Transcript: Messy Hair Don't Care with Amanada McKinney

Joanne Bolt (Intro)

The power of a podcast extends well beyond plugging in the mind. So if you're ready to learn how it can help you build a big business, then I’m your best friend, Hi, I'm Joanne Bolt and I am obsessed with all things podcasting, and creating an unapologetically big revenue business with it from podcast guesting to podcast hosting and everything in between. We're gonna dive into it all and show you step by awesome step how using a podcast can and will grow your business. So grab a glass of wine and pop your headphones on. Cuz, Girlfriend, happy hour has begun here on the B-Word.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Hey, Amanda. Alright, so welcome to the show. I am so excited to have you as a guest today.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Oh, thank you so much, Joanne, I'm thrilled to be here. I love your podcast. I love how unapologetic you are. And I just have enjoyed listening to your podcast ever since you and I connected about just how casual you are on the podcast and how real you are. So thank you all and doing what you do.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Well, thank you. It is literally my passion in life to show people that you don't have to be uptight, you don't have to be what other people think you should be. You just got to be you and you will attract the right audience into your world.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes. I love it. 

 

Joanne Bolt 

All right. So one of the things that we wanted to talk about today, and I'm gonna let you dive all into this is this concept of being an accidental entrepreneur. Because I know in my life, I got into real estate like 20 some odd years ago. And when people started first saying, Oh, you're an entrepreneur, I was like, I don't even know what the heck that means. Right? And I figured it out along the way. And now I'm in podcasting, and I do all kinds of other things. I think a lot of women do accidentally fall into this entrepreneurship thing. And so talk to me about what you mean when you say that and how you work with your clients on it.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes, I love this. You know, it's one of those things kind of like you said, like, you went into real estate and then now you're in podcasting in the road is twisty and turny. Right. So when I started my business in 2017, I would have never said I work with accidental entrepreneurs. That's not what I knew I was going to do, I had no idea what I was going to do. But what happened is I started working with people and everyone that was attracted to me. Early on, still happening today, everyone is the person and they say, Amanda, I stumbled into starting this business, like I ended up starting this business, and I didn't even know what I was doing. And so the term accidental, actually came up when I was writing my book. So that is how I came up with that I was on I went through a book writing program. And on one of the calls, I said something like I work with people who are accidental entrepreneurs, and everyone on the call was like, that's a great phrase. And so it was just by happenstance that I said that, and I share that part of the story. Because I think that everyone who falls into stumbles into entrepreneurship can have that feeling that we have to have everything figured out. As soon as you put on the entrepreneurship hat when you were like, I don't even know what the word means. But I guess this is what I'm doing. You know, as soon as we put on that hat, a lot of us can fall into, I have to have the words, right, I have to have this buttoned up, I have to know what the heck I'm doing? And the answer is, No, you don't, you don't because you stumbled into this. And all you have to do is take one step at a time. And so that's the person that I ended up working with is the person who feels like they stumbled into starting a business, no matter what kind of business that was, whether it was real estate, yoga teachers, I worked with a lot of people who opened a flower shop therapist or a great example as well, they go to school, but they're like, I came out and I have no idea how to run this business.

 

Joanne Bolt 

And I love that. And I mean, let me just, you know, loop back around for a second. You work with accidental entrepreneurs, which accidentally gave you so much material for a book to write. 

 

