277. Season 3 Wrap-Up and Podcast Break

Speaker A: There are over 275 episodes that you can go back and binge on YouTube, on Spotify, anywhere that you listen to podcasts that are so full of good conversations and deep knowledge and so much sharing and learning and asking questions over the years of hosting the podcast. Kiss My Aesthetics Brandy Market Entrepreneurship. You're listening to Kiss My Aesthetic your Go to podcast for brag worthy branding, marketing and entrepreneurship advice. I'm your host Michelle Winnerstein, uh, of MKW Creative Co. Let's dive into the episode Greetings and welcome back to the Kiss My Aesthetic podcast. It is just me today. It's a solo episode and if you clicked on the title, you probably maybe might know where this episode is going, which is that we're going to take a break. We're going to take a break from the podcast. And this has kind of been, I think a long time coming because this year and this business has evolved greatly, the podcast has evolved greatly and I think just personally all the signs are pointing to maybe it's time to take a bit of a break. So here's what I kind of want to explain to you and pull you in on what's happening with the podcast, what's happening with mkhetop Creative Co, what's happening with me personally, because all of those factors do play a bit of a role in this decision and I want to also assuage your fears and tell you that this doesn't mean it's going away. But I think what I am at or where I'm at is, you know, when the universe just points you to all signs of saying like, well, maybe take a step back. And I just kind of feel like that's happening for us this year and last year. I'll throw this in as well. Our volume of client projects has shifted greatly. You guys know this from basically the theme of the episodes of business was slow at the beginning of this year and things were kind of uneasy and the political season was really uneasy. I think now by the time I'm recording this, we are in a much better place, which is exciting. But we're also working with clients in a different capacity where now instead of me posting every project in real time and live streaming and showing behind the scenes, we're working with clients on a much, much, much, much longer timeline on much higher stakes projects, which is exciting. But that means I can't really show you guys what I'm doing on a day to day basis because we're waiting for a rollout, we're waiting for a launch, we are working towards a bigger, more impactful goal on behalf of the brands. And I have to be able to put those brands first over my own marketing. So that's number one. Number two, I would say the clients that we've worked with, you've already heard from most of them. So we're in now more of a business of creative retainer, in which case we're working with clients on a more consistent basis. So Studio Tigre, who's been on the podcast, definitely more than once, we've got, um, Erica Escalante coming on with her business. We've got. We've got Jet Set and Travel, which is going to be having a rebrand launch coming this fall. We've got Falk Ruben Gallagher, of course, and their project Zenith, which just talked about on the last podcast episode. We've got real, uh, estate brands and Dental Hygiene Nation and a lot of companies where we're working kind of in closer proximity with the founders on a longer scale. So to kind of rehash their business and their brands and their brand story from the beginning, I think from a podcast perspective maybe gets a bit repetitive. And so I want to make sure that we're giving you guys a good variety of case studies in a variety of brands and clients that we've worked with. And our goal of trying to go for a brand per month client recap just hasn't fallen into place as smoothly as I thought it might. So that's kind of something that we're working on in that department is how do we keep that podcast client case study, podcast experience still interesting when we're talking about a lot of the same things kind of month over month. Um, so that's something I'm working on. The other is experts. I feel that I have not done a great job of soliciting and bringing in a ton of diverse experts. I kind of keep going back to my OGs. I keep going back to the people that I love to talk to. I keep going back to the Lauren Devanes and the Ashley Pollards and the people who I know we just click in. And I think I'd love to speak, spend the time that I do recording podcast episodes in here on Fridays to start to get back into the community and start talking to people that know things that I don't. I think it's very easy for me to, like, default into what's comfortable and not push myself to go talk to new people all the time. And so I think on the expert side, we could also probably improve the show. And then lastly, the solo episodes. I would love to re attack the solo episodes based on not only FAQs that I get from clients or prospective clients, but things that are more timely and topical. Like, I love doing the Trend Report every year, but it's a huge research undertaking and it's a huge time undertaking that I think I have not dedicated to each of the solo episodes individually. So just on every side of the podcast, I'm just seeing so many places for room for improvement that when I'm booking these episodes and I'm getting guests in, I just don't feel that I'm giving it my hundred percent. And so I feel like a recalibration and a bit of a break and a step away from the show might give me some space to think and some space to breathe around. What does this look like? What's the next chapter of this look like? How does this serve not only you, the listener, but serve our greater goals and missions of a business? How does this. How do we solicit more podcast sponsorships? How do we find more ways to bring people to the YouTube channel? Can we revive an email newsletter? These are like all