[00:01] Katie: Welcome to The Focus B Show, where Katie Stoddart high performance coach interviews experts around the world in performance and mindfulness. Now, here's your host. Katie.
[00:32] Katie: Welcome to a brand new episode of the Focus B show. Today I'm here with Laura. L Bernhardt. Laura is a marketer and a podcast consultant. She helps people and entrepreneurs, especially to have successful and profitable podcasts. I was on Laura's show a few months back, and I enjoyed the experience so much that I wanted to invite her to come to my show for an exchange. Thank you so much for joining the show, Laura.
[01:05] Laura: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
[01:07] Katie: Yes, it's fantastic to have you here. So you've been having your podcast for more than a year, is that correct?
[01:15] Laura: Yes. So it was formerly called the no formula podcast. I started working on it August 29, 2019. I know the exact date because I remember I was at work and I had the idea to start a podcast. And then just recently, last week, I changed the whole purpose and the branding of the podcast, and now it's called Marketing Bound Podcast.
[01:42] Katie: Amazing. And during this time, you've interviewed so many people. I was going through your podcast. It's amazing to see and some familiar names and people I know, like Richard Moore, people I follow, like Mark Metri, people like myself, which is nice to see in the list. And I'm wondering, out of all the people you've interviewed, what have been, like, your major insights, things that you still think about on a daily or weekly basis that have really impacted and changed your life?
[02:10] Laura: That is one of my favorite questions because I love talking about self development. And personally, I think that the podcast changed who I am completely. I think that because I interviewed dozens and dozens of experts in their fields, asking them how they go about their day, asking about how they level up their lives, I have been able to take their advice and implement it myself. So I think I've learned something from every single episode, I won't lie. The top ones. Just one. Recently, actually, I interviewed someone for Marketing Bound, and he was telling me how he uses Excel Sheets and Google Forms. So his name is Scott Ferguson. So shout out to Scott Ferguson. He's great. He told me that on his website, he uses Google Forms, people fill it out, whatever, and then he connects it, which I didn't know. It automatically connects to an Excel sheet. So as soon as someone fills it out, it populates the Excel sheet. And I was like, oh my God, that's great for your guests, and I can show you how to do this later, Katie, because it's such a great tip. And I implemented it into the Marketing Bound website immediately because now, let's say I wanted to interview you again. I would send you the form, you would fill everything out. I would have your Facebook, I would have your LinkedIn, I would have your Twitter without me trying to go look for it. And as a podcaster, we have so many tasks that saves so much time. And just in anything marketing for any entrepreneur, that can save you a lot of time. If you have a consultation call with somebody, you need to ask them questions first. You send them that form, it populates the Excel sheet right away. Boom. Anyway, that blew my mind. That was one thing, but another thing, actually, in my early, early interviews, I interviewed Samantha Chris, and now she works in marketing. But she was like a coach before, and she wrote a book. She wrote a book, Bossing Up, and it's one of my favorite self development books, and I've read quite a few of the popular ones. It just spoke to me better than all the other ones. So just having that book and I'm actually rereading it now and just seeing like, oh, I can do, like it was just like a bunch of motivation in a book, right? So that also helped me. But then also, one of my earlier interviews, I interviewed Eloise Gagno. She's a leadership coach, and she just blew my mind. At the beginning of the interview, I remember talking to her about like, oh, how do you do everything that you do? How do you have a family? How do you do this leadership coach? How do you work out? And she's like, If Barack Obama was president and was able to work out every single day for 45 minutes, she's like, I can work out every single day for 45 minutes. So it's just like, in every single episode, I have that kind of connection. Right? And obviously from your interview as well. But I don't want to talk about that. I want people to go listen to that because there were so many good things about that interview as well. Like, okay, you spoke about why you're procrastinating, how you can measure it if you're overworking, how to take breaks, how to overcome burnout excuse me. That is full of value. So every freaking conversation, I learned something. And that's why after almost 60 interviews, I'm an absolutely different person. So to answer your question, very in a short way.
