March 7, 2024 • 22 mins
What is the defining difference between audience and community?
In this episode of 10 Minute Marketing, Sonja dives into the distinction between audience and community along with the entrepreneurial spirit behind the Create Your Purpose® Collective, Quinn Tempest.
Quinn is a business and marketing strategist with over a decade of experience. She now helps clients transform their purpose into profit and cultivates an online community of women entrepreneurs who use her expertise and knowledge combined with one another's experiences to inspire growth.
For Quinn, the key feature that separates an audience from a community is this: the space and the ability to be in conversation with each other.
When it comes to cultivating and connecting with audiences, Sonja and Quinn explore the world of private versus public podcasting and how it can be a game-changer for audience connection. They unpack the perks of starting a private podcast, from nurturing a relationship with your listeners to attracting the clientele you've always dreamed of.
After listening to the podcast, you are invited to take Quinn's My Purpose Quiz, which will help you go from frazzled to fulfilled in your business and uncover the unique "why" that drives you.
About Quinn Tempest and Create Your Purpose® Collective
Quinn Tempest, a bold color lover and desert dweller, is not your typical business & marketing strategist. As the founder of the Create Your Purpose® Collective, she leads a community of creative women entrepreneurs who are not just looking to grow their businesses but to do so with intention – all without sacrificing what matters most.
With a background at the director-level in a marketing agency, handling big-name multinational client strategies, Quinn now focuses on helping out the little guys. She coaches & consults for small business owners, helping them craft life-first business and marketing growth plans that prioritize their values, well-being, and sense of purpose.
Learn more about Create Your Purpose® Collective and follow Quinn on Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:04):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 Minute Marketing.
I'm Sonja Crystal Williams,your host and joining me today,
I have Quinn Tempest.
QuinnTempest.
com is her website and, Quinn,you have such a cool and
intriguing background, so I'mreally excited to ask you some
questions and get you sharingsome things about your work and
(00:26):
the things you do through yourwebsite.
So first, I want to start outby sharing a little thing.
So I googled you, okay, andwhen I googled you, good things,
good things.
But the thing that caught myeye, which was very a great
catchphrase, was grow a businesswithout burnout.
Now that also made the questionpop up in my mind did Quinn
(00:50):
ever experience burnout?
Is she speaking from the heart,or has she seen it?
Have you witnessed it?
So I'm going to start there.
Quinn Tempest (00:57):
Yeah, I mean, did I ever?
I think it's frankly the reasonI have my own business in the
first place was because I burnedout so badly in my first job
out of college.
Actually, when I was living inLA, I went to school for acting,
which I haven't done since, butI've used plenty of those
skills and so I took the firstjob.
(01:18):
That kind of came my waywithout thinking and I burned
out so badly that I ended up inthe hospital.
Very bad case of mono longafter college years and really
had to get my health back ontrack.
And what was good about that,looking back not at the time was
that it really set me on thispath to being more purposeful
(01:42):
and being more intentional, bothin my life but also in my
career.
And so it you know, burnout wasthe impetus for me starting my
own business, because I just hadto learn how to take care of
myself.
I wanted to get in touch withwhat really lit me up about work
, and so, although I was kind ofan accidental entrepreneur, I
(02:02):
think I had all the skill setsthat led me to.
You know, now, 12 years later,still running my business and
doing pretty well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (02:10):
Wow.
So okay, let's talk about theaccidental entrepreneurship.
What was the bridge show you?
Yes, you had that.
You had to overcome thesickness, so at that point did
you go off on your own.
And then what did that looklike for you?
Quinn Tempest (02:23):
Yeah, and so this is a long time ago.
This was back in 2010, 2011,and I just figured I had a bit
of a skill set from a design andmarketing background and I
figured, well, why not get paidto do this?
Although it did feel moreaccidental at the beginning, I
actually got my first client ina coffee shop because he was on
(02:45):
the phone and he needed a pen,and so I handed him one and we
got to talking and then I foundout he needed some design work,
so he became my first client.