Amanda McKinney 

It really did that. You know, I did. Everyone has asked me, you know, because this book is just now coming out is like, oh, have you always had this dream to write a book? And? And the answer is no, I did not. This was not something that I've had on my vision board forever. I think it's wonderful when people know what they want to do. But that's not was on my list. But once I started down this path of working with other entrepreneurs, there were two things that I thought, Oh, I think I might want to do these two things one day, because they helped me so much. One was starting a podcast, which I did. And two was writing a book because as you know, it was that the first two things we really go to when we find ourselves stumbling into entrepreneurship. We start Googling things and find podcasts and books and can assume all of the information.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Let's unpack that just a little bit. The first thing you did was start a podcast. And then you wrote a book. So we're going to circle back to the podcast piece. But when you first decided, I think I wanted to write a book for this. What did you do? Like how did you find the program that you use? Because I will tell you that that is the first thing that if I was going to write a book, I, it would stop me in my tracks, because I'd be like, I have no idea where to even go.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Same here. I have no idea. And really, like if someone came to me and was like, Amanda, tell me like you're asking right now, like, what did you do? I'll tell you my example of what I did. And I can tell you exactly how it happened. But I think everyone has to find what works for them. And I think there's differences and how that works for everyone. But it's really taking that one step at a time. It really is. And so, so for me, I had this idea several years ago, I was like, Oh, I think I'd like to start a podcast. And maybe one day write a book on cast was way more accessible to me. So that started in 2019. Fast forward to 2022 is when I really was thinking maybe this book thing might be in my future like I because we have to really make something a goal in order to make progress on it. Like we can just like I always say to my clients, oh, is not a strategy.

 

Joanne Bolt 

 It does not, why receive that so much. Because I I always say throwing spaghetti on a wall is not a strategy, right? 

 

Amanda McKinney 

I mean, sometimes we have to do these things. But hope is not going to get the book written, right. And so interestingly enough, what happened for me in my journey was that I actually ended up interviewing someone on my podcast that went through a specific writing program. And when she was talking about this program, I was very interested. And if I go back and listen to that episode, I can hear it in my voice, like it started asking a lot of questions. I was very curious. And that was the little Wolfire, that just little spark, right. And then she introduced me to someone else who also went through that program, I ended up interviewing her after that second interview, I thought, this is really on my mind, I wonder if I should just look up that program. Like, maybe I should just look at it. So I looked at the program, it sounded just wonderful. And you had to apply for the program. And so that's what I did. At that point, I had told zero people that I was doing this, including my husband, like at this point, I have told no one because I thought I don't even know what's going to be on the other side. I don't know how hard it is to get in. It wasn't necessarily hard. They just wanted to vet who was going to be in the program. So I have the interview with the it was a professor so it's actually run through Georgetown University is the program I went through, I wasn't actually enrolled in Georgetown, although that would be really cool. But it was I was, you know, outside the program or outside the school. And so I met with him. And it was very clear from the beginning that he was a great coach for me, within a 15 minute phone conversation. I was like, He's who I want to work with, like it was, it was very, very clear. And it was because this is gonna make you laugh. So I show up very prepared. Like I am like, Okay, I've got all these podcast episodes, I've got all these YouTube videos, we got this many blog posts, like we can pull from all this content. And he said, Amanda, I need you to put that list down. And don't think about the content you've created. I want you to go consume content for a little bit. It turned out, I was like, I don't understand this. But what I loved was that he didn't just go with what I had thought, what I needed to do. He knows the process that works better for people like me, and did not care to I mean, he was very kind about it. But he stopped me mid sin. Like he didn't let me keep going. I didn't waste any time. He was like, Don't come into it and thinking that you're just going to bundle your content and put it in a book that's not going to work. We have to think about this in a different way. And I thought he is the right coach. And so at that point, I was like, Where do I sign the paper? If you know, I was like, What do I need to do? And so then my husband and I, that same day went on a walk and I said, Okay, honey, I need to tell you that I'm going to join this writing program and write a book. And so that's how I started in the program was very structured, and very good for me. I don't know if it would work for every single person. I don't think like not everyone needs that. But I needed the structure. And it I actually wrote my first draft in three months. Wow.

 

Joanne Bolt 

So he really liked his method really connected with you and worked for you. And I love this concept because a lot of people will say, oh, I want to write a book. Yeah, and they'll go when they'll find a million different ways to write a book but you're right like if you will connect with the right mentor the right program, the right person to guide you along the way, it's probably going to take a lot longer for you to get it out of your brain and onto the paper and out to the world. And I find a lot of times, you know, podcasting is the same way, right? Like someone wants to start a podcast, and it takes them way longer than it should to just plug the mic in and get the thing going. And when I have conversations with them, I'm like, you know why? Because you think you want to talk about one topic and your heart's not in it. You haven't found the right space?

