Tara Newman: Hey, hey, bold leaders. Welcome to another episode of the Bold Leadership Revolution Podcast. I’m your host Tara Newman and today I have with me co-hosts. I have Stacey Harris and Jo Gifford with me today. Hey, guys!
Stacey Harris: Hey!
Jo Gifford: Hello!
Tara Newman: Hey, ladies. That’s like, the one thing I’m working on right now is saying “hey ladies” when I have ladies in front of me and not “hey guys”. We are here today to celebrate our 100th podcast episode.
Stacey Harris: 100 is a lot. That’s a lot of episodes.
Tara Newman: It’s a lot of episodes. It’s a lot of episodes. But I joyfully record them and I’m really excited to be talking about this today. I just want to share before we even get started. I know Stacey has some questions, but before we even get started, I want to share why Stacey and Jo are with me today. First off, we’ll start with Jo who was with me when I started the podcast. She was even the co-host for a number of our earlier episodes. This was back in the summer of 2017, Jo and I were brainstorming and developing and project planning the podcast which launched in October of 2017. Jo spent quite a number of months and seasons because we were a seasonal podcast back then and having the podcasts edited and produced, and then Jo went on her merry way to do other things in life.
Jo Gifford: We could talk about the hot mess of 2018. That’s absolutely fine. We can go there.
Tara Newman: We might get the chance to talk about that but I think I’m actually going to have you come back and do a separate episode because Jo went off to take care of some of the things that she needed to take care of and came back with an amazing business. You shut your business down.
Jo Gifford: Oh, I shut it down. There’s a whole there and we’ll come back to that. Yeah.
Tara Newman: Yeah. I think at the time too, I think when we were starting the podcast, Stacey actually did my strategy, my marketing strategy for launching the podcast so that’s how everybody kind of was in it in the beginning. Now, everybody is back with me. Here we are a little more than two years later. Stacey is my director of marketing. She is also the producer of this fine podcast and Jo has recently come on board as my content researcher and writer because we are going to be taking this podcast to its next level, which we will talk about later. So, Stacey, I’m going to hand this over to you.
Stacey Harris: If we rewind the machine, you and I were working together kind of strategically as needed. We talked about that on my show. I hadn’t come on in the role I’m in yet. It was the very beginning of the role I’m in now, but why a podcast? Why launch the podcast? Because it is kind of not a small thing to do. What made you go, “I’m going to launch a podcast?”
Tara Newman: I had a lot of reasons actually. I remember having them in a big sticky note in front of my desk to keep me present to why I was actually doing this and not getting sucked into somebody else’s podcast lane. I had wanted to start a podcast since 2013. People have been asking me to start a podcast since 2013. I started my blog in 2012, but in 2013, and then I didn’t start it until 2017. This looks like four years of procrastination, but the reality was / is: I didn’t know what to talk about. I mean, I knew what to talk about, but I wasn’t sure… I had a lot of work to do on evolving my message, my voice, how I wanted to be sharing the knowledge that I have, my values for around this, and in that time frame of people saying, “You should start a podcast.” Me going, “Yeah. One day.” It was really me just not being ready and needing to evolve this. My why for starting this podcast evolved out of a problem.
I was kind of done with Facebook groups and being on social media all the time as a way to market my business or the way people say get clients.
By 2017, I was kind of done with Facebook groups and being on social media all the time as a way to market my business or the way people say get clients. I didn’t want to physically have to be there so much. At the same time, I was realizing that the people that I want to work with also don’t want to be on social media all that much. I know that there are plenty of people who create Facebook live content that can go for 10 minutes to 40 minutes and their audiences love this. My audience does not do well with a Facebook Live that’s more than three minutes. I’ve actually asked this question. We have tested it a number of times. We have tested the whole even do a Facebook Live, and then convert that into a podcast and it wasn’t an efficient use of my time. The why became get me off of social media because it was sucking my soul dry but also put me someplace where my people are and where they want to consume content while they’re walking the dog, while they’re working out.
I have, like, a tremendous amount of people who are into physical fitness and wellness and sports and are out there doing their thing. Maybe they’re in the car commuting, maybe they’re folding laundry, what-have-you. Audio content was the way that my people wanted to consume content. I loved that because that felt really intimate for me and I have a high value around connection and intimacy where I get to have my voice in people’s ears.
