Hey Hey, welcome back to another bonus episode of cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders, the business questions you can't google. Wow, bonus number 50. You all that's a lot of extra bonus episodes that we have recorded for you this year. And I'm so glad for those of you who were able to tune in 50 extra times this year to hear what's going on behind the scenes and our own business as well as hear from some special guests or get to, I don't know, bonus episodes have been fun, because we get to play in a different format than we normally offer for our Monday guest interviews, which are very intentionally structured as case studies. So anyways, thanks for allowing me to play this way with you this year in experimenting with bonus episodes.
And today's topic is one that I felt like was important to share, as I'm reflecting on the end of 2023, and headed into a new year, I think some of you may be able to relate to this and that this may resonate with you. So as you can see from the title, the one thing I regret from this year, this is not clickbait, this is truly something I do actually regret. And when I say regret, I do want to clarify that regret when I say that, I mean that it is something that I have learned from and now knowing better, I would do differently moving forward. But I never truly, quote unquote regret something in the way of I would go back in time and change it because I'm a huge like believer in that every insignificant or minor decision you make has some sort of ripple effect, right. And sometimes you can't see that full picture standing where you are now. So it's not like I would want to go and change something about what I had already decided in the past. In case it would have some unintended ripple effect elsewhere that I was not anticipating or not wanting. So that's just kind of the the preface I want to set there.
But I think you guys get what I mean by this, it's something I will not be doing in the new year. So that thing is this, I do not want to continue to say yes, to good opportunities, just because they're good opportunities. Let me explain. There are so many times in life where we are asked to do something right when we're given an opportunity. And I think most of us are pretty good at discerning if something is not in alignment with us or something that we wouldn't want to do anyways. And so we can say no more easily to things like that, where I have historically struggled is when I receive an opportunity, that's an amazing opportunity, it's a great opportunity, there's nothing that is not in alignment with me personally, or my values or anything like that, right. Like it's a really incredible opportunity. But the caveat is that it may not be a great opportunity for the priority or the focus of this particular season. And call it FOMO call it the I can do it all attitude or whatever it may be, or just the open minded curiosity in me where I'm like, I you know, you never truly know what something could lead to a result in. So if it's a great opportunity, I don't want to let it pass me by just because I may not see the exact fit it has for supporting a particular goal that I'm working on right in this moment.
But because of that I have said yes to so many things that when I'm looking back and reflecting on the year, I truly believe there are many great opportunities that I participated in, that it's clear now with some time and distance in between to see that that truly did not help me get closer to what I really was focused on or said I was focused on for 2023. and it in fact, distracted me from making greater progress towards those priority goals. So let me kind of just give you some general examples of this. I wasn't really able to pull like very, very specific examples. But I wanted to at least kind of give you an idea of some of the things I'm talking about.
So for one this past year, I don't even know I should have probably counted actually before I hit record but I have been interviewed for dozens of new podcast interviews this year for sure that at least I know for a fact more than 15 At the very least, but it's probably even more than that. And while I enjoy and love meeting people through podcast interviews on other people's shows while I always find value in creating and establishing new relationships with people through podcasting. I do feel that looking back on my year, I said yes to many podcasts opportunities, because of viewing it as Oh, this is a great connection point. Or I think, you know, like, if someone's inviting me to be on their show, it's never a bad thing. To have more visibility. I was kind of thinking more along those lines. But the truth is, there was no intentionality behind how I arrived to those podcasts, right? How I prepared for those podcasts in the sense that I was kind of just like, go with the flow, like all show up. And whatever the host wants to ask me, I'm more than happy to answer you guys know me, I'm a very open book. But because of that, and because for this entire year, we really weren't selling anything direct to consumer on an evergreen basis, right?
Like we had our two paid to create live challenges. The only evergreen offer I think we had the whole year was our perfect podcast pitch template, which is like a $27 product that we didn't even publicly promote. It was like people have been just finding that template, through old podcast episodes are by word of mouth, honestly, because it works so well for getting people on their dream shows and dream interviews, which is amazing. Again, if you're using that as a vehicle to support getting your message out there or driving people back to a specific offer. But we were so focused this year on building a solid foundation for the brand partnerships side of our business, that we weren't really until like December, selling any of our own digital offers directly to you all to our community, we were really just more focused on the client side of pitching brands and working with brands and bringing those campaigns to life.