 

Amanda McKinney 

Hmm. Oh, that's so good. And that's exactly what happened with the book. You know, I mean, it's, you're nailing it with that. And same thing with my podcast, do you think it's gonna be one thing, the podcast gets to evolve over time, the book has to kind of settle at some point you got to, you got to pick a pick a topic and run with it. But the podcast gets to change. But you're so right. If you don't care about the content that you're producing, whether it's a podcast, a blog, a book of social media post, it's not going to resonate with people, and people are not going to click with it, and really gravitate towards that. But if you are passionate, like it's clear, when someone's passionate about a topic, in that, that could be making sourdough bread or starting a podcast, like it doesn't matter what the topic is.

 

Joanne Bolt 

My admin the other day, was talking me through something and he was just kind of, you know, going through the steps and then we hit a piece of a standard OS, you know, operating procedure and SOP love those SOPs. I mean, I love them. But he like started bouncing up and down over the zoom. Like he was so nerdy and into the SOPs and hung cracking up I'm like, Dude, you just found your jam within my organization, because me I'm like, oh, we should do x, y, z. And he's literally like, oh, we should do XYZ. And I'm like, I've never heard someone get so excited about an SOP.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes. And that's the beauty. I love that you found him and he's helping in your business, right? Because there's always going to be things like I am the freaking worst. With timezones like it everyone who knows me who's hearing this at this point is like, yeah, she is I am terrible. With creating a zoo, like something like a calendar invite in a sarong timezone, like, it's just not. i It seems very simple, but for some reason I mess this up all the time. Other people can do that in their freakin sleep. And there's people that you can hire that help. I have a wonderful human in my business. Her name is Jess, and she manages my calendar, and I don't have to worry about showing up at the wrong time. Because I know she's got this under control, because she's like your admin of like, I love doing this stuff. And it's so amazing that, you know, all of these people find their zone of genius, those accidental entrepreneurs, right. They love that spreadsheet. They love that SOP. They love these things. And we can actually give them joy by hiring them and take away the crap that we don't want to do.

 

Joanne Bolt 

It's a win win. By the way, Amanda same on the timezone. I am a disaster, especially when it comes you know, I'm on the East Coast. I'm from Atlanta, and apparently in like Arizona and the West Coast sometimes are three hours are different for me. And sometimes they're two hours and I can't for the life of me figure that out.

 

Amanda McKinney 

I don't know why I think we should all take a vote and be like, can we deal with like, not doing daylight savings time? 

 

Joanne Bolt 

Yeah. And I agree as a culture in a country that we're only going to limit our space in the world to two Max three timezones at any given time.

 

Amanda McKinney 

I mean, it's so hard. Thank you for telling me that it's hard for you to because sometimes I'm like, why can't I get this? 

 

Joanne Bolt 

Like, why is it sometimes because I'm like, I am supposedly a smart human. And this this eludes me, I just don't.

 

Amanda McKinney 

It's unbelievable, but the thing is, like, so everyone listening, like we all have our things that we're not good at, whether it's time zones, or whatever. And while I know that we can't outsource right away, there's a lot of like, I always like, kind of give this caveat of, especially as accidental entrepreneurs, when you're stumbling into it at the beginning, you can outsource things. You don't have the money to do that, like read it. But what you can do is identify what those things are. Because eventually I don't know if you get the same questions. I bet you do. People ask me all the time. I mean, I have so much going on. I need to outsource something, but I don't know what to outsource. That is the answer. The answer is the thing that sucks the life out of you and you keep messing up like find the person who does that.

 

Joanne Bolt 

A Bin Yes. If it sucks the life out of you get someone else to do it. I love that answer. I will probably put that on a post it note somewhere. 

