SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Midlife Women Entrepreneurs. I am your host, Lynette Turner, and today I have a guest all the way from Costa Rica. We'll get to that later. But today we are going to talk about one simple problem, and that is how do you rebuild a simple, profitable business when you're done pouring from an empty cup? We've all felt it before. We're putting our heart and soul into our business, but we're not making any money. Or we're not getting anything back. So my guest today is Molly Rolland, founder of Heartcast Media. She has built a multimedia company for the last 25 years. She's got a great story about leaving things behind and focusing on the stuff that she loves. She uses podcasting as a real business development tool. Molly, welcome. Give us an introduction and we're going to take it from there.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

It's nice to be here. I really enjoyed our conversation last week, so I've been looking forward to being here today. Yeah, I have owned a multimedia company for almost 27 years now. So I have uh been through the trenches and back again and have tons of experience, mostly from making lots of mistakes. So I'm excited to share those.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Well, yes, exactly. And you know what? That's so heartfelt because often we always see the story of somebody and they look so successful, but it didn't come without the blood, sweat, and tears. You know, and sometimes, and and you referenced our conversation last week for everybody that's listening. That was our pre-call. I always jump on a pre-call because I don't I try to run these podcasts very sort of authentic. And so I like to get to know my guest a little bit beforehand. Molly, when you and I were chatting, you talked about, you know, holy cow, what was I getting from this business that you were running? It was based out of LA at the time. Talk a little bit about that story and how you, you know, did the flip.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it was one of those things that from the outside looking in, it looked wildly successful, right? But it wasn't. It was a boulder that I was pushing up a giant cliff, and the second I stopped, it was gonna roll back on me. Um, but from the outside looking in, it looked great. I had 18 employees, I was managing 160 artists, I had a three-story building across the street from the legendary Howard Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. You know, I was doing a lot, but but it wasn't sustainable. And I wasn't happy. And I started the business because I'm a connector, and when I get excited about things, I want to share that with other people too. And so it's very natural. And I grew up in a very musical household. I grew up with the chieftains in my living room and playing musical instruments and Irish dancing at the White House, you know, a real entertainment kind of a thing. And I love that. But I just hit a point where I always made sure everybody, nobody was hungry, but nobody ever asked me if I had eaten. You know, I it wasn't just pouring from an empty cup, there was nothing left. And I had a medical situation and they thought I was had cancer and I was gonna die, and I was relieved. I was relieved to get off the ride. And when they told me I didn't have cancer, I was disappointed. And that's when I realized, okay, there's something really wrong here. You shouldn't be relieved to find out that you're you've pulled your exit ticket. You know, that's not it. And so I closed the company, but you know, everybody was very shocked about this, you know. But I closed the company and I always say that I Marie Kondoed and reverse opened my life. I sat down and I thought, what do I like about what I do? Right? Because I've, you know, I'm still doing the same thing. I'm doing it for different people. That's all, right? I didn't give up, I didn't pivot, I adapted based on my personal group. And so I thought about what am I enjoying about the work that I do? And then how to isolate that? What do I not enjoy? How do I get rid of that? And then I also realized that in my attempts to help so many people, I was enabling them to not be their best self at my own expense. And so when I say a reverse oprid, and I literally was like, you gotta go and you gotta go, and I'm not responsible for anybody, and there's nothing under your seat. Go home. You know what I mean? I'm not the one anymore. I can't do it. And that was so freeing because it was the first time that I actually thought about what I want and not what the artists needed or what the city needed or what the nonprofits needed or what the kids needed, but what I needed because I would do these huge events and go to go to leave and I wouldn't have enough to take an Uber home, you know, while everybody thinks I'm cashing checks that don't exist.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, and I just loved that part of the story. Like when you were telling me that last week, I was like, my God, that's so true. Because, you know, we can get caught up in the sort of Instagram world, the social media world where everybody looks like they're all making, you know, bank kind of thing. Okay, so I love the analogy you used as well, like reverse opera, Marie Kondo. What's her name again?