1st Birthday Series Part 4 – She Leads She Thrives Podcast Episode 56

Shannon Dunn  03:16

Hey, superstars, a huge welcome to episode 56. We have now just passed our first birthday on She Leads She Thrives. And if you’re a long term listener or regular follower, you will probably recognize that I’m Shannon Dunn. The founder host whatever you want to call me of She Leads She Thrives. I’m also a long term business and self leadership coach supporting the ambitious impact driven souls in the world. Women determined and destined to leave their mark and have their destiny speak their story of belief, inspiration, wisdom and courage into the world forevermore. 

Shannon Dunn  03:50

Now, I’m also a cheerleader for rebels but not the noisy attention seeking one’s,instead the quiet get on with things in your own way, stay in your own kinda lane rebels. The ones that just about out quietly and can drown out all the noise around them. That’s been my journey in this 18 plus years I’ve been in business. I’ve been judged and questioned and criticized for many times over for doing my own thing. But I’m still here,  is all I’m gonna say.

Shannon Dunn  04:17

Now, a few other things to mention about me before we get into today’s episode. I am also the creator of the Thrive Factor Framework. This two part experience which is female centric supports women to connect with their personal psychology so they can activate and amplify thriving on their terms. I created this and first started using it back in 2009 with clients. The two parts; the first part is the profiling experience where you get to know your unique combination of a possible 12 Archetypes. In your Thrive Factor Profile you have between three and five, sometimes six. 

Shannon Dunn  04:51

And then the second part of the Thrive Factor Framework is the unique coaching experience or coaching methodology that I have been creating in a evolving in working with for so many years now to support my clients who are women in business, but I teach you how to use this framework in the self leadership coaching certification, which I’m also founder and lead educator of. It is solely focused on using the Thrive Factor Framework, but also teaching incredible women how to use their profiling and coaching pieces to support their clients in a multitude of ways to thrive being 100% themselves. Plus we teach you how to actually coach so you learn through coaching methodology, and key things that are often missing other coaching programs like you know, your ethical dynamics and professional dynamics and you know how to actually work with people – so important. 

Shannon Dunn  05:42

Anyway, enough of an introduction for me today. This episode is the fourth in a five series first birthday episodes to celebrate our very first birthday of She Leads She Thrives. We have been live now for just over a year. As I mentioned, the 6th of October is our official birthday. So I wanted to share with you today some general reflections from this whole year of podcasting again, before I do that, I’ve got 12 lessons for life and business about the first year of a podcast to share with you. 

Shannon Dunn  06:13

Before I do that I wanted to share quickly with you about the special offers to celebrate our first birthday. These offers are for the month of October only, unless they sell out before the end of the month. Now each of them will give you 50% off. I occasionally mostly say around my birthday in February I do have offers that are a bit you know insane, like the sort of huge savings because I love being able to make things available to people that perhaps have been waiting, didn’t have the funds, or just it wasn’t kind of the right time and give you an opportunity to jump in and to work with me in  different ways at an incredible savings. 

Shannon Dunn  06:51

So the things that are included in these offers are Thrive Factor profiling. All three ways that you can do that if you’ve listened to any of the Archetype episodes recently, you’ve heard me talk about the three individual ways that you can get to meet your Archetypes. There are also strategy sessions available with me and Thrive Factor coaching. This is for either a 3,  a 6 or a 12 session package of Thrive Factor coaching. Now Thrive Factor Coaching is purely focused on your archetypes. So you could call it more like life coaching it’s not business coaching which is another key part of my business that Thrive Factor Co. If you’re interested in Thrive Factor  coaching and immersing that into your business, reach out to me at hello@thrivefactorco.com, because it’s a different investment and it’s not something that is currently on offer to work with me from a business coaching perspective. Now payment plans for some of these are available and all payments no matter how you decide to invest are 50% off as I said for the month of October and less they are sold out and that is October 2023. I should add that as well. 

Shannon Dunn  07:54

Okay 12 lessons for life and business about the first year of a podcast. Now, these are in no particular order. I was just like what are the things I want to share that I when I reflect on what this last year has been like, the experience, the ups,  the downs, the in betweens, the fun, the excitement, the challenges in hosting a podcast. If you are a longtime listener, you may know that I have hosted two podcasts in the past. They were incredible experiences. I learnt so much about holding space with people in this context. I learnt about leading conversation, I learnt about how to get the best out of the guest, I also lead into my Inspirer Believer Archetype who was incredibly helpful for that. 

