Yes, I’m in the spiral. Yes, I’m about to quit my podcast; I’m in a doom spiral, thinking I’m not enough and my content’s not enough, when it’s probably a marketing problem, not a content problem. Or a packaging problem.

So when you’re working on your bio, you have to package it in a way people want.

For me, people are constantly asking, how do I grow my podcast? How do I grow my podcast? When the question they should be asking is, how do I get my current listeners to take the next step with me. Am I positioning myself correctly? How long are people actually sticking around for my episodes?

Yes, we want to grow our following, but growing doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make bank. Going viral doesn’t mean you’re going to make bank. Sometimes you go viral, and it just falls off. I had one Instagram reel hit almost a million views. You know what it did? Not one thing. Didn’t bring me one customer. Didn’t put one new warm lead in. It just happened to pop off.

So that’s the thing. You have to package it for what people want, instead of going after what they need. My people don’t necessarily need to grow their numbers. They need to know how to convert the numbers they already have. So I have to package it to look like "Grow Your Podcast," and then, on the back end, actually teach them clarity, all of that.

Think about it like two boxes of cereal sitting on a shelf. One’s black and white, the other’s super colorful, and it’s the exact same cereal, exact same company. Most people are going to go for the colorful one. So you just have to figure out what’s going to draw your people in, and package it into something people think they want, even if what they actually need is something else underneath.

People come into my business for podcasting. But the reality is, before we can even get your podcast growing, my blueprints are full business models, because you have to have your positioning down. You have to understand your person, how they talk, what their problem is, and the market research before you can even build the packaging. And that packaging has to be so good.

I’ll say it straight. I don’t do a great job at this myself. I do things wrong so you don’t have to. Built From Story, poor packaging. But it’s poor packaging, and I’m still making money. It proves that if you have the core messaging down, the communication, all of that, you can get away with imperfect packaging. But you’ve still got to have that core piece down.

You have to package it to what people are looking for in your niche. If you’re a health coach, you might focus on someone in perimenopause, struggling with x, y, z, more energy, whatever it is.

Now the bio itself. I know a lot of people say don’t start with the problem. I like to start with the problem. It’s what I do on my own podcast too. Hey podcaster, I know you’re not growing. Hey podcaster, I know you’re broke as hell. I like to call out who it’s for.

It’s short and sweet. Who’s it for, what’s it doing, how are you helping them, and the hope. But it’s not so structured, not the normal problem-solution situation. You’ve got to give them a little more detail, something they’re already searching for, something that makes them lean in.

Here’s mine, as an example. Are you a podcaster done being broke and burnt out? You’ve been sitting on the hamster wheel trying to create more content, when in reality you’re standing on a shaky foundation. With a few simple tweaks, we can help you grow and make more money.

This week, one bold action. Fifteen minutes.

Write your own opening hook and your bio. Who it’s for, what you do, how you help them, and the hope.

Next week, we'll use this to build your about page, the most-visited page on your whole Substack.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now so you don’t miss it.

If you’d rather not wait week by week, spend three hours with me telling me about your business, and let’s build a blueprint that gets your ninety days set up and your Substack plan built out. In three hours, you can have a clear plan you can build from and continue to build from, over and over again.

[Book the Substack Remodeling Intensive →]

Or if you want weekly accountability and a community doing this alongside you, that’s what the Bold Action Collective is for. [Join Bold Action Collective →]

And if you’re just getting your feet wet, come sit in on the free Substack for Podcasters Masterclass.

[Save your seat →]

WEEK 1. WEEK 2.

This week we’re going past your warm list. This week is about filling the room with people who don’t know you yet.

We’re not doing engage for…

Read more

And first, we need to make sure you understand this. As you’re doing this for Substack, take a peek at your podcast too, and see if it’s time to make any tweaks there. Jot that down wherever you’re keeping notes for this series. We’ll come back to it later in the seven weeks.

There’s market research off-platform and market research on-platform. If you haven’t signed up for Substack yet, this is a great time to just sign up and create a generic profile so you can get in and start doing some market research on platform.

One thing to note. Because you will be subscribing to people, make sure it’s an email that you’re willing to get more emails to, that you check, but might not be your main business email. If your main business email goes to your VA, you don’t want them to have to go through every Substack email.

So on platform, from your profile, just start searching. There’s a search feature, and we’re going to start searching for topics that are like yours, or people doing things kind of like yours. I call these people in your neighborhood, versus competition, because not everyone is for everyone. If you’re for everyone, you’re for no one.

Start searching your topics, the things you cover, and see what other people are saying. These are great for you to take notes on, because when you’re doing this, you’re going to find two things. People that are talking about what you’re talking about that are triggering you, because you’re like, no, that’s wrong, that’s a problem with the focus that I have, the niche that I have, and you’re going to be able to respond in your own terms. And number two, you’ll find the things that are like, yes, that is the thing that I teach, and I’d change it this way. So then kind of creating those notes.