 

Amanda McKinney 

I love my desk because yeah, because there's someone you could find so much joy in it. That's the thing that I've learned so much is that all of us are starting In these businesses, because we have a passion for the thing, and someone has so much joy in creating that SOP, and you're like, well, thank goodness for that. Because I think it's awful. I know it's helpful. I know, it's a good thing to do. But I don't want to actually do the work to do it.

 

Joanne Bolt 

No, I can like start the process, but then I need someone else to own it, take the ownership, I will empower you in that, and I'll guide you along the way. But I can't own the whole thing that I've learned that about me over the years.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yeah, it's so in. That's such a valuable lesson. And it sounds like you've done that so beautifully. And that's such a gift, I don't know, free if you had this struggle. But for me, once I started my business and had everything, like I was doing all the things, because that's what you have to do. When things started growing, and I had the ability to outsource, it was really difficult for me to outsource because I was used to controlling it all. And so I had a coach, tell me, Amanda, if you can find someone who does it 70% As good as you because you're gonna think your way is the best way. Because that's what we do as entrepreneurs, even though it's not the case, and you're gonna think it's great. If someone can do it 70% you're saving money, get it off your plate. Be okay with 70%. That was a very hard thing for your girl Amanda to do. But that was the lesson that I learned and working with him because he was like, You were terrible at delegating. But you have to learn this, you have to learn this skill, because otherwise you can't scale your business.

 

Joanne Bolt 

One of my business coaches once gave me the most frightening advice I've ever taken. But it was also probably the most beneficial. And he said, Joanne, your inbox has 12,000 unopened emails in there. And he's not, he's not wrong like it does. Now I will say part of that is because back when I was in real estate, every company on the face of this earth has access to your email address. And they are pinging you all day long with stuff. And so the reality is I can pick my phone up, read the subject line, and no, I don't need to open that. Right. So I just didn't bother. And I didn't bother to get rid of them either. And so my business coach said, I want you to just hand over your inbox to your admin. And of course, my heart constricted and my throat closed up because I was like, I can't do that. Because what if there is the one email in there that only I can answer? And he was like, do it for 30 days and see how many emails she sends to you that she does not know the answer to. And so I did. There was one in the whole 30 days I was like, Okay, so now the first thing I ever do is give away my...

 

Amanda McKinney 

That's incredible. And I I still have my inbox so that I am hearing this loud and clear. That is definitely something I need to hand over. Because it is not. And I actually I forget where I said this. Oh, it was in an article I wrote for Fast Company. And I in the one piece of the article that most people picked out and was like, Oh, my gosh, is when I said your email inbox is a to do list from someone else. And it will Yeah, on your day.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Yeah. And that is a great way of looking at it. I've never thought about it that way. But you guys, that should be your next Sharpie. Post It note that you put it on your wall because yeah, he She's exactly right.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yeah. And when I realized that, like I have really strict parameters with my inbox now. Which is why I haven't given it away, even though there is someone who could technically take it. Because I have really created a pretty good system because I had to figure it out until I could afford it. If that makes sense. Like, absolutely, you have to figure it out. And so I have a pretty good system with email now. But oh my gosh, once I realized like this is a to do list from other people, and it will run my freaking day. If I let it, it will run it.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Right. So let me ask you what advice you would give because here's something that I hear a lot of accidental entrepreneurs say because we're talking about this whole hiring and leveraging outpace, and that's where the conversation is flowing. So let's keep it going. Sure. A, the first thing they say is, who do I hire first. And I think we've sort of touched on that it's, you know, whoever can take the shirt off your plate that you don't need to be doing. But what I think that they find is when they when they start to write that job description that what should you be doing? As an accidental entrepreneur, we stumbled into what we're doing and so we may not know who we actually need in our corner. You know, like I spent a couple of weeks ago, I will admit this and so Sorry, not sorry if I stumbled on to someone whose listings LinkedIn profile I started reading on LinkedIn profiles, all kinds of podcast manager, you know what they said that they did in their description because I was like, You know what, if this is something I want to hire out, and I think that I do, I don't even know what they should be doing. I just know what I need them to do. Oh, man, thanks for like, how do you upgrade that thought process on we don't even know what we need? 

