100th Episode! What I have gained from 100 episodes of podcasting

The Business of Psychology

100th Episode! What I have gained from 100 episodes of podcasting

Welcome to what is for me a really special episode of the Business of Psychology podcast.

It's really special to me because this is the 100th episode! It's actually not the 100th episode that I've recorded, as you might have noticed there are a few bonus episodes in there and they don't count in the official numbers, so we're actually well over 100 in terms of actual numbers, but this is the official episode 100 of the Business of Psychology and it's pretty momentous for me.

I started this as a passion project, which came from my need to connect with other people, and my desire to share some of the business knowledge or advice that I'd picked up in my first few years in private practice. I was pretty desperate to share that because I felt like I'd been through a lot of pain that a lot of people didn't need to go through, and also that a lot of really valuable work and ideas for social enterprises and services that were badly needed in my community, were falling at the first hurdle because people didn't understand business, and they didn't understand marketing, and I understand that not everybody wants to know a lot about those things, or not everybody wants to spend hours and hours and lots of money either doing courses and coaching programmes and all this stuff that I enjoyed and loved doing and continue to do. So this podcast for me was really about connecting with like-minded people, and also providing something to help people who have got amazing ideas, but not necessarily very much knowledge about business or marketing, to reach more people and make a big impact in the world.

I could never have imagined when I set out thinking maybe I'll record six episodes, maybe I'll stretch it to 10, but have I got that much to say? I could never have predicted that I would get to 100 episodes, and that actually this podcast would be the bedrock of my business as it is now; my business which has changed dramatically over the two-and-a-bit years that I've been making this podcast. So I thought that I would record the 100th episode as a reflection on everything that I've learned from podcasting, and maybe it might inspire some of you to start your podcasting journeys, because I really think that a lot of you have got really important messages to put out there in the world, and podcasting is a great medium to do that, but I know from firsthand experience that it can feel a bit daunting to get started and it can also feel like a massive investment. So I thought it would be a good idea for me to share with you the ways in which podcasting has paid off as an investment for me; the things I've learned from it, the benefits that I've reaped from it, so that you can have a think about whether it might be right for you as well.

This would also be a good first episode to listen to if you're new to the Business of Psychology, because I am going to mention some of the podcast episodes that have inspired me the most. If you head to the show notes, every episode I mention will be linked to there, so this could be a good one to listen to if you're new to our podcast.

1. Inspiration

The first thing that I wanted to talk about is all of the inspiration that I have got from recording the Business of Psychology and the amazing people who I've interviewed. Now, if I was going to list out every inspiring episode that I've recorded it would be too long, because I have had some phenomenal guests on the Business of Psychology. But the one that really sprung to my mind when I was writing this episode was the episode I recorded with Melanie Lee, who talked to us about how to grow a team. What inspired me about talking to Melanie was the vision that she had; she knew exactly what service she wanted to provide, and it was bigger than her, it was bigger than a one-woman show. So she set about growing a values aligned team of other psychologists who would provide that service alongside her. I think that was really inspiring to me, because when I set out in private practice I literally imagined myself in a room and I really struggled to think beyond that. Talking to people like Melanie, and surrounding yourself with people that have that vision, can really help you to think about where you want to get to with your business and it really helped me. That interview specifically really helped me think about where I want to take my clinical practice, because I know I want that to be bigger than me, but I was getting a bit stuck with envisioning how that could look in reality. So that is a brilliant one for you if you're starting out in private practice, or maybe you've been in practice for a while and you're feeling a bit blocked on your vision, can't quite imagine where you want to take it: really inspiring interview there.

The second interview that came into my mind when I was thinking about who really inspired me, was with Kathy Adcock. We talked about her social enterprise, which is all about boxing and helping young people through boxing. Boxing is completely out of my wheelhouse; I'm a big believer in the mind-body connection, I'm really into all kinds of exercise, and I understand the impact that has had on my personal mental health, but boxing is something that I don't know very much about and I guess I could have fallen into some of that stereotypical thinking around boxing being kind of violent, or having aggressive undertones to it, but Kathy really set me straight on that. Listening to her approach to social enterprise and her approach to working with young people was really, really inspiring to me. So I fully recommend that you go and listen to that if you're having an inspiration drought of any kind. She's extremely high energy, and a really inspiring person to talk to you.