things that end up falling by the wayside because ultimately they're my responsibility. And it's hard, as we always talk about, it's hard to work on your business and in your business. So I'm hoping by reclaiming this time on Fridays, I can then better focus on creating a better product, a better quality podcast for all of you. That said, I am so proud of where we've grown. We started this in 2021 again. There's over 275 episodes. There are so many great conversations and little nuggets to kind of take with you. And we've hit over a hundred thousand downloads, which is incredible. So I know that the need is there and the want is there. I just want to have kind of that breath of fresh air and that motivation, the passion for it again. And I think the pause is what's going to get us to the other side of that. Also, on a personal level, I just bought a condo, so I'm going to be moving. And so the idea of trying to podcast in the middle of a move is kind of freaking me out. So I've been in my last apartment for five years. I've recorded plenty of podcast episodes from that apartment. And even though I love my dog, he always finds a great way to, um, interrupt in the middle of those episodes, which is how we ended up over here in the studio, which is my mother's Office. And my whole podcast rig is set up in the studio. Now that I will have the space and the place to maybe host the podcast in a new setting, I'm really excited to see how I can bring that to life in my new condo. It's also going to be an absolute flip of a project, so I do want to capture that and share it with all of you as like, another extension of creative expression. I'm going to be working on it with my parents who are in the interior design and remodel industry. So kitchen, Renault, bathroom renos, design, interiors, textiles, like, I think that's going to just spin me off in so many different tangents of things that I love. And then hoping again to kind of use that as the Kickstarter to go down different creative alleys and go down different, uh, thought processes and kind of, you know, different areas of interest. So the condo is going to be really exciting as well. And then lastly, just kind of making sure that our business is running efficiently. And one of the things that we did at the beginning of this year when inquiries were slow and business wasn't as, as booming as it is now, is figuring out places to, to save on expenses. So, uh, having a podcast manager, podcast producer, video manager, show notes, the whole thing that makes this whole podcast run is not cheap. So not to say that the team doesn't do an amazing, amazing job, because they absolutely do, but I think that it does tally up at the end of the year, and it does kind of sit on that, that P and L, that balance sheet as something that's like, this is a really, really nice to have, but it's not a need to have. It's not like our softwares, it's not like our payroll, it's not like the tools that are helping with those conversions. So that's another reason, I guess, that I'm kind of like, looking at this from a bird's eye view and trying to figure out, okay, where can we make this work for us? And I guess I'm just inviting all of you to do the same, figuring out, like, what's in your business, that is that consistent expense that's. Are you yielding a return from that? And I think in a lot of ways, the podcast does yield a return for us. It's a networking expense. It's a way to capture client case studies and testimonials. And then it's a way for me to network and to get into those different areas and different spots for expertise and opportunities to share my thoughts and my observations of the market of social media, of branding, all of those good places. So I think there's again, not, not that I need it to go away and it's like never, ever gonna happen again because I definitely imagine bringing this back. But I think sometimes taking a pause helps us to recalibrate, uh, readjust and find those opportunities to really just evolve. So with that, it's gonna be a short and brief episode. That's the update. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here. None of the episodes are going away, so if you wanna go back through the archives on YouTube, on our website, on Spotify, on Apple, podcasts, anywhere you listen to podcasts, all of these episodes will be available to you. Please go back and listen. Please go back and comment, Send it to a friend, write a review, Let me know what you love, Let me know. If you've got suggestions, please shoot us an email podcast. KWCreative co. If you have an idea for a guest or an episode type or a call, uh, in or some kind of different format that would be useful or helpful to you or entertaining to you on a weekly basis, I'm all ears for suggestions. Again, I want to thank you for listening and I want to thank you for being here and I want to thank you for sticking through this and letting me kind of retreat and then return. And I think that the return will be great. So that's what's going on with us. In the meantime, between time, you can find us anywhere on social media. KWCreative M co, um, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube threads, all the places. Please don't be shy, please send a message. We'd love to hear from you. Um, and you guys will be the first to know when we are back in business with the Kiss My Aesthetic podcast. Catch you later. Bye. Thanks for joining us for the Kiss My Aesthetic podcast. Don't forget to follow along and leave us a review. Anywhere you listen to podcasts. We'll see you in the Kiss My Aesthetic features Facebook group for years and years of behind the scenes content and over 5,000 connections with fellow creatives. For show notes from today's episode, please visit MKWCreative Co podcast. This episode was edited by Berta Wired and theme music comes from Eliza Vera and Nathan Menard. Catch you next time.