1. When you're building something ambitious and big, bring the people you're building it for into the conversation.
Knowing the people you serve are bought into your next big thing is invaluable. Ideally, these conversations are systematized and woven into your process, but there's something especially invigorating about the extemporaneous moments of "Yes, and...it would be cool if you had X element included, too." These client-led validations and additions to a dream project are far better than any pharmaceutical drug I’ve tried!
2. Walking the walk and talking the talk is so beneficial (and not just for podcasts).
After wrapping my last breakthrough-rich Podcast Launch Accelerator cohort, I experienced some breakthroughs of my own–this time as a cohort MEMBER rather than cohort leader. Jay Clouse’s Build a Beloved Membership had the twin benefits of learning the best practices of a master of membership WHILE ALSO getting to witness Jay's powerful cohort-leadership tactics. TL;DR: eat your own dog food, do the things you advise people to do, and never stop learning. Your methodologies and modalities will be better for it; the people you serve will benefit from it.
3. Don’t sleep on the offers of experts to bring a fresh set of eyes to how you’re positioning your POV.
After years of dragging my feet on name-dropping the celebrities in my CV (and ignoring the exhortations of well-meaning friends like Kristina-with-a-K Flynn to do so), I finally cracked the code for the connection from my work with the royally famous to making my clients and cohorts the royalty of their niche. (Run, don’t walk to Realize Your Brand with Lisa Haggis!)
4. Everything is content–even a brainstorm ABOUT content.
An absolutely ❤️🔥 planning sesh for my upcoming BIGWIG workshop on how entrepreneurs can get more of out of their podcast conversations became…you guessed it: the centerpiece of a podcast episode, which is now a piece of this newsletter, and was also fuel for two social posts (& counting). Talking about the talking we do in podcasts: like the snake eating its tail, but less terrifyingly gross?
5. A professor of podcasting validated my human-based approach to KPI
After an extended geek-out session on things like SEO, AEO, and keyword stuffing tactics for discoverability, Anika Jackson told me on this week's Talking the Talk episode (see below) that her biggest “growth hack” isn't technical at all. It's to be very intentional about the humans involved–especially when it comes to guest-booking. And audience size matters less than enthusiasm for amplification. Fitting for someone whose whole biz is Your Brand Amplified.