[06:23] Katie: I love this. I love how powerful it is to have a podcast and how much we learn from each and every guest and how small things like this Google form and Excel sheet can really change the way you work, save you so much time. I'm all about automation. If there's something that can be done automatically, why waste time on it? It's just sometimes we don't think of it as an option. And so then when someone tells us, it's like, why didn't I not think of this beforehand? And so beautiful, the way you said about Barack Obama and what Italy said about working out, because these changes of perspective that we sometimes have when we're talking with someone. Sometimes it's just one sentence, and it totally changes the way we look at life or at our business. And that's what I love about having a podcast too. So totally 2 million%. I already have value from you in, like, what, ten minutes? I already know about this Excel Sheet and this interview with De Louise. I'm going to put in the Show Notes a link to the three people you mentioned with the interviews and also the interview I did with you all be in the Show Notes and probably also the procedure and how people can do this with the Excel sheet. Yeah, it's amazing. What sort of struggles have you had along the way because you started your own podcast. You're also an entrepreneur. Where have you really struggled in this journey?
[07:48] Laura: Okay, so actually, at the beginning and recently when I updated my podcast, I realized everything that I did wrong. So I'll talk about the struggles first, and then I'll kind of go through some things that I had to go through. So things I did wrong or things that I had to go through is making those little mistakes that you don't realize. So, like, you press the record button as soon as we started. Right? I forgot to do that one day. Okay. And that is the most heartbreaking thing ever. Okay. You don't want that to happen to you when you're having such a great conversation. Imagine we had to stop right now and restart and try to get the same story out of me. It was just heartbreaking. So I made little mistakes like that along the way. And I think having processes in place is super key in anything you do, but especially for the podcast. So at first I had, like, a list of everything I needed to do, but I thought I was like, superwoman or something. And that list was so long, I was like, what do I think I'm going to accomplish by having 29 things on this list? So it's being very intentional about what you are doing, and that's also with anything that you do. If you're working on a product, if you're working on a book, you're not going to try to write 20 books at once. You're going to start with one. Right. So I know you're working on your book, which was that was my example, but then something that I did wrong just completely, is that the podcast is part of your personal brand, regardless of what you call your podcast. It can be ABCD. You are the host, so think of it like Oprah, okay? Oprah. She is the host of her show. Even if her show wasn't called Oprah, she is what is consistent about the show. The guests are the ones that change week after week after week. So you're building a relationship with your audience regardless of whether you're trying to or not. So a big mistake I made was I try to make every guest the star of the show every single week. And that was a mistake, I thought. The promotion, everything I talk about has to be about the guests. So when you were on, it was all about you. What did Katie say? What did she teach us? All that stuff. When I should have been spending more time connecting to the audience on a weekly basis. I should have also appeared in the video promo because people are just seeing a different person every single week. That's not how you build trust. That's not how you build relationships. So that was a really huge one. So for anybody starting a podcast or just anything in marketing, just think about how you're building the relationship with your audience and if you are at all.
[11:14] Katie: I think this is really valuable, especially since I have a tendency to do this. I don't make it all about the guests. And the video is obviously both of us. And in the newsletter, I also put the link to my YouTube, so it's also related to my YouTube, and you can see the video on there. But it's true around the actual talking, I think if we could measure the percentage of time I talk, it's very small, and I ask a lot of questions and listen, which is great, and that's how you learn. It's also less pressure. The host, you ask one good question and then they talk the whole time.
[11:48] Laura: You just relax.
[11:49] Katie: I won't lie, it's easier.
[11:51] Laura: That's what I thought, too, and that's why I did it, because I'm like, oh, it's less pressure on me. Considering all the work we do behind the scenes. If there's editing, you have to prepare questions, why aren't we being part of the show as well? And I'll give you a tip. Well, you're kind of already doing this, but for anybody listening, when you have a show and you're the host, so Kitty, you're the show, and you just put in your personal experience right now, that's great because the audience is getting to know you, even though it's a little bit at a time, you're adding your personal experience. You're developing that trust. People are getting to know you. People are only going to know me for this episode unless they go to the Marketing Bound podcast, which I highly recommend you do. But other than that, I'm here for a week. You're here every single week. And that was such a big mistake that I realized just like a couple of months ago, where someone was like, I don't even remember who, told me. They're like you're, the oprah. I was like, oh, no, I'm the worst Oprah ever. So, yeah, that would probably be my biggest mistake in what I've learned.
[13:04] Katie: That's amazing. And I actually realized this when I interviewed Alex B. Sheridan. I saw you also interviewed him. The online world is small. I was just like, how did they know each other, but I guess, who knows? And he told me this, so after I interviewed him I think it was after I interviewed him, he know. Make it a bit about you. Put in also a bit of your insights and your feelings so people get to know you too. And it had literally never crossed my mind. I was like, I could do this in my own videos or my own content or other moments. Why will I talk about me on the podcast? It's not about me. But now you said this, I'm going to add a bit more every time.