Shannon Dunn  08:43

And I also learned what I didn’t want to do when I came to podcast number three, She Leads She Thrives. So there really has been a different kind of level of consideration of vision, of strategy that’s gone into She Leads She Thrives during our first year. And because of that I’m not surprised that we have had the incredible experience that we have had. And I say we because my team has been incredibly valuable. And that just not I couldn’t do it without them incredible, particularly Serena, my online business manager who is the backbone of doing all the tech. I can do it but I don’t want to. I said that to her just recently. Just because I can or I say this to clients actually all the time. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. 

Shannon Dunn  09:30

So before we get into the one to 12, let me go through with you some of what we’ve achieved in this first year. Now in total, there have been 55 episodes shared live. Of those 55 episodes, 28 of them have been guest episodes where I have had the most incredible individuals, beautiful women and one male. Support me to create phenomenal conversations to share with you. Of those 28 guests, there have been 15 different countries represented by them when you take into account where they’re from and where they live, creating a truly global conversation.

And that was one of my big significant pieces of vision for She Leads She Thrives, was to bring you a global voice. My most recent podcasts, which went live seven or more years ago now and hasn’t been aired for some time, was very much focused more on Australia and the SouthernHhemisphere with an occasional guest from the US mostly because that was where I was spending most of my time connecting with individuals in those places. 

Shannon Dunn  10:34

Okay, in terms of where we’ve been listened to;  35 individual countries have tuned into episodes in this last year. Now the top 10 most listened to countries, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Denmark.

I love watching this kind of shift and change. The top four or five countries have been consistent for some time now. But the ones on the lower end of our top 10 evolve over time. And in fact, actually, let me give you the next five to give you the top 15. So after our top 10, the final number 10 being Denmark, then we go on to the next five, which chang there all the time is Israel, Portugal, Germany, Ireland and Spain. I love it. It’s been so fun to watch this go come to life. And I get such a buzz out of seeing a new country show up in the list. 

Shannon Dunn  11:26

Now, in total, we have had over 49,000 downloads. In fact, I actually hope that by the time this goes live, we will have passed our 50,000 plus downloads for the first year of She Leads She Thrives,  it’d be such an incredible buzz to celebrate that in this time frame as well. 

Shannon Dunn  11:46

Okay, so back to the 12 lessons for life and business from the first year of a podcast. In no particular order. The first one that I want to share with you, if you feel inspired to do something – take action. I knew I wanted to host another podcast. I don’t even remember how long ago it was now that I first mentioned that to my team, but it was a we’re gonna do another podcast, do another podcast. And I think for a while there was a few eye rolls when I kept saying this, but we weren’t doing anything about actually making it reality. I needed to spend some time leaning out from hosting podcasts in the past, to listen to more podcasts than I had been just to get a feel for, you know what the podcast landscape was actually like. And to be as I said earlier, so intentionally considered about how we were going to do this, what the vision was, what the guest strategy would be, who I wanted to invite, who to have as a very first guest – that was a lot of effort went into that It actually wasn’t difficult to come up with an answer in the end, but I really did put some more than effort time into thinking about that. There’s so much but honestly, if you do feel inspired to do something, take action. Bring that thing to life no matter what it is. 

Shannon Dunn  13:05

The second of these 12, though, is trust the timing. As I said, I from the outside it could have looked like I was you know, dilly dallying around and stalling on bringing this podcast to life. But there were other things that were going on in my life over the last four or five years when I’ve thought about bringing a new podcast to life, that were taking up a lot of time and energy and it’s like it’s just not the right time just yet. So it was really around then leaning into this trust the timing. And when I decided that we were going to go live. It was probably four to five months before we went live on the 6th of October in 2022. That it was like okay, it’s action stations. This is the time now we’re gonna put everything together and make this happen. And honestly, within no time, all of the pieces fell into place. The action was taken, the platform to host the podcast, getting out my blue Yeti microphone, thinking about the strategy, the vision, what will the podcast was going to look like from a visual perspective, the guest list started coming together and it just ended up flowing so effortlessly, which again, that reminds me how important that trust the timing is. 

