It's a listener questions episode! I thought it would be fun to round out the summer by answering some questions you've asked about how to run and grow a podcast. I hope you enjoy! in Build Something More, I tell you all about what I learned at Skip the Grind and how it's shaping my business, and this podcast, moving forward.

Top Takeaways 

• The biggest way to grow your show is by having a clear Call to Action and a strong show notes page. 
• BUILD YOUR LIST! No matter what you're trying to do - build a community, sell products, sell a course or service - your email list is the life's blood of your business and your podcast can help you grow it.
• There are 2 million podcasts but only about 65% are actually active. For comparison, There are over 37 million YouTube channels. 

Show Notes

• Send in Feedback or Ask a Question!
• Why Course Creators Should Start a Podcast
• Course Creators Community Podcast
• How Skip the Grind Showed Me to Focus my Business
• Next Steps for How I Built It
• Podcast Subscribe Buttons
• Podcast Stats from BuzzSprout

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Today's Episode is a little bit different. See, my friend Alastair McDermott has a couple of problems he'd like to solve: launching and promoting an online course, and growing his podcast. I believe these 2 things go hand-in-hand. A podcast is a great way to establish trust and expertise, which in-turn helps you sell more courses. So instead of Alastair dropping knowledge on us (which he does anyway...) we flip the script in this live coaching call, and he asks me a bunch of questions! This is one of my favorite episodes of the year - and highly educational for both of us! 

Top Takeaways

• Beta testing your course is a great, lower-risk way to get your information out there and get real feedback. 
• A podcast is a fantastic way to grow your audience, estabilish trust and expertise, and sell your courses. 
• One way to grow your own podcasting audience is to guest on other people's podcasts!

Show Notes

• Alastair McDermott
• Alastair on Twitter
• The Recognized Authority Podcast
• Building and Evolving Profitable Project Plan with Jennifer Bourn
• How to Hire a VA That Actually Helps You with Matthew Yahes
• Authority by Nathan Berry
• Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns
• Want to participate in a live coaching episode? Leave a Message Here.

Sponsored by: Nexcess | Termshub | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

All too often, we hear only the success story. The Olympian who won the goal. The successful millionaire who launched a business from her dorm room. It's easy to assume these stories are without struggles. But what we don't see is the sacrifices the olympian made. We don't see the dozen other ideas and years of work the successful millionaire put in. Today we get to hear it all. Paul Lacey is as generous with his time as he is with his story. See, Paul has gone a long way in his travels as a web developer, from the pre-dot-com burst to crashing an agency and bouncing back. And he's learned a ton along the way that he generously shares with us in today's episode. So I just tried to get out of the way and tell his story. I think you'll love it.

Show Notes:

• Paul Lacey
• Paul Lacey on Twitter
• WP Builds
• Fourth Doctor
• How Giving Back saved my some gig
• Ron Gijsel Episode
• Company of One
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Podcast Liftoff | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Google has recently rolled out a new set of metrics to help website owners create better websites. They're called Core Web Vitals and understanding how they work will be important for building your website, and getting it ranked better. Luckily we have Andy Schaff. He's the Development Architect and Portent and we have a fantastic chat about how to make your website more performant, from the ground up. We get pretty technical - but don't worry because I rain down analogies like it's my job. Andy drops a ton of knowledge about backend performance and gives both developers and small business owners starting points for making websites faster - and why your Google PageRank depends on it. Plus, in Build Something More, we talk about what it's like going through an acquisition from the employee's POV.

Show Notes:

• Andy Schaff
• Andy on Twitter
• WebPageTest
• Page Speed Insights
• Google's Lighthouse
• Pingdom
• The Page Speed Optimzation Hierarchy
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Podcast Liftoff | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

If you're anything like me, you feel like there's not enough time in the day. Maybe you're take on too much, or maybe you're doing things you don't need to do. Either way, you (and I!) both need a change - and that's where Reinart Bacalso comes in. He specializes in helping business owners reclaim their time by automating what they can, and putting the right processes in place. And today he's going to give us his framework. Plus, in Build Something More, we talk all about his toolkit. 

Show Notes

• Reinart Bacalso
• Agency Rocket Fuel Facebook Group
• Using Systems to Run a More Efficient Business with Shannon Shaffer
• Range
• Zapier
• Timery
• How to Hire a VA That Actually Helps You with Matthew Yahes
• Loom.com
• ZipMessage.com
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Termshub | TextExpander | The Events Calendar

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

AmyJune Hineline has lots of perspectives. Not only does she have a background in nursing that she's brought to the open-source world, but she also actively works with both WordPress and Drupal. That sort of experience is exactly what helps communities grow. AmyJune has dedicated her time to helping people get involved in open source, and she offers great advice here for people who want to contribute, as well as mentors in the space. Plus in Build Something More, we talk about what Drupal and WordPress can learn from each other. 

Show Notes:

• AmyJune Hineline
• AmyJune on Twitter
• AmyJune on LinkedIn
• AmyJune on Instagram
• Matt Jetpack on Twitter
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Linode | TextExpander | The Events Calendar

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Let me tell you something: I'm not great at social media. I KNOW...totally shocking. But you know who is? My friend Jean. In fact, we had a SUPER long chat all about content strategy and social media. It was super helpful and we covered a lot of ground, from growing your audience to TikTok. Plus there's a Build Something More pre- AND post-show. We talk about parenting in the pre-show and accents, culture, and repurposing in the post-show.

Show Notes:

• Jean Perpillant
• Jean on LinkedIn
• Jean on Facebook
• CaboPress Blog Post
• Pexels
• Elements Envato
• Music for Makers
• Design Pickle
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Linode | TextExpander | The Events Calendar

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Michelle Frechette knows a thing or two about building a community. Not only does she do it for multiple WordPress businesses, but she's cultivated quite the community on Twitter! As someone who's trying to grow my own community, I had lots of questions for Michelle and she generously answered them all. Learn all about what it takes to grow a community today. Plus in Build Something More, how to help those underrepresented in your community.

Show Notes

• Michelle Frechette
• Michelle on Instagram
• Works by Michelle
• GiveWP
• Matt Medeiros Episode with Michelle
• Big Orange Heart
• Underrepresented in Tech
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Linode | TextExpander | The Events Calendar

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

New to the show? Start here. 

• Subscribe: https://howibuilt.it/subscribe

In January, I rolled out the Creator Crew, a membership that allows people to support the show directly in exchange for more, ad-free content. 6 months in, how do I think it’s going? Find out about this behind-the-scenes episode. And in Build Something More, we’ll talk about exact numbers, metrics, and what I’m measuring. 

Show Notes:

• Failed Patreon Experiment
• Creator Courses
• Build Someting Club

Sponsored by: Restrict Content Pro | TextExpander | The Events Calendar

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/