[13:42] Laura: I started doing this, but I feel like you're already doing it, so I think that's already a good start. I feel like I was just telling people I was just highlighting it, whereas you were already doing it, which is great, but I was intentionally not doing it, which is the opposite of what I needed to do. But regardless of that, because I was the person still talking about the podcast, I was the one constantly promoting it. I still, without trying, built my personal brand. Sometimes I connect with people and they're like, oh, I recognize you. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, thank you so much. Yes, I have a podcast.
[14:27] Katie: That's your oprah moment when you feel recognized.
[14:31] Laura: Yeah, exactly. One woman did that to me the other day and I was like, really? You recognize me? She was like, yeah, I do, but yeah, so nice.
[14:41] Katie: It's wonderful when you see all that hard work going to fruitician and you feel that people are benefiting from it and using it. That's amazing. To come back to you interviewing all these entrepreneurs and learning so much, what do you feel we all have in common? Because I include myself in it and I include you, too. What do you feel as entrepreneurs we have as common ground in terms of mindset or ways of working. What stands out for you?
[15:06] Laura: I think the biggest thing that stands out is the mindset. Absolutely. 100% is just like this relentless to continue and make their businesses work that just keeps coming up every single week, no matter who I talk to. It's just like that. And it's not because they explicitly say it. It's more in their tone, in what they're telling me. I can sense, like, yeah, I got this over and over and over again. Which is crazy. And you know the saying, you are the sum of the five people you hang out with because of COVID these entrepreneurs are the only people I've been hanging out with, so it's the best. I became an entrepreneur because of my podcast, which is what I wanted to do eventually. But because of the podcast, I was able to identify my expertise, I was able to get clients, and now I have a full side hustle going on because of it.
[16:20] Katie: That's amazing. And I love what you said about we are the sum of the five people we hang out with the most. It's so beautiful and in many ways it's so true. It really impacts the way we think. And I think it's almost on a subconscious level. Sometimes we're not aware of it, but things people are saying, the way they're acting, the way they're reacting, their mindset, we're picking up on all this stuff in the background and it adds to the way we move, the way we act, the way we think. I love this. And what do you feel was one of the most common struggles that people had?
[16:51] Laura: For example, I don't know if there was a common struggle, but there was always failure as part of people's stories. Always like, oh, I tried to do this first. It didn't work, but they always continued. So I feel like the entrepreneurs or the successful entrepreneurs, and by successful, I mean having a business that funds your life, that can be your only thing, right? It's just they all expressed struggle. So as entrepreneurs, I feel like they're the people who have tried over and over again until something worked for them. That would be it.
[17:37] Katie: That's a really nice way of putting it. And that comes across too. And the previous woman I just interviewed, Lily Wong, that I also worked with as a client, and she was describing her trying to start this 05:00 a.m. Morning routine and how after doing it for three weeks, she felt super jet lagged and sort of gave up. And then she started again. And when she said that, I just felt this is what it's like for all of us, all the time. We try, we try. First time is really lucky. It can be sometimes. Second time sometimes doesn't work, et cetera, until it works. And I think that's the difference between people who are resilient and who aren't. It's how often are you willing to try and innovate and change until it finally works.
[18:19] Laura: Definition of an entrepreneur.
[18:22] Katie: And how about you? What drives you? What motivates you? Why do you get up in the morning? Why'd you do this?
[18:27] Laura: I love podcasting, I really do. I feel like before I started my podcast, okay, honestly, I was a very different person. I'll just give you a little summary of Laura pre marketing bound.
[18:41] Katie: Okay?
[18:42] Laura: So I was not able to get up in the morning. I was not able to stick to things that I wanted to commit to. So if I said I was going to go to the gym, I did not go to the gym. If I said I was going to eat healthy, I did not eat healthy. And then I was always like, oh, why is this not working? And then always having an entrepreneurial mindset. I had so many ideas for businesses. Like, it's absolutely ridiculous. If anybody needs an idea, I have a list somewhere because it's dumb on how many ideas I had. Drop shipping, starting a restaurant, like literally from A to Z, I thought of it all. But my biggest, biggest thing, I guess, or flaw is that I never started anything. Never. And the podcast is the first thing that I actually follow through on, which is crazy, right? Because you're like, oh my God, Laura, you're 27. That's the first thing you follow through on. It's literally the first idea that I follow through on. It took me a long time, but I got there. Okay, guys. Yeah, it's crazy. So I'm able to follow through on this, which is the most amazing feeling, and then everything that I love to talk about and I love to work on myself, right? I remember last year when I was preparing for 2020, everyone had big plans. The only thing I wanted to do was level up as a person, was just become better. And to my surprise, I was able to do that, no problem. It was hard. Honestly, it was very hard. But I was able to do that because of the podcast. Another example of my interviews affecting me is I interviewed Scott Rust. Okay. When COVID-19 hit, I made it a point to interview people who were affected by COVID-19 or people who can help others who were affected by COVID-19. So I interviewed a habit coach, Scott Rust, and in the end I ended up hiring him to help me with my habits. Because as I told you guys before, I was the worst. I would go to bed at one, get up at eleven. It was terrible. He helped me so much that now I wake up at seven every morning. I have a morning routine, I have a nighttime routine, I eat well. So he didn't hold my hand through all those things, but he gave me the tools so that I can improve myself.
