come and to let go a little bit more of my innate. No, yeah, absolute innate desire and need, let's be honest, to control things. So I like to plan I like to have a vision. And I like to say this is how it's going to happen. And then it's very frustrating when it doesn't happen that way. Because a lot of the time it's something happens, it shifts, it's something new comes along. And so I'm really going to lean into that more this year, and just allow it to go where it's gonna go, I want to now kind of position myself as a podcaster, and do some things where I'm talking about being a podcaster. And I'm talking about specifically podcasting as a visibility strategy that works. But that's kind of my vision. And I will see a lot of big changes around here. Because I was quite clear from the beginning on what this podcast looks like, who it's for and how we serve you we're going to continue to bring in content related to business strategy related to your life and managing sort of the the balance between being a parent and running a business as well as some really amazing aspirational and inspirational guests who have created amazing successful lives and businesses that we can all learn from and that we can set as a goal for ourselves. So I'm really excited about all of that, you may see some refreshed graphics appearing here. And there, I'm probably going to update our intro outro, just to change things up in terms of your listening experience. So if you've got the habit of automatically skipping the first 30 seconds to a minute, when you don't, maybe don't you'll hear something new is probably soon.

And the one thing that I would also love more of is engagement from my listeners, I absolutely love I got an email the other day that just said, I hope you know how much this has helped me, I've been able to take strategies and implement them. And I feel really confident about how my business is going to go forward into the next year. And I was just so grateful to hear that this is a bit of a one sided communication channel, I'm sitting here looking at myself, talking to nobody, and just imagining you listening, as you're doing your dishes or walking to your school pickup, or whatever it is that you're doing right now, I would love to hear more from you, especially on suggestions for the type of content that you would like to hear. Or if you have a guest recommendation of somebody that you've heard on another show or that you know, or whatever it is, please let me know, you can always reach us on Instagram. And I'll also even link below a little bit of a submission form that I'll just take you a couple of seconds to fill out. If you have somebody off the top of your head that you would like to recommend. Or, again, I just want to make sure that the content I'm creating here is actually what you're looking for. So if you have specific questions about business, about marketing and visibility, please let us know. And we are here to create those items for you to help you with our perspectives on all of these things. Because that's really what it's all about. It's just about getting different perspectives and views because there's no right or wrong way to do any of this. So I hope that you know that whatever it is that you're doing is what's right for you right now. And you're gonna continue to learn from it as you go. So

I really am so thankful for you being here for listening, whether this is your first episode, or your 56 Thanks for being here. We do this for you. And I just want to share that gratitude and excitement moving into the new year and I'd love to hear back from you on what your goals are. What you're excited about for 2024 as we are here kicking off a new year right now With a one year anniversary of entrepreneur school, I will talk to you soon.

You did it you just listen to another episode of the Entrepreneur School Podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prep dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode, and tagging us on Instagram, head to entrepreneurschool.ca for tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community. And until next time, go out there and do the thing.