AP 1111: My Business is Evolving. Should I Pivot My Current Podcast or Start a New One?

AP 1111: My Business is Evolving. Should I Pivot My Current Podcast or Start a New One

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Pat Flynn:
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Pat:
What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to episode 1111. It's a lot of ones, 1,111 of AskPat 2.0. I appreciate you being here. You're about to listen to, like we do in every episode, a coaching call between myself and an entrepreneur just like you. And today we're going to be speaking with Katie Hornor who has a podcast called For Your Success and she has a number of other businesses as well. But today we're going to be talking about her podcast. You can find her on Apple and Google and all the other places. For Your Success with Katie Hornor, H-O-R-N-O-R. And we're talking about, well, we want to expand, we want to grow, but how do we do it in a smart way, especially with a podcast. Should we create another podcast? We have other ideas, how do we put them together? Or should we keep them separate? All that kind of stuff.

Pat:
These are very common issues that entrepreneurs have once we start to get going, because we then unlock the idea that while we can do this kind of stuff, so why not potentially do more? And how do we do it? And how do we do it without burning ourselves out? How do we do it without confusing people? And all those kinds of things. That's what we're going to talk about today. Without further ado, here is Katie Hornor from For Your Success. Here we go.

Pat:
Katie, welcome to Ask Pat 2.0. Thanks so much for coming in today.

Katie Hornor:
Thanks so much for having me.

Pat:
Absolutely. Why don't you introduce us to you really quick and tell us a little bit about what you do.

Katie:
Sure. I'm Katie Hornor of handprintlegacy.com and we help entrepreneurs and coaches, practitioners create courses to package their genius into a premium digital asset that will ultimately live beyond them and transform their students' lives. We also are leading the homeschool movement in Latin America. We sort of have two aspects of our business, an English portion and a Spanish portion.

Pat:
And that's where I know you from. You and I have been good friends for a long time. And when we first connected, it was mostly just about the homeschooling stuff. It's so cool to see you now sort of grow beyond that and start to help others in all different kinds of ways. How is the homeschooling stuff going by the way?

Katie:
We had our second annual online summit this year and reached over 5,000 families in 62 countries around the world.

Pat:
Geez, that is awesome. Congratulations.

Katie:
Thank you. Yeah, it's exciting.

Pat:
That's great. But what are we going to talk about today? I want to help you in any way I can. What's on your mind?

Katie:
Yeah, so right now I'm pivoting my English business. I've had the For Your Success podcast now through two seasons and the first season we did a lot of interviews with successful entrepreneurs trying to find out sort of what they had to get over to get to success as an inspiration story. And then my people started saying, "We want to hear more of you and you teaching." Season two was more of me teaching online business, but now I feel like I'm pivoting, I'm starting to do more speaking on stages. We've got our big successful online courses program out and I want to speak more from the legacy business perspective and I don't know, obviously you've had multiple podcasts for a long time and so I'm trying to figure out, should I just pivot in what I'm doing with the For Your Success podcast? Or should it be a brand new thing?

Pat:
Great question. Tell me a little bit about more about your goals related to talking and speaking more about legacy. What does that mean to you exactly?

Katie:
Well, when I think of legacy, I think of something that outlives you. What's going to be your mark on the world, your hand print on the wall, that lives beyond you and makes an impact in the future generations? At Handprint Legacy or Successful Online Courses, we talk about packaging your genius for the transformation of future generations. If you die tomorrow, who would teach what you teach? How would you still be able to have an impact that lives beyond you? And so I'm looking at this and that's really, that's my heart. I want business owners not just to live for the day to day, but how do we make a lasting impact of what we're doing day to day? And that involves affiliate marketing and it involves how we create our products and it involves how we treat our customers and all these different things.