Shannon Dunn  14:15

Number three on this list of 12; be considered about who you invite to join you. I have not hidden at any time how different my guesting strategy or guest strategy is for this podcast compared to in the past. I was incredibly clear about the kind of individual that I wanted to have on the show as a guest. And with my vision for it being a global voice, I wanted to reach out to more of the incredible souls in my network, to see who would be interested. Some of them are incredibly established in their businesses. Others are what I would refer to as up and coming luminaries and visionaries here to make a big impact in the world. Some of them are successful at business. Some of them will tell you they’re not successful at business, but I certainly see the success from the outside. So in being considered about who to invite, I thought about who was going to be a great fit for She Leads She Thrives,  and what I wanted the podcast to stand for. I also thought about who would be able to contribute along the themes of leadership, particularly self leadership, and thriving, who had something unique or unusual to share. Who knew their stuff really well. Again, you don’t need to have been in business a long time to have expertise in what it is that you focus on or specialize in in your business. Who was always engaging when I interacted with them, particularly in the social media space, who would be grateful that I even reached out and considered having them on the podcast. And it was very easy to add, I think in a very short space of time, there was over 150 names on that guest list. 

Shannon Dunn  16:04

Now that might sound like a lot. But that guest list gave me the first opportunity to reflect on then who is the priority to invite now. And very first up, I record the episodes in batches so about every three to four months, we record a number of episodes, and then roll those out over a period of time, including solo episodes that go in between, which are more recorded in the week that they go live. Those guests that I have had on the show, not one of them has disappointed me in any way, shape, or form. They have all been so grateful for the experience, for the opportunity to share their stories, often to a very new audience, because the people that are listening in here may not be people they have reached in the past, they have shared mostly – some of them not so much – but they’ve shared enthusiastically and really helped to get the message out there about She Leads She Thrives, being a place to come and listen to wisdom and so many other things. 

Shannon Dunn  17:06

I set my expectations very clearly up front. And actually that’s number five on my list, I’ll get to talk a bit more about that when I get to it. But in terms of you know, don’t be concerned if you have something whether you’re hosting a summit or a conference or having guest teachers or speakers come into your space and your business, or you have a podcast, don’t ever shy away from being incredibly considered about who you invite, and how you invite them. And sticking to what makes sense to you. We get so many pitches every week, from people I have never heard of, never interacted with me, and I have no problem, or my team and I, have no problem going back to them and explaining what our strategy is. And that if they’d like to be considered to be on a guest on the podcast in the future, to reach out and to connect with me. It’s very easy to do that.  Instagram is the easiest place to come and connect with me. And to send a message to share to listen actually listen to the podcast. And when you are putting your pitch forward. 

Shannon Dunn  18:10

So this is actually leading into number four now if you want to be on a podcast, reach out to connect with the host and think about how you connect. Don’t just send a cold pitch we get also get lots of pitches from agencies and our podcast. PR agencies pitching their people to us. The majority of the time they are incredibly inappropriate. And so that shows me that the PR agency or the people we receive cold pitches from probably haven’t even listened to an episode ever, if they have it’s definitely not a whole episode. They haven’t actually tuned into the type of conversations that we host and the way that we focus on certain themes with She Leads She Thrives, . I love it though when I do receive a cold or lukewarm kind of reach out from somebody. I received one actually just this morning for someone I do know and it’s not that she’s not being considered as a potential guest. She’s not on the guest list yet. Or she wasn’t – she is now. But it’s just such a difference when someone’s like, I’ve listened to your podcast. This is what I got from it. Here’s my favorite episode. This is why I loved it so much. I’ve connected with this guest and this guest that you had. I love your solo show about whatever, like, go and do your research. 

Shannon Dunn  19:31

There are plenty though of podcasts out there who are desperate for guests. This show She Leads She Thrives,  is not one of them. There are still over 100 people on our guest list. They’re not necessarily all going to end up as guests on the podcast because I consider when we come to a new recording time it’s not you know, the first person on the list. It’s like who is the right fit for what we’re talking about right now. And I found that in these batches of recordings that there’s definitely been themes that have come forward with the guests that we’ve had. But if you want to be on a podcast, really be thorough in your research and genuine and reach out to the guest follow them, connect with them, build a relationship with them will make it so much easier. I do that myself and love the opportunity to be able to be a guest on others podcasts. 

Shannon Dunn  20:18

So I said number five was set clear expectations. As I said this yes, while I’m talking about these lessons for life and business about the first year of a podcast, in relation to the podcast, they really are lessons for life and business or wisdom for life and business. Clear expectations for everyone involved, just makes it easy for everyone to know  what is expected, like, you know, expectations, what’s expected. I make it very clear what I expect from each of my guests when I invite them to come on board and be a part of the podcast, particularly around my expectations of them on sharing, of being able to participate in the collaboration of sharing the conversation, which puts them in the spotlight. So why wouldn’t you. I just don’t understand when there’s not as enthusiastic sharing as I’d love there to be for some of the different guests that you may have on a podcast. 