Those are the business reasons for starting a podcast. I had a lot of personal reasons for starting a podcast too, being I’m here to serve and what’s the best way that I can serve and how can I put out the most quality, free, unguided content to help leaders develop? I wanted to meet new and interesting people. I wanted to improve my communication skills and my writing skills as well as my speaking skills because if you’ve listened to the behind the scenes a podcast episode on my podcast, which was super meta, I talked about my process which is to write it out first so I have clear points and an organized manner of getting you the content and the information before we record it so that was going to improve my writing and my speaking skills. Those were all my reasons why. Is that enough?
Stacey Harris: Totally. I do highly recommend anyone who hasn’t listened to go and listen to the episode where you did talk about sort of your process because I think one of the things that really… Just for an action item for you guys. I think one of the things that keeps people from podcasting for so long, for staying in that one-day space is they feel they have to do it one particular person’s way. I really encourage you, if you’re in that place to go listen to that episode, go listen to do I have an episode about that? Maybe I’ll do an episode about that. Because you and I have very, they literally couldn’t be more opposite approaches to getting content out of our head and into a microphone. I write literally nothing. That’s not true. There’s three bullet points on my iPad so that I can….
Jo Gifford: Sorry Stacey, and besides, I’m just a rambling guy and Tara is like me.
Stacey Harris: I know and so I think that there’s not one right way and that can keep you kind of in that someday place or in that one day place so go check that out especially if you’re somebody who’s like, “But I’m a writer not a talker.” I have to just talk it out. The writing it is where it gets bad. There’s much bigger filter between the brain and the fingers than there is the brain and the mouth where I think it’s clear there’s no filter. I really encourage you guys to go listen to that episode.
What I want to sort of shift into now is you decided you were going to do it, you and Jo sat down to do it. What were the process lessons and maybe just lessons, leadership lessons from those first episodes? Because I think that there is an illusion that there is a perfect way to launch a show and there’s not. One of the big takeaways I want you all to have from today’s episode is that all of these lessons came from actually doing it, not thinking about it. What were some of those early days like for you guys? What did that process look like? What are those lessons? Do you remember?
One of the big takeaways I want you all to have from today’s episode is that all of these lessons came from actually doing it, not thinking about it.
Tara Newman: Do you know how much fear I had?
Jo Gifford: You know what? It’s funny, Tara, because when you get that the face, the memories sort of pop up things, it goes, “Oh, on this day…” I had so many of them obviously from when we were launching it and we were talking about, it’s like, “Oh…” You were posting things like, “Somebody send a joke and some chocolates today, she’s got me in Slack, in a box.” It wasn’t really, it felt for both of us, a time of just scale growth, scale grow and we were hanging on for dear life to this cliff face. You did, you had so much fear, which now we jump forward and we could absolutely laugh, you know? Stacey’s going to lead us into the what’s changed part and we’ll see the difference, but, yeah, you had fear. There’s a lot of tears as well, right? For both of us, I think. I remember.
Tara Newman: Yeah. When the podcast actually launched, I think I spent three days in bed crying. Leaving Jo these really long Voxer messages with snot and tears. I mean it was just so intense.
Stacey Harris: You two are not allowed to podcast without me anymore. We all need to say that right now.
Tara Newman: [laughing] My emotional reaction to doing something so I wound up having a lot of fear around speaking my truth and sharing my knowledge and is this going to be good enough and who cares and doesn’t everybody know this already and what if this happens and what if that happens? I spent a week and this is actually where there’s a podcast on building a bridge over your fear that I created, and I take you through my process. It was actually evolved during this time because I had to say to Jo, “Pause for a week. I’m going to go off and sit with my fear for an entire week, and then I’m going to come back and we’re going to address it and we’re going to move on.” I remember going through my list of things that I was afraid of with Jo and how they weren’t true or how we were going to handle them, and just being really vulnerable and honest with her around what I was feeling.
Stacey Harris: Will you share one of those fears with us? Because I think they’re probably pretty universal. Can you think of just one?
Tara Newman: I can.
Stacey Harris: Do you mind sharing it?
Tara Newman: Sure.
Stacey Harris: Go ahead.
Tara Newman: All of a sudden, everybody was going to be in my inbox and I was going to be overwhelmed.
Stacey Harris: That’s so common.
Tara Newman: Yes. Nobody’s in my inbox.
Stacey Harris: Everyone thinks that. Everyone that we helped launch shows is like, “People are going to be obsessively… They’re going to need me every second of the day.” I’m like, “I don’t think you understand how this works.”