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yeah, gosh, that's so good. Thank you for being so honest about that. And I really think the way you went about it is beautiful. I have like, here's what I know, I need. Here's this bulleted list. I need them to do this, this, this, this and this. However, what are these people actually do? I don't know. So searching on LinkedIn is a genius idea to figure out what they do. And and then I would say it's like, is it a podcast manager? Is it a Content Manager? Is it a podcast executive, like it would be looking at all these different titles because people give themselves titles, as accidental entrepreneurs, we give ourselves these titles, because we have the ability to do that. And so someone might be calling themselves a podcast coach. We both know crystal profit. She says, I'm a podcast therapist, right, like she gave us of that title. I think it's wonderful. And she really delineates, like, she helps people get over that hump of similar to you of like, pushing through, versus like someone who is running the show behind the scenes, right? There's a difference in who that person is. So do you need someone who's behind the scenes? Do you need someone who's helping you coordinate things? Like what are those specific things? So I think you went about it in the most perfect way that you can, in general of like, okay, once you know what you need, my biggest piece of advice is going to be instead of googling to try and find the person, I would ask your network, do you know anyone who does this, right? Because at this point, like if you were at the point of outsourcing, you're not brand new to this, if you are brand new and thinking about outsourcing, this could be different if you just have like a bucket of money that you're like, I don't want to do this, I want to spend the money. And I'm willing to do it, like go on with your bad self. That's great.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Oh, and please go to my website, there's lots of stuff that you can spend money on is same, please. 

 

Amanda McKinney 

And so chances are, you've been in the game for a little bit. And you've met other accidental entrepreneurs who have gone down this path. So use your network. So for me, like let's say, a year or two down the road, I'm thinking, You know what, I actually want someone to manage my podcast, I need a podcast manager, you better believe I'm gonna reach out to you and be like, Hey, what did you write in that chunk description? Who did you hire? Right? Like, I would not start from scratch, I would use my network to find the person. I mentioned Jess, earlier, I did not search for Jess on Google. I knew other people who used someone like Jess. And I said, Who are you using? Ironically enough, they were all using her. I was like, well, that's who I want to hire. I didn't even really have to even think about it. It was a very seamless transition, because I asked people for a recommendation, and now would be our biggest, biggest tool, I would say,

 

Joanne Bolt 

I love that. I ended up just stalking, like some of the top podcasts that I enjoy listening to. And then I went to their LinkedIn. And I was like, Who does it say works in their company? And what does it say on their profile, which was probably the long winded way of doing something. But When have I ever made anything easy?

 

Amanda McKinney 

Well, and I think it's really smart to do that to get your bearings, you know, and I think maybe the season of business and season of life can play into this as well. So I'll share this because you're saying like you went the longer way, which probably wasn't that long. But you you researched a lot, which I do, like if I'm going to think about purchasing a course enrolling in a membership, like I researched the crap, name, I am definitely the person that I research a lot, I think about it for a while. Once I'm in, I'm committed, but it takes me a while to make the choice. However, when I knew I needed someone in my business, there were a lot of things happening in my business and in my life at the same time. And I was having a conversation with one of my biz besties who are what I like to call, like I say biz bestie if you hate that term, don't use it if you like it, I love use it. I think it's great. It's other people who are running businesses and, and become a connection like we can be business besties right, because you're running a business so am I we understand what it's like to be an entrepreneur, you can have a best friend. But if they're not running a business, they don't understand like, the email headache that you have when you run into a tech issue. Like my best friends cannot help me with that. But my biz besties can. So anyways, I was having this meltdown, basically with a few of my biz besties. And I was like, I'm strapped for time, I don't know what to do. And one of them said, You need to outsource some of this. You have got to do this. And so in that moment, I didn't have the time to do what you did, or else I think I would have done it. But I did not have the time. So instead, I found the quicker route which was I'm going to ask three people who I know that use someone in their business behind the scenes. They all happen to use the same person.  