Katie:
And I'd love to bring all of that together—be more of a visionary teacher for entrepreneurs and bringing that into how do we not just have a business that makes money but also has an impact, creates that legacy visionary mindset. That's where I see myself 10 years from now, bigger events like that. That's what I'm leading up to and that's where I feel like I'm headed. I'm not quite sure if the previous sort of blogger, online business podcast can pivot into that or if it needs to become its own thing.

Pat:
What are you worried about related to that? If you were to pivot, what are the pros, cons of doing that?

Katie:
I think monetizing the podcast, one thing. When you're talking about blogging or specifically online business lessons, inspirational stuff, then you have actual tools that you can promote as affiliate links or sponsors and things like that. Not sure how I'd monetize it with a more inspirational bent.

Pat:
That makes sense. Here's where my head is going and where I'm trying to get to, I'm just trying to define how does this differ from what you've been doing? And can it be added onto it? Or is this actually a separate thing? Now obviously, and like you said, I know that you have fans and you have people who follow you who are going to sort of not necessarily migrate but add on the legacy piece to what you've been already teaching them, right?

Katie:
Yes.

Pat:
It's just a matter of how would you like to best serve them? Because on one hand you can start by talking about these things on your existing stuff already. I always worry when people go, "Should I create a second podcast about this?" Because sometimes it just could be naturally put into what they're already doing and then you don't have two feeds to manage, additional sort of expenses, and two things to pay attention to in this kind of dividing energy a little bit. And then the thing that had started just kind of now has less energy versus a thing that could be added onto that. That would be a next perfect second step. Sort of for the super fans, the fans and the people who sort of have already graduated with you. In some cases it makes sense because you're speaking to now a totally different audience.

Pat:
And so I'd love to get a little bit more feedback from you related to the person who would be sort of following you to this part of your journey. Are they people who are coming from where you were? And do you feel that that means it is a sort of different kind of person at that point who then would benefit from a separate podcast? I just want to make sure we just talk this all out first before we make any decisions, is really what I want to do. Let me know what you're thinking related to the audience member and where you're taking them.

Katie:
The audience prior to this point has been the beginner blogger. They're just starting to get online, just starting to understand what goes into online business. Whereas the people that I want to reach in this next phase would be more people who consider themselves a business owner.

Pat:
It kind of leaves me to believe that if you were to start speaking this language of the business owner, legacy owner to your beginner audience, it would almost make them feel like they're not ready or almost left out.

Katie:
Right. That's what I'm worried about. Whereas I've been pretty much pretty technical in season two in terms of teaching things like, how to choose an email service or three types of email sequences or five things to do before you start your course. And so switching now to be more business owner, legacy minded, less technical, I don't know if I can pull them along with me or if I should just make a, I wouldn't do both. I would not. I would not do two at the same time. I'm already doing a Spanish podcast for our homeschool audience. I would have to make a break and start over and I don't know with 75 episodes, does that make a big difference in terms of how to gain speed starting over from zero?

Pat:
It gives you a headstart, that's for sure. Because what you could do is you can just be very okay with going, hey, here are the 75 episodes. This is a finite amount of information. This is all you need. Everything is there. Season one, season two, if you are here at the end, guess what? You're ready for your next steps, if you've implemented these things. If not, go back, listen, implement, do you come to the blog for your business, get to that point where now you can unlock the idea of thinking about your legacy. And if you want to join me where I talk about some of the goals that you might have beyond just getting started, come and follow me on this podcast, which is now where I'm going to basically be and update. And that's how you would sort of choreograph that sort of handoff if you will, from one podcast or another. How does that sit with you?

Katie:
Yeah, I think, I do think that's probably the best route is just sort of start transitioning into more of those topics and kind of here's where we're headed, I'd love to have you on board, kind of thing.

Pat:
I would think that would be good. And then you can just be very clear without worrying about overwhelming your subscribers from your previous show that hey, if you're not ready for that chat yet, don't go there yet. But that's becomes a cool sort of second step for them. I think that becomes a goal for them. You can even pop back into that old podcast every once in awhile and go, "Hey, I'm with my business owners at the, I don't know For Your Legacy podcast," whatever you end up calling it, "and I wanted to bring on somebody who has built their business from scratch and wanted to talk to those who are just starting out so here they are." And you bring them on as a guest and you don't have to be as regular there anymore because you're going to be showing up at that other one.

