David McIlroy joined Substack in June 2023 with fewer than 200 subscribers who migrated over from another list. He never promoted it on social media. Today, 99% of his audience has come from inside the platform itself.

Suzanne sits down with David, a Substack writer and creator who helps other writers get their best thinking out of their heads and onto the page, to talk about what actually drives growth once the vanity metrics stop meaning anything.

David's take is blunt: likes don't tell you whether your business is growing. The real signal is what happens in the background: the DMs, the comments under an article, and the conversations nobody else sees. He builds his entire approach around connecting with people first and worrying about the sale later, if it comes up at all.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

- Why likes and vanity metrics are the wrong thing to chase if you actually want to grow a business

- The difference between marketing that makes people feel like they have a problem and marketing that simply opens a door

- Why vulnerable, self-deprecating stories build more trust than any polished pitch

- How David is launching Velocity, his new group coaching program for writers, by being upfront about the price from day one

- What changed on Substack after the Notes feature launched, and why it pulled in so many writers and journalists

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/81

One pre-IPO company had been operating for 20 years. After one category design session with Kevin Maney, a veteran executive raised his hand in the conference room and said he felt embarrassed. The answer they'd found was so obvious in hindsight, he couldn't understand why it had taken two decades to see it. Kevin's response: it's like trying to be your own psychologist.

Suzanne sits down with Kevin Maney, co-founder of Category Design Advisors and author of the new book The Category Creation Formula, to walk through the strategic system behind how companies win their markets.

In most digital markets, one company captures roughly 75% of the category. One company. All the pricing power and market share. The Category Creation Formula is built around a simple question: why wouldn't you do everything possible to be that company?

The formula is Context + Missing + Innovation = new market category. Context comes first: what's changing around your target audience, what new problems are appearing, what's no longer being adequately solved. From there, the missing piece becomes visible. Then you build the innovation to fill it. The order matters.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

- Why category design starts at the CEO level, before any marketing message gets written

- How the Context + Missing + Innovation formula works with real clients

- What a 20-year-old pre-IPO company learned about itself in one session

- Why writing a book disciplines your thinking in ways that make you a clearer leader and speaker

- How Kevin's advisory firm grew almost entirely through word of mouth

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/80

The patterns running your business right now were set before you turned 10.

Before age 10, the brain operates in a theta state — the same state as hypnosis. Every decision a child makes about how to earn love, stay safe, or fit in gets locked in as an unconscious pattern. Marcia Martin has spent 50 years watching those patterns play out in boardrooms, entrepreneurial teams, and leadership programs around the world.

Suzanne sits down with Marcia, pioneer of the human potential movement, Dame, author of Sex, Power, and Transformation, and the woman who helped build the $48 billion self-help industry from the inside. She worked at the heart of EST (which became Landmark), helped Tony Robbins go national and launch Unlimited Power, and co-created the Transformational Leadership Council with Jack Canfield.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• Why the personal development space has quietly shifted from helping people find their own answers toward telling them what to do, and what that means for anyone in a program right now
• How the decisions you made before age 10 are showing up in your leadership, your communication, and your business today
• Why your body and your mind learn in completely different ways, and what that means for actually building skills like giving and receiving feedback
• The role language plays in creating reality, and how what you say today is actively shaping the future you're walking into
• Why leading from "I don't know" is more powerful than projecting certainty you haven't earned yet

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/79

What would happen to your business if you deleted every social media account tomorrow?

Scott Perry did exactly that. His email open rate climbed back above 50%, his annual income goal was done by June, and he runs his entire business in under two hours a day.