Once you’re finding things that are close to you, look through the content that’s getting engagement, and that might be a good time to subscribe, because Substack is really all about collaborations and community building and relationship building. I have a bunch of people who teach the same thing I teach that I’m willing to co-create with on this platform, because the way I teach it is the same as somebody else teaches it, and I want the right person for that audience. Stop being so afraid of other people. At some point, those people might be your biggest collabs that actually get your business going.

Off platform, I want it mostly in and out, so two places: YouTube and Answer the Public. Looking in the niche. And I know you’re multipassionate, and you don’t want to niche down, and you don’t have to completely niche down for everything. But when you’re setting up your platform, having a super specific niche is going to be the most helpful, even if you go a little off topic when you’re in your article. We’ll get into how to write inside that flexibility when we hit the about page in part three. I talk about this with my clients all the time, because I know for a multipassionate person, it’s hard to just hit one thing.

So week one, the action step is to start getting all the information together. Start looking at it. Maybe subscribe to some of the people in your neighborhood. Create two lists. The response list, where you note your response, positive or negative, and that starts making a list of topics as you’re doing that. And the neighborhood list, the people doing things similar, maybe not exactly the same, maybe exactly the same. If you’re a breathwork person, maybe you’re following another breathwork person.

Next week, we build on this. We’re going to use this positioning to set up your about page, the most visited page on everyone’s Substack. So subscribe, because you’re going to want that one.

If you’d rather skip ahead and not wait week by week, you can spend three hours with me and we’ll build your whole Substack blueprint together. In three hours, you walk away with a clear, 90-day plan for your Substack that you can build on and keep building on, over and over again. No guessing what comes next, no waiting on a Thursday email.

Book the Business Intensive

And if you want the weekly accountability and a community doing this alongside you, that’s exactly what the Bold Action Collective is for.

Subscribe now

Or if you’re just getting your feet wet, come sit in on the free Substack for Podcasters Masterclass.

[Save your seat]

We have to think about where we are wanting our people to go, you know that road map to your GOALS for your b…

Read more

I know so many of you have reached out saying, hey Jenn, uh oh, Substack added an AI checker, what do we do? So let me talk about this. Let me tell you the pros, the cons, the things I’ve learned, and why I think this is actually a good thing once the app actually catches up.

Why I’m Actually Excited About This

We are all sick of the AI slop. And if you’ve been around for a while, you know I’m always like, use your story, use your own words, teach Claude or chat or whatever you’re using to use your exact words, your phrases, your everything.

Part of the reason Substack is getting its heyday is because Medium did this. A lot of writers went from Medium over here because everything was getting flagged and it became a problem. And I think this AI checker is going to keep this platform authentic, clean, clear, and more of a place where you can actually position your authority.

People are craving community. People are craving connection. People are craving conversation. This is why all of a sudden I’m starting to see the big mentors I follow shift back to live launching. All these live masterclasses are popping up again. And what happens there is you skip to the front of the line. Because now they trust you. They’ve had an interaction with you. That people-to-people contact is what’s going to grow your business faster.

And there’s actually a study out there that shows we’re getting like 7% dumber each year because of AI. We don’t have to look things up anymore. It actually is making us dumber as a society. And I think the AI checker on Substack is going to actually push back against that.

Okay But Here’s What’s Actually Happening With the Checker

Is this AI checker perfect? No. 100% there are some glitches right now.

I have one client that writes everything word for word, doesn’t even let Grammarly fix things, and it’s still getting flagged at like 58% human. And she’s like, Jenn, this is not right, I actually wrote this myself. I literally took a voice note I recorded, transcript, word for word, posted it, and it’s still flagging it for 40 to 60% AI. It’s literally a transcript. And I’m like, this is me, this is how I talk.

The cadence, how you’re setting up your sentence structure, your paragraph, so many things are getting flagged. I think Kelly said it; I think Yana may have said it too. It’s not perfect yet; they’re still kind of beta-rolling it out.

This is why I teach remodeling instead of repurposing. You need specific, very specific prompts for your AI assistant telling them to use your own words. If you misuse a word, that’s fine. Punctuation doesn’t have to be perfect. This girl should not have gotten an A in English, let’s be honest. I speak Jennisms. But if you let AI correct too much, it becomes too formal and it will get flagged.

Your Bold Action This Week

Test your next article through Pangram before you post it. That’s it. Just test it.

And then I want you to look at that number and not let it discourage you. If you’re at 40% human right now, your goal for your next article is 45%. That’s it. Just the next step. Progress not perfection. Trust your words, trust your thoughts, trust your feelings, because your story is what’s going to set you apart. Your experiences, the way you say things, that’s what separates you from everything AI can generate.

So lean into your authority. Lean into your own genius. Your story deserves a microphone. Now go do the thing.

If you want to learn how to remodel your content for Substack the right way, come to the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month.

Masterclass

If you want a community where we test this stuff together every week, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini training, seven bold actions, and a monthly group hot seat call.

