I like to marinate in my subject matter— like a chicken breast stabbed many times over with a fork.

Just … Fill me with information (like olive oil & black pepper & salt & kanye … Errr … cayenne …) and place me in a glass container with a lid for 6-12 hours before preparing me as a meal.

That’s the only way you’re going to get the most out of me. If you don’t let me marinate in my subject matter, I’ll never become a SME (subject matter expert) and the content I’ll create will be so bland I’m going to need to add some ketchup.

Ya know what I mean?

A submersive experience, if you will.

Why does Grammarly say that word is wrong? I don’t want the red underline, G. I want my learning experience to feel like I’m drowning. I want to swim in so much information that the weight of the information logged in my boots is dragging me down down down until I realize that if I can manage to get my boots off, (and maybe my pants), I can make it back up to the air where I can breathe & see — take note of my surroundings && act accordingly.

LUCKILY … learning is less like drowning and more like marinating chicken. Don’t think of information overload as the tumultuous sea. Think of it as super weird fruit juice pressed into something you can use to heat up and serve a meal in whatever delicious Epicurean flavors you feel like consuming today.

You’re the chef.

Okay, Daisy. This is supposed to be a blog about fumbling through my first podcast.

12 weeks ago (I’m guestimating) I went to a conference called Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. (Email me if you were there, human!) I met a few people. Well, hundreds of humans, but only a few stand out. My Podcast Coach, Brandon. My new friend Meg, Sunnie Tate (holla at me), my AI Junior Copywriter (Jasper.AI), and Jordan— My social media marketing mindset coach. (Whhy would I need one of those?)

7 weeks ago, my friend convinced me I didn’t need a podcasting coach, and then he broke up with me. I learned two lessons. But this isn’t about that. This is about moving forward. I went back to the coach.

You can take Brandon’s Podcasting 101 course here. It’s $297 for lifetime access which is much less than the cost of most of the courses I’ve taken over the past two years of learning how to create a sustainable business online.

I needed a little convincing to start a podcast, which came very naturally from a Youtuber named Phil that I hit it off with. Phil was wearing very distinct lime green glasses during SMMW that I could spot from many conference tables away & I was carrying around my completely custom skateboard that is also a break from the mundane in a world full of regular.

Sometimes standing out is about courage, and sometimes it’s more about carrying around a “totem” — as the music festival world would call it. Something unique that you carry with you that stands out above the crowd. So your friends can find you. Or as an icebreaker with strangers. A conversation starter. Think a “free hugs” sign— but less used-to-be-trendy / weird-in-most-settings / made-from-cardboard and more … related to your core.

Phil needs glasses to see and makes tons of talking head YouTube videos about branding and building a branding business and I rode my skateboard to the conference. So each of our totems makes sense. They’re a visual clue of recognition. And recognition is one of the letters in LKT … Like, Know, Trust. (PS.. It’s the know. Recognition is the “K” in LKT.” Did that message come across clear? I’m thinking not really. Let’s reiterate.)

Okay, so I’m at the point in my blog-writing template that pops up automagically when I type a little code thanks to Text Expander that says “[Quote or #]” — so let me go get this reference I’m thinking of from a reputable source, brb. **searches on google for “recognize to like”**

Ah, it’s called the “mere-exposure effect” and it states simply that “the more often people see a person, the more pleasing and likable they find that person.”

I like Phil because in a sea of humans, Phil had a totem that made him stick out. Something simple he could have chosen not to bring, but instead he chose to bring it. He chose to stand out. So in a sea full of thousands of people, I only saw a few, and one of them was Phil, with the lime-green glasses. I saw him a bunch of times.

One of the themes I’ve been marinating in this year is that of trying something new. I’ve been thinking of starting a YouTube channel, but Phil introduced me to Brandon at the end of the conference and said “This is your man”. (Not like my MAN, man. Like … my Podcast man) … *Rewrite* … But then my new friend Phil, with the lime green glasses, introduced me to Brandon and was like “This is your podcast man.”

See. Yeah. Not as good a story. Better cadence in the first version. I’m going with the original.

Phil and Brandon both chat publicly about branding. Brandon on brands? Yeah I know. It’s like … too much, right? Like if Phil’s last name was “Harmonic”. (Ps. It’s not. It’s VanDusen. Phil VanDusen.)

Phil, with the lime green glasses, told me to “Just do like 4 or 5 podcasts before you do anything about it. Just start. See if you even like it.” So I did. (& I do.) It’s pretty easy to do something when someone who coaches people to do something else tells you to “try this instead first” because what he’s doing is harder. Phil has a quarter million subscribers on YouTube, and I’ll let you know that he was pretty chill when he told me that. When I told Brandon about my $27 dollar/year program called Try Something New Every Month … he was like “So you’ll need about 10,000 people to join.” (My exact goal.)