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Marie Kondo, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah, Marie Kondo. You know, so talk a little bit about that process because it's not an easy thing to do. Like I'm currently, I kind of feel like there you were brought to me by the universe a little bit because I think about my podcast. I'm gonna just I'll be vulnerable here right now. And I think, you know what, I love doing my podcast and I don't have a problem finding guests at all, which is can be a problem for a lot of people. But yeah, I'm not making any money. And people will ask me, are you making any money? My parents asked me, no, I'm just doing it for the love of doing the podcast. And I think if I wanted to make money off of this podcast, I've got to get a much stronger business model monetization strategy around it. But then I'm like, do I really want that? And do I love it enough to then say, okay, now I've got to do this, this, and this to start monetizing it? So I'm curious, like, how did you look at that business and say, okay, yeah, no, I hate everything or I like only pieces of it? What was the more detailed process?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Well, I think it's like getting really clear on what it is that you want to do, especially right now, in this time, the world is falling apart. People are, I mean, it's just if you don't align with what you do every day, you're gonna be miserable. If you're going into an office space where like you don't like those people or you don't feel like you can use your voice, that is going to kill your soul. It's going to chip away at your very being, especially as a woman, right? Especially as we're being suppressed and silenced and everything else. So you have to be really clear on what it is that you want to do and what you want to spend your time on. That is number one. Once you're clear on that, then it's like, okay, what how do you identify the demand? And I think a lot of times as women, we're taught like follow your instincts, follow your heart, do something, follow your passion. It's it's bullshit. Passion doesn't pay the bills, okay? It's not real. Listen, I love what I do, okay? But if I could get paid being on a boat half drunk all day, I would much rather do that, okay? As much as I love my clients. And I love my work. I love my employees. I really do. I'm very, very fortunate to enjoy what it is I do. But it's not like I wake up every day and I'm like, I want to work 15 hours at my desk today. That's gonna make my heart sing. It doesn't. What makes my heart sing is like creating a business that's sustainable, fixing all the mistakes I made before. Um, being able to give my employees all two weeks' pay for Christmas and a week off. That's what makes my heart sing, right? Having time to be able to come to the beach and hang out with my girlfriends last night, you know, a bunch of women older than me. That makes my so, you know, and then what do I do? Well, I'm providing a service that a lot of people need. And I think that's it's like you have to identify what it is you want to do all day and how you want to spend your time, you know, and what you'd like to do for other people. And then who needs that? And is that real? Like if you're like, I want to have a pretzel truck, well, uh, you might be out of luck, my dude. You know what I mean? Is the demand for pretzels that high? Or is this just your dream because you're setting yourself up for failure? So I think right now, especially, right? You know, a year ago, two years ago, it wouldn't have been as important to align with your belief system as it was, you know, it really matters now because you don't want to be surrounded by the wrong people. But there's still a demand for everything. So maybe your life coaching business won't be the same because that's, you know, it's like second homes. That's the first thing people stop paying for when their mortgage is tight. They're not paying for coaching anymore unless the job is paying for it. But there are people who are leaving marriages. There are, you know what I mean? Leaving career. There, you can adjust what it is you do and who you do it for without leaving the core of what it is that brings you joy. And I think that's really important, especially now, because as many industries as are crumbling, new ones are coming up, right? New industries are forming. It's like the pandemic, right? Like, yeah, a lot of people went under, but a lot of people became millionaires because they were selling masks or whatever. So, not to be an opportunist, but be realistic about the world. And like, this isn't a good time to have a life coaching business. It's not. You know, it just isn't. Life coaching feels so frivolous right now. Tell me how to get out of my abusive marriage coaching. That is way more pertinent, right? Figure out what is happening right now and how you can fill that gap because what happens is when you're doing something purposeful and with intention and that aligns with your spirit, whatever that may be, then things will be more successful for you. But if you're focused on what it is that you want to do and not necessarily what is needed, you're net you're gonna fail. And a lot of coaches will encourage you to do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah. I love what you just said there about, well, the whole the vein of what you were saying. I'll paraphrase it back. Take every little element and ask yourself, what will people pay for? And that's really interesting because I think sometimes we can look holistically at our offers versus pinpointing exactly. And maybe that one little pinpoint becomes a big, huge bubble in your business, but you didn't see it because you were so focused on the overarching holistic view. Is that kind of what you were 100%?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