Subscribe now

And if you want to sit down one on one and build out your full strategy with prompts included, that’s the Substack + Business Intensive. 2.5- 3 hours, one-on-one, and you walk away with a 90-day plan and prompts you can actually use. Code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

Intensive

And then either nobody shows up because I don’t know how to talk about it... or worse, they’re not actually interested in what…

Read more

A lot of it is they’re stuck in their head; they don’t believe their method is good enough, so they start to dumb it down with information they find from other people. Which we all learn from other people, that’s fine, most people don’t have an original idea, they just have a spin to make their idea work, or their process work, or whatever it is. And everybody learns differently, so that’s why we need different people teaching the same thing.

But to stand out, you really need to weave in your story and allow yourself to be yourself, a little imperfect, because people are craving people instead of AI. That’s why this age of creators on social media is going a little bit more grungy than polished and perfect, for most industries.

One of my things is the catchy line, be a tsunami of change. And people were like, oh my gosh, yeah, that’s a huge impact. And people started trying to use it. I had a mentor try to use it, I had a couple people try to use it.

And in the process of them using it, it just didn’t land to their audiences, they didn’t deliver it. Because you can come up with your own terms, other people can use them, but when they use them it doesn’t work, because there’s a conviction behind it that you came up with.

The other thing was when I did podcast launch only content, I ended up mixing in with all the other launch people, and that didn’t actually work. I was just trying to show content, content, content, and that didn’t work for anyone. It had to be about using podcasting for connection and being my own original self.

Vulnerability Isn’t the Whole Story, Receiving It Is

This is something I’ve struggled with too. You can show up vulnerably. Hey, I had this happen to me. Hey, I’m a survivor of abuse. Hey, this. Hey, that. But if you don’t show up open to receive, you actually can’t receive anything back. So there’s this whole piece of receiving and not just showing up.

You have to find a way to show up and share where people can actually connect, without oversharing to the point you’re putting them in trauma with you. You share it on a high level enough that they can add their own story, because we’ve all been through something similar, if you high-level it right.

My whole statement is, six years ago I had a day, I had a plan for that day to be my last day, but I didn’t have a plan till the afternoon. So here’s what I did with my morning routine, and that’s when somebody came on a podcast and it changed my life. I said, okay, one more day. I didn’t say the words ending my life, I kept it open. So people can relate, oh yeah, I was gonna give up on my business, or I was gonna give up on this or whatever.

That’s the through line. Not the story for the story’s sake, the story at a level that gets your audience to lean in and trust you, because there’s people on that exact fence right now, thinking about quitting their business, or their podcast, or whatever it is they’re building.

Your Bold Action This Week

Take your own pivotal moment, the one you keep going back to, and write it out at that same high level. Not the whole story, just enough that someone else can pour their own version of it into yours.

Then post it as a Note this week and see how people respond. Let them see their story in the high-level version of your story. That’s the power of STORYTELLING to Story Sell through emotions. We buy with emotions. We connect through emotions.

If you want help figuring out your through line and how to actually use it to grow your podcast audience and your business, come to the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month.

Substack for Thought Leaders

If you want a community where we work on this stuff together every single week, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini training, seven bold actions, and a monthly group hot seat call. All of it built around helping you show up as yourself and actually grow.

Subscribe now

And if you want to sit down one-on-one and map out exactly how your story, your episodes, and your existing content can work together for the next 90 days, that’s the Substack + Business Intensive. 2.5-3 hours, one-on-one, and you walk away with a real plan. Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

Substack, Business, Podcast Intensive

Here’s why. When something goes really well, there’s this voice that starts up. That wasn’t really me. She already had a big audience. I just helped a little. They would have figured it out eventually. We cycle through all of it. The self-doubt, the “I need to learn more before I can claim this,” the worry that naming a win out loud is the same as gloating.

So the proof just... sits there. Unnamed. Unused. While you keep wondering why people aren’t buying.

I launched one podcast, and she was in the top 200 on Apple by day four. Because we set up the marketing right and positioned her correctly with the audience she already had. I had a client grow 5,000 subscribers on YouTube in four months and start monetizing within six. I’ve had people come to me after sitting off the charts for five years and rank in the top 200 on Apple Podcasts after working together on their strategy. I’ve had multi-passionates running what I call twenty legs of the octopus, all these separate businesses with no through line, and we simplified everything down to one offer stack where each thing builds on the next, and they got their time back and their clarity back.

I don’t say these things enough. And I’m guessing you don’t either.

Here’s what I want you to understand. Your proof doesn’t have to be a paying client. It doesn’t have to be a launch. Has a friend ever come to you and asked you to help them solve something you know how to solve? Did you go to school and learn something? Is there part of your own story that got you through something hard? A family member you helped? Something you figured out on your own watching YouTube tutorials at midnight? Has anyone, ever, in your life told you that you do something differently, that you’re really good at something, that your thing was so good they needed the recipe?

That’s proof. All of it. You just haven’t named it yet.

This week you’re going to gather your SOCIAL PROOF!

You already have the results. You just haven’t put them into words yet. This week changes that.

