Podcast 100: Times are Changing for Holistic Business Matters
Jan 20, 2022
It’s hard to believe my little podcast is 100 episodes old this week. I'm very proud of what I’ve achieved, but I also know it's time to shake things up. It’s been an interesting experience with lots of lessons and I thought today, I’d share some of them with you along with a big decision I've made.
Don’t wait until you’re ready
My first venture into podcasting was over 7 years ago and I loved it. When I started this business, I knew that I wanted to do a podcast, but I wanted to wait until I was ready. This went on for 4-years!
I even named it a couple of times, created cover artworks and recorded intros and outros but, I wasn’t quite ready, so they sat silently in a file on my computer.
Then other marketers started their podcasts and I was left wishing I’d started mine - but I still didn't feel ready. My inner perfectionist had sabotaged me yet again!
I read ‘Finish - giving yourself the gift of done’, by Jon Acuff (highly recommended if you're a perfectionist or procrastinator) which helped me understand what was going on with the podcast amongst other projects.
Making the commitment
I got out of my own way and decided to go for perfectly imperfect, or good enough, and started work on my podcast.
I considered what I really could achieve with my time and resources available, and Holistic Business Matters was finally born. I didn’t have the capacity to create a posh, all-singing, all-dancing show (not that I can do either) so I compromised on what was possible.
As I already created a blog every week, I decided to use that as inspiration for the podcast and create small bite-sized episodes with the occasional interview.
For extra accountability, I joined an online course to update my skills and provide support around creating it.
Creating the habit
Marketing is a long game and consistency is key to making it work. I love structure and process so once I got going with the podcast, and knew what I was doing, it soon became a habit.
There were times when I got up at silly o’clock rather than miss an episode and I only ran late with one (with very good reason).
Once creating the podcast became a habit, it ran like clockwork and was something I just did, week in, week out.
Pressing pause
If you listened to last week's episode, it's all about consolidating your marketing to make sure it's working for you. Over the Christmas holiday, I reviewed all the marketing I was doing - including this podcast. I looked at the time it took me to create against the impact it was having on my business.
Whilst I love recording the podcast, the figures showed me my time would be better spent elsewhere. There was a part of me that wanted to ignore this as I find the podcast fun, but I wouldn’t be practising what I preach to my clients.
Your marketing has to be done for a reason and has to achieve the results you want. If something isn’t quite working, it’s time to stop and review why.
For me, this means pausing the podcast for now and moving my focus to other projects in my business.
All 100 episodes will still be available and provide value for you, I just need to figure out what my next step is with it. It may become a new podcast in the future with a slightly different format, or it could be something completely different – watch this space!
Lessons learned
This podcast has been brilliant for me in terms of learning new technical skills and developing my confidence in speaking. It’s helped me to meet some amazing people who have been guests – I never knew I’d enjoy doing interviews so much.
The effectiveness of the podcast has been hard to measure on the results it’s delivered to my business. I know from my other marketing activities; I can tell where clients come into my world but the podcast has been more of an awareness-building exercise and is yet to pay its way.
I've given myself permission to change tact and recognised it’s okay to stop something, even if you’ve put a huge amount of time and effort into it when the time's right.
So I’m not saying there will never be another episode of Holistic Business Matters, or it may even be reinvented in a new way, but for now, I’m pressing pause.
If you want to find out about my new adventures, come and join the FB group – Holistic Business Matters, follow me on social media @helenhardinguk and join in the conversations there.
And if you've joined me for any of the episodes or left me feedback - thank you!
If you’ve reached a time where you need to review what’s working in your marketing, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you.
Podcast 100 show notes:
- (01:08) Don't wait until you're ready
- (02:46) Making the commitment
- (04:31) Creating the habit
- (05:26) Pressing pause
- (07:09) Lessons learned