And what you think you were gonna do? Like when I first started for Heartcast Media, we had been doing a bunch of live streaming. It was like 2016, and we did all this live streaming so in with my old company. So when I formed Heartcast Media in 2018, I said everybody's gonna want to live stream. Well, I was ahead of my time, nobody was home until the pandemic, and then everybody wanted to live stream. I was like, where were you four years ago? Right. So if you look at my original business plan, it has a lot about live streaming for businesses. I think two people hired us to do that, right? Things adjust and change. Don't be so staunch on what it is you thought it was gonna be because the world is changing, right? There's there's probably more positions for community organizing and activating and things like that than there were two years ago or a year ago. Like everything is changing. The markets are changing, right? So understanding that and finding where you can fit in, because women don't make any ground when we don't make money. You know, you're not serving anybody by, you know, getting kicked in the shins over and over. There's nothing honorable about saying, I don't need to get paid. There's nothing honorable about devaluing yourself or your work. There's nothing, there's nothing good comes for anybody anywhere, especially women when we when we devalue ourselves. So figure out what it is that you're good at and what people will pay you for and lean in on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Yeah, based on the current market conditions, right? And that's kind of just reminds me of investing, right? You're you're gonna invest in things, your portfolio, into things that, you know, that the market is telling you to do. You know, like during the pandemic, right? We saw Lululemon stock go through the roof because nobody was sitting in their, you know, in their suits and ties anymore. They were sitting in their Lululemons, you know. So yeah, I mean, yeah, I know that for a fact. I think the stock price was 110 and it went up to 385 or something like that. And I think that's how I'm hearing you. What you're saying is people might pay for everything in your offer, but at a particular moment in time based on what's happening to them and to within the market a little bit. So, okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Absolutely. And you know, a good example is like with our company, we do podcast production and booking and growth. And, you know, we're doing a lot more podcast booking right now than podcast production because that's what people are interested in. That's what people are Googling for, and we show up for it. And then so I've hired three new full-time people last year for that department alone. I'm not out here banging the drum trying to find more production clients. I'm like, okay, cool. Let's double down on booking. Let's be better than everybody else. Let me hire two new people this year to do this job with the person already doing it, instead of being so dead set, oh no, I really want to do production. You know, it just go where the market takes you and be have your eyes open. The other thing is like reverse engineering, right? So, like in regards to your podcast, right? Like I always say people when we're producing podcasts, what is the goal? Like, let's start from the end, success. What does that look like? And then reverse engineer it. So, like in your case, I would say, well, let's look at your analytics, let's look at your data. Who is your audience right now, right? How many downloads are you getting? What is the drop-off point? Where are those people located? As much information as we can get, demographics, subtitles, income, gender, look at all of that stuff. And then I would create a profile. And I would say, okay, well, this is this, your average listener is a 45-year-old woman, you know what I mean, whatever, right? And then I would say, okay, who else is trying to talk to those people that you don't hate? Right? Who, whose brand would you not mind having represented on yours? Who is trying to get to those same people? That has a ton of value. Your direct voice to your audience has so much more value than Facebook ads or Google ads. Those are such a wide net. This is a personal recommendation. And if you really like that product, then you wouldn't have any problem saying sponsored by, you know, X product. I love X Product. I've been using it for years. I'm not faking the funk. I've literally, it's on my desk. You feel very good about saying it. And then your listeners will like that too, right? So that's one angle. The other angle is what is your main