The Kate Toon Podcast

Daily nuggets of pod joy delivered to your ear holes, well, daily. The goal is to share my journey through this testing time.   But not just my story, I’m going to be calling my business buddies too, to check on how they are going. And I’m going to be asking you to get involved too- if you fancy it? Why am I starting this show?   I want to force myself, and hopefully you, out of the negative spiral. The constant checking and rechecking of social media stories. The navel-gazing, the worrying and the fear. I want to remind me, and hopefully you, that you’re not alone.   I’ll be sharing my highs and woes. Some business stuff and real-life stuff. Highlights and poolights of what it’s like to run a business when your brain has turned to soup and you’ve run out of loo roll.   And I hope it will be inspiring, uplifting, occasionally intelligent, but mostly fun. Some episodes might not be appropriate for small humans – but I’ll warn you if that’s the case.   I hope to stick to my daily schedule, but if I don’t, don’t give me judgy eyes, or ears. There won’t be show notes, or bios, or useful links There will be laughs, and useful advice, and maybe the odd sniffle.

I was never a child prodigy.

I didn’t grow up being excellent at gymnastics. (You should see me trying to do a forward roll.)

I can’t really play any instruments, except the recorder with my nose.

And while I can say, “I love you because you’re a tall and handsome man” in Cantonese, my language skills are a bit rubbish.

I’ve never been really good at anything. Just okayish at a lot of things. If I were a superhero I’d have an ‘M’ on my cape for Mediocre Woman! (And no, I’m not being self-deprecating here. I love me. But I also know my strengths and weaknesses.)

But looking at some entrepreneurs out there in social media land, you’d think you need a superpower to succeed, whether it’s inventing your own brand of yoghurt when you were eight or having a chain of poodle massage shops by age 22.

We’ve been sold the idea that to be a success you need to be horrendously attractive, a chino-wearing supernerd or someone with a beard. (I’m 99% convinced Branson would be nothing if he was cleanly shaven.)

Oh, and it also helps if you’re bald.

I’m none of these things. But I quickly realised it was important to appreciate my superpowers, however boring and pathetic they seemed.

(Yes, I know ‘appreciating my superpowers’ might sound a bit ‘woo woo,’ but bear with me.)

We all have superpowers. And if we can identify them, they can really help make our business a success.

Tune in to learn:

In this episode we cover:

• What are superpowers?
• Why are they important?
• How do you find out what your superpowers are?
• Who would play Kate and Melanie in a movie?
• What are Kate’s superpowers?
• What are Melanie’s superpowers?
• Are superpowers part of our nature or does it come down to nurture?
• What to do if your superpowers are bad things?

We have to face the facts. Not all new businesses work out.

I could read you a lot of scary stats right now, but suffice to say this entrepreneur business is hard.

That’s literally what being an entrepreneur is all about: taking risks and failing.
Failing and getting up and doing it again.

Failing forward.

But how do you know when it’s time to give up?
To give up on your entire business or a particular project.

And how do you give up without feeling bad about your decision?

In this episode, I’m going to dig deep into my failures, and how I knew giving up was the right move.

Tune in to learn:

In this episode we cover:

• How to let go of something you’ve invested time and money in
• Knowing the warning signs
• Techniques to test whether giving up is the right move
• How reliable is your gut?
• What is the Point of No Return?
• What are the positives of giving up?

Thanks for your contributions, Anuradha Sawhney and Louisa Tew.

https://www.katetoon.com/e9-giving-nick-bolton/

Let’s be honest, to run your own business it helps if you can laugh at yourself (and others).

But is having a sense of humour an important attribute for entrepreneurs and business owners?

Do you use humour in your marketing?

Does your sense of humour get you through the dark days?

Has your sense of humour gotten you into trouble?

Do you fear that you DON’T have a sense of humour and want tips on how to grow one?

In this episode, I’ll be digging deep into the funny side of the business and how to make it work for you.

Tune in to learn:

• What humour actually means
• How to deal with the offended folk
• Poe’s Law and how to prove you’re being funny
• How to find the funny in failure
• Is it better to be lighthearted than funny?
• Is there a time when it’s not a good idea to be funny?

With contributions from Jennifer Long, Sharon Tregoning, Maria Doyle, Dom Kimber and Sandra Dee.

 

https://www.katetoon.com/humour-uldouz-van-eenoo/

If I’ve learned one thing as a Misfit Entrepreneur it’s that experience is everything.

When I started out I had no clue what I was doing, I blundered around making mistakes and learning from them.

Now - nearly 10 years later, I don’t have many new problems to deal with.

Experience has left me better able to deal with most issues and I know that I’m a far better business person than I was a few years ago.

So imagine having 40+ years of experience. What kind of wise old goat genius must you be?

That’s why today I’m talking to Derek Toon, yes another Toon. The truth is, he’s my Dad!

I’m lucky enough to have a Dad who’is interested in what I do and willing to pass on sage advice when I need it most.

He’s helped me enormously with my business and I think he’ll help you guys too.

