TWC S02 E25: Bridge to Season 3: Lessons Learned & Looking Forward with Special Guest, Carl Richards

Listen in on my check-in with Carl Richards, my amazing podcast producer and coach, for a look at what I've learned over the last year of podcasting and what's coming up for Season 3.

CARL RICHARDS, PODCAST PRODUCTION MADE SIMPLE
Carl Richards has spent more than 25 years behind the microphone, entertaining and influencing audiences worldwide. He’s a TEDx Speaker and emcee, host of the Speaking of Speaking Podcast, and the founder and CEO of Carl Speaks. Carl helps entrepreneurs find their voice, launch world-class podcasts, and grow thriving and profitable businesses. He lives with his spouse in Gananoque Ontario Canada and enjoys boating in the 1000 Islands.

Connect with Carl Richards
Website: https://carlspeaks.ca/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-richards-3a0a223/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carl.richards.148
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlrichards72?lang=en


YOUR HOST, KATHERINE BURROWS, KATHERINE BURROWS CREATIVE
Katherine Burrows helps purpose-driven experts make a bigger difference by getting their big ideas into books and out into the world to multiply their impact and their profit. She is known internationally for her intuitive understanding, perceptive observations, and ability to write accurate descriptions. 

Katherine hosts The Write Connection podcast, which is designed to help you choose the right words and stories in your business book to create authentic connections with your prospects, clients, network, and communities.

Katherine’s personal alchemy of literary storytelling, human psychology, business marketing, and unwavering passion provides her with the unique and powerful insight to bring out the authentic character of the expert and their business in a voice - YOUR voice - that will improve lives, influence others, and even change the world.

Connect with Katherine Burrows Creative
Website: https://katherineburrowscreative.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineburrows/
Facebook: https://www.fac

If you enjoyed this episode, consider sharing, reviewing, or rating this on your podcast platform of choice.

P.S. To see if 90 Days to 90 Pages is right for your book idea, schedule a call with Katherine.

Book a call with Katherine: Select a Date & Time - Calendly
Check out KBC's website: Katherine Burrows Creative
Email: katherine@katherineburrowscreative.com

Connect with Katherine Burrows Creative on Social Media
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineburrows/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherineburrowscreative
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherineburrowscreative/

Business Character Analysis Workshop information: https://katherineburrowscreative.com/index.php

Premium Podcast Production Services by Carl Richards
https://podcastsolutionsmadesimple.com

Podcast Music by Nathan Symen of NST Music: https://nst-music.bandcamp.com/

Transcript

Intro: This is The Write Connection. This podcast is designed to help you choose the right words and stories in your business content to create authentic connections with prospects, clients, partners and colleagues. Now the host of The Write Connection, Katherine Burrows.

 Katherine Burrows: Hello and welcome to The Write Connection today. I'm doing a bridge episode between season two and season three because oh my gosh, can you believe it? We're finishing up season two. It's almost been a year since I've been podcasting and it's been such a great, incredible journey. I've learned so much, I've had so much fun, I have met so many amazing people and been able to really connect with them and have super in depth conversations with them, I've learned a lot about the process, I've learned a lot about myself and I feel like I've really come a long way. And a lot of that is thanks to my wonderful podcast producer, Carl Richards and coach. And he's back here with me today to talk about wrapping up season two and what's ahead for season three. So welcome Carl, thanks so much for being back on The Write Connection,

 Carl Richards: Katherine. It is an absolute honor to be here. You sure you're at the end of season two, it doesn't seem like it's been a year already is it really almost a year?

 Katherine Burrows: Time flies when you're having fun?

 Carl Richards: Okay. Well at least you said you're having fun. That's the most important piece here is the fun part. And I'll tell you, it's certainly been fun working behind the scenes. I'm not used to being on this side of your podcast. It's usually seeing it after you've recorded it with your guests. And certainly I know it's been a great journey for you through season one, certainly now through season two, let's talk about some of your guests, because I think you really nailed it with some solid guests in season two.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah, definitely. I really think that I got into a much better rhythm of finding people who really use stories in their business, who really communicate through stories with their clients and their prospects and who really appreciate the power of words to make our businesses go forward and grow and really serve from that authentic place.