Which, funny story, a few yearslater, I ended up meeting my
husband the same way in adifferent coffee shop when yeah,
when I needed a pen.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:01):
So yeah, coffee shop luck.
Quinn Tempest (03:04):
Yeah, it's actually how I got most of my
clients when I was starting out.
But that was kind of the firstthing was I had a skill set.
I met, you know, made aconnection.
I started a business and overthe years have really had to
refine what it is I offer, whatI do, and now my business
obviously looks completelydifferent than what it did in
(03:24):
that coffee shop 12 years ago.
But I'm thankful that everystep of the way led me to where
I am now.
Very cool.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:33):
Who do you work with now?
And then, what does it looklike now in terms of the type of
services you provide?
Quinn Tempest (03:40):
So now I work with really all female founders,
so women's solopreneurs,women's small business owners
and I think the thing thatconnects them all is that they
want to grow and prioritizeintentional growth in their
business without compromisingwhat matters most.
So, because we are all women, Ifind that how they grow a
(04:02):
business and the decisions thatthey make is very different than
some other clients I've had inthe past -- men, corporations,
things like that -- and I find alot of purpose in that type of
work as well is to think abouttheir life, their purpose, their
meaning, and then developstrategies whether it's a
(04:24):
business plan or a marketingstrategy to really help them
grow while valuing the thingsthat are important to them.
And as a new mom myself, I feellike that has become more
salient for me in the past 15months, so it's something that's
important to me.
So I still do marketingstrategy, but I've transitioned
(04:45):
a bit more to business coaching.
I still do a little bit ofdesign work because I love it,
but mainly my focus is nowrunning my collective, which is
called the Create Your PurposeCollective, and it's a community
of women just like this whoneed that mentorship and
accountability to grow withoutburning out.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:05):
Yes, I think that's excellent, and
that's been actually the themeof some of our recent episodes,
just talking about the idea ofonline communities.
Now for you, in a sense, though, you have kind of like two
communities.
You have your Create YourPurpose Community, which I took
a look at and checked out, andit looks amazing.
You all have welcomed 200 to300 members over the course of
(05:28):
the past four years.
My first question is whatprompted you to start that
community, and did you do italone or did you partner with
someone or people to make thathappen?
And then I have a few otherfollow-ups, but that's the first
one.
Quinn Tempest (05:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's a good question, because it was
a long, winding road and I won'tgo into the full story, but
I'll tell you, the biggest thingthat compelled me was that I
was working one-on-one with whatI now consider the perfect
collective member a woman, acollector, a creative, a
(06:06):
consultant or a coach of somesort who wants to be more
purpose-led in their business.
And so I was working one-on-one, consulting for them, doing
their brand identity, design,building their websites,
copywriting, marketing strategyall the things I do well.
And I noticed over time thatthey were all asking me similar
(06:26):
questions or doing similarchallenges, like they were
feeling burned out in theirbusiness.
They didn't know how to get newclients, they weren't sure how
to raise their prices All ofthese different swirling
questions that a lot ofentrepreneurs have in those
earlier stages of their business.
And while I felt so grateful tobe able to support them
(06:47):
one-on-one, what I really wantedwas not for them to just talk
to me about it, but for them tobe able to talk to one another
about it, because I'm sureyou've experienced this, where
in your business, something isgoing awry or feeling a little
bit tough and you think it'syour fault.
I always think of the TaylorSwift "antihero song where she's
(07:09):
like it's me, hi, I'm theproblem.
It's me.
And that is what we do,especially as women
entrepreneurs.
We self-blame and we think it'ssomething we're doing wrong,
when really for me, as abusiness and marketing
strategist working with hundredsof women over the past 10 years
, I don't see these as yourfault.
In fact, they're typicallynormal challenges that all
(07:32):
entrepreneurs go through andI've seen them navigate it well.
