✊ Four changes I'm making to my business in 2024
2171 WORDS | READ TIME: 8.3 MIN
Hi friends, and welcome to this special, final issue of Scrappy Podcasting of 2023!
One of my sacred year-end rituals is my annual review and planning process.
I’ve been doing some version of it for the past 8 years. And while the space I create for it has been consistent, the actual activities and prompts tend to shift and evolve from year to year alongside me and my business.
Which is okay.
In my experience, more important than the specific prompts or structure is the act of sitting down to reflect on the year that was, and think about and plan for the year ahead.
While I plan on doing a more granular reflection and planning session over the holidays, in this last Scrappy Podcasting issue of the year, I wanted to share a bit about the high-level plan for my business in the next year.
If you’re anything like most of the people I work with, I imagine you have similar goals to me, and might find my thought process around moving towards them helpful.
Before we dive into the 4 specific changes I'm making in the new year, however, it's helpful to outline my big-picture vision.
The Long-Term Vision I'm Working Towards
My goals around Podcast Marketing Academy have always been somewhat vague.
In all honestly, a big part of this was to protect myself from the disappointment of setting goals that were too ambitious for me to hit… and then falling short.
This year, however, through my own experience and conversations with a number of other folks with similar (though much more profitable) businesses than mine, I’ve realized I was severely limiting my vision… and thus (likely) my results.
So going into 2024 I’m changing that, and owning a bigger vision than I’d previously allowed myself to entertain.
Here are the high-level goals I'm working toward for the business:
- $500k in profit
- Lean 1-2 person full-time team (including me)
- Limit calls to 2 days a week
- 4-day workweek as the default
- Not reliant on launches or sales calls
- Build the business to be a sellable asset (though I have no short-term intentions of selling)
Now, keep in mind this isn’t my 2024 goal list.
The profit goal, in particular, will likely take 2–3 years to work up to.
But having these goals in mind creates a helpful set of guidelines to both:
- Identify the route and the obstacles I’ll need to navigate
- Evaluate opportunities and decisions on a day-to-day basis
Having only just recently defined this vision more clearly, this current end-of-year reflection and planning cycle is the first real opportunity to evaluate where and how my current mode of operating aligns with and diverges from the vision.
And already, I’ve identified a handful of core changes I’ll be making in 2024.
Here they are:
1. Publish More
Back in 2020, I started a daily writing and publishing practice which I maintained for hundreds of blog posts, before slowing down to twice weekly, and more recently, weekly.
When I look back, developing that daily publishing practice was without doubt the single most transformative thing I've done in my life.
No, not just my work.
My entire life.
Seriously.
Explaining all the repercussions of the practice is beyond the scope of this article, but in 2024, I’m planning to get back to ramp the practice back up again.
In the new year, instead of the current once per week, I’ll be sending this newsletter out every weekday.
I know, this is more than a lot of people will want to receive emails from me.
I will certainly get a load of people unsubscribing.
That’s fine.
My goal for 2024 is not to optimize for the average casual podcaster.
Instead, my goal is to best serve those who are most serious about their shows and are looking for as much high-quality information and support as they can get their hands on in order to grow and improve as much and as quickly as possible.
In addition to the increased mailing frequency, I’m also working on two (potentially more) new podcasts which I’ll be developing in the new year.
The first is Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, a show digging into the data and takeaways from the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report that I’m co-hosting with Justin Jackson from Transistor.fm.
We’ve already recorded the first couple of episodes, and I’ll be sharing more about them as we get ready to launch in January/February.
The second (as of yet untitled) show, will be a podcast coaching show.
Every episode will be based on a 2-hour coaching session with one Scrappy Podcasting reader to help them identify and solve their biggest podcast marketing roadblock.
This will be an opportunity to get free coaching with me in exchange for coming on the show and being willing to share your download, email, and revenue numbers.
I’ve already recorded the first episode with Josh Spector for his show, I Want to Know, and if you’re interested in applying, you can complete the application form here.
Finally, I plan on creating more long-form, in-depth guides, getting into the weeds, and walking through various podcast marketing challenges step-by-step.
First up is completing my Podcast Growth Guide, followed by reformatting and improving my Podcast Sponsorship Guide, and then a Podcast Monetization Guide.
The goals of publishing more are as follows:
- Provide the best free podcast marketing content available for those who can’t afford to work with me directly
- Demonstrate my expertise, marketing philosophy, and experience of working with me to those who might one day want to work with me… lowering the friction in (and in many cases automating) the sales process
- Build out IP that contributes to the value of the business in the eyes of a (potential) buyer
So more publishing is change #1.
2. Work Less
In my high-level vision, my goal is to be working 4 days a week.
But I’d also like to have a more clearly defined boundary around work on a day-to-day basis.
Unfortunately, I’m currently a long way from both of these goals.
In 2023, I’d guess I worked (at least a few hours) on 80% of my weekends. I probably worked at least one full day on half of them. And I probably worked two full weekend days on 25% of them.
That’s not sustainable.