Suzanne sits down with Scott, author of Intrepid: Dare to Make a Difference and founder of Creative on Purpose on Substack, to explore what a purpose-driven business looks like when you stop chasing every platform and start building something that actually holds.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

Why solopreneurs and entrepreneurs aren't working from the same resource pool, and how mixing them up leads to burnout

How Scott grew from one to three new Substack subscribers per day by focusing on direct, personal, relevant connection instead of paid ads or content calendars

The way he uses Substack Notes as a raw idea-testing pad rather than a growth tool, and why that distinction changes what you get from it

What Seth Godin's The Dip taught him about the difference between strategic quitting and giving up

Why human connection and belonging are what AI can't replicate, and what that means for how you build your business

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/78

Ever hung up a sales call convinced you nailed it, only to hear nothing back? Ari Galper did. He also accidentally stayed on the mute line and heard exactly what the prospect was saying when they thought he'd left.

Suzanne sits down with Ari Galper, the global authority on trust-based selling and author of Trust in a Split Second, for a conversation that rethinks how coaches and consultants earn real commitment from the people they're meant to serve.

In this conversation, you'll discover: 

• Why trust-building and relationship-building are two entirely different skills, and why confusing them is costing you sales 

• How to open every sales conversation as the authority in the room, with the bedside manner of a doctor diagnosing a patient 

• The exact language to use when you need to follow up with a prospect (and why the phrase "follow up" is the worst thing you can say) 

• Why objections disappear when you start every conversation from a position of trust How to market the problems you solve rather than the services you offer 

• What "cost of inaction" means and how to use it to help prospects see the real truth of their own situation

Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/77

Ever feel like LinkedIn is just a firehose of automated pitch messages from people all working off the same template?

Suzanne sits down with Melanie Mitchell Wexler, executive career coach, LinkedIn strategist, and co-creator of the LinkedIn Rockstar Academy, to get into what actually builds real business momentum on this platform without burning yourself out doing it.

In this conversation, you'll discover: How to reach out and start genuine conversations that actually go somewhere Why your LinkedIn profile is your real landing page and what needs to be there for people to stay How LinkedIn posts are now being indexed by Google and what that changes about your visibility strategy How to run a LinkedIn newsletter that builds an audience without writing on a rigid schedule Why waking up your existing network is more powerful than always chasing new connections How to know when a pitch is welcome and when it kills the relationship before it starts

Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/76

A massive wave is coming for the coaching industry, and most coaches have no idea it's heading their way.

In this episode of Unlock Your Way with STK, host Suzanne Taylor-King sits down with Townsend Wardlaw — a coach to elite founders and the transformational coaches who serve them — for an honest, unfiltered conversation about where the coaching industry is actually headed, what the top tier of this profession looks like from the inside, and what separates the coaches who quietly build seven-figure practices from the ones who stay stuck chasing their next client.

Townsend brings 20 years of consulting experience, a deeply developed philosophy on what true transformational coaching actually is, and a willingness to say the things most people in this industry would rather leave unsaid. Suzanne matches his energy with sharp, pointed questions drawn from her own experience transitioning from a long career in dentistry into coaching and consulting — grounding every insight in the kind of real-world context that makes it immediately applicable.

By the time this episode ends, you'll know how to:

→ Identify the difference between transactional coaching and true transformational coaching — and understand exactly why this distinction is about to become a survival issue as AI begins reshaping the industry from the ground up

→ Shift from selling the experience of coaching to solving high-value problems people will actually write checks to fix — the specific reframe that makes sustainable six- and seven-figure income not just possible, but logical

→ Approach enrollment as an act of genuine service rather than persuasion — including the mindset framework Townsend uses that eliminates most of the anxiety coaches carry into client conversations

→ Use the undeniable problems framework to identify what your ideal clients can never argue with — and build conversations around that instead of trying to convince anyone of anything

→ Build a consistent outreach rhythm that produces real results week over week — including the 100-touches-per-week system that keeps the pipeline moving even on low-confidence days

→ Set accurate expectations for what building a real, sustainable coaching practice actually requires in terms of time, effort, and commitment — including an honest timeline most coaches don't want to hear but absolutely need to

Townsend also walks through two practical resources he has built specifically for coaches ready to make serious moves: Client Creation Copilot, a custom GPT tool that role-plays, scores, and sharpens enrollment conversations in real time, and Limitless Academy, a small and exclusive container for transformational coaches building toward seven figures.