Everyone thinks that. Everyone that we helped launch shows is like, “People are going to be obsessively… They’re going to need me every second of the day.”
Tara Newman: No.
Stacey Harris: First, get somebody to listen to the show.
Tara Newman: Yeah. Nobody was in my inbox. That was one of them. I was bullied as a kid, and so I know for a lot of women that I work with who have been bullied, that really comes to the surface of them being visible, and so, on one hand, I was bullied and visibility was really hard for me in the beginning, being seen and possibly being attacked and being kind of beaten back by other people’s words or actions. Then, I think I’ve shared this on a podcast a very long time ago about how I was very outspoken as a kid, and my mom did not appreciate that.
My mom was a peacekeeper. My mom was like, “Don’t make waves.” She was always yelling at me to filter. I mean, I hired a coach to help me get a single article published on The Huffington Post because I had been wanting to write an article for the Huffington Post for 18 months it took me, but it took me 6 months of coaching around being able to actually put my work out there and be visible and not hear my mom’s voice to filter. Some of these things have really come forward and have had to be worked out through the podcast.
One of the best reasons to podcast for people who are listening is for your own personal growth and development. Leaders need development assignments, and when you work in a corporate setting there is somebody there giving you a development assignment. When you’re running your own business, it’s very easy to play it safe and secure because there’s nobody there giving you a development assignment. You have to give yourself these development assignments that are appropriate. For me, at this time, this was the most appropriate development assignment that I could have. I also was very clear that I was just going to ship it, right? Because I could get really caught up in it having to be a certain way. I remember sitting at dinner every night and my husband would be like, “I listened to an episode of your podcast, you know it sounds like you’re in a tin can?”
Jo Gifford: Oh, I remember that.
Tara Newman: Yes. I’m like, “I know. I’m just shipping it right now. I’m just shipping it.”
Stacey Harris: Well, let’s talk logistics a little bit because part of the way you kind of got started, you’ve gotten into that shipment mentality is you started with a season. You didn’t say I’m going to do this show forever and ever. You said I’m going to do this many episodes, right?
Tara Newman: Test it.
Stacey Harris: Do you remember how long that first season was?
Tara Newman: 12 episodes and a bonus episode. We did 12 episodes and I really wanted to kind of take people through like what is bold leadership and how you would operationalize bold leadership that first season. I really wanted to define it and talk about some of the, what I believe are the core tenets of bold leadership. It wasn’t strategic in the sense that I had nothing to go on in terms of what my audience might want to hear, what they might be attracted to. I simply wanted to get my message out there. I knew that I loved being a content creator. I was just looking for a way for people to engage with me because that’s what I’m here for. I’m here for engagement. Even when I was a blogger, it didn’t matter how many people read my blog post, it was how many people commented on it or shared it or connected with it, and so really that’s what I wanted. I was losing that in terms of blogging and being on social media because I don’t think that’s where the people were that I wanted to be touching.
Stacey Harris: Jo take us back for that first season. Are there any sort of standout things you remember and sort of getting that shipped that first season?
Jo Gifford: I remember we sat and we did some brainstorming sessions. Me and Tara, we were like, “Okay. We’re going to get all the ideas out of Tara’s head. What do we want to say? I have my big sticky whiteboard sheet. We brain dump it all in there. We put it into this cohesive order. I do remember just the sheer energy that Tara was going through. The shift into purposefully shifting how she was talking to her audience and up-leveling this content was up-leveling her in so many ways because it was, as we all do when we have growth, that’s when you hit all these new ceilings, all these new demons, all these new things. We were getting this genius out of her head, at first, I’m just kind of planning it and to my memory, I remember when you started recording, Tara. That you started to find your flight. I don’t recall that being difficult for you, the actual getting to mic outfit.
The shift into purposefully shifting how she was talking to her audience and up-leveling this content was up-leveling her in so many ways because it was, as we all do when we have growth, that’s when you hit all these new ceilings, all these new demons, all these new things.