business? Why don't you shift who you're interviewing to be shift the people to the people that you would like to do business with? And you don't sell them anything. You just interview them and you build a relationship with them and you nurture that. And then the gift of reciprocity is real. So when you follow up and you say, Hey, thanks for coming on the show, Molly, would you mind making that introduction? Would you mind joining my board of directors? Could I get 20 minutes of your time? I'm gonna say sure because I appreciate that, like we had a great conversation. You made time for me, you included me on your platform, which is big and has a lot of uh, I'm gonna say sure. Then you can start to build relationships, and those relationships go a long way, right? Then people are asking, what do you do? Like, tell me more about what you do, right? It changes everything. But you gotta nurture those. And I think we live in a time where it's like, more, more, more. Just the next one. The next slow down, man. You know, if you did 22 interviews in a year, but you nurtured every one of those relationships and followed up with them and sent them the things and tagged them on LinkedIn and asked them for something, you are going to make money. Well, you have to make sure that you're interviewing people that are relative to the thing that it is that you do. And so monetizing a podcast isn't always about downloads. Sometimes it's, you know, I think I was telling you I did, you know, 18 or 20 episodes and put 60K in my pipeline from 22 episodes, but it was very strategic and intentional. And the whole podcast has 500 downloads on 60 some odd episodes. It is not a winning podcast by any stretch of the imagination. But what I did was form 22 solid new relationships, not just with CMOs, but fractional CMOs who have multiple clients who see the value in the work that we do. So that's a way to monetize. So, you know, it's always about like having a strategy. And a lot of times people will come to me and they say, we want to start a podcast, but what do people want to hear about? Don't worry about what people want to hear about. What do you want to talk about? Because I don't want to hear you talk about something that you're not passionate about. You can just like how you can tell when someone's reading something and your brain just shuts off. You can't fake the funk on these things if you want people to actually listen and care, you know? So if you're trying to build your audience, that's a different angle. If you're trying to fill your pipeline, that's a different angle, right? But no matter which one of those you take, you still gotta be interested in what it is that you're talking about, or it's never gonna be good, period. You know, even if it's just a pipeline filler, right? Like those episodes we did were pretty funny and pretty good if you like if you're into marketing, but that's not like a an award-winning podcast. My new podcast has thousand downloads in four months, right? The other one, 80 some odd episodes, 60 some odd episodes, 500 downloads, right? Well, the difference is passion, right? I'm a lot more passionate about this other podcast than I am. So, but I can also monetize that. I can do the same thing. I can take my data, I can run a report, pull the the the cut the customer profile, and I could go to a number of different organizations, companies, brands, and say, listen, I got puzzle men of puzzle, women over fifty who are ready to ride at dawn. What you got for me? And I guarantee you there's a bunch of brands who would love to get in front of an extra 12,000 people a week. You know? Yeah, no, that that's really good. You know, just treat everything more like a business because the better and the tighter your businesses and the more the better your ability to make money, the more time frees up in the rest of your life to actually live it and spend time with your children or your husband or your girlfriends or go to the beach or whatever. And that's what really matters, you know? Yeah. You got we gotta make more money. Like we all women have to make more money.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. So on that note, then, so let's let's talk about just generically. I know you gave a really good scenario using my podcast and what I could do, but let's say we've got a woman who is in very similar situation, but just a different situation with her business or different type of business. What does she do this week?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Like what is what is how does she get started? Go to the woods and eat some mushrooms, step one. I'm just kidding. Only kind of. Um, you know, defragment your hard drive, right? Take some space, turn everything off, put your phone in another room, and make a pro and con list. What do you like? What do you not like about what it is that you're doing? You know, is it the people? Is it the you know, really dial in on what you don't like and put that to the side. And then what it is that you do like, and then how do you create a better business from that? You know? And and some people might be waking up and going, I don't like any of it. I don't like my boss, I don't like the people I work with, I don't even like my customers, which happens when you're not in