[21:45] Katie: It I don't that is so beautiful. I think it's really, really nice that it was served as an inspiration for you while you were interviewing him to actually work on this and level up yourself. And also that that was your goal for 2020. I mean, how awesome is that as a goal, to want to level up? That's amazing. And also that it's the first thing that you totally followed through on, which also kind of shows your passion and commitment, though you haven't really told us why you're passionate about it.
[22:14] Laura: Oh, yes. Was that your question? I'm sorry.
[22:16] Katie: No, that's an extra question. I like your answer. That's another question.
[22:20] Laura: So I think why I'm passionate about it is, one, I see the effects it has on me. I think that because it's the first thing that I follow through on. I have kind of like an extra connection with it. It was my baby and then my baby helped me grow. Also, I love talking to people. So you know, when people say you should do something you love, it's very true. It's absolutely very true. I love meeting people and talking to people. I would have spoken to no one this year if it wasn't for my podcast, but I speak to like three people every week, which is crazy, and I love it. I love meeting people. So I think those are the reasons why I'm super passionate about it.
[23:12] Katie: Amazing. Same year, exactly the same. I absolutely love talking to people. I love coaching people also. And interviews is another way of talking to people and learning so much. And it's just great to be able to reach out to all these amazing people who've done all these amazing things. I would love you to talk a bit more about this habit and the habit coach you worked with. I think it's a fantastic topic in terms of high performance. Could you give us, for example, a few tools that really helped you to put in place a morning routine, evening routine, or just to level up in general, your habits?
[23:46] Laura: Yeah. Okay. So there are a few things that he taught me. Well, first I had to be super vulnerable with him, just like what I said now. But it's different when you're a *** and then talking about when you're a ***. Right now, I feel like I'm leveled up. I'm different. So I can talk about it back then, no problem. Right. So in the moment, it was hard for me to admit it, but when I spoke to him and then because of my goal of just becoming a better person this year, I'm like, I have to take the leap. I have to invest in myself. And the podcast made me realize that the biggest issue I had was accountability. Nobody was holding me accountable for any of the ideas I had, so I never followed through on them. However, when I started the podcast, I told people about it right away and they held me accountable. So because I knew that that was my biggest downfall, and I would recommend that if you can find your biggest downfall and then find a way to go around it, which is what I did, that's the biggest piece of advice I can give you. My biggest downfall is that I needed to be held accountable for my actions. So if I didn't get up in the morning, if I didn't go to sleep on time, if I didn't eat well, all those things, the only way I was going to change or improve, rather, is to have someone hold me accountable. So that's what Scott did. He helped me with that a lot. Well, he had a different way of doing it, but okay, I'll give you an example. I could not get up in the morning, my habit, because as soon as you develop habits, you're just going to keep doing it over and over again. Right. So my habit was my phone would ring my alarm, I would press news without even thinking about it. No thoughts in between just press news. It would go off for an hour and a half. Yeah, an hour and a half. So if I had to get up at, let's say seven, I had to set my clock at 530 to be able to get up, be out the door by 730. Because it was ridiculous. Yeah, it was terrible. Anyway, so he's like, It's going to take time to change your habits. And that is a really good tool to understand, because you can't make four or five changes in a week. That's not going to work. So he said, we're going to take one thing. We're going to work on that one thing. So the first thing was me pressing Snooze for an hour and a half. He said, One thing I want you to try is put your phone far away so that you have to get up and go to your phone, okay? He's like, try that. And that worked for a while until it didn't work because I would go right back to bed. He's like, okay, if you don't get up right away, he's like, you have to donate money to a cause that you don't believe in. And I was like, what? He's like, yeah. Isn't there like a group or something that are, like, anti women? He's like, you're going to donate to them?