Tara Newman: Right. We didn’t actually hit an issue until season 2. Season 1 flowed pretty smoothly. I was very dead set on having eight episodes in the can before we even went live. From the summer to October, I was recording episodes. I wanted to go live with a whole season but that also became a little much for where we were. I think we had like six to eight episodes done. Then, we took a break and we came back for season 2 and getting out of that content creation flow really messed with me. We even saw that as an issue when Stacey came on board over a year ago in the summer of 2018. After a first year of the podcast, we were just wrapping season 2, and then Stacey took the show out of seasons and into a weekly show. I think an effort to help my content creation where we weren’t creating in these seasons, and then dropping off because I really struggled to balance client delivery with content creation and batching. Then, I’d be inflow and out of flow and like, “I’m better when I’m writing and creating every day.” It doesn’t have to hit the airwaves every day, but having that stop in terms of the seasons was a struggle for me. Season 2 I think we kind of struggled with getting me into a place where I could show up consistently for the content that we were creating.
Jo Gifford: That’s a huge discovery, right? You went through the process of, okay, if we turn it into a season, it’s not this huge mountain, we can do it, but then you learned along the way, “Hang on. If I stop that motion I stop my flow.”
Stacey Harris: Yeah. That’s huge. I think this comes down to you’re really good just, again, as a takeaway. It’s different for everybody. We have clients who thrive in seasons because they need that rest before they can do that again. Then, I have clients like you who are just more like, “I want to stay in the motion.” Sort of that body in motion just keeps going sort of thing.
I think, again, it’s finding your way. I love that you guys spent a lot of those first two seasons and even… I mean, our never-ending third season which we’re in. We’re always testing. We’re always sort of going like, “What’s working? What isn’t working?” I want to sort of shift into kind of debriefs, sort of going into our CEO debrief style. What did work? What is working? What has been working over these last couple of years with having a podcast from a community perspective? How has this impacted the community that listens to the show?
Tara Newman: I think that after year one, I made a huge mindset shift in the sense that, and I still sometimes need to be reminded of it, but my shift has gone from measuring our success by downloads and, man, I wanted to be on that iTunes, whatever list and-
Jo Gifford: New and Noteworthy.
Tara Newman: Noteworthy. New and Noteworthy. Right. I think that’s everybody when they start out like, “I want to be on New and Noteworthy.” Because someone has convinced them that that means that they’ll be super famous afterwards which is right. We very quickly dropped that because that was a waste of energy and focus and attention. While downloads are great and it’s a hard tangible metric, it’s very hard to get a handle on, in my opinion, Stacey, you’re the guru here.
Stacey Harris: It’s getting better. It’s getting better, but downloads don’t necessarily mean listens. Listens don’t necessarily mean action. It’s not the be-all-end-all of stats. I’ll say that.
Tara Newman: Right. I kind of threw that stuff out the window after year one. I mean, it’s always nice to hear audience growth is growing and things like that but what we really started to look at was the engagement and how we were going to quantify that engagement, and we don’t even have to do it in a way that’s terribly professional and official, but when I’m having sales calls and everybody shows up on the sales call and they said, “I listened to the episode with so-and-so. I listened to this episode. I listened to this episode. I’m in. I want to buy your thing, it’s just a matter of getting on the phone with you.” We just got done enrolling 12 women in our mastermind, which was more than I anticipated enrolling. We had more applications and spots available, and five of them were retained from this year. Seven are new, and out of those new, seven new people, only one person or two people have said to me they didn’t listen to the podcast.
Stacey Harris: Wow.
Tara Newman: Everybody else showed up on the sales call quoting something on the podcast they listened to.
Everybody else showed up on the sales call quoting something on the podcast they listened to.
Jo Gifford: That’s a huge one, right? About the metrics that about the measurements that we pay attention to. We could be obsessed by the engagement and all that stuff, but actually when you have people showing up on a call saying, “I’m in.” Because they bought into you, that’s what we’re looking for.
Stacey Harris: Well, I think that’s such an important thing to remember. Sometimes the thing that can be hard about podcasts is they’re listening on their dog walk, they’re listening on their run, they’re listening at the gym so they’re not immediately going to a comment section like we saw in blogs in the early 2000s and responding, but where then we do see that sort of loop close or come back around or however you want to freeze it, is the when they pare it to you something that you have said in a podcast episode, and you’re like, “Oh-oh, you were listening. You are paying attention.” I think that is my favorite way to measure the success of a show because I think that’s actual impact.
Tara Newman: There are definitely some amazing podcast listeners who go and review the podcast and who share it. I see them. They tag me. They head on over to Instagram and they start a conversation with me on it, however, the podcast is really in my mind threefold. One is free and valuable content to leaders to help them grow and develop, and that from every podcast they should be able to take away one action, one insight, one learning that changes something for them, and then go and act upon it.