Also, I wanted to mention here one of my first interviews, which was with the wonderful Cliff Hawkins. Cliff has had an amazing career and he was willing to talk to us about how he got started, how he developed his career, and how he learned his trade over the years. That took him through some amazing journeys, including setting up a school in Ukraine, which has particular significance to listen to now, but also his journey through working as a management consultant, doing an MBA, working in the NHS, specialising in learning disabilities. This long, kind of winding road to where he is now in private practice was extremely interesting and really inspiring to listen to, and I'm very glad that it was one of my first interviews. Do go back and have a listen to that if you want to think about how your career might develop, and have the confidence to throw yourself into whatever you're doing now, knowing that you might do something different in a few years’ time. I think often, we can get stuck in our heads thinking, oh do I specialise? Because if I specialise in this, it might not fulfil me in 10 years time, where actually Cliff's story and his journey shows that yeah, it might not, and you might change direction, but that's okay. But whatever you do, you have to do it with a whole heart, and that's very much what he's done. That’s what I took from his story. So go back and have a listen to that if you ever find yourself getting stuck in your head, and failing to take action; that's a great one to kind of kick you up the bum!

2. A bigger network and people to collaborate with

The second thing that I've gained from creating this podcast, beyond inspiration, is a bigger network and people to collaborate with. There have been a few projects I've worked on over the last couple of years that would not have happened if I hadn't met somebody through the podcast. The most obvious example of that is the Do More Than Therapy membership. A lot of the experts that we have providing training in the membership were podcast guests first, and it was doing that podcast that made me think, oh I bet you could do an awesome workshop that people would really benefit from. And it was from that, that the membership was born in the first place. There are lots of things that I've done that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the podcast, but the membership is the most obvious example. I think it's a fantastic way of growing your network, and developing your own knowledge and expertise. I feel like interviewing a subject matter expert in a particular topic has accelerated my learning on that topic, more than anything else I've ever done. That might be slightly to do with my learning style, but when I interview somebody I research them, I tend to try and read their book if I can, and then I have a hopefully deep and engaging conversation with them, where I'm giving it all of my attention. That is the best way to learn I've ever come across, or it certainly is for me. So that was an added benefit of the podcast that I really hadn't anticipated before I started; that development of my network and also that development of expertise in areas that perhaps I wouldn't have thought about before. I'm thinking of the interview that I did with Dave Lee on sleep. He's a massive expert in the area of sleep; I'm not, but talking to him about it inspired me to read so much more in that area, and it gave me more confidence to bring it up with my clients as well, and I think my clients probably benefited from that. So, if you are thinking about starting a podcast, and you're feeling like an imposter who doesn't know enough, well, brilliant, get some experts in who can talk to you about the stuff that you don't know enough about, and it will help you to develop your expertise as you go. Lack of knowledge is never a good reason to delay starting your podcast in my view.

3. Knowledge and skills development

That brings me on to number three, which is knowledge and skills development. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll know we've got episodes on things which of course I'm certainly not an expert in, like web design, growing your Instagram following, copywriting, all of those kind of technical skills that we need in our business, which are certainly not my wheelhouse (or they weren't). I found that interviewing people on the podcast for those things, not only did it help me source some experts who could talk in my membership and who could help me with my own stuff, it also enabled me to start learning about these things for myself. So again, I feel like I've picked up knowledge and skills in areas that I probably wouldn't have explored that much if I hadn't been creating this podcast for you. The knowledge and skills I've picked up doing this podcast aren't just about psychology; I've also picked up loads from completely different subject areas that have been really helpful to me in my business.

4. Clarity in my personal mission and in my vision for my business

The fourth thing is a bit less tangible, but I think really important, and I think, possibly because I'm a verbal processor as I learned from talking to Rebekah Tennyson about the enneagram, I have gained a lot of clarity in my personal mission and in my vision for my business, through creating this podcast and talking to other people about the way that they run their businesses. So possibly it's because when I talk out loud, I make sense of the world. I think that is very much how my brain works, but I think it's also being exposed to lots of different ways that people do things and really getting under the skin of lots of different types of business model. I think that helps you to clarify your own mission and your own vision, and that's been a big benefit for me from this podcast.