Oh, that brings up another point. It’s one of the Post-it notes I’ve had taped all over my living room since I did Amy Porterfield’s Post-It Challenge and then kept doing it and doing it (and doing it well) … Until I got all the way to the last post-it I ever wrote & stuck on my wall during my “Year of Learning” (aka 2022).

The final post-it note says “Long Term Nurture – Follows Story Arch (that’s actually a doodle) – Try Something New Every Month.”

Which is the ah-hah moment. The cinched waist of my entire hour-glass-shaped business. The moment we’ve all been waiting for.

The prominent, the branded.

The delightful …

TRY NOW button.

(See below.)

Go on … Click it … I triple-dog-dare you.

It’s all about helping you try something new.

(PS … My simple program costs a measly $27/year for 24 sweet-ass emails nudging towards trying something new.)

ABOVE the “try something new every month” Post-It note that foreshadowed the entire basis of my business … 2 steps above … So third-to-last… Is the note about how you can build authority without testimonials by name-dropping.

The missing link note, second to last —says “Text Expander”— to remind me to write a blog about the program that allows me to instantly pop up my blog writing formula template which allows me to write rambling blogs that take a long curious stroll around the garden of my mind and the lead my back to where I was going all along.

This paragraph I’m typing now is my digital reminder to write a blog about how you can name-drop if you don’t have testimonials. This digital reminder will work because I keep all of my blog posts for all of my brands in the same database in Notion. For each blog post I write, I have follow-up reminders at set intervals (2 weeks, 6 weeks, 10 months) to update each blog I wrote previously.

The post-it note says:

“No testies? No Problem! Name-drop instead!”

Just a quick short-hand reminder for “write 5000 words about this”.

I learned name-dropping when I was “classically trained” in sales in my teens to sell Cutco Knives. A position I held alongside my full-time job as a trainer in a corporate call center, where I was trained to train the trainers (We called it 3-T) on a “one call resolution”. Day to day, I facilitated 6-week-long classes with new reps before they ever took a phone call on their own. The training was a series of “skill transfers” in which I taught you, (the employee) how to do each of the MANY things I knew how to do. (**dusts shoulders off**)

Each skill I transferred to you (my student, if you were my student) was built into a complex web of other skills I facilitated your learning of until you were adept at a one-call resolution — and we could turn you loose. That means you can answer a phone call, while manipulating up to 11 computer programs, while following the laws of a regulated industry, while emphasizing empathy, maintaining a conversation, completing a series of tasks, leaving notes of your discussion for the next rep, and sometimes … SOMETIMES … we played an extra little game where we tried to incorporate Webster Dictionary’s word of the day into the conversation (about your cable, internet, and telephone), casually.

**deep breath**

Woah.

What I CAME HERE TO SAY. Is that I started a podcast.

It’s called: Try Something New Every Month.

At the moment — It’s private. Which means you can’t search for and find it. You have to be cordially invited.

I recently went to a music festival completely alone— something I’ve never done. (Well to be fair, I have LEFT a music festival completely alone, but I did not also go TO it alone.) I purchased VIP. Which gave me access to cleaner bathrooms, better viewing areas, beds to lay down in (??) private acai bowl vendors (honey optional) and … Seriously comfy little bean bag chairs next to real, live plants. SO CHILL. SO WORTH IT.

Here’s the link to my first podcast episode. Because you’re the real VIP. And I want you on my team.

Expect the podcast to be weird, like me. It’s 8 Minutes long. (Less time than it took you to read this blog post). So far every person that’s heard it has listened to 100% of it. (Those are stats I’m not supposed to expect.)

Have …. you heard my voice recently? (Have you met Ted?? reference from HIMYM).

Consider yourself cordially invited to my private podcast.

Whoops. Looks like I did that twice. I guess that’s a link you guys! I got nervous and did it twice.

Shoot.

So whether you want to try something entrepreneurial like branding a new business or building a business about branding, or hiring my creative director to “please tell me what colors & fonts & icons to use” or you want to try something that allows you to follow your curiosity, join me.

There are tracts. Pretty soon after joining my program (try something new every month for $27) I’ll be like. “How do you want your meal?” Short & sweet, long & rambly, full of information, or mostly audio/visual”.

Choosing a tract that’s right for you will be your best bet. The more I can get the message “try something new every month” across to you, the more stuff you’ll try.

I didn’t make that up.

It’s called a heuristic. “All you see is all there is.”

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Listen to the podcast. Share it with the weirdos. Join the club. Try Something New.

It’s a whole spiel I’ve been designing to sell curiosity— the thing that motivates me the most.

You don’t have to be a SME to follow your curiosity, but following your curiosity might just make you into a subject matter expert.