And so because of that I kind of felt like, like it was a wasted opportunity, not a waste of my time. But a wasted opportunity for me to more intentionally direct people somewhere from those podcasts interviews. Like it kind of felt like, you know how podcast interviews like one of the biggest strengths of podcast interviews is that because it is an evergreen long form piece of content, someone can find it years down the line. And it can still be serving its purpose, it can still be sending new traffic new leads new customers your way. But only if you have some more intentional that you're pointing them to right. I felt like this entire year, I kind of just showed up willy nilly to podcast episodes or podcast interviews rather, and didn't have a clear direction to point anyone because we didn't have a ready made offer. And so because of that I look back and I wish that I had actually either declined or asked if we could push that interview to a later point in time, when I had something more concrete. And I could show up with more intentionality to the conversation and be even more involved, let's say in planning, what we were going to talk about rather than kind of just flying by the seat of my pants and going off the cuff with whatever the host had in mind, right.
So that's what I mean by an opportunity can be an amazing opportunity. And I don't regret having those conversations that I had this year because I met some awesome new friends through it. And relationships at the end of the day are the most important thing in business. But I feel like I could have really amplified the impact that those interviews had in the long term on my business, and quite frankly, been an even better guest had I had more clear direction when I was doing those interviews. So as such, coming to this realization later in the year, we got a bunch of new inbound interview requests in quarter four that I actually, for all of them asked to postpone until end of Q1. And this is the amazing thing I think about having really clear guidelines for yourself is nine times out of 10. People really respect that right?
When we would get inbound invites for me to come on someone show. If I came back and said I would love and be honored to be a guest on your show. But right now we have a lot of uncertainties on our back end in the business that we're not really sure when you know these different elements will be going live. And we want to make sure we have something clear that we can direct the listeners to from our podcast interview. So would you mind circling back with us at the end of quarter one to schedule this interview instead? Because then we'll be in a much more prepared space to really take full advantage of this amazing opportunity, right being able to share the context around a decision and then also place a clear next step really allows you to still take advantage of an amazing opportunity, but also realize that not everything has to happen in the timeline of now.
Just because you receive an invitation today, doesn't mean you have to say yesterday, right. And that's something that I think has taken me longer than perhaps it should have for me to really, really learn. But it's a lesson that's so important that I want you guys to remember, I've always been of the mindset that what's meant for you can't miss you. And so if an amazing opportunity comes across your plate that you're not prepared to receive in that moment, having the discernment and the maturity, quite frankly, to say thank you. And I would like to, you know, approach it this way. I think that's something that you should really be at peace with. And know that people do respect that if you have clarity in your ask. So that's an example of like, right opportunity, wrong time.
Some of those other things are like, I'm just such a ideas person, I love love of love, creativity, and thinking outside the box and collaboration. So there's a lot of times where I might meet someone that I really just vibe with. And we have a lot of synergy and ideas. And I just want to immediately jump into it, right? It's like we both do, it's like there's an audience match, or there's a really cool collaboration we can think of, and then my wheels just start turning. And I want to, I want to just start moving on things because I'm an action taker. But I have to really, now I think, hit pause. And again, it's the same thing. It's like, that may be a really great collaboration and a really great opportunity. But if it's not directly serving a clear focus for me, right now in the business, then it's actually just a distraction, right, any back and forth. Emails and conversations we have about it are a distraction, they're taking away brain space, attention, resources, focus, from whatever it is that is more important right now. And, again, just learning that wisdom of saying, I love this potential that we have for collaboration. And I want to find a way to do it. Can I circle back to you, when I see an opportunity where this would really make a lot of sense for the both of us, right?
Again, just I think we live in such a hurried culture where everything has to happen right now. Or it's like it can never happen again. And I think the more we learn to really take a step back, take a beat, take a pause, it really, really allows us to be way more intentional with what we say yes to and how we spend our time.