Shannon Dunn  21:14

I have high expectations of myself when I’m on a podcast to share, and make the most of that episode for the host for that podcast, for it to be a success. And I have the same expectations of the guests that show up on my podcast. It’s not hard to do. But having really clear expectations makes it so much easier for everyone to know what’s expected. In those clear expectations, I also have an incredibly thorough intake form, for want of a better way to describe it. But it’s all the pieces of information that we require so that we have everything we need to successfully promote you and make the most of what you’ve got to offer when you come and be a guest on She Leads She Thrives. I have had a couple of people say to me in this whole year, which only a couple, that’s a lot of information. They’re both podcasts hosts and both were like, I don’t ask that much, but there’s things that I’m going to ask moving forward because I know how much easier it’s going to be. So you know, set clear expectations. 

Shannon Dunn  22:13

Number six over 12. If you have something to share, find a way to share it. It might not be podcasting, you might be a wiz at doing short form video and sharing that across your social media. You might be an enthusiastic YouTuber, or what does it matter. Use your voice. If you have something to share, find a way to share it. Podcasting for me has been one of the easiest ways to share the things that are important to me. As I said the solo episodes that we share are mostly recorded the week that they go live. So they are topical, about what’s going on what I’m listening to, what I’m hearing, what I am wanting to share with you. And some of the things that show up in the guest episodes are the kinds of things that have been values of mine or things that are important to me long term in my business. They’re not just kind of things that have just suddenly appeared  on the landscape. But you know, it doesn’t matter what the platform is, if you’ve got something to share, find a way to share it and do it with your voice as much as you can. Video is great, too. We’re going to be moving forward into year two, we’re going to be sharing videos of all of our guest episodes. And going back and turning the episodes that we did record in both video and audio format from our first year into episodes that will go live in a video format as well. 

Shannon Dunn  23:32

Number seven of our 12; be clear on your long term vision. So I mentioned that the vision for launching was incredibly clear to me before we actually started. So has been the long term vision for She Leads She Thrives. So I said having had two podcasts in the past, the first one I was actually a, they called it internet radio more than podcasting, but it was podcasting. It’s over a decade ago now, I was engaged to be a host on a show on a US based network, incredible opportunity, I learned so much. I don’t have the rights to all of that, even the solo shows that I did. So that’s not something that I can go and change and evolve. But they came to a point with that one, that I knew that parting ways with that organization was actually the best thing for me. And that’s exactly what I did. 

Shannon Dunn  24:23

With my second podcast. It was live for quite some time. But I think we got to our 100th episode, there was a good two years to create those 100 episodes. And things had shifted and changed more than they were different, they evolved to the point that that podcast,  its name, some of the things I was talking about, the guests that I had, no longer worked with the bigger vision and it’s not that I didn’t consider the bigger vision, the Visionary Creator Archetype I have always does that. But I didn’t consider it like I have this time. 

Shannon Dunn  24:57

My intention, my own vision, my vision, my dream. My desire is that She Leads She Thrives, will be here for the long term on the podcast airwaves, and to share with you as many incredible conversations in every year as we possibly can. Keeping to our roughly weekly episodes, but I knew what the long term vision was and that guides me in every moment of every conversation, and every solo episode I create for you. 

Shannon Dunn  25:27

Number eight of our 12; get expert help to make it easier. You’ve heard me talk about effortlessness. You’ve totally heard me talk about things being ease-full. You’ve heard me talk about things being easier. You’ve heard me share my one of my favorite all time questions, how can this be easier? I can do all of the tech stuff that goes along with She Leads She Thrives, but I do not like doing it. I have no problem saying that at all. My Liberator Engineer Archetype, which is the Archetype is very into technology. So said she knows how to do it, she doesn’t enjoy it. So I don’t do it. 

Shannon Dunn  26:00

And it’s  fabulous that I have a key team member, being my OBM, who is a wiz at all this stuff and just makes it happen for me, and for us so that you can hear and moving forward, watch some of the episodes where we have guests as well. So get expert help and get it early. 

Shannon Dunn  26:18

Number nine;  space things in a way that works for you. Not what some guru or teacher or coach or mentor says is the only way. Again, I’ve shared many episodes or talked with different guests around this over the course of the last year. If you are going to launch a podcast or you need some time away from your podcast, then consider the other ways that you could still continue to share your message. Maybe you move from a weekly format, to a fortnightly format, maybe you go into a different series where you only have a certain number of episodes and you have some time away and then you go again with another series of episodes. You work out what works for you. Give yourself the space that you need to be able to make things as effortless and easeful and joyful, fun, engaging, insightful, enthusiastic, energized,  whatever, to make it work for you.