 Carl Richards: I think you hit the nail on the head right there too. Katherine, when you're talking about the story element, because as we've learned, as you continue to learn with your speaking, and I know, this with your writing, that stories are very important and very impactful to getting your message across and all of your guests had some sort of story that not only enhanced their message in the moment, but also brought up more of their character and what they're all about. And that really sounded great on the show.

 Katherine Burrows: And I love doing that, I love taking those deep dives into people's stories and hearing how they started their business. The things they've learned along their way, how did they get to where they are now and how do they use stories in their business to further those goals and dreams.

 Carl Richards: So with your guests in season two, we're gonna continue this theme throughout this episode is what did you learn? So with all the guests that you had and all the great stories that they brought to the table, what did you learn from the guests in season two?

 Katherine Burrows: Well, it certainly confirmed for me that stories are essential and can be used in any industry for any type of client connection or customer connection. It doesn't matter if you have a product or a service, it can be a coach, a speaker, a podcaster, a consultant, an entrepreneur whatever it is, stories come into play at some point. And they're really important to making those connections that lead to those long term relationships that lead to sales and that mutual benefit that we're striving for, where we're exchanging value.

 Carl Richards: And that's usually important of course, in the business world. And those stories certainly help to bring about that know, like and trust factor before people will do business with you. So the story certainly helps so great learning lesson there. Let's talk about another part of season two, because I really like this component and that's you had two series. One was a five part series on the literary elements let's talk about that one, cuz that was very impactful. And that's right in your wheelhouse of what you help people with all the time.

 Katherine Burrows: And the other reason why stories work so well for creating connections is because they're fun. People enjoy stories and the things that we enjoy about our favorite books and movies and TV shows like the character and the plot and the setting and the theme and the language that's used. All of those things can be brought over into the business world for our business communications. Whether that's conversations, whether that's marketing, creating programs, online courses, giving webinars or keynote speeches, all of those benefit from those literary elements being included in the stories that we tell.

 Carl Richards: But that wasn't the only series that you did. It was certainly very impactful. I really liked how you brought those themes together and continued the theme through. I really liked that, but then we also had a three part series that you did, and that was basically your take on authenticity and how stepping into that authentic place is very relevant with your writing. Talk about that a little bit.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah. So this one came about when one of my coaches said you need to be your ideal client in order to attract more of those ideal clients. So I'm all about authenticity and bringing out the authentic character of my clients. So that kind of forced me to sit down and think, okay well what does it mean for me to then bring out my own authentic character, more in the things that I do to reach out. So I spent some time thinking about it and of course, writing about it and came up with the three key things that have helped me to be more authentic with creating clarity, doing the work, to get there and then taking steps to communicate that authenticity effectively.

 Carl Richards: Now with those two series that you did, here's a question again, the theme that we're continuing through is what did you learn in bringing that out to the audience from doing those two series specifically?

 Katherine Burrows: It's a great way to reach out and pass along some of my learnings to others. And I love that I'm reaching out on a different platform, for people who prefer to learn or digest their content in a different form. It's something that people can refer back to because these things are a journey and it's not something where we become our authentic selves and like that's it, we check it off our list and we're done and we never go back to it. It's something that we keep circling back to. So we do that work and we make some strides and then we live in that for a while and then maybe in a year or two, we come back to it and we reevaluate and we go deeper and we grow more. So I definitely wanna have these podcasts available for people to go back and re-listen in six months or a year again and hopefully they'll get more out of it.

 Carl Richards: It's a tool that keeps coming back, cuz you're creating content, whether you're doing it for your own website or whether you brought somebody like Katherine to help you write a book, you're still gonna be revisiting those things time and time again then is what you're saying?

 Katherine Burrows: Yes, for sure. And as your brand grows, as you bring in new offerings and maybe your ideal client shifts a little bit, it's great to just go back over those things and make sure they're all still aligned with who you are authentically and the direction of your business every time you do one of those shifts.