And then that last piece is kind of like along the same lines of, let's say speaking engagements I did a lot of speaking this year, every single month, I was somewhere I was traveling on the road, somewhere in the air, right flying to another city to speak in person. And that's one of those things that just really fills my cup, like I really really love in person experiences. So I wouldn't necessarily say that. Unlike podcast interviews, speaking engagements, I feel like fill a different cup for me because of that in person interaction and energy. So I don't think I would necessarily looking back on this past year have said no, to any of the speaking engagements that I did say yes to. But I still think I could have done a better job of really vetting and going a step beyond just Oh, like this is a great opportunity to get in front of a new audience and to form those interpersonal relationships, but really asking myself like, what do I want to happen after this event, like not just looking at it in a silo of a one time event, but what is the actual intention or purpose after I take x amount of time to travel and, you know, take time away from my personal life to do this thing, like what is the actual meaningful impact that it has.
And that's the piece that I would do differently going into this year. I also think that like, because I love speaking so much, just on a personal level, I love doing that work so much. It's really easy sometimes for me to put on my blinders and like sacrifice a lot to make an opportunity work like even though I've gotten really good for example, at turning down virtual speaking engagements that are not paid like that was a clear boundary that I had to start making because I was getting so many requests to speak up all sorts of different virtual summits to help promote different virtual summits.
And as a media company sponsored content is one of our main revenue streams, right? And we only have so many placements that we can make each year while being mindful of the relationship we're cultivating with our community. So every time I say yes to an unpaid promotion, it's actually taking away a spot from a brand partner or a sponsor campaign that we could be earning revenue from, which is important for us to continue doing all of the free work that we do. What like the podcasts in the newsletter the things that we don't charge for, or don't charge our community for, but we still invest a lot of our labor time and resources into. So it became, you know, impossible to say yes to everything just on a participation basis without any sort of compensation. So I got really good at you know, always asking about a speaker budget and making sure there was some form of compensation for both virtual and in person events. So that piece, I feel like I really nailed down.
But I still not so much for virtual but for in person events, I would really find myself still kind of in that boat where if there was an event that I was excited about, and let's be honest, I'm excited about every in person event. So like if there wasn't an in person event where they didn't have a speaker budget, or even a travel budget, right. Sometimes we would work out some sort of alternative compensation like maybe we would get a complimentary media package or a sponsorship I that's probably more accurate sponsorship package. So like, if they had a sponsorship package that normally you would pay for, we would kind of do as a trade of services, I would trade my speaking services, in return for sponsorship spot for Cubicle to CEO at the event. So there were times when I did things like that to try to make it work if they didn't have the monetary means to pay for said speaking engagement.
But again, reflecting back on this year, I kind of realized that because I was looking at events in such a silo and just really looking at okay, what is the time that I'm actually there at the event, right, and not what happens beyond the event and not what happens before and after the event. Even in the preparation for the event, whether it's preparation for the content that I'm creating, or the travel, that's the thing that I feel like I very much discounted how much that weighs on my energy capacity, like travel days are not very glamorous, right, you are typically waking up, at least for myself, because we don't live in a city with a major airport, I'm always waking up.
First of all, the flight times are never as convenient as you would hope. So a lot of my flights are very early in the morning in terms of departure. And then because I live at least an hour away from a major airports, my travel days are even earlier than it really would need to if I lived in a different area. So I have to get up extra early to compensate for the time to travel there. And then get there early enough to you know, do all the things, check in security, et cetera, et cetera. And then because of the inconvenience of the location, oftentimes, there are no nonstop flights to the place that I'm going. So I have to do a very, very full travel day where there's multiple stops. And that time is not only asking a lot of my energy, but it's also time away from my normal work routine where the normal demands of my week to week, responsibilities don't stop just because I'm on the road.
It's not like when I'm traveling as extensively as I was this year that our podcast is going on hiatus every other week, when I'm on the road, we're still putting out like this year, especially we put out two episodes a week, every single week without fail. And that was so much like to double our content capacity and for how much I travelled last year. It's insane actually looking back to even realize that we pulled it off, quite frankly, because there were some weeks where I or some months, I should say where I was gone two or three times in a single month for days at a time and all the back and forth travel right like we would have to kind of expedite the runway for how much content I would have to produce before or after to compensate for the missed time where I was just unavailable because I was either traveling not with my at home studio equipment, or you no engaged in a full day of speaking and having to be really present because I like to be present when I'm at events and really show up with an open heart and attention to give to the attendees and other speakers in the house and just really try to be as supportive as I can as a speaker. So it made it really difficult to not account for that. And that's the type of thing that I have to get better at.