Two, it is the greatest tool that I have to take people behind the scenes, show them how I work, who I am, how I think, what my strategies are and to help me operationalize our values as a company through these podcast episodes. Then, thirdly, using it as a live sales funnel. Meaning that I’m answering questions that people would have around what it looks like to work with me or what my program is about or hearing a case study or a conversation that I’m having with a client to support the work that we’re doing together. That’s really how the podcast has changed over the last year.
Stacey Harris: I think if you want to see that model, go listen to the episodes where we go through specifically mastermind enrollment for the end of 2019. Go listen to those episodes and you’ll hear, you and I, Tara, we talked about what happened in Tulum and what that process was like? You talked to Rachel about sort of how to make the decision about joining a mastermind? We talked to Stephanie about, from an entirely different perspective than sort of the bubble that so many of us are in, what this was like and what the process of investing was like in and being a part of the community inside of the mastermind. I think if you guys want to see that model, go listen to those episodes because that’s I think probably some of our best representation of it. Also, the brave episodes. Anything that’s brave focused, you’ll see this really in action when you go listen to those episodes. In the vein of the CEO debrief and moving into sort of what’s not working, what’s changed over the course of the podcast? Obviously, we’ve talked about some of it. We moved from seasons to a more evergreen show. The structure of how you record changed, you structure that a little differently now and bringing in Jo to bring in more research stuff. What are some of those things that have changed over the course of-
Tara Newman: Two years.
Stacey Harris: … 100 episodes?
Tara Newman: Yeah. Instead of seasons, we went to weekly. I think the other thing that changed, I mentioned was my mindset around what is the purpose of the podcast within my business structure? How is this serving us and how do we want to utilize this tool going forward? I think the other things that are changing for us is behind the scenes. You mentioned having Jo come in. I have started to become the biggest bottleneck in the business, obviously, as every CEO is the biggest bottleneck in their business.
Stacey Harris: We’re all in the way.
Tara Newman: I have to look at exactly where I was the bottleneck, and as much as I love creating content and it is so important to me to do this as an experience-based leadership development and education company, I couldn’t be the only one doing it anymore. Through some of the testing that we’ve done, I’ve come to learn that my audience specifically likes evidence-based, well-thought-out, well-researched content. They’re not here for the fluff. They’re not here for people’s opinions, necessarily.
I’ve come to learn that my audience specifically likes evidence-based, well-thought-out, well-researched content. They’re not here for the fluff. They’re not here for people’s opinions, necessarily.
What I call it is facts and feelings. I’m here to give you the facts and I’m here to give you my feelings, and I’m clear when I’m giving you one and I’m going to be clear when I’m giving you the other, right? Jo is here to stop me from being the biggest bottleneck with my content, and to help me go and serve my clients and my customers better in the sense that… She’s doing some of the heavy lifting on the research behind the scenes so when we’re pulling in data and facts and figures and things like that, that’s really Jo doing that. One of the best pieces of teamwork that we have available right now is the CEO debrief, power post, a blog post, and then Jo’s helping me lay in my thoughts and helping me develop and pull out my thought leadership. Stacey is running the marketing strategy. She’s telling us what works from a marketing perspective and what she would like to see. She tees that over to Jo and I. Jo and I have a conversation about it. Jo goes off and does the work and it comes back to me for approval, and then gets passed back to Stacey for publication and for posting. That’s how this system is really shaping up and it’s allowing us to get work out a lot quicker.
What also is helping with Jo is she’s getting me out of my head on my content. She’s helping me organize my thoughts. So, even I get in my head around who really cares about this? Is this really an important topic for me to be talking about? Is what I’m saying very much from flow of consciousness? Is this making sense or am I like in spirals here? So, having that sounding board in Jo, as well as Stacey, has been really how this podcast is kind of next leveling itself right now and in the direction that we’re going and fixing a serious problem that we had to the sustainability of the content that we’re producing.
Stacey Harris: Jo, you’ve been here since the beginning-beginning so I think there’s been a lot of change in Tara and her approach too. So, can you speak to that as somebody who was on the receiving end of the Voxer messages two years ago?
Jo Gifford: Absolutely. That’s exactly what I was going to jump in with Stacey was that to have the privilege to come back to this team, which I am so honored to either come back, and I see a completely different team, a complete different business. Yes.