control. You know, I I actually like this weekend, I like took a huge hit, did a bunch of work for somebody, and I was on the fifth revision and I was like, I don't do design by committee. This isn't a good fit. I lost a lot of time and money on that deal, and I walked away because I really like her, but her self-limiting beliefs are not my problem. And I'm not doing a fifth version of the thing that we, you know what I mean? I'm not doing that because you showed your 18-year-old daughter and she didn't like it. You know, I I'm not, and she's a lovely woman. I would hang out with her, but I can't work with her because that's super insulting and an insane waste of my time. You know what I mean? Like I don't, I don't care what an 18-year-old who's never been in the workplace thinks. I have zero interest in that, right? So it's really important that you align with your clients and the people that you want to work with. And so, you know, disseminating all that down into what do you like, what's working, you know, and look at your business. You know, maybe none of it's working. Maybe you don't want to do that at all. Maybe you thought you wanted to be a boss, but you don't actually like it. Or what are the elements that you like versus the ones that you don't? I think that is the most important thing that you can do. And then the second step is go educate yourself. Like as women, this information is not given to us. We are not taught how to be leaders, we are not taught how to make money. In fact, a lot of us feel ooky about talking about money, right? I was listening to something yesterday and they said, everybody says don't talk about money, but rich people talk about money all the time. That's all they talk about, right? And the rest of us are sitting around going, we don't talk about that. I do. I talk about money because I want women to make more of it, right? So I think getting a really good handle on that is important, you know, not being afraid to want to be successful. And so educate yourself because every successful person on the planet right now wrote a book in the last five years, and they will tell you exactly how they did it. And so when I first formed Heartcast Media, I had a business partner and she had a PMP and the business certification and the whatever, right? And I had the IP, the relationships, and the experience. Well, she lasted six weeks and she bailed. And I was in a studio in the Washington Post building with a lot of overhead. I was picking up clients, I had just spent 15 grand on more equipment, and she bailed. And I was like, I didn't want to do this alone. I thought I was gonna have a partner. And so I was like, well, I better educate myself. And so for three years, I wrote uh or read 130 books on business development and a little bit of leadership. No, no um personal development. I'm not gonna sit around and think about how bad I am. I do enough of that. I'm a woman, okay? I was born to do that. I don't need books to tell me how flawed I am. I want books to teach me how to make money. And so that's what I would do. Dial in on what it is that you want to do, turn everything else off, and go read 15 books in the next, you know, as you know, or 10 books, you know. You could read a book a day if you really want to. How long is your commute? How many, how many hours do you spend a day in the car? You crank that audible up to 1.3, and on a simple road trip and back, you can listen into an entire book. And there are wildly successful people out there that will tell you exactly how to make money. It is all there, but you have to go seek it. And then you have to implement it. You know, it's not just going to come to you by osmosis. That's not how this works. And women are getting less seats at the table, our voices are being suppressed. It's so much harder for us. So you can't just show up and get paid. You gotta be aggressive. And sometimes people aren't gonna like you, and it doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Uh yeah, I like all of that. So, and even, you know, just following certain people. I mean, you can read the book, they've got and like so you said something interesting there. Where you said ever everybody that's successful has written a book or read a book. What did you say there? Written.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

There are so many books, so many books available. Every industry.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yeah. You know, and that's interesting because there's been a few things that are showing up for me, you know, advertising, sponsored ads, or whatever. And there's this one guy uh that, you know, I I can forget his name. Maybe I do remember it, but I'm not gonna say it. So he says, let's get your book written in 30 days. And then from that, then you'll be able to, you know, create your product or whatever. What do you think of that? I think it's bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah. I mean, look, there's there's this idea that once you have a book, and then you can get this, and then you can get, I don't know, at some point we're all just twerking for the algorithm. Like, you know, yeah, okay, sure, having a book, but like 30 days, like, what is the book about? Like, you know, you better have something to say