Pat:
But I would still be kind of cool to have them sort of cross promote each other more. The sort of feeder one leading into your legacy one and like I said, it becomes a big goal for them to open up the possibility of thinking along that level. And I think that to me, just in your voice and knowing you, that's where your heart is, that's what you want to do. You want to focus now on this sort of legacy stuff and chatting with other business owners who have sort of already succumbed or over passed, excuse me, the sort of beginning phases now.

Katie:
Right, right. Would you carry on? Would you move on from here? Episode 76, 77 keep going that way just with a new name? Or would you start again with episode one?

Pat:
We're getting technical now. I don't think there's a wrong way to do it. I think that season three would make sense to be legacy and you can even get a sense for how people respond. I would also probably assume that a lot of the people who are beginners would still love to hear about where you are at now and it would almost be like something to look forward to and, hey get through season one, season two do the things and if you've gotten some results, go on to season three and that way you don't have to worry about second feed. It becomes sort of the next phase, the next level, as long as you position that at the end of season two or at the start of season three and then on your website it could even be just that that's where you start to talk about and engage.

Pat:
And what I would recommend doing is definitely on your email list have some different segments for the different kinds of people and you could start to get a sense of who in your list and who in your audience is at that level already and you can start chatting with them, talking to them and I think I would keep it in the same feed just to start. And to even sort of pressure test it a little bit to see how people respond. And if you see people going, "Yeah, that's kind of beyond me." Or, "No, I don't think that's relevant here." Or, "No, I just want the basic stuff. This is kind of overwhelming me." Then that would be a sign to go, okay, let's move this over to a different feed and a new show.

Pat:
On the other hand, you might have people just really fall in love with it and really love that it's there and ready for them when they need it. And thus you wouldn't have to worry about that extra work. I think you could use season three as a test to just even engage those legacy business owners as people who are already there and start to feed them into a particular part of your email list and just kind of have conversations with them there, see what else they might need help with and see how you could better serve them.

Katie:
Yeah. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Because with season one being sort of inspiration, how do you keep going when things are hard? And then season two being more technical, business growth type stuff. And then season three being the vision and let's think bigger.

Pat:
Yeah, I think that is relevant to the beginners. Just, they're not there yet, but it becomes something that they can look forward to. Similar to like when I was sharing my income reports more often and beginners who had yet to even start, they would see those and they would go, wow, Pat's paving the path. I'm not even there yet but now I'm inspired. Let me go back to his beginner articles and read through because I want to get there too. And I think that's likely what will happen for people who find you there as well.

Katie:
Yeah. And I know you reference past episodes frequently when you're doing new episodes.

Pat:
I do.

Katie:
Do you actually have them in your email sequence where you're bringing new up through the old podcast episodes?

Pat:
Not all of them. If people are coming in new to the email sequence and I know where they're at, for example, I know they subscribe to the email list and they've self selected themselves as sort of a future entrepreneur, not a business owner yet, then I know I can send them to episodes 192, 193, and 194, because I know those ones are ones where I go over just some of the beginner things that you need to know. And if a person is coming in more on the advanced side or they're on the advanced bucket that I have, then I would not dare recommend those ones because they're already beyond that. I would recommend some of the more advanced stuff, so yeah, absolutely, and it just depends on where I know they're at.

Katie:
Okay. All right. That makes great sense. Thank you so much.

Pat:
Are you doing any segmenting on your email list yet?

Katie:
Oh yes. I've got too many tags to handle right now.

Pat:
Yeah, I hear you. That's for sure. Do you have one set up for this sort of legacy stuff?

Katie:
I do not have one set up for legacy yet. I do have podcast listeners segmented out, but nothing specific to legacy yet.