I was present there from the first episodes or that sort of stuff and a lot of what Tara just said really speaks to strength-based in leadership, right? We’ll dig into them another time, why I stepped away then, and what happened since, but actually Tara has changed incredibly as has this business. She now has you and she has Lane and she has Josh. We have a whole team now and everyone’s strengths are related to what they’re doing. Tara is super strategic with everything that she puts out. I mean, she’s always been a genius and known her stuff, but what I see here is huge growth in Tara owning this space, being clear about what she wants to talk about and to come back knowing myself better as well and being able to know what I can bring in a way that adds value, that works, and I was like, “What you guys already have here is really interesting.” I’m definitely, I don’t get any Voxers of tears anymore. There’s nobody crying down my line. We’re super-efficient, strategic. This team here will learn to grow and evolve and scale as things change even more, which will be awesome, but I see a massive shift, huge.
Stacey Harris: Tara, does producing the show feel different now than it did when you had all the fear? Does it feel better now? The answer to that is yes.
Tara Newman: Yes. I think what I want to just have people because it’s very easy to look at how we’re operating now and get discouraged and be like, “Well, I don’t have a team behind me and I don’t have someone who’s helping me write content and I don’t have somebody who is producing my podcast and I don’t have…” Right?
But I started off fairly bare-bones so this all started… Stacey, won’t be surprised when she hears this, but this all started jelling for me in May of 2017 in Tulum, Mexico when I was on retreat with my-
Stacey Harris: I’m not at all surprised even a little bit.
Tara Newman: … mastermind and I had this moment where I was like, “I don’t want to do this alone anymore. I need a team. I want people who are going to partner with me.” That’s when I on-boarded Jo the first time, because there was no part of this that I want to be a lone dog on, a lone wolf on. I do not want to see my show, as a matter of fact, when I rebranded from Tara Newman Coaching to the Bold Leadership Revolution in 2016, it was because I didn’t want to be the focus. I wanted my community to be the focus. I wanted my team to be the focus. I wanted it to be we, not I. This has been an evolution over a number of years where I continued to make investments in team way before I was ready. I did not have the money at any point in time when I hired Jo the first time, when I hired Stacey and Lane on the second time.
As a matter of fact, I’ve shared a number of times that when I hired Stacey and Lane, I had just come out of another mastermind of mine where I admitted in the mastermind that I had no money in the bank, that I didn’t even know how I was going to be paying for the hotel room that I was staying in. I had revenue coming in but I had no cash. I knew that I was going to have revenue coming in each month, but at that point, my burn rate, I was just burning through cash. I didn’t even have money to really pay for the trip to the mastermind, but I came back and I hired Stacey and Lane and every time I hire team before I’m ready, you can see the spike in my revenue because it frees me up to go and do the strategic pieces work on the business, on the strategic pieces of the business that are really going to be moving us forward. Work on organizing the business and managing and measuring the work of the team so that my efforts are just multiplied by every person that I bring on. That’s really where we are now. Jo, I think this is maybe your third month back?
Work on organizing the business and managing and measuring the work of the team so that my efforts are just multiplied by every person that I bring on.
Jo Gifford: Yeah. It is and in the three months that I’ve been back, I see this team is, there’s loads more exciting things going on for next year and all these wonderful projects and it’s actually quite emotional. I have a really British voice on this podcast, which I like to represent. It is really emotionally actually to just look back and just say, “Wow. Tara, look at what you’ve done, look at what this business has become.” From facing those fears in those early episodes to thriving and way more than thriving. It’s really incredible.
Tara Newman: It’s really what keeps me motivated going forward is it is my greatest joy to pay Stacey and Jo and Lane and Josh to be on my team. It’s my greatest joy to create content for this podcast. That motivates me because I need to go out and have the revenue coming in to support the podcast, to support the team to deliver on these things for all of our listeners and our audience. That only comes because I am making money. This is the impact that I get to make with my money. I get to hire cool people and help them in growing their businesses and their livelihoods and creating wealth for them as well as bringing my knowledge and my skills and my abilities into a public unguided, unpaid-for forum where other people can benefit for them as well. I couldn’t do this if I wasn’t generating the revenue that we were generating. As a matter of fact, I was very transparent with all of you as we went into this last quarter which is our largest sales initiative of the year, and I said, “Listen, if we hit this number, we’re good for the year. You all have work for the year if you want it and we can continue on and we can make investments into the business and we can grow in this way as long as we hit this number.” We smash the shit out of that number.