 

Joanne Bolt 

It was very like one of those systems like it was, it was like, the universe was just telling you like don't look anywhere else like man right here.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes, it was. It was perfect. And she I basically didn't eat like onboarding was so easy because I knew what she was doing in these other people's businesses. I just needed her to do that. replicate it in yours. Yeah. So all we had to do was figure out communication style. And I was basically like, I'm swimming upstream at this point, like, tell me what you want, tell me what you need. And I'll give it to you. Like, here's all the passwords.

 

Joanne Bolt 

I found someone's LinkedIn profile that said, if you have chaos, I'm your girl. And I was like, Oh, Hello, yes, we're besties. Now you just don't know it yet.

 

Amanda McKinney 

And, you know, I'm bringing this back to what we really started with when I said, I loved how he were so real on the podcast. And you just said, like someone that said, they didn't try to, like, make flowery language. They said, If your life is chaos, I'm your girl. That's what we need. We need clarity in marketing messaging, because you'll attract the right person. Absolutely. That's all we need is clarity. It seems so simple, but we always try and I'm pointing all 10 fingers at myself, right now I know everyone on the podcast can't see, I and most of us try to be clever, instead of being clear. And what we need is that clarity of like, how can you support someone? How can you help someone?

 

Joanne Bolt 

And I love it when people are just straight to the point on what they do. So that I don't have to wonder like, can you put up with my personality? Can we even connect? You know, like, I'm a No BS kind of person. And yet, I like to have a good cocktail, like, are we gonna be able to have an offline, you know, friendship and Al's a business? Because if I don't like you, I can't work with you either.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Right? And it's really, you know, I think, again, I do this all the time. And we get in our own way of, you know, I'll call myself out because we've all done this, but I'm not going to point any fingers at anybody else. But we all know we've done it, you want to create a sales page for whatever your service or product is. And so you look at other people's pages. 

 

Joanne Bolt 

Yeah. And try to imitate that. And suddenly, your page looks eerily like their page.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes. Instead of saying, How can I help someone with this product or with this service? And who is this for? How can I make this crystal freakin clear. And I'll just say, like, if someone goes to my website right now, you can probably tell me how it could be more clear, please email me, I'll change my page. Like, we can always do better with this. I like that. We just have to be really honest, that honesty is going to connect with that person. Like if you're the type of person who's like, I love having cocktails at the end of our business meetings, say that, because then you're gonna get people that are like, I've got a great cocktail recipe for you.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Yes. Oh, and if you do, please send it saying DM me on Instagram. It's Joe, in bold of always looking for a new Cabernet or a new cocktail to have in the evening.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Same, same anything limiting your podcasts for a little bit. 

 

Joanne Bolt 

The unapologetic entrepreneur, you started it, what, four years ago, three and a half years ago? Yeah, I've logged over time, you've openly said that. Here's what I really want to let our audience in on is how does your podcast run your overall business? What piece of the pie? Does it play?

 