Read more

Why the Masterclass Worked When Nothing Else Did

Here's the thing. Before that first masterclass, I had been hustling. Posting and showing up on every single platform. My podcast was consistent. I was on YouTube, doing shorts, posting on Instagram, on Facebook, in my stories, doing all the things. And it just wasn't working the way I wanted it to.

Then I got offered the chance to do a masterclass, and everything shifted. Because people don't just want more content; they want proximity. They want to actually see you, live, in real time, doing the thing you say you can do.

It's kind of like dating apps, honestly. There's actual research on this. It's called the paradox of choice. Barry Schwartz, studied this, and there was even a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that found people given more options to choose from ended up less satisfied with whoever they picked, not more. Because you're always wondering if someone better is one swipe away.

That is exactly what's happening with content right now. People scroll past you the same way they swipe past a match, always wondering if there's something better one scroll away. Instead of actually stopping and getting to know you.

Giving someone real proximity, a masterclass, a live, a way to actually watch you do the thing, cuts through all of that. It's the opposite of the swipe. It's actual eye contact.

Go Look at What Was Already Working

Before you build some brand new plan, go back and look at what was already working this year. Where were you making money? Where were you actually building connections? Because that's your starting point, not six new ideas you haven't tested yet.

Here’s Your Bold Action for the Week

Take fifteen minutes. What do you already know how to teach? What can you talk about for hours without getting bored. What do you actually love talking about, not what you think you're supposed to be talking about?

If you're feeling burnt out on creating, go back through your own content. Your podcast, your old YouTube videos, whatever you've already made. Find the episode that's still getting hits and remodel it for right now instead of starting from scratch.

Then pick one low-effort way to actually be in front of people live this week. A masterclass, a live on Substack, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, wherever your people already hang out. It doesn't need to be polished. It just needs to give people real proximity to you.

If five people show up, that's five real connections. That's the thing that actually converts.

If you want help with any of this

If you want help actually testing ideas like this instead of guessing on your own, that is exactly what we do inside the Bold Action Collective. Every week you get a mini training and seven bold actions to help you test, connect, and build without burning yourself out. Plus a monthly group hot seat call where we work through your real questions together.

Subscribe now

If you want to see how I build masterclasses and live events that actually convert, join me for the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month.

And if you want a specific plan built around your actual assets, your episodes, your existing relationships, your back catalog, the **Substack Remodeling Intensive** is a two-hour one-on-one where we map your full strategy, and you leave with a 90-day plan ready to execute.

Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

We come up with an idea. We think it’s going to be great. We don’t test it. We don’t talk to anyone. We just push, push, push, push, push and try all the things. And then what happens is we spend all this time building websites and every single piece of it, and we hundred percent forget what’s actually important. We forget our story. We forget that it’s people first. We forget all of it.

We need to test before we build. And I know that’s scary. Because we’re like, oh shit, we’re going to presell something. What happens if we fail? What happens if we can’t deliver what we say? We’re all overachievers. We’re all perfectionists. We’re all doing all the things, and the idea of putting something out before it’s ready is just terrifying.

So we try to build it out to where it’s perfect beforehand. But what happens is we build it out and then we don’t factor in what we’re missing. Because the people learning from us are a ton of steps behind us most of the time, and sometimes we forget what it was like to be there.

Every time I’ve personally launched a program and prebuilt it, the problem was there wasn’t a way to shift. I was spending more time undoing, redoing, refixing, putting things in order than I would have spent with a beta group where you test first. Where you ask the market questions. Where you research by talking to the people that are actually in your audience.

If you don’t have people in your audience yet, we have to think about how you can still ask these questions. Is there a group that’s already put together? Is there someone you can talk to? Is there a mentor you’re working with that you could ask to borrow their community, just to ask some questions and get feedback?

That’s what this week is. Not a launch. Not a pitch. Real conversations with real people, and you write down everything that comes back. Open your Bold Hour Tracker. Block 4 is home base this week. Log everything. By Sunday you’ll know more about your offer than any sales page could ever tell you.

The plan is done. The offer is forming. This week you find out if it lands by doing the one thing most people skip: testing it with real people before you ever call it a launch.

Read more

You want to go. But there is this voice in the back of your head that says you cannot afford to. That the business needs you. So you silence the notifications, open your laptop, and tell yourself you will have fun later. When you have earned it.

You are exhausted. Behind on your content calendar. And quietly wondering why nothing is moving the way you thought it would after everything you have sacrificed to stay at that desk.

Here is what I want you to hear. The content is not what grows your business. The relationships are.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Last week I hit the golf course five out of seven days. Went to a barrel race with one of my favorite humans. Spent real time with my mom.

And landed two new 3-month coaching clients.

Not because of a perfect content strategy. Because I never stopped talking to people.

When you are out living your life, you are in the rooms where your people are. Real conversations. Real human moments. And when you show up genuinely curious and present, trust builds in a way no content calendar can manufacture.

The Thing We Got Backwards

We were taught audience first, relationships second. So we create content for strangers while the warm people already in our world quietly drift away because we never followed up.

That is backwards.