Jo Gifford: Yeah, you did.
Stacey Harris: A little bit. A little bit.
Tara Newman: That’s what motivates me. This is exciting to me. Knowing that we are going to where we’re going and we should probably talk about that, right? Where we’re going with this podcast is really exciting to me.
Stacey Harris: That’s really where I wanted to go next is sort of what’s next for this show in your mind? What do you see the next… I’m not going to say 100 episodes because that’s too big of a window. But the next year of this? This is January of 2020 when everyone’s listening to this. What’s up for the podcast in 2020? What do you want from them and for them this year?
Tara Newman: Well, first and foremost, we believe it’s our job to earn our listeners’ time. I just want to pause there and just let that sink in for a second. That we believe that we need to earn the right to be in our listeners’ ears. That is our first and our foremost concern and initiative in the sense that we know our listeners are dealing with a crowded and a noisy place. They’re unsure of who to listen to, what they might need next in their business and we’re here to really make this content the most consumable, the most effective, the most rewarding for them to listen to. One of the things that we’re looking at is going to two episodes a month, right? To give people a little more time and space to digest and consume and take action from our podcast episodes. Now, I have some plans that they’re going to be some bonus episodes in between so it might wind up being as somewhat weekly podcast.
Stacey Harris: It seems like a weekly podcast.
Jo Gifford: [laughing]
Tara Newman: Stacey’s shaking her head at me.
Stacey Harris: This is what I put up with, guys, and it’s great. But part of, and I think this is… I’m going to stop you because I think this is a good lesson. Part of the reason we’re going to a two a month format, a bi-weekly format is so that there is space for bonus episodes. There is space for those inspirations. That’s what happens when you have a content strategy is you can create room for creativity and for those things that come up without tying yourself to a weekly show. So, if weekly show feels overwhelming to you, don’t do a weekly show.
Jo Gifford: Hell, yes. That’s so important to think about all the time is if you’re feeling, “Oh, but I need to wait until the inspiration hits.” Awesome, and you could harness that and use that space but just to have your backlog of your stuff there or stop you from those mad moments. Yeah.
Tara Newman: Yeah, and the other thing that we’re going to be doing this year is, we talk about people talk about doing less but better. I think that is really how we’re looking to do this podcast in terms of how it relates to the business as a whole ecosystem in that we are going to be doubling down our effort, our energy, and our focus on the podcast content and really that is evident in the sense that I’ve hired Jo to come and work with us. We’re really excited to see what we can be creating.
My word of 2020 is teach so I’m looking to really stand and step into my role as a teacher and to use this podcast as a platform for doing so in a way that, again, is digestible for our audience.
My word of 2020 is teach so I’m looking to really stand and step into my role as a teacher and to use this podcast as a platform for doing so in a way that, again, is digestible for our audience. Instead of having to sit through a 90-minute webinar where you have to sign up, and then you’re in the webinar funnel and all those things, I think we’ll probably be using the podcast more to use as teaching a teaching platform as there are more content creators in the world and the business strategy de jour is more content.
There’s a lot of content being put out there that isn’t really discerning content. It’s not evidence-based. It’s in some cases fluff, and in some cases just not correct in what the details are that they’re sharing or not based in fact. I think that we are really going to stand behind creating that level of quality content where it’s well researched and well thought out so that when you come here, you are getting a specific perspective that is backed by research and evidence.
Stacey Harris: I like that. The other thing I think that’s worth mentioning is this show and so much of the why behind the show is to be of service and is to be valuable to the listener. That only happens when you guys who are listening right now do something with it. Take that next step. So many of our episodes and with like, “Okay. Here’s our action item for today. Here’s the one thing you can take action on.”
I think do those, and then share with us what happened so that we can be using that for future evidence, for future episodes. We can be using that stuff to have an actual impact, really separating real business owners from noisemakers. Look, I think it’s as simple as that.
Tara Newman: I think too, another thing that we’re going to be doubling down on is I’ve always said this is your way to pick my brain. This is your way to get free coaching, free consulting if you send me an email with a question, we will answer it on the show. If you put a question somewhere into my social media, into my DMs on Instagram, we will cultivate that question and answer it here on the show because, first and foremost, we want this show to be for you, the listener. We’re going to continue to engage in that way. We’re going to continue to encourage people to submit those questions because I actually really like answering questions.
Stacey Harris: Those are fun episodes.