 Carl Richards: Yeah. It's very cool and I'm glad you brought both of those components, both the literary elements and the authenticity piece, not together in two separate series, but said hey, this is something to consider definitely when you are bringing your story, your content to the surface, let's talk about again, I can't believe it's already been a year, but let's talk about the year in review. Not in deep review, but let's talk about the year because when did you start your podcast again? May 13th.

 Katherine Burrows:  Yeah I think the 19th, but yeah.

 Carl Richards: May 19th. It was a middle of May hard to believe it's been a year. I think it's been a great year from where we stand on the production end of things. But what have you learned this year from doing your podcast? What big learning things have happened for you?

 Katherine Burrows: Well, I mean,   I've talked about letting go of my script many times before it bears touching on again, but I don't wanna go into huge detail about it. So going from really wanting to write out word for word and just stick to that because I had so carefully selected every word and put them in this beautiful order and learning to let go of that and let the conversations flow and be more dynamic and more organic and feeling free to follow a tangent or ask a question that came out of something that maybe wasn't a planned question. So definitely that and I think getting comfortable with the imperfect is a good lesson too. Like we're all humans and part of being authentic is so we're not perfect. So you know what we do sometimes say, um and uh we do sometimes struggle for the right word or mispronounce something and correct ourselves or forget what we were gonna say or whatever that is. And just to like embrace those moments as part of our shared humanity and bring them into the podcast and make that more authentic as well.

 Carl Richards: Are you on script right now?

 Katherine Burrows: I am not, I am so far off my script I didn't even write any notes down, you wrote all the notes down

 Carl Richards: And full disclosure. These are that you can't see. Well maybe you can sort of see it. If you're seeing the video portion of this. There's maybe a few scribbles. Maybe you can kind of read that. I don't know. It's my chicken scratch. It's hard to read at the best of times, but there's literally not even 20 words written down as we have this conversation today. And one of the greatest comparisons I like to make is when people say, oh, it has to be perfect and if it's not perfect, then people won't listen or they won't get something out of it is some of the greatest music ever created is because of imperfection. Because when you dissect the music, you'll sometimes hear two notes that should never ever be played together.

 If it's just those two notes, but when you wrap other notes and other things around it, all of a sudden it sounds perfect, but it's not. And that's the same way that I approach podcasting and I know that you've wanted to be on script and when you need to be on script that's okay. But you've really embraced letting go the okay, it has to be in this order. And it has to sound like this and that has, I'm assuming brought out more of your authentic self and your ability to have authentic, real human conversations with people. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah, I know. Totally. And I know that I'm way off script when I start saying really a hundred times and every sentence starts with so and I'm just like that's how I talk people need to know that.

 Carl Richards: And the reason why we record and I always share this with people who wanna go live, they say, well, I like to do my podcast live and I go, do you really wanna do that? Because it allows you to make some mistakes, throw in a ton of ums and OS if you need to. So a guy like our producer, Karen can fix it and make it sound good. So the product that's going out is stellar, still human, still some of those human elements in there, the authenticity piece is still there, but it's not so polished and perfect that it looks like you've possibly seen speakers or seen even things on television or Netflix where it's just too rehearsed and you go, well, I really liked it, but I wasn't connecting with it because it was too rehearsed. There was too much Polish on it. That's the way I look at times too. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, but writing is the same way. I think there's a certain authenticity piece to writing, which if we're not, again, it depends on the type of writing that you're doing, but when we're talking business books and people are using their voice in print, and I know you understand this, if we're not allowing some imperfection within that, somehow in the writing process, you know that more than I do that process, but it seems less human and authentic.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah. I think it's so important to remember that we can still be professional and yet sound human. Like we're not abandoning all the conventions and we don't wanna just be, whatever coughing through and humming and hauling through our whole podcast or we don't wanna write a book where every sentence starts with the word and cuz you're really not supposed to do that in proper English, but you know what? We all do that when we speak and with business writing, we're aiming to be entertaining and a valued human beings. And so we need to meet them where they're at and speak the way that they speak and also bring in the author's voice and speak the way the author would speak. So yeah, I do have sentences that start with, and in the books I write and two or three word sentences that are more slang and something, you might associate more with the spoken word than the written word.