Think about the last client you landed. I would bet it was a conversation, a referral, a warm introduction. Not a cold follower from an algorithm.

300 conversations built my top-ranked podcast in 9 months. Not 300 posts. Three hundred real moments with people who felt seen and remembered.

Summer is actually the best time to build this way because everyone else went quiet. Be the person who shows up.

Here is exactly how to do that this week.

Referrals Are Gold. Conversations Are Cash. But Not Like That.

Here is the part that gets twisted all the time. You do not go into a conversation thinking about the cash. The moment you do it, it stops being people-first and starts being a pitch wearing a friendly costume. People can feel that. They always can. And the moment they feel it, the trust is gone.

What you do instead is show up with genuine curiosity. You care about what is happening in their world before you ever think about what they might need from yours. And when the relationship is real, and the trust is there, the referrals come naturally. The conversations turn into opportunities without you ever having to force them.

Not because you were strategic. Because you were real.

Your Bold Action This Week

Build your Warm List.

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Go through your phone contacts, email history, podcast guest list, and DMs. Write down every person who has been in your world and who you have not had a real conversation with in 90 days or more.

That list is your most valuable business asset right now. More valuable than your follower count.

Pick one person today. Spend two minutes looking at what they have been up to. Then send something real.

Something like: “Hey [name], I was just thinking about you. I saw you [specific thing]. How is your summer going?”

No pitch. No link. No agenda. Just a human moment that reopens the door.

Do that once a day this week. Five conversations by Friday. Watch what happens by September.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Join me for the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month. Link below.

FREE MASTERCLASS

If you want a bold action like this one waiting for you every single day, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini trainings, daily action prompts, and a monthly group hot seat call. The practice, not just the theory.

Subscribe now

And if you want a specific plan built around your actual assets, the Substack Remodeling Intensive is a two-hour one-on-one where we map your strategy, and you leave with a 90-day plan ready to execute. Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

INTENSIVE

Pick the one that fits where you are right now.

Open your planner. Go to your My Bold Goals tab. This week is not about outreach, follow-up, or Notes. This week is about getting honest with yourself about where you actually want to be in 60 days and working backward from there until you have a real plan instead of a wish.

Here is what most podcasters get wrong about planning. They plan content. What they are going to post, how often, and on which platforms. That is not a plan. That is a content calendar. A real plan starts with a result. If you want a full mastermind launch in September, a paid tier that is actually growing, a calendar with no empty spots, what has to be true by September 1? What relationships have to be warm? What proof has to be visible? What offer has to be easy to find?

That is what this tab is for. Not aspirations. The actual backward map from the result you want to the actions you are taking this week.

One more thing. Your monthly hot seat call is this Tuesday, July 21, from 3 pm to 5pm PST. JOIN BELOW

Do not show up with a list of everything that feels hard. Come with one specific question about the gap between where you are right now and the September you are about to map. That is the most valuable two hours you have this month. Use it like it.

THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL MINDSET SHIFT

WHAT YOU NEED TO BUILD BEFORE AUGUST

August is around the corner. Most people will scramble. You are not going to be one of them. This week, we build the map that makes September possible without the panic.

Read more

Stop right there.

Substack is a newsletter. It lands in someone’s inbox. That is not the same as a blog post they stumble on through Google or a reel they scroll past in three seconds. Someone gave you permission to enter their personal space. That changes everything about how you write.

The Repurposing Trap

The industry keeps selling you the same lie. Copy and paste your podcast. Chop it into clips. Shovel it everywhere and call it a content strategy.

Then wonder why nothing converts.

Email is intimate. It shows up when someone is quiet, when they are alone with their coffee, when they actually have a minute to think. They have to choose to open it. They have to choose to stay. That level of attention is a privilege, and it requires you to show up differently than you do anywhere else.

Niche Down, (don’t RUN)

I know you are multi-passionate. I know you have a million things you could talk about. But here is why this matters more than almost anything else.

For me, every single email is about podcasting, Substack, and people-first marketing. That is the overarching theme. Every framework, every story, every strategy fits inside that bucket. And every week, you get a 15-minute action step that will move your business forward. That is what you know you are getting when you open my email.

Now plug in your own business. What is the one overarching theme your people come to you for? You can have content buckets, but they need to stay consistent under that one theme. If you are talking apples one week and steaks the next, you lose the people who came for apples. Pick your theme. Niche down. Then stay there.

Three Values That Land

Every article needs to deliver one of three things.

Entertainment. Something that makes your reader feel less alone, that reminds them they are human, that makes them smile.

Education. A framework, a workflow, a way of thinking about their problem that they did not have before they opened your email.

Inspiration. A story, a proof point, a shift in belief that makes them feel like what they are trying to build is actually possible.

Before you hit publish, ask yourself which one this article is delivering. If you cannot answer that clearly, keep remodeling until you can.

Your One Action This Week

Pull up your last three articles or newsletters. Read them as a stranger would, someone who does not already love you and your work.

Would you open them? Would you stay? Would you care?

If the answer is no, that is your standard right there. That is what you are shifting toward.

