Leveraging Your Podcast, Hosting In-Person Workshops and Pivoting with Amanda Boleyn of She Did It Her Way
Episode 101: Show Notes
Today on the podcast we have Amanda Boleyn of the She Did It Her Way podcast. Have you heard of her? Well, if you haven’t, she is a rockstar. She Did It Her Way has been named one of the "12 Best Podcasts for Entrepreneurs" and "Top 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs" by Forbes. Her podcast is dedicated to featuring savvy female business entrepreneurs from across the globe. These women share their insights and journeys so that others can do it their way too.
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In this episode, Amanda is sharing about something other than her podcast. We’re diving into how she’s been able to take her podcast journey and leverage it to further grow her business. In fact, she’s opening up her first ever in-person summit — the doors are open and we’re talking all about the amazing experience that you can get in on this October at the She Did It Her Way Summit. We’re also talking about pivoting and the challenges of growing a business and everything that comes with that.
Jumping on The Podcast Train
In 2012, Amanda took a leap, quit her job and started working for herself. She soon realized that there were no resources for women on entrepreneurship. She had been listening to podcasts since she was in college, but she couldn’t find any addressing the issues she was facing as a female entrepreneur. Amanda prefers connecting with people over spoken words and conversation as opposed to written words, so for her, doing a podcast was a no-brainer. She reached out to one of her friends who had a software company online which had a podcast. He showed her what it took to start and run a podcast, and she found it easy enough. She launched She Did It Her Way in 2015 with two partners and it’s been growing into a beautiful thing ever since. It’s definitely opened a lot of doors and connected Amanda to all kinds of amazing people.
Online World, What’s That?
With the podcast, Amanda didn’t start out in a creative field, she’d never had an online business and she was kind of disconnected from the online world. Where some people start out in the online world and pivot to a podcast, Amanda didn't have that. She just started straight out with a podcast. It’s been a really interesting journey for her to now shift away from the training and development and put more focus on the podcast and the online world. Hence why she’s got the upcoming summit. She’s now looking at it as more than just a podcast. She sees it as this whole, all-encompassing business and needs to figure out how she can communicate that vision to other people.
The She Did It Her Way Summit
The She Did It Her Way Summit is taking place in Chicago in October. It’s Amanda’s first in-person event. It’s a one day, hands on, workshop-style event designed to help you take that next step, whether it is bringing your business idea to life or implementing sustainable practices for one you've already launched. If you’ve ever wanted to start your own business but you’re not sure where to start and are feeling afraid and overwhelmed, or if you've recently launched your business (whether it be a side hustle or your full-time job) but are still uncertain if you’re doing all the right things to make it sustainable for the long run, then this is the summit for you. We’re talking accounting, we’re talking legal, we’re talking high level marketing, branding basics and so much more. Amanda is making sure that the summit is purposeful and intentional.
Why An In-Person Event?
She thought about this in many different ways. Amanda’s fascination is her ability to bring people together and her energy heightens when meeting people in person. She loves connecting over conversation. The idea of doing an in-person summit excited her way more than doing a technology-based online summit. It might not be the season to do an in-person summit, but for her it’s a testing thing. She’s keeping it intimate with 50-60 people, and there will be coaching circles to bring female business owners who have proven success together to learn from one another. It’s all about being intentional so people are getting the value that they’re putting in and the time and energy that they’re spending.
Niching Down and Identifying Your Brand With People
This is something that Amanda wishes she could've figured out sooner. It is true when they say that the more you niche down, the more you identify your brand with the actual person you’re going after. Amanda believes that entrepreneurship is a testing lab — you need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Her podcast’s niche is the journey of that sweet spot between the 6-12 months where people are about to take the leap and start the business and when they’re a year or two in. The problems you have before taking starting a business and the problems you have a couple of years after starting are very different. She Did It Her Way definitely has legacy listeners, people that listen all the time and it still deliver value. When people start doing business they seek out information, oftentimes finding her podcast. Amanda is not in the business of telling people what to do or convincing them to do it. People have to want to leave, take the leap and start a business. The podcast is there to help you with the basics of building a business and it has the support and community to help guide you along your journey.
The Future of She Did It Her Way
Amanda has so many ideas for how she wants things to look, but as everyone knows, things can pivot. Sometimes it makes her nervous to even say where she wants the podcast to go in the future. Amanda has always had an inkling toward an online magazine, a content platform for females. That’s more of a 3-5 year goal. In the next year, Amanda really wants to see what the She Did It Her Way Summit does, and assuming it does well and is received well, she might continue to do a few more in 2018. From an internal business standpoint, one thing Amanda really wants to do is a website redesign to set it up in a way that creates a curated journey and better user experience.
Quote This
The more you niche down, the more you identify with the actual person you’re going after.
—Amanda Boleyn
Highlights
Find out how the She Did It Her Way podcast came to fruition and how Amanda jumped on the podcast train. [0:04:08.0]
Hear how Amanda started her podcast despite never being connected to much of the online world. [0:08:28.0]
Amanda tells us all about the She Did It Her Way Summit coming up in October. [0:10:30.0]
Understand Amanda’s reasons for making the summit an in-person event when the season is clearly shifting. [0:13:10.0]
How finding your niche in your business helps you to identify your brand and the people you’re actually doing it for. [0:26:13.0]
Listen as Amanda tells us about the future of the podcast and the She Did It Her Way brand. [0:028:57.0]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:39:33.0]
Go to the website Shediditherwaypodcast.com/summit/
Educate yourself on what you don’t know.
Register for the She Did It Her Way Summit, October 21st in Chicago. (Special offer till the end of September.)
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Amanda Boleyn
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Amanda Boleyn is the host of a Forbes, Inc.com and TechStars top-rated podcast called She Did It Her Way, where she sits down with female entrepreneurs from across the globe to get a behind the scenes look at what it means to be a business owner. In addition to hosting the She Did It Her Way podcast, Amanda works with large organizations across the world implementing sales, leadership development and employee engagement training. She has worked with over 10,000 individuals varying in industries from telecom to health care, tech and banking. She Did It Her Way was named one of the "Top 24 Exceptional Female Hosted Podcasts for Entrepreneurs in 2017" by Entrepreneur.com.
KEY TOPICS
Jumping on the podcast train, Online world, She Did It Her Way Summit, Why an in-person event, Niching down, Identifying your brand with people, Future of She Did It Her Way