If you have ever wondered why some coaches seem to effortlessly attract clients while others work twice as hard for half the results — this episode answers that question in full.

Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/75

Ever feel like LinkedIn outreach is just... icky? Like you're one step away from being that annoying person who pitch slaps strangers?

Suzanne sits down with Jack AM Austin, founder of the Authentic LinkedIn Navigators, to completely flip the script on how you think about LinkedIn.

Jack went from losing his content marketing agency (thanks, AI and algorithm updates) to building a LinkedIn system that gets 50% connection acceptance rates and 53% reply rates. And no... that's not a typo.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

Why treating LinkedIn like a numbers game is killing your conversion rates

The difference between "following up" and actually staying in touch (hint: one feels desperate, one builds relationships)

How to use AI as your guide without turning into a robot

The compound interest effect of daily LinkedIn habits

Why measuring outputs instead of inputs keeps you stuck in feast or famine

Jack's "Sherpa" system that helps you have authentic conversations at scale

The truth about why most LinkedIn automation fails miserably

Suzanne and Jack also dive deep into the messy middle of entrepreneurship... those moments when your bank account is low and you start getting desperate. They share how consistency in the unsexy basics is what actually keeps your pipeline full.

If you've been treating LinkedIn like a necessary evil instead of a relationship-building goldmine, this episode will change everything.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/74

In this powerful conversation, host Suzanne Taylor-King sits down with Sarah Chan, a copywriter who started her business with just $40 in her pocket and no borrowed connections from her wealthy entrepreneurial family.

Sarah breaks down exactly how she landed her first client within 48 hours of starting her business and developed an authentic voice that stands out in a sea of copycats. At just 26, she's built authority that rivals entrepreneurs with decades of experience through her deep understanding of buyer psychology.

Listeners will discover how to:

→ Stop copying what everyone else does on social media and create content that makes you impossible to ignore

→ Use buyer psychology to create compelling copy that actually converts

→ Navigate age discrimination and skepticism while building a thriving business

→ Analyze clients and choose your niche using Sarah's exact framework

→ Know when to say no to money (even when you're just starting out)

→ Trust yourself enough to be different and break through imposter syndrome

Suzanne and Sarah dive deep into the mindset shifts required for entrepreneurial success, why most people fail at LinkedIn DMs (and how to actually nurture relationships), and the simple exercise that will help identify ideal clients.

Plus, they get real about high-ticket offers and what it actually takes to charge premium prices. Spoiler alert: it's not about value stacks.

Whether struggling with imposter syndrome, playing it safe with content, or wondering why offers aren't converting, this episode reveals exactly what's missing and how to fix it.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/73

Ever feel like you're living someone else's life instead of your own?

Catherine Sipher knows that feeling intimately. After her entire world flipped upside down in 2019, she discovered something that changed everything... journaling.

Not the "Dear Diary" kind you had as a teenager.

Real, transformative journaling that helped her:

→ Rebuild her identity from the ground up

→ Launch TWO successful businesses as a single mom

→ Turn her poetry into a published memoir

→ Help other women find their voice through guided journaling circles

In this episode, host Suzanne Taylor-King dives deep with Catherine to explore:

• How to use journaling as a business strategy tool (not just emotional processing)

• The "Morning Pages" technique that silences self-doubt and unlocks clarity

• Why tracking small wins creates unstoppable momentum

• How to build unshakable self-trust when everything feels uncertain

• The exact journaling prompts Catherine uses to connect with her future self

• How to turn inner transformation into outer business success

Suzanne brings her signature strategic lens to this conversation... connecting the dots between Catherine's personal journey and the mindset work every entrepreneur needs to do.

You'll learn how to stop outsourcing your power to others and start trusting yourself enough to take the risks that lead to real growth.

Whether you're rebuilding after a major life change or just ready to finally hear your own voice... this episode will give you practical tools to create space for who you're becoming.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/72