Find the one that landed strongest. Look at what made it work. Was it the niche? The clarity? The voice? The value?

That is your blueprint. Build toward that every single week.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Join the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month. Link below.

If you are ready to build the daily practice, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini-trainings, daily action prompts, and a monthly group hot-seat call where we work through your real business questions together.

And if you want a specific plan built around your actual assets, the Substack Remodeling Intensive is two hours one-on-one where we map your strategy, and you leave with a 90-day plan you can actually execute. Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

Pick the one that fits where you are right now.

Think about the last time someone showed up to something you hosted. They raised their hand. They gave you an hour of their time. They asked a question or engaged in the chat. That moment is not the beginning of a transaction. It is the beginning of a relationship. And if you do not follow up in a way that feels human and personal within 48 hours, that relationship quietly disappears. They move on. You miss the window. And six months later, you are wondering why your event did not convert.

Here is what the follow-up is not. It is not a broadcast email to everyone who registered. It is not a “thanks for attending, here is the replay” message you copy and paste to 200 people. It is not a seven-email nurture sequence that sounds like it was written by a funnel builder. Those things have their place. But they are not a follow-up. They are automation wearing a follow-up costume.

A real follow-up is one message to one person that only makes sense because you know something specific about them. “You asked about repurposing your back catalog during the training. I have been thinking about your situation, and I think I know exactly where to start.” That is it. That is the whole thing. One sentence that proves you were paying attention. That sentence does more for your relationship than any sequence ever will.

This week, your Bold Hour Tracker Block 4 is your entire focus. Every entry you make this week is a follow-up, a deepening, or an invitation to a next step. Open your planner now and write the names of everyone who has attended, engaged with, or registered for anything you have hosted in the last 30 days. That list is your week.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOUR EVENT

HOW TO TURN A YES INTO A RELATIONSHIP

Getting someone to attend a free event is only the beginning. The real work is what happens after. This week is about following up with intention, nurturing the people who said yes to you, and making it easy for them to take the next step.

Read more

Episodes that still get found. Conversations that changed people. A body of work you are genuinely proud of. And you are still not showing up when someone searches for what you do.

I sat down with an SEO strategist who works exclusively with keynote speakers, authors, and founders, people who have something real to say and need the right people to find them. And what he told me completely reframed how I think about visibility.

It is not a content problem. It is an infrastructure problem.

The Visibility Engine You Are Missing

Most of us were taught to repurpose everything everywhere. Make clips. Post on all the platforms. Show up daily and hope the algorithm rewards you.

Benas calls this treating every platform like an island. And islands do not compound.

What actually works is building a visibility engine. Two to three platforms that work together, that feed each other, that make it easier for Google and AI search to understand who you are, what you do, and who you serve.

No more content. A smarter system.

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Google Is Not Dead. And Neither Is Your Website.

Here is what surprised me most in this conversation.

Google still owns over 90% of searches worldwide. AI search is growing, but it has not shifted the way everyone predicted. And right now, the higher you rank in SEO, the higher you rank in AI search too. They work together, not against each other.

But here is the piece most podcasters are completely missing.

Your website is the central hub that makes it all work. Without it, you are making it incredibly hard for any algorithm to connect everything you do into one place. Your podcast, your LinkedIn, your Instagram, all of it is floating separately with nothing tying it together.

And Benas shared something that stopped me cold. Google only evaluates the first 30% of your website before deciding whether to crawl the rest. If your best content, your name, your podcast, your expertise, is buried below that line, Google is not even seeing it.

That is not a content problem. That is a setup problem.

Personal Brand Is Your Most Valuable Asset Right Now

This is the part of the conversation that lit me up.

As AI gets louder and the internet fills with content nobody made with their actual hands, the people who win are the ones who built something around their name. Not a company. Not a brand. Them.

Your personal brand is the one thing that cannot be automated, replicated, or sold off. It goes everywhere you go. It compounds over time. And right now, the window to build it is wide open.

Benas said something I want you to sit with. You never know what kind of opportunity a strong personal brand can unlock. But it is the most powerful asset you can own because it is just you.

Podcasters already understand this better than anyone. You have been building trust and authority through your voice for years. You just have not connected it to a system that makes you findable.

Your One Action This Week

Benas gave the simplest and most honest fifteen-minute action I have heard in a long time.

Spend fifteen minutes today researching website platforms. Squarespace. Framer. Whatever feels right. Pick one and commit to building your central hub.

You do not need it to be perfect. You need it to exist. Add your name. Add your podcast. Add your photos. Start treating it like a library for everything you do and let it compound over time.

That is it. One decision today that your future self will thank you for.

And if you want to go deeper with Benas directly, find him at https://avium.vip/ or connect with him on LinkedIn. His YouTube channel is also worth your time if you want to see behind the scenes of how he runs his agency.

CONNECT WITH BENES

Substack https://substack.com/@benasleo

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@benasleo

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you want to understand how to build the full visibility system around your podcast, join me for the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. We do this live every month, and you will leave with something real you can use.

Register is below.