Tara Newman: I’m pretty transparent. I consider my vulnerability a strength so anytime that we can be showing up in that way, we’re going to do that as well.
Stacey Harris: Any final thoughts from you, ladies, as we wrap up the episode?
Jo Gifford: Yeah. I was just going to say I’m sure we’d love to hear from people if you’ve been here from the beginning, what have you seen change? What have you guys been enjoying? So join in this conversation with us through here, and I am just so excited for what’s coming next. I’m stoked to have been part of this process and to be back in the team. Wow. It’s incredible just having a glimpse of what 2020 is going to hold for this business. I’m just excited. That’s my final thought.
Tara Newman: I want to talk to anybody who’s considering starting a podcast or maybe they have a podcast and they’re wondering if it’s worth it or what the efficacy is of their podcast. The one thing that I have learned about podcasting over the years is it does take a certain personality. It does take someone who is willing to be patient, who is willing to be consistent and who is willing to look beyond the obvious in terms of things like podcast reviews or downloads and things like that to really get a result, to generate a result from their podcast. I will also say that some of the best results from this podcast have come with a team and having a deep intention and a strategy behind what we are doing here. I think that people who sometimes creatives, I hear from creatives that they don’t like having structure or they don’t like having a system or they don’t like having to be organized at that level, that really is what it takes, in my opinion, to get the results that you want to see out of a podcast. Also, out of business in general, but definitely if you’re going to be putting your time and effort, the money that takes to do a podcast, you do need to be patient and consistent and structured in your approach.
Stacey Harris: As somebody who’s done 450 episodes of her own show… Well, more than that and been part of… Calli and I did the math the other day, thousands of podcast episodes. Yeah, all that. For sure, 100% consistency, and I think I just want to wrap this up in reminding people, and this is my own little soapboxy moment here. It’s a long game. The conversations, the result we talked about with the mastermind that happened at the end of 2019 was as much a product of the first eight episodes of the show as they were the eight episodes that went out during our mastermind sort of enrollment period.
Tara Newman: It takes time though. Last year, the last spot of the mastermind was filled December 22nd. Our last spot was filled today and we have extended how many women were taking by a bit into this mastermind this year. We had more people interested in a quicker amount of time. So last year I was getting objections like, “Why are you filling it so early? Why are you announcing it so early? I’m not ready to make those decisions now. I’m not ready to make my investments for 2019 in October / November of 2018.” This year, we were filled in November.
Stacey Harris: Early November.
Tara Newman: Early November. A lot of the objections I got last year were around not wanting to go on a retreat. This year, we have three retreats and nobody balked at that. Everybody was looking forward to the retreats. One of the objections I got last year was, why is it a one-year container? Why couldn’t it be a six-month container? I’m not sure if I want to make the commitment for the one year versus I didn’t really hear that this year because we very clearly explained our strategy and our thinking are why behind every component of the mastermind. We did that on the podcast. I didn’t have a sales pitch for this. It just takes time because that’s not where I was a year ago. A year ago, I was sweating it out.
Stacey Harris: Also, it came from, and this is why I say those first eight episodes are just as responsible. It came from putting one foot in front of the other. Trying this on, doing it, being in practice, that’s where the lessons come from is from being kind of in it. There’s not going to be some sort of magic moment where all comes together. You’re like, “Now, I’m a wonderful podcast.” No. You’re always going to be… I think, again, that’s podcasting and that’s business. That’s actually just life. That’s all of life where you’re just keep doing it and it, you’re like, “Oh, wait. I don’t suck at this in the way that I once thought I did. Now, I feel like I suck at it in whole new ways.”
Tara Newman: Podcasting, a metaphor for life.
Stacey Harris: It’s true. All right, ladies. Thank you both for letting me sit here and ask you questions for 45 minutes. Thank you, guys, for listening to the show. Tara, any sort of final message you want to say as we close this up?
Tara Newman: Yeah. I just want to say thank you to the same. I want to say thank you to everybody who listens, who comes back week after week and allows me to be in your ear. I appreciate you. I want to hear from you as Jo said, come find us and let us know what episodes you liked and which ones you want to hear more of and ask us your questions.
Then, Stacey and Jo, I just want to thank you both for being on my team. I appreciate you immensely.
Jo Gifford: Oh, thank you. It’s an honor to be here, dude.
Stacey Harris: Thanks, guys.
Tara Newman: Bye!
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