Shannon Dunn  27:11

Number 10; dare to try different types of things. Now, when I think about this in relation to She Leads She Thrives, , I’m definitely thinking about the different types of episodes that we have shared to date. And the ideas I have for new kinds of episodes moving forward. In year two, I want to bring different styles of episodes and conversations forward to share with you not because I think the first year hasn’t been incredibly engaging, certainly been lots of fun to create. But  I like changing things up, I like evolving with the times, I like trying different things. And I think it’s important to move into or lean into that daring to try different types of things in whatever it is you’re doing when it comes to your business, your life, whatever. 

Shannon Dunn  27:53

Number 11. We’re nearly there with our 12. Number 11 is share with excitement in your marketing. So this is definitely a very much a business one but your promotion of self. When we talk about podcasting, this also gets, I find, my guests super excited. I love the genuineness of the excitement when their episode is live. And I’ve shared it and I’ve shared in definitely the second half of this first year, audiograms where you get to listen, particularly on my reels on Instagram and Facebook, get to hear a little bit about what the guest has to say. They get so excited about that. And then as the episode goes live sharing what the download numbers are like, and those kinds of things. Sharing that excitement in my messaging, in my marketing, in my promotion of the podcast and the episodes just like I do across anything that I offer, but also give your guests – if you have people working with you, collaborating with you, connecting with you in different ways –  give them a chance to get excited as well. It’s such a fun thing to do. 

Shannon Dunn  28:56

And the last one of these 12 life lessons for life and business from the first year of a podcast – keep going. As I’ve talked about long term vision I’ve talked about being clear about what you want to create. That doesn’t mean that you have to have a well defined, this is exactly an all we’re going to do strategy or meet thing mapped out. Be open to variety to evolution, things will change, you will change, you’ll  learn new things, you have different conversations with people. The what you want to say, how you want to say, what you want to share, how you want to share it – that will evolve over time, but stick to things or commit to things for the long haul, keep going. 

Shannon Dunn  29:35

There has been and I’ve shared some of this on the podcast this past year, particularly 2023 has been some of the most challenging times in my life for very different reasons. From clients and financial things and injuring myself and having unexpected surgery and all the impacts of that on my business and the work that I could actually do. There has been so many things But you know what, what hasn’t changed in all of this time this entire year is the consistency with which we have been able to share an episode for She Leads She Thrives,  I think twice if I can think yeah, just once just recently, but once earlier this year, when I was actually away on retreat, hosting my retreat in Bali back in May, there has been twice in this entire year that we have not had a weekly episode. That’s it. So valid, genuine reasons for it. But you know, just keep going, be connected to that beautiful vision you have, think about why it’s important to you, and let that drive your motivation, your energy and everything that you’re doing everything that you stand for, let that shines through in whatever it is that you’re doing in terms of how you’re sharing what’s important to you. 

Shannon Dunn  30:45

I hope those 12 have been useful for you, 12 lessons for life and business about the first year of podcast. There’s my kind of musings about what hasn’t really stood out for me in this first year. And I I said, they don’t just relate to hosting a podcast either, while I’ve shared that in relation to each of these I’ve shared examples of podcasting, you can translate these to so many different things. 

Shannon Dunn  31:07

And so, we’re coming to the end of this episode, thank you for celebrating for being a part of this first birthday series. Remember, go back and check out the offers. The link to do that is in the show notes for every one of these five birthday series podcast episodes. There is for the time being also available on my website and on my social media key links as well. They’ll be gone by the time we get to end of October unless they sell out beforehand. But you know, a rare opportunity to get 50% off some incredible ways to us to connect and work together and I just can’t wait to see how many new women I get to introduce to their Thrive Factor Archetypes. But for now, as always, superstar adventurous soul, remember you were born to thrive to follow your dreams, your visions, your ambition, your desire. I will always hold that reality for you, for me, for us all. And I encourage you to hold it for yourself too. Whatever it is that you want to create or difference you want to make in the world, the legacy you want to leave -keep that clear, keep that in your heart, share it out loud. Get out there and make it happen. 

Shannon Dunn  32:15

Now, we will be back with the last of our birthday episodes later this week, which is really the kind of the week after the actual official birthday. And then next week we resume with an incredible guest episode that as always, is incredibly vibrant and overflowing with wisdom and I know you’ll love it. So wherever you are in the world, keep thriving, keep believing in yourself and have the most incredible day.