Amanda McKinney 

Oh, it's a big one. It's a big one. And you know, I'll have to really think about that in a few different context, if that makes sense. Because the easiest one is obviously to think about revenue. But I don't really see business isn't only revenue. Yes, we need to focus on that. But I, I would say that my podcast runs more of a percentage of my business, then it would show in revenue. And the reason I say that is because every single person, I am not joking about this every single person that I've ever worked with since starting the podcast, I would say after about a year of running the podcast. So I started in 2019, one step at a time, I was doing my own editing didn't know what the heck to talk about on the podcast, like one step at a time here. Very little downloads at that point. After about a year, every single client that came my way, whether it was a one on one client, I had a membership for a while I did a lot of group coaching. Every single one of them said I listened to your podcast first. And so that's why if you only looked at revenue in my business, I don't have big sponsors right now, I've had a few sponsorships, but not a ton. I haven't really focused on that. That hasn't been a priority for me. I'm not saying it never will. But it hasn't been so far. And so if you only looked at revenue, it would not show that the podcast is huge in terms of percent of business, but it is because every single client has come that way. So all of the revenues that's come in is related to the podcast.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Any that though incred, like incredibly, important to pay attention to. A lot of times I find that podcasters will start a podcast and they feel lonely talking either behind the mic or they're not sure who to interview next or it's just It's a lot more work than they anticipated. Because they in their brain cannot correlate it with revenue in the business. Because they're light. I don't have enough downloads for sponsors, my email list isn't big enough to sell ads, yeah, then they'll quit the podcast. And I love that you take that over, step back, look down on the business and say, Wait a minute, wait a minute, I don't actually need to sell ads on the podcast, because I know my business is coming from it.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Right. And I really appreciate that you brought that up? Like it's something that I had to be very cognizant of, and asking. So when I have a new client, I asked them, what brought you to me? What had you trust me enough to give me your money? You know, that's a big deal. When someone's like yours, my money, I trust you with it, it is a big freakin deal. And so when I have a new client come my way, regardless of the capacity in which they come in, I always number one, like, want everyone to know, no one's ever just a number. To me, like your name, there's something that I do in my business that has really become known, because I've shown it visually so many times is that when I open a new program, when I do something I use, post it on my wall, and I say there's this many spots. And then as people sign up, I write their name. And I have this moment where I am really with that person. And like, the gratitude for that person is huge. And so part of that is really understanding what led them to me, because at some point, they decided I trust Amanda enough was my money. And so by asking that question, that's how I learned it was the podcast. And it's this free content that you and I create for people that I think if we only thought about it, as I'm giving this away for free, and people need to love it and appreciate it. And all of these things, that we probably think about it more as a almost like a product that we can get into and kind of think like, well, it's not the ROI is not there. But if we think about it as a relationship building tool, like text messaging with your best friends, you know, if they don't text you back right away, you're not interested, then you're just like, Oh, they're busy right away. And so someone listening to podcasts, like, they just don't need to buy the thing that you have right now. But maybe they will later. And so it's a relationship building tool, that that ROI looks a little bit differently. But if you can ask, how did you find me and you find is that people say, Oh, I listen to your podcast, you know, it's worth it in the end.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Well, and here's the other thing, and I'm sure you're well aware of this. But that podcast is so beautiful, because if someone's listening to it, and they may not need you right now, but they have a bestie, who does. And then they share the podcast with the bestie. And the best he maybe is driving like I did yesterday down the St. Simon island for five hours and listens and serves Benji and some podcast. And the next thing they know, by the time they get there, they listen to five or six of your podcast, they feel as though they cannot do anything else in life, but enter into your world in a different way. And all of a sudden, you've got a new client and you didn't even have to go to a networking event like you legitimately spoke to them reach them added value to their lives. And now you converted that relationship in a business setting. Yes. Oh my god, I love you. I just cannot do that. Like we can work. We can't sit and bend that much social media. I mean, right. It's doing but whatever.

 

Amanda McKinney 

Right. And I think it's a different context. Like, you know, if we're scrolling on social media, there's short clips, and a lot of people with a podcast, like you just said, what a beautiful visual that was of you driving for five hours, and you're listening. And when you listen to one, and you're like, Oh, that was really good. And it goes to the next one. And you're like, Ah, this is really great. When you listen to someone for five hours. Like to me, this is so fascinating. And I'm sure everyone who has a podcast is thinking this like to know that someone could listen to me for five hours is pretty remarkable to me, for me mind blowing, right? Yes. And I think about that, and I could, I could choose to let it really throw me off. You know, I could do that i but instead I think like, oh my gosh, like that is such a touching moment for me because the 2019 version of Amanda who started that podcast who was freaking so scared to hit publish. Like, it is unbelievable how scared I was. I'm so proud of her. I'm so proud of her for pushing through that fear and having the courage to get to continuing to put out content knowing no one is listening to this. Yeah, no one is listening to this. This is embarrassing. But I'm going to keep going. Because now I can say oh my gosh, someone told me they listen to me for five hours. That's remarkable, but you can't get there unless you keep going. So to your point earlier of like it's so scary to get started. So if you're listening, Dear friend, if you who had not started your podcast yet? Here's your sign.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Yeah, here's your permission slip, you have two bids. besties. Right here waiting on you. We've got your back. Don't worry, we'll help you through this. Yes, absolutely right. Carol Grant was amazing. I knew it would be. And I don't want to take up too much more of your time, because I know that you are as busy as I am during the day. I'm sure we'll have you on in the future again. But before I do let you go. Tell everyone, aside from pausing right now and going and subscribing to the unapologetic entrepreneur podcast, making sure it's in regular rotation and your platform player of choice, and then to what social media platform Do you want them to come find you on? Because I know I play on Instagram the most? That's where I reached out to you. But where do you want us to direct them