FREE MASTERCLASS

If you are ready to build the daily practice of showing up, connecting, and growing without burning out, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini trainings, daily action prompts, and a monthly group hot seat call where we work through your real business questions together.

Subscribe now

Your Substack is a house. It already has materials. Your podcast episodes, your past trainings, your frameworks, your testimonials, your stories, everything you have built is sitting in a pile in your driveway waiting to be given a room. This week, we stop building new materials and start putting what you already own where it belongs.

There are three rooms. The Front Porch is your free content. It is the thing people see before they decide to come inside. It has to be specific enough to attract the right person and generous enough to make them want more. One free article per week, written from your existing podcast content, is your Front Porch. It does not have to be long. It has to be real and it has to be yours.

The Living Room is your paid content. This is where your members live. It is deeper, more direct, and more actionable than the Front Porch. The content that belongs here is the stuff that would take someone hours to figure out on their own. Your frameworks, your systems, your real behind-the-scenes thinking. The Monday Drop they are reading right now is Living Room content.

The Inner Circle is your highest access offer. The thing that gives someone the most direct path to working with you. Right now, that is the Substack Planning Intensive. Later it becomes the mastermind. The Inner Circle is not a tier you have to build from scratch, either. It is the most premium version of what you already do.

This week, you are going to open your Visibility + Outreach tab and map your three rooms with content you already own. Not ideas for future content. Actual things you have already made. Every podcast episode, training, framework, and story you write down this week is a room that already exists. You are just figuring out which one it belongs in.

THE SUBSTACK HOUSE

HOW TO BUILD YOUR THREE ROOMS FROM WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

This week we get practical. The Podcast Authority Blueprint maps exactly where your Substack fits inside the business you have already built. Nothing gets rebuilt from scratch. Everything gets a room.

Read more

It is not your content. It is not your niche. It is not even your offer.

You forgot to talk to people.

I do not mean post at people. I mean, actually talk to them. The way we used to before every business guru told us to build a funnel and automate our relationships.

Think about how business actually worked before social media. You went to events. You had coffee. You picked up the phone. You built something real with a real person over time, and when the moment was right, you made an ask. Not a broadcast. Not a link in bio. A conversation.

That is still how people buy. Especially right now.

We are in a trust recession. More than half the accounts engaging with you online are bots. People are exhausted from being marketed at. They are not buying from posts. They are buying from people they feel close to. People who showed up for them as a human being before they ever showed up with an offer.

Your content opens the door. But you still have to walk through it and actually talk to someone.

The Other Thing Nobody Is Saying

We have also gotten really good at creating content and really bad at making asks.

I see it everywhere. Someone creates an incredible episode, writes a beautiful article, shows up consistently for months. And then at the very end, they stuff one awkward call to action in, like they are hoping nobody notices.

The ask is not the problem. The relationship is.

When you are talking to someone who already knows you, who has been in your world, who has been quietly watching and waiting, the ask feels like a relief. Like you finally said, the thing they were hoping you would say.

People first does not mean people only. It means the relationship comes before the revenue. Get that order right, and the revenue follows.

Your One Action This Week

Go find one warm person. Someone who has been in your orbit but never took the next step. A past guest. A listener who commented once. Someone who has been watching from the sidelines.

Before you reach out, spend two minutes looking at what they have been up to. They're social. Their podcast. Their Substack. Find something real.

Then send something like this.

“Hey [name], I was just thinking about you. I saw [something specific]. How is everything going? How is your summer treating you?”

No pitch. No link. No ask. Just a real human moment that reopens the door. The conversation that follows will tell you everything you need to know about whether and how you can help them.

People built this. Not platforms. Go talk to one of them this week.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you want to see exactly how this works for your specific business, join me for the next free masterclass, Substack for Podcasters and Thought Leaders. Every month. You show up, and we work on your stuff live.

FREE MASTERCLASS

If you are ready to build the daily practice of showing up, connecting, and making real asks without feeling pushy, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Weekly mini trainings, daily action prompts, and a monthly group hot seat call where we work through your real business questions together.

Subscribe now

And if you want a specific plan built around your actual assets, the Substack Remodeling Intensive is a 2.5-hour one-on-one where we map your strategy, and you leave with a 90-day plan you can actually execute. Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

Grab an Intensive

Pick the one that fits where you are right now.

This week is not about adding something new. It is about stopping long enough to see what actually happened, and then setting one clear intention for what comes next. Open your planner and go to the My Bold Goals tab. This is where the monthly reset lives. Not a vague feeling of “I should do more.” An actual look at what moved and what did not, followed by one specific target for July.

Most people skip this step entirely. They finish a month, feel some version of behind, and lurch straight into the next month without ever asking what actually worked. You are not going to do that. You are going to fill in your Month 1 Actual column honestly, even if the numbers are smaller than you hoped. Then you are going to set one word for July. Not five goals. One word. What do you want more of, and what are you willing to stop doing to get it?

July is not a dead zone. It is the month that decides whether September is full or empty. The systems you build this month, the ones that do not require you to be on all the time, are what carry you through the rest of the year without burning out. This week is the bridge. June was the wake-up call. July is the build.