because I, you know, just having a book isn't it. You can't just like, okay, I did all these things, so now where's you know, I took this course, I bought this URL, I got the LLC, okay, where's my money? That's that that is not it. And like those people are just selling you something, man. They they're just that's a that's a sales product to convince you that you'll make more money because of them. The times when my businesses are the most profitable is when I am the least active publicly. Right? Hate LinkedIn. I despise it to my very core. Every time I open LinkedIn, I get angry. I see something so unincredibly inappropriate. Men just talking and existing in the world irritates me at this point. You know what I mean? I stay off of it. When I keep my head down, I'm closing deals left and right. I'm working on my SEO, I'm doing inbound calls. Then I open LinkedIn and I see all these people wax poetic about the podcast industry and charting the course of the future of audio. People who've never touched an audio file in their life, transstanding on LinkedIn. No problem, dude. I'm gonna be over here making money. My clients don't find me on social media. They're not like winning video clips. It's all such a trap. Focus on what you want to do, get clear on your offer, and have good SEO. And make sure the people who are looking for that service see you and then they will contact you. Make sure you have a calendarly that makes it really easy. Make sure that your email me buttons work on your website. Like, boil this down to much more simple terms because you know who's on LinkedIn liking your stuff? Unemployed people.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Okay? I mean, really. Look, you know, it's AI slop or unemployed people. Those are the biggest posts. And what does that do? What does thousands of comments do? You know what it does? It gets you death threats from men, it gets you spam, it gets you like fake out, you know, uh, you know, endorphin Russians, whatever, right? You know, does it get you, does your phone ring? Did you close any deals? No, it is a trap. It is a hundred percent a trap, right? It's a flawed illusion, you know?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah, to keep you in a spin. And that's that's exactly I I don't I can't even go on LinkedIn anymore. It's just for me, I mean, I know we're kind of picking on that platform, but it is there's a lot of platforms where there's a lot of mis, there's a lot of deceiving information out there that the the the real true story behind it isn't the case. And I like that. Keep your head down. So, in all of that, where does podcasting fit as a business development? Your company, working with your company, or just podcasting in general?

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Well, it's a it's a lot of what we're doing right now. Like, what are you into? What makes you happy? What do you want to do with your time? Let's reverse engineer into a business, and then we help you do it. We're like the elves behind the scene, you know. We we do all the hard work so you can just show up and be great, you know? But it's really all boils down to how can you make money? And sometimes I tell people, I don't think you should have a podcast. I tell people all the time, I don't think you have a podcast. Focus on making money. You know what I mean? Focus on making this idea. And I always joke with people, and you know, because you have a podcast. If you want to hide a secret, record it on a podcast and publish it for the world. No one will ever hear it. Yeah. Because seriously, it's like a it's like a vulture. Yeah, like it's you know, like honestly and truly, it is really hard to get people to listen to your podcast. And the only reason why my podcast has so many downloads right now is because I was detained by ice last year in May by, or I was detained by ice in May at the Miami airport, and I went viral, and that gave me a little boost. But if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have as many, you know what I mean? So, like, it's it's not a magic pill, you know, starting a podcast. In fact, it's a lot like taking another course, writing a book nobody asks for, that's not even that good, that you wrote with AI. Enough. Enough. Nobody needs an AI written book for the love of Christ. You know what I mean? Nobody. You know, don't fall for those traps. They're just like shiny objects that are gonna keep you away. If you're really clear on who your ideal client is, then having a targeted season of podcast for 12 episodes and you're looking at more like 12 leads that you're high caliber, high quality leads that you're generating, that is a great way to do it. But then you you do 12 episodes, you fill your pipeline, and you put pause on the podcast and you revisit it when you need to fill your pipeline again, which is very, very different than trying to get downloads and be known as a podcaster. Yeah, I know that's really good. You know what I mean? So it's just getting really, really clear on what it is that you want to do. And I I love that stuff. I've always said I want to do like a speed dating for podcasting and just go table to table and be like, what's your business? And then I could be like, Okay, you could do, you know, because I love the