5. Providing guests with a platform

The fifth benefit that I have gained from this podcast is, as the listenership has grown (I think we're reaching about 2000 people a month - sometimes more than that (it’s been double that at times) and sometimes less, but around that mark) so over the two years of doing it, we're at about 30,000 downloads. I haven't checked in the past week, but when I wrote the notes for this episode, that's where we were. That's a lot of people listening to this podcast now. The fact that if I have a guest on here, it gives them a bit of a platform, I find that really fulfilling and really rewarding, and I know that it has been very beneficial for a lot of the guests that I've had on this podcast, who had been looking for participants, people to engage with their social enterprise, or looking for people to grow their business in some way, I know that that's been very beneficial for people, and I'm really happy to be able to provide that platform. I tend to have guests on this podcast who have got a message that I believe in and that I want to spread, and knowing that I've been able to help people to do that is really important to me, and something that I really hope to keep doing with the next series of the podcast. That's something that I really hadn't anticipated either. When I think about the authors that I've had on the podcast like Amy Izycky, who talked to me about her book around athletes, and the mental health struggles that athletes can face; that's a subject that is quite close to my heart. I've never been a professional athlete, but I have been a competitive runner, somebody who’s very, very into running, and I recognised a lot of what Amy was talking about, and I recognised how little that is understood in the world of athletics, or in competitive sport, and I really wanted to get the word out about her book, and I know a lot of people that listened to this podcast went out and bought that book, and will have spread the word further about all of that. So I find that to be really fulfilling and rewarding for me. That’s definitely an unanticipated benefit of this podcast, and if you're thinking about starting a podcast, I think that's a great place to start from; thinking about who you want to champion and whose messages you would like to spread, and looking for those people to be your podcast guests. I think that's a really great strategy and it helps us to create content that really does some good in the world.

6. Marketing

The final thing, number six, that my podcast has done for me might be the most obvious or it might not be, depending on how long you've been listening to this podcast, but it's brought me a loss of sales of my online courses. This was something that was not in my mind when I started the podcast. I would love to say that I was really strategic from the beginning, but I wasn't. I had an idea that I wanted to share some of my business and marketing knowledge, but I didn't know what that was going to look like, and I didn't know if there even was a market for it, so it wasn't that strategic. But I have found that podcasting has given me a way to connect with people on a much deeper level. If you've listened to any of my podcasts about marketing, and I love marketing, and I'm all about ethical marketing, then you will have heard me talk about the customer journey before and how important that is. And a podcast is really good for your customers because it allows you to find new people because if you do a good job of getting your podcast out in front of people, it might be recommended to people by word of mouth or by Apple or Spotify, so it is a good new way of finding new people and bringing them into your world. But it's also a really great way of really getting to know and serving the people who are already in your audience. In marketing speak we call that nurturing; so it's about helping people, demonstrating your expertise, and allowing them to feel confident enough to invest in your products and services when the time is right for them. I find that to be really, really fulfilling, because it allows me to help people who may never have the budget for my services, maybe that's because they're working solely in the NHS and they're looking for advice about how to market their NHS service within their local community, but it also allows me to develop the relationship that I need to have with people who are right for either Psychology Business School, or the Do More Than Therapy Membership, to give them the confidence that they need to take the plunge and invest in coming into one of my paid programmes. So it's a really effective marketing tool that also allows you to help people as you go. I can't think of anything better, or that would appeal more to psychologists and therapists than that, really. It's definitely my favourite marketing tool. As I said, it has become the bedrock of my business, and I don't think I would have a business without this podcast.

I'm extremely grateful that you guys continue to tune in and have been such wonderful advocates and supporters of this podcast, I started out with not very much confidence whatsoever, but I really enjoy it now, and I even enjoy promoting it because I know that it's had a lot of positive impact for quite a few people. So, that's me and podcasting. And that's the 100th episode wrapped up!

As ever, I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to rate and review this podcast, because one thing that you might not know behind the curtain of how podcasts work, is that the big podcast broadcasters like Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts and all of those, they decide who they show your podcast to based on how many recent reviews you've got. So the more reviews you get (five stars, ideally) and the more nice comments you get about your podcast, the more likely they are to show it to more people who need it. And there aren't very many podcasts talking about how to market your social enterprise, or how to market yourself ethically. There are a lot of marketing podcasts, but a lot of them are very focused on profit, and not very focused on the overall well-being of both the business owner and the customer. And that's something which I really hope is infused throughout this podcast, and I think needs to be out there a bit more. So if you think...