The last thing I'll say on this piece is one of the posts that my friend Jordan Gill made that I really really resonated with. She was talking about in a recent Instagram post some of the things that she's going to be doing differently in 2024 and one of those things was she's only going to affiliate for evergreen offers because she was tired of having her content schedule her promotion schedule be dictated by other people's urgencies, and deadlines and stress from their live launches and her having to absorb that when she comes on as an affiliate for a live launch. And I really respect that. I mean, we already don't do just pure affiliate work. We have some long lasting affiliate partnerships that we've established from years ago, that we continue. But for the most part, anytime we're doing any sort of promotional work for an external organization or brand, it's through a sponsored campaign, right, because as a media company, that's how our business model or revenue model is set up. So it's a little bit different, because we wouldn't normally be an affiliate for a live launch anyways.
But even so, I still think this idea of other people's timelines impacting your own is something that is along the same lines is something that I wish I had done better at saying yes to certain opportunities when it meant that I had to then kind of play Tetris in my own business, to make it work for their timeline, when really I should have been more steadfast in either realizing that we didn't have the capacity to make that work or being more vocal about asking for more leniency on the timelines requested because they were last minute or because they didn't work with our already pre existing schedule, instead of being so accommodating towards other people's timelines, being more firm about prioritizing our internal dates and timelines needed to make something a success and be more forthcoming about those wins, saying yes to an opportunity or negotiating an opportunity.
So I hope these examples give you a clearer picture of what I mean by I wish I had taken more time and thought into which opportunities I said yes to this year, and being more cognizant of not saying yes to an opportunity, just because it's a great opportunity, because a great opportunity on paper doesn't mean it's a great opportunity for me for my business, or a great opportunity for this moment in time. So that is my encouragement to you all, as well, moving into 2024.
And one final, I guess, word of grace, maybe that I would add to this conversation is that these things can take time. Like, I think it's really easy for us to sometimes attach to kind of a very sweeping goal, like I'm just gonna say no more this year, or I'm gonna say yes more this year, right, whatever end of the spectrum you're on. But sometimes it takes breaking apart those yeses and noes into different categories and working on one thing at a time. It's kind of similar, like when you're trying to build healthy habits, if you're just like, I'm just going to be healthy, like I've been unhealthy for 10 years, but now I'm going to just be healthy. That is a really hard thing to take on sometimes. Because there's so many things that impact your health, right your sleep, your mental well being your emotional state, your hydration, your vitamins, your food intake, your movement, and exercise and hormones, and oh my God, there's so many things that impact your health. And so to really take it on all at once, and then feel disappointed that maybe you failed, quote, unquote, and being able to stick to it is unrealistic for yourself. And I would say that I wanted to share what I felt like, I wish I had known differently so that I could have made better choices and will make better choices in this upcoming year with you all while also attaching to that the fact that I'm celebrating that I have gotten better at saying no to certain areas of my life.
And I'll give you one prime example of this, that I'm really, really proud of in 2023, which is all around meetings. So even though I struggled with saying yes to too many great opportunities in 2023, which in the grand scheme of things is not the worst thing to regret, right? Like I'm grateful for every opportunity. But one thing that I got really great at in 2023 was saying no to meetings I entered into this year wanting to clear my calendar more create more whitespace because I felt like there were too many meetings, running my day.
So one of the things I did was I used to have a Calendly where if I blocked off certain days or windows of times for meetings if someone wanted to book a meeting with me, I would just like give them my Calendly because it's convenient, right? We don't have to go back and forth an email and be like What time are you available? What time zone are you in? What about this state this time? I totally get how inconvenient and also inefficient that is. But at the same time I think when we try to replace it with a fully automated option like sending someone an open invitation to buy Look time on your calendar, even though you can restrict the days and times that you make yourself available. It still in some ways is leaving your time in someone else's hands, right? Like, let's say you block off Fridays for meetings, even Friday mornings from like 9am to noon. But if someone has that Calendly link, you can't really accurately anticipate exactly what your schedule is going to look like for a week, because they could book anytime between nine and noon on Friday. And they could book potentially very last minute.