What’s more, being a morning person while living in Europe and working with mostly North American clients means I get up and start working by 8 am when my creative energy is highest…
But regularly have calls scheduled until 8 pm, when my clients and community are online.
Also not sustainable.
To be honest, this is the challenge that is most daunting to me.
Probably because it’s (pretty much) entirely mindset-oriented.
Part of it will involve me being much more selective with the projects I choose to take, and doing a better job estimating my capacity, which should limit the need to work weekends.
That’s the easy part.
The harder part will be drawing a line in the sand on a day-to-day scheduling basis and then committing to not crossing it.
This adjustment will be particularly difficult because I’ve internalized the belief that one of the reasons I’ve been successful so far is that I spend more time working than most other people.
And it might be true.
I find it hard not to believe that working the equivalent of an extra 50–75 days per year hasn’t allowed me to accomplish more than others.
But is it the only way to make progress?
I don’t think so (and I hope not).
And while it’s going to take some major identity shifts and mental re-wiring, it’s a major priority for me in 2024.
3. Raise Prices (Significantly)
If you’ve been following along so far, the previous two goals may seem somewhat incongruent.
Spend less time working… but publish more content—which will certainly require working more.
So how to rectify the two?
The answer, as I see it is to raise prices significantly across the board.
For years, I've had a steady stream of clients telling me I should be charging 2x, 4x, or even 10x my current rates.
And after getting more serious about following up and tracking client results this year (and being blown away in the process), in 2024 I’m going to be owning the value I can create for people and—finally—charging appropriately.
What’s more, after last week’s Podcast Growth Engine price increase campaign, I'm fully booked out through May of 2024.
Which means no short-term pressure to keep prices low to woo new clients.
In addition to the Podcast Growth Engine, I’ll be significantly raising the prices for the Podcast Marketing Academy Membership, 1:1 coaching/consulting projects, and my custom podcast audits and growth plans.
The goals of the price increases are as follows:
- Work with fewer clients— Lowering the time spent on admin, allowing me to dedicate more time (and mental space) to each client, and freeing up more time elsewhere in the business.
- Generating more revenue — Allowing me to invest in support to outsource more of my admin work as well as parts of the content creation process.
In addition to the price increases, I plan on putting hard caps on the number of both 1:1 clients as well as Podcast Marketing Academy Members I take on.
This will both protect me from taking on more than I can deliver on and burning out—and ensure each client and PMA member gets the time and attention they need from me to get the best results.
On the flip side, charging more to a smaller number of clients will also allow me to create more, higher-quality free and low-cost content that is highly accessible to more people.
4. Get Serious About Sales
If I’m honest, I’ve spent the majority of my career hiding from sales.
As a born and bred creative who got his creative start writing music and poetry, sales have long been anathema to me.
Over the past few years, however, I’ve sloooooowly warmed to the topic.
A key realization for me was this:
While there are unethical salespeople who use pushy, manipulative tactics to sell us on things we might not want or need… that’s not the only way to sell.
The reality is that there are many ways to sell that can be both authentic, respectful of your audience… and highly effective.
At the core of this type of aligned selling are a couple of prerequisites:
- Access to an audience that is actively looking for solutions to a specific problem
- A product that you know will solve that problem... and for some people is, in fact, the best possible solution to that problem
With these two prerequisites in place, sales is a generous act.
Because if your audience is already actively looking to spend money on a solution to their problem…
And you believe you have the single best/most effective solution to that problem…
Then buying your product is aligned with their best interest.
What’s more, if they don’t buy from you, due to a lack of awareness or understanding of your product, they’re almost certainly going to buy from someone else.
And if the alternatives are inferior to your offer, your audience members who buy those alternatives will experience worse outcomes.
To that end, in 2024, I’m finally getting serious about learning, practicing, and experimenting with sales.
Sales feels like the last major gap in my core creator/business owner skill set and after years of fear, discomfort, and avoidance, it’s time to close it.
Along the way, I’ll be sharing everything I learn about selling as a creator in a generous and authentic way with the PMA community as well as more broadly in the newsletter.
I’ve already got an extensive PMA curriculum expansion mapped out, covering how to use the combination of podcasting and email to sell effectively, both on an evergreen and launch-based basis.
It’s strange to say, but after so many years of being scared of sales, right now, it’s one of the things I’m most excited to explore.
Funny how that works.
So there you have it.
These are the major changes and focuses I’ll be implementing in 2024.
I’m always an optimist at this time of year, but I’m feeling particularly optimistic this year.
It feels like after 8 years of learning, building, and experimenting, I’ve got the product, brand, knowledge, skill, time, and infrastructure in place for things to really start clicking.
Of course, there will inevitably be new challenges, roadblocks, and gaps in knowledge that become clear throughout the year.
But I’m excited to take them on as they come.
If you’ve identified any major changes you’ll be making to your show and/or business in the new year, hit reply and send them my way.
I’d love to see what you’ve got cooking.
Happy holidays and I’ll be back in your inbox in the new year.
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Stay Scrappy,
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