WHAT GETS BUILT IN JULY STAYS STANDING IN SEPTEMBER

June was the wake-up call. July is the build. This month, we focus on creating real systems, a Substack that works, a podcast that converts, a daily practice that does not require you to be on all the time.

Read more

Here is what is actually happening. You are not bad at sales. You are afraid of rejection, and you have learned to hide that fear behind more content creation, more outreach, more nurturing. All of it feels productive. None of it requires you to risk a no. But somewhere in your Relationships + Revenue tab right now, there is a name.

Someone who has been circling your work for weeks or months. Someone who has read everything, listened to everything, engaged with everything, and is just waiting for you to say the actual thing.

The fix is not to get braver. The fix is to reframe what you are doing. You are not pitching. You are invited. Think about the difference between asking someone to buy something and inviting a friend to a party you think they would love. The invitation version sounds like this: “I think you would really get something out of this. Want me to tell you more?” Two sentences. No over-explaining. No, twelve paragraphs justifying why they should say yes.

This week, go back to your Bold Hour Tracker and look honestly at Block 4. How many entries do you actually have logged there? If it is close to zero, that is the gap. Pick one person from your warm or hot relationships and practice the invitation this week. Not a pitch. An invitation. Then log what happened, because what happens in this block is what your business actually runs on.

STOP ASKING FOR THE SALE.

START INVITING PEOPLE TO THE PARTY.

You are not bad at sales. You are afraid of rejection, and you have been hiding that fear behind more content. This week, we dismantle the fear and replace it with an invitation.

Read more

Somewhere along the way, you started believing that building a business means giving up your life. That if you want this to work, you have to sacrifice the things that make you feel like a person. The dinners with friends. The hobbies you used to love. The slow mornings. The time outside.

You tell yourself it is temporary. Just for now. Just until things take off.

But now has been going on for a long time.

You are tired. And somewhere underneath the tired, there is a quiet fear that maybe this is just how it has to be. The people who seem to have both a thriving business and an actual life either got lucky or are not telling you the whole story.

I want to tell you the whole story.

What Actually Built This

I am not going to pretend I built some massive empire. What I built is something quieter and, honestly, more useful to you. I built a business that pays my bills, supports the life I actually want, and lets me show up for it.

I golf. I spend time with horses. I go to dinner with people I love. I am present in my life, not just grinding through it, hoping to reach a future version where I can finally enjoy myself.

And here is the part that matters. I did not build this by posting constantly, chasing algorithms, or trying to go viral. I built it through real conversations. Over three hundred of them over the years. Not three hundred posts. Three hundred actual conversations with actual people.

That is the foundation on which everything else sits.

People First Is Not a Slogan

You have probably heard the phrase people first marketing. ” It sounds nice. It might even sound a little soft, like something you say when you do not have a real strategy.

It is the strategy.

When you build relationships instead of broadcasting into the void, something shifts. People do not need to be convinced because they already know you. They already trust you. The conversation had already started before you ever made an offer.

This is also the piece podcasters have been missing without realizing it. You have spent years building something that creates real connection, real depth, real trust. And then you go looking for community and relationship building somewhere else, on platforms that were never built for it.

Substack was built for this. It gives you a place to actually build community around your podcast, not just distribute it. That is worth sitting with.

Your One Action This Week

This week, I want you to try something small that has a bigger effect than it looks like it should.

Post one Note on Substack every day this week. Not a pitch. Not a promotion. A real thought. Something you noticed. A question you are sitting with. Something true.

And here is the part that makes it work. For every Note you post, find two other creators and engage with their Notes. Like what they shared. Leave a real comment, something that adds value, not just emojis or a quick checkmark.

This is the one and only time you will hear me talk about algorithms. But this algorithm is different. It does not reward you for performing. It rewards you for showing up and connecting. The more genuinely you engage, the more likely you are to be put in front of new people who are doing the same thing.

It is not about being seen by everyone. It is about opening the door to new relationships, just as every meaningful relationship in your business probably started. With a real moment of connection.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you want to see exactly how this works for your specific content, I do this live every month in the free masterclass. Bring an episode, and we will remodel it together in the hot seat so you can see the whole process in real time for your own business.

Link to register is below.

Podcasters & Thought Leaders Masterclass

If you are ready to build the daily practice around this, the Bold Action Collective is where that happens. Every week inside the BAC, you get a mini training and daily action prompts that keep you moving, connecting, and building without burning out. Plus, a monthly group hot-seat call where you bring your real business questions and we work through them together. It is the practice and the community, not just the theory.

Subscribe now

And if you want to sit down with me directly and build your specific Substack strategy around what you already own, your episodes, your frameworks, your back catalog, the Substack Remodeling Intensive is a two-hour one-on-one where we audit your assets, map your three rooms, and you leave with a 90-day plan you can actually execute. Use code BOLDINSIDER for $100 off.

Substack Planning Intensive

Pick the one that fits where you are right now.