Pat:
Great. I think that would be a clear sort of next or one of the next steps or phases to do would be to start to consider how you can reach out and pile them together because that's who ultimately you want to end up speaking to more than anybody down the road. Some of those people may already exist on your list. You might not even know.

Katie:
Right. I think so. And I think we've got a lot in our community already that has come up through the blog connection membership and some of our courses that are on the verge of getting there. I think this is a good direction.

Pat:
That's great. That's awesome. I'm excited. What else is on your mind? You do the legacy podcast, where does that take you? Is that more products and services? Is that speaking on more stages? What is your ultimate goal from this new direction?

Katie:
Well the ultimate goal with the podcast is to get people into our mass market offering, which is either the blog connection or the successful online courses program. The blog and the podcast are leading people into there where we can serve them and sort of grow them up a little bit. And the ultimate goal is to be hosting our own live events in another year or two. We've done small retreats and things like that, but I would love to be able to do a larger event similar to FlynnCon.

Pat:
I was going to say I have a little bit of experience and you know that firsthand you were there.

Katie:
Right, right. Yeah, FlynnCon was awesome. I'm excited to bring my husband and one of my daughters with me this year, but I don't know that 2020 is the year for that. It'll probably be the year after for my event. And then from there going into a higher level, having a higher level offer at that event for a mastermind. That's sort of what I'm thinking in terms of product suite and going deeper with folks in the future. But I'm sort of at this rebranding, reinventing stage and just trying to figure out how to make it all work together.

Pat:
Yeah. And that's exciting and you've done a great job of sort of setting yourself up for this next sort of phase for you because every phase becomes a stepping stool for the next phase. And you're right at the cusp of starting that new one now, which is really exciting and just want to say congrats because I've obviously we've connected a bunch and I followed your journey for a bit and to know where you were and that you were close to not even getting started and to see where you're at now. Just amazing. I'm so proud of you.

Katie:
Thank you. Thank you. That means a lot.

Pat:
Yeah, absolutely. Well this is awesome. I'd love to perhaps reach back out to you a little bit later in the year or early next year to see if we can just get a check on where you're at. If you wouldn't mind perhaps coming back for a where-are-they-now after implementing some of this stuff. Would that be okay?

Katie:
Oh yeah. When whenever you like.

Pat:
Okay. Awesome. I'm excited. Well thank you so much Katie. I appreciate you and your support and for being an amazing member of Team Flynn. Just always thankful when I get to hear from you and see you around. Keep up the great work and where can people go to learn more about you and your programs and all the things you have going on?

Katie:
The best place to find us is HandprintLegacy.com and there's links to all the stuff we do from there.

Pat:
Love it. Thanks Katie. Take care and all the best.

Katie:
Thank you.

Pat:
All right. I hope you enjoyed this coaching gall with Katie Hornor. Again, you can find her podcast For Your Success and all that good stuff. You can also find her show bloggingsuccessfully.com and yeah, all that great stuff. Anyway, I appreciate you so much for listening in. Before we let you go, just want to say thank you so much and make sure you hit subscribe if you haven't already. This is a huge deal too, I know. Take some of your time today to listen to the show and we've got a lot of great stuff coming your way. More coaching calls, all kinds of different people, all kinds of different businesses. This is absolutely my favorite thing to do. Head on over to askpat.com, you can see a lot of the other episodes there too, plus a button that you can use to potentially just subscribe but also get coached just like Katie did today on the show.

Pat:
You could be the one in the hot seat and I'll question you and I'll get you to start to think differently about the direction that you're going to have moving forward in your business. If you want to try that, go to askpat.com, hit the button that is on that page. You can fill out the application. I can't pick everybody because there's so many people that come in, but the truth is, it's not going to happen unless you try. Do that and I can't wait to potentially connect with you. Thanks so much. I appreciate you. Keep up the great work. And as always, #TeamFlynnfortheWin. Peace.