Tune in to learn:

• What lessons can entrepreneurs learn from big businesses
• When you ran your own business, was there anything you regret wasting money, time or energy on?
• What Dad found was the most transferable skill in his career
• How do you think business has changed in the last 40 years?
• What’s the best piece of advice my Dad ever gave me
• What Dad would tell the young Derek Toon
• What Dad has learned from me about business
• What  Dad would do differently if he had the chase to raise me again
• If there’s anything you regret not doing, a chance not taken in business or life?

With contributions from Daryl Ansell, Carly Hopgood, Taryn Musgrave, Jenny De Lacy, Rebecca Carroll Bell, Maria Doyle and Jennifer Crawford.

https://www.katetoon.com/e7-experience-derek-toon/

Staying healthy as an entrepreneur is a big challenge. Well for most people.

As I mention in the book, I’m not the sort of person who gets up at 4am does my yoga and has a green smoothy. Health has never been a priority for me - well until now.

This episode is very timely for me, I’ve spent the last 4 months trying to turn around my health with some interesting results!

I fell that with stresses and strains that running your own business puts on you, it’s vital that you bac yourself. That you make time to be healthy, eat well, sleep well and reduce stress wherever possible.

As my mum would say - if you don’t make time to be healthy you’ll have to make time to be sick.

In this episode we’re going to dig deep into the challenges of being a healthy misfit entrepreneur - and provide some tips and tricks to help you incorporate more wellness into your life and business.

So if you’re feeling like a burned out frazzle - this is the episode for you.

Tune in to learn:

• Why Kelly thinks many entrepreneurs struggle to stay health
• How the stories we tell ourselves are key to our success
• Does social media give us permission to drink more
• Kate’s personal health story and tips
• Kelly’s personal health story and tips
• Answers to questions from the Misfit Group

With contributions from Belinda Irvine, Maria Doyle, Anastasia Cockbain

https://www.katetoon.com/e6-health-with-kelly-exeter/ ‎

oint ventures: a phrase that goes with Entrepreneurialism like jam with a scone.

Partnering up with someone can be a great thing. You get to access their network, and you can share the costs. Obviously you have more capacity for work and gain an extra brain to help you come up with all those innovative ideas.

Possibly the biggest benefit is that you have someone to share the risks with; someone to gossip and whinge with.

But are there downsides to partnering with another person? And how can you be sure that the great relationship you started with stays great.

In this episode of the podcast, I talk to my long-term business buddy and Hot Copy Podcast partner, Belinda Weaver. We share the highs and lows of our business relationship and give you some tips on how to improve yours

 

The truth is that when you’re running a business – or being a Misfit Entrepreneur – it can be a lonely game.

Sure, there are Facebook groups to chat in and network events to attend, but the day-to-day of running your own business is generally mostly you, your laptop and your busy brain doing overtime.

 

One thing that can help mitigate these lonesome feelings is a supportive partner – a shoulder to cry on, an ear to fill with questions and a long warm hug at the end of a terrible day.

But not all partners are supportive of our entrepreneur dreams, and even if they are, it can still be a struggle to juggle family commitments and life with your business needs.

 

In this week’s episode of the Confessions of a Misfit Entrepreneur podcast I have a very special guest: my husband Hichem Moussa. We’re going to be chatting about how we work together, support each other and sometimes drive each other crazy.

Tune in to learn

• How Kate started as an entrepreneur
• The truth about that tough first year
• The struggles of having two entrepreneurs in one family
• The solutions Kate and Hichem found for successfully working with each other
• How to deal with an unsupportive partner
• How Kate and Hichem handle their finances and their childcare arrangements
• Whether Hichem is ever allowed in the Toon cave
• How to stay happy in sickness and in health
• All about Hichem’s appearance in The Bill

 

With contributions from Sharon Chisholm, Emily Rhodes, Lutfiye Tahseen and Brook Crawford.

Today we're tackling what I think is a really important attribute of being an entrepreneur, misfit or otherwise, and that is persistence.

What does it mean to keep on keeping on in the face of adversity?

How do you motivate yourself to keep on going when all around you is falling to pieces, and when do you decide that enough is enough?

So, if you're struggling to find the mojo to keep your misfit entrepreneur business going, this is the episode for you.

 

Tune in to learn:

• The definition of persistence
• What persistence means to Kate and Amanda
• The benefits of persistence
• The dark side of persistence
• Why defining success is so important
• How to deal with that annoying voice in your head
• Why showing up is the key
• Do you have bouncebackability

With contributions from Nikki Weelan, Anne Alison, Charlotte Calder, Kylie Singh and Litsa Barberoglou.

 https://www.katetoon.com/e3-persistence-amanda-van-elderen/

Over the years I’ve been copycatted more times than I care to remember.

So in this episode with Maria Doyle we chat about how to deal with Copycats without loosing your mind.

 

Tune in to learn:

• How to spot trends
• When and when not to confront your copycat
• Whether public shaming is a good idea
• How to stop looking
• When to take legal action
• How to learn acceptance
• The name of Maria's crazy attention seeking rooster

https://www.katetoon.com/e2-copycats-maria-doyle