[27:15] Katie: Yeah.
[27:15] Laura: He made it really difficult for me to want to press Snooze, and after that, I never pressed Snooze. I got up because he's like, you have to donate, like, $20 every time you press Snooze. And if you don't get up every single day, he's like, I'm going to hold you accountable for it. I was like, my God. So I needed that person to hold me accountable for it. And he gave me the tools to be able to change one thing at a time. So he helped me for like, eight weeks, but technically it took me like, six months to change all my habits, right? I just implemented the same tools. Because he's like, Only when you get used to one thing, can you start another one. So I remember him trying that one at first, and I'm like, Scott, this one's going to take me a long time. I'm like, can we start another habit that I can work on, that I can at least try and see if I can? He's like he's like, okay, fine. We'll try another one too. And he said, have a nighttime routine. I was like, wow, nighttime routine. Who the hell has a nighttime routine? Guys, it's super important and very helpful. He said, Shut off your screen at ten, be in bed by eleven. I was able to implement that in a week. It was so helpful, and I still do it. So I was able to change that. At first it was hard because I'm used to like, oh, let's see how much I can do tonight. Let's work and see how many podcasts I can edit, how many things I can do. No, don't do that. Shut off your screen at ten, relax, calm down, go to bed at eleven. That one was really easy. And then once I got that one right and we did like a few more, then I really started working on the morning one. That one took me months though, I won't lie. Because I would figure out ways around it. Like I wouldn't press snooze, I would just stay in bed. But I'm like, I didn't press snooze. So I think those are the biggest ones. So just to summarize, because I've been talking a lot, it's doing one habit at a time, making sure you develop that habit before moving on to another one and prioritizing your sleep. I think that one like if I can summarize what I just said, it's that I was prioritizing my sleep instead of working at night. And because I was doing that over and over again, that's what allowed me to wake up early in the morning because I was still getting 8 hours of sleep.
[30:00] Katie: Yes, I love this and I love how you said one habit at a time. I think it's very common for high achievers to want to do it all in one go. I remember I used to be exactly like this. This week I'll be different. And I'll do the meditation and yoga and I would condense all the habits I wanted to do. And it took me, I'm wondering if it was months or years to realize that didn't work. And when I read Atomic Habits by James Spear and there were other things, then I thought no, one habit that's fine and one habit small. It's just two minutes of meditation every day. You can do five, then you can do ten, then you can add exercise. So I love what you said about one habit at a time and also about the importance of sleep. I also struggled a lot to wake up in the morning in the past, not an hour and a half snooze. But it's good. It's good to know there are different levels of struggle. And I love how open you are about this because I'm sure there are a lot of listeners that can identify with either the struggle of getting up or hitting the snooze button and you're giving them ideas and techniques like putting the alarm clock further away. I mean, in my case I have an alarm clock or the phone and putting yes, not snoozing it. And if you do having someone to hold you accountable that you'd have to donate to a charity you don't believe in. I read about this already once. So when you told me this, it came back to me. I thought, yes, that's a pretty strong.
[31:26] Laura: Because I was not listening. So he was like, oh yeah, I'm going to show you. And then he said that, I was like, okay, I'll listen.
[31:37] Katie: That's amazing. And then it makes such a difference when you have a strong morning routine and evening routine, because it's true, generally our sleep begins the evening before. So if you committed the evening before to at least going to bed earlier, it's easier to get up, right?
[31:51] Laura: Yeah. And because I don't have my phone in my room now, I leave it completely in another room and I close my screens at ten, and that includes my phone. I don't go on my phone after. I am in a much better place to just fall asleep faster. And if I can't fall asleep, I don't roll over and go on my phone, which is so great. And I just lie there and then eventually I fall back asleep.
[32:20] Katie: Exactly. Amazing. So cool. Thank you so much for being on the show today. It just flew by. I love all the topics you touched on. We went from personal development and what you learned on the podcast, and a bit about podcast growth and techniques and now about habits. So we touched on a lot of different subjects. Thank you for being here, Laura. And where can people find you?
[32:41] Laura: So anybody can add me Laura L. Brunhardt on LinkedIn, but definitely check out marketingbound.com. I have my podcast there and a bunch of marketing tips for entrepreneurs.
[32:53] Katie: Amazing. Thank you so much being here, Dora. Thank you.
[32:56] Laura: Thanks for having me.
[32:58] Katie: Thank you for listening to the Focus B show. We would love to hear your feedback. Let us know in a review how this episode inspired you. Keep buzzing.