Now granted, you can set parameters where, for example, new meetings cannot be added to your calendar, any sooner than 48 hours in advance. So you're not risking like a true last minute meeting. But still, I didn't like the idea of someone else having control to place or book time with me on their own accord without me really thinking through in that particular week. Does that make sense for me, right, because even though in general, I might be more open on a certain day or time to chat, it doesn't mean every week is identical to that in some weeks, I truly cannot make that time work. So I kind of resorted back to manually scheduling those on an as needed basis.
And even though it's not as convenient, and I'm sure there's some sort of tool that I can use to better automate that. So if you have a suggestion, by the way, like not having an open calendar link, but if there's some better way than like, going back and forth and be like, What about Thursday at 10am? Pacific, right? If there's some tool that I'm not aware of, please let me know. I am not a schedule management expert by any means. So please, I welcome your your suggestions there, if you want to send me a DM @MissEllenYin. But I want to kind of just share that as something that I kind of took back, which felt really empowering to me.
Another thing was, I just eliminated so many zoom meetings like so many times, when people are asking, Hey, do you want to hop on a 30 minute call if there's not a clear agenda for why we're hopping on that call, if it's just a connect call, and especially if it's a person that I do want to connect with and build a relationship with but because we're just at the beginning of let's say, a friendship or whatnot, and there's no real purpose to getting on the call other than just like to get to know you, I've instead suggested, hey, let's hop on Voxer and get to know each other that way, that way we can drop in when it's convenient on our own schedules. And it allows us to have an ongoing conversation without, you know, sitting ourselves down in front of a computer, and only having this like 30 minute window to talk. So I love that because that's much more energy giving to me than long days in front of the computer, because I already do that. And I already record so many podcasts interviews that I try to not add more video meetings to my plate if it can be helped. So that's also been extremely helpful.
And even with clients or brands. Sometimes, you know, instead of a meeting, I'll suggest like, hey, why don't you share your initial questions via email. And you know, we'll start there. And if it requires a further call for clarification, we can do that. But just giving people alternative suggestions, and for the most part that has worked really well like redirecting them to a more asynchronous channel for communication like Voxer, and also redirecting them to an email option or something like that. And there's actually a really great platform that's kind of like the benefits of the asynchronous Voice Memo communication that Voxer offers, but in a much more professional platform, right, because like if I'm talking to a representative at a fortune 500 company that we're working with on some brain campaign, and probably not going to tell them to add me on my personal Voxer because that's like, they're a corporate employee. Like that's probably not even within the realms of like their allowances, I guess, in terms of modes of communication with clients. So like I understand and respect that.
But there's actually this really cool tool that my new friend Tina Yip suggested to me, it's called ASYNC. I haven't actually tried it yet, but it's spelled a like the letter A and then SYNC. And I'm really excited to give that a go in 2024. Because I feel like it might be the perfect solution. That perfect medium between some sort of conversation that requires a little bit more explanation and robust dialogue than an email, but also is more professional and can be contained to a web browser than channel like Voxer. So super excited to try that out. If any of you have ever used ASYNC before and had a positive experience, please let me know. I would love to hear how you've utilized it in your business.
Okay, that about wraps up this topic. I actually went a little longer than I intended to surprise surprise. I know I'm a wordy gal. Verbal processor here. But I hope this was helpful to all of you in reflecting to on on what you have learned from this year that you would take into 2024 and do differently in your business. It's not about regretting and shaming yourself or past decisions but rather giving yourself that grace of celebrating an aspect of something like you know the the broader subject of saying no me celebrating that I've done that better for certain aspects of my business like meetings, but also recognizing that I've areas to improve in for a sector like opportunities. Okay, tell me what you got from this episode. Tell me what you're working on next year. And I'll catch you all in the next episode.
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