 But I think bringing that blend in like really when someone's reading your business book, they should feel like they're sitting down and having a coffee with you. Maybe you're still wearing some jeans and a nice business shirt, but you're in an informal setting you're chatting, you're getting a little bit personal, not way beyond the boundaries of professional, but you're letting someone in and you're sharing from who you are and that's where those connections come in, where that reader feels like they're really part of that story. They're sitting beside you having that coffee and sharing your experience.

 Carl Richards: And that's a very unique style of the written word because there's many different types of writing, just like there's many different types of speaking and a professional like Katherine is going to help you in bringing that whatever your messaging is. And that's part of the process. She'll say, how do you wanna sound? Do you want it to sound like, well, what do you need in there anyways? Anyways not gonna get into that nuts and bolts, great lessons learned there. Oh man, I'm so excited for season three because a little bit of a shift for you. So let's talk about that pivot because the direction you're going in, by the way, you're still going to have a podcast. You're not abandoning your show, but there's going to be some things that will be different for season three. Let's talk about that.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah. I definitely don't wanna abandon my podcast. I'm so in love with my podcast, I don't know why I didn't do this years ago cuz I love it so much. And I can't say that enough. Season three I wanna bring in some more of the teaching element and I wanna bring that together with some of my guests who've experienced going through those lessons and really have them talk to those lessons and what it felt like before and after and how the process went for them. And I'm gonna have you back Carl to talk about your five myths that are stopping people from podcasting and this is something that you and I have been working on together because those are very similar to the five myths that are stopping people from writing a book. So we're gonna be having some conversations around that topic, for sure.

 Carl Richards: Any sneak, peeks, other than me who will be joining you. And I'm so blessed to be coming back to share that because business growth happens all the time and I'm excited to share that growth and that development. And you've got some business growth and development that you'll be sharing in season three as well. And some great things that I know you're working on and yes, some stuff that we're working on together, which is really cool. Some very exciting things there, but any other hints or sneak peaks at season three guests maybe?

 Katherine Burrows: Well, I have [inaudible17:14] I've actually already done that interview. She is an Hr professional and she talks about rewriting the narrative in the workplace. So Hr is maybe not a place where you would think that stories would come into play, but they absolutely do. And I've also got some other guests coming up, Evans Putman, Michelle Abraham and Nim Stant, just to name a few. So Evans and Michelle are both in the podcasting field and Nim is in the publishing field. In fact, she's gonna be publishing my own business book later this year. So obviously I'm gonna be talking about my book more too so yeah and giving updates on other offerings that are coming up, I'm just in the middle of refreshing my website. Hopefully that's gonna go live by the end of April so new offerings coming there, starting some online courses and group programs and just so many things coming up, that's gonna take all of season three to unpack it

 Carl Richards: And congratulations on that. It's great when you have content. And I know that sometimes as a podcaster and maybe you experience this in season one, maybe in season two as well, where you go, who's my next guest going to be? Or what content am I going to share with people? And that's where you bring in somebody like me or someone else that you know, like and trust where you can have a conversation and sort of brainstorm that through. But you know that when, once you find that sweet spot for content and guests, that there's an endless stream of it. It's just getting and latching onto that. And I think you've done that well in season two. I can't wait for season three. Thank you for inviting me into the fold to talk about season two and yeah, season three. Let's go.

 Katherine Burrows: Yes. And don't forget to let me know what you've thought so far of seasons one and season two, you can do the ratings on Spotify or apple. You can also send me an email. Katherine, @KatherineBurrowscreative.com. I'll put that in the show notes and thanks so much for listening today I really hope that this episode has inspired you to tell your own story more creatively. Please join me next time for more about how words and stories from our authentic selves, create The Write Connection.

 Outro: Thanks for listening to The Write Connection. What did you think of the show today? Give us a rating and leave us a comment if you have a question for Katherine, reach out to her by sending her an email, The Write Connection@KatherineBurrowscreative.com or visit her website, Katherineburrowscreative.com. And don't forget to follow Katherine on social media thanks again for listening to The Write Connection.