 

Amanda McKinney 

to Instagram is the best. I love it so much. It is a place to play and have fun. And and I know we can all get into our heads about social media. But what I like to say is we can choose how we use that platform. And for me Just Like You I like to share and have fun and connect with people. And of course promoting things like the podcast episode and that sort of thing. But it's really more about relationship building. And so I would love it, I would absolutely love to get a DM saying I listened to you on the B word podcast. And I'm thrilled, like, tell me what your favorite thing was. I really love it here.

 

Joanne Bolt 

All right, so last question, to thread or not to thread?

 

Amanda McKinney 

Oh, to thread! I signed up for so quickly because they needed so dang easy. I mean, that's the thing I did. Like everyone who creates technology needs to really realize that this case study is the best case study for this, that they made that so easy to go from one to the other. It was unbelievable. And what I like about it currently, who knows what's going to be in six months. But what I like about it currently is that how people are using it so differently. It's just fluid thought versus so much curated. Not in the sense of visual, some people still do that on Instagram, but most of it is just pre-planned because we're doing so much on Instagram. Whereas threads is just a fluid dot.

 

Joanne Bolt 

It's the flow and the train of thought from someone and I love it because you hop in on someone even falling on the ground, or listening to their podcast and you're like, This is who I think they are. And then you go watch them chatter back and forth on threads. And you're like, oh, they really are that person or you start to see the other side of them that actually makes you like them better, or possibly not like them better. 

 

Amanda McKinney 

Yes. It's very interesting. And I don't know what you did. And I don't think there's a right or wrong way of going about this. But when I went over, I did not take everyone from Instagram over.

 

Joanne Bolt 

I was like starting over people. And I was like, no, no, no, I don't even know who you are. So no. And I was like, I'm gonna use this a little like Instagram, but maybe a little bit different than Instagram.

 

Amanda McKinney 

I did the same. And so I think there can be a lot to be said about that of how we use different platforms and really an if you know, regardless of where someone falls, I think if you like threads, it's like, okay, if you like it so much like both of us are like, Oh, I'm really enjoying this. How can we take that over to Instagram to if we're alright out air? Like what are we doing on Instagram that maybe isn't serving us anymore that we're really craving that we didn't even know we were craving yet. So I think we can learn from playing around with new social media apps. But of course, no one has to be everywhere. So I don't think it's the answer for everyone.

 

Joanne Bolt 

Don't either. And that's why I always say what platform Do you play on and want us to find you on? Instagram and threads it is for Miss Amanda? You guys. As always, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please hop into Amanda's DMS, let her know what she said, hop into mind, tell me what your biggest aha moment was. And even better, make sure you're listening to both of these podcasts and leaving them a review on Apple because that's how we get found on Apple and how we can help and serve others just like you so build your business on a microphone on it. And we'll see you same time same place next week.

 

 

Joanne Bolt 

You just finished another episode of the B word podcast. Cheers to you. If I were with you, I would literally pop a big ol bottle of Prosecco and pour you a glass since I'm not why don't you do the next best thing and share this episode with one of your besties because we all know you've got that one girlfriend that needs to hear it. Thanks friends.

 

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