strategy of that. And sometimes I say people, you shouldn't. You shouldn't build your website better and focus on SEO and get some inbound traffic and inbound discovery calls and get better at selling, get more comfortable at selling, understand what your offers are, get really clear about them, who they're for, who they're not for. That's where you should be spending your time, not trying to think of like what does the audience want to hear? You know, that's uh unless you're just independently wealthy and you want to sit around and chit-chat all day, which I'm here for that as well. Yeah, exactly. So, so that's that's to start a podcast, but what do you think about guesting? Guessing is fantastic. You know, I'm a big fan of that. We sell it a little different. People always say, tap into other people's audience. And I'm like, no, man, this is speed dating for B2B. Don't worry about the audience. You're not tapping into anybody's audience. You don't have the voice of God as they say it in broadcasting, right? You're not going to just turn people into your raving fans because they heard you. No, what they're gonna do is form a relationship. We have a relationship now, right? We've chatted last week, we have similarities, used to live in Mexico, you know, we, you know, we both white women, gringas in Latin America. You know, we have a bond now. If something comes up that's gonna benefit you, I'm gonna, of course, pass it your way or include you in something or invite you to something. That's a relationship. Maybe one day we'll do business, or I'll send you some or you, right? Podcast guesting. Form a relationship with the host and nurture it. Everything else comes organically, but it's also really important to pick good podcasts because there are a mountain of crappy podcasts that'll probably never even get published and can be an absolute waste of your time and misrepresent you. So getting on good podcasts matters. Hiring an agency helps because we cut through the noise. But being very clear on what is your messaging, right? If you listen to all my if you Google me and look at all the podcasts, I'm saying the same thing over and over. Podcasting for business development. Interview the people you want to do business with, get really clear on your offers, do your essay. I say the same thing over and over again. You would hear 18 different versions of this, you know, same thing because that's what I want to talk about. And I give the same CTA, my website, hardcastmedia.com forward slash friends, because we're friends now, right? And that's the most important thing. Make it very, very clear. What is the message? The message is I want to help you strategize, I want to help you make more money through podcasting and podcast booking. And if we get on a strategy call and I'm not the right fit, I'm still down to give you strategy and send you off with your head spinning and a notepad full of notes, ready to go tackle the thing that is right for you. Because I think that's what women should be doing for each other right now.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Yeah, no, that's great. Well, you've already said where to find you and what you would offer, but let's let's just go before we wrap up, let's say it one more time. How does somebody get a hold of you? Uh, and you know, why would they want to get a hold of you rather than sitting there trying to keep struggling yourself?

SPEAKER_00 30:22

Well, you know, because it's always good to get a little feedback, and I'll be the one friend that tells you like it is whether you want to hear it or not. But it's uh heartcastmedia forward slash or dot com forward slash friends, right? Because we're all friends now. And you can get my, you know, you can get all my links and book a meeting and you know, see this stuff. It's just easier that way. But I would say, you know, or check out my podcast. It's called What Do We Do Next? I will plug that because it matters and I'm very passionate about that one. But let's connect. I think that the more women connect together and find solace and community in each other, especially as business owners, right? There's not a lot I have a lot of friends, but they're not all business owners. So I value, I I value the strategy calls, I value my clients, I value the podcast I get to go on because it's nice to talk shop with other women. It's nice to feel a little less alone and feel like a part of a community. And so I would say just l lean in on that and surround yourself with the people that you wanna you wanna be around, you know?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah, no, that's perfect. That's perfect. Molly, thank you for being such a straightforward, cut through the noise uh guest. You were awesome. I really appreciate your feedback and thank you for using me as a bit of a use case. I didn't know we were gonna do that, but I'm glad we did. All right. Well, enjoy your time down in Costa Rica. I think it's you said it was hot and muggy there today. So it is.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

It is.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me, Lynette. It's really, really great hanging out with you. My pleasure, my pleasure. Anytime.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

We'll talk soon.