But it can feel like in themoment that you're the problem
and you're doing things wrong.
So I wanted to normalizechallenges but also give them
the education they need to learnnew skills, the accountability
and then also just theinspiration that keep going,
(07:54):
because entrepreneurship is hard, and so that was kind of the
core motivation was I wantedthese women to be able to talk
to one another, to know that itwasn't just them, and also get
the support they need to takethat next purposeful step.
So that was the initial thing,and when it came to partners, I
wanna say partners in like thetraditional sense, but I did
(08:16):
hire a community strategist whohelped me design the entire
programming.
That then became the collective, the entire experience I wanted
members to have, which I thinkwas probably like one of the
best things I've done in mybusiness because it really
helped me create an idea and anexperience that hasn't really
(08:37):
changed much since the beginningbecause it's been so successful
.
Of course I've iterated, but Ithink going through that
community design process wasinvaluable for me, having the
collective run for now four anda half years.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:52):
That's not something a lot of people
think about.
Like most people think, I'mstarting a group or I'm starting
a community, I'll just go startit, you know, and hope they
will.
I'm dating myself a little bitbut, like Wayne's World, like
build it and they will come.
So I don't know if anyone getsthat reference, but anyway I got
(09:12):
it but kind of along thoselines.
And so you hired someone tohelp you really set up what that
community was gonna look like.
Out of curiosity, was thatsomeone that was referred to you
?
Did you go out on a search tofind someone that could do that
specifically?
Quinn Tempest (09:30):
I did search for someone and how I found her --
her name's Sophie, she's amazing-- was because I was in a
community that was also attachedto a course and I really liked
it and I thought it was reallywell done and I felt like I had
grown so much in my own businessand it was also a very niche
thing it was for web designersto learn processes and so it was
(09:53):
a long time ago in my businessbut I liked it and I remember
looking at the person who ranthat course in community and I
noticed you know who she linkedto and so I ended up on Sophie's
website.
I contacted her and the rest ishistory.
But she taught me so much aboutwhat a community is, because
(10:13):
even before and maybe this issplitting hairs, but I do think
it's important you mentioned Ihave a podcast community and I
have a community- community whenI actually don't think of them
as the same thing.
Like to me, a community is wherepeople are talking to one
another and they can be thereindependent of me, whereas with
my podcast and I think weconflate the term community with
(10:36):
audience, sometimes especiallyonline, like a lot of people oh,
my online community when theyreally just mean like their
following or their email list orwhatever.
To me, like if you take me outof the equation, those people
can't talk to one another, theycan't exist really, because
they're just interacting with mycontent.
So for me I kind of look atthem differently.
(10:57):
And yes, there's communityaspects, but my collective is a
community.
Like you can take me out andthey are tied.
Sonja Crystal Williams (11:06):
I love that.
Okay, but let's shift gearsalso to that podcast.
Okay, so let's relabel itpodcast audience.
But one of the things you and Italked about prior to today was
the fact that you've done bothprivate and public podcast, and
for some people the concept of aprivate podcast is foreign.
(11:30):
So would you be willing toshare, like, what's private
versus what's just a regular oldpublic podcast?
Quinn Tempest (11:36):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think, from a strategicperspective, it really depends
how you want to use them.
So a public podcast, I think,is something we all know and
love, right?
We all are subscribed to many,we listen to many.
It comes to us on any podcastplatform we want to listen into
and it's for everyone.
(11:56):
Now, a private podcast is arelatively new thing and it can
be used in multiple differentways.
The ways I used to have used itwas last summer I decided to do
a private podcast.
Now I called it an audio series, but you can call it a private
podcast.
I've seen them called a pop uppodcast before and what that is
(12:19):
is it is literally only for thepeople who sign up to receive it
, and they can't find it onSpotify, they can't find it on
Apple podcasts.
They have to sign up to get apersonalized link.
Now, of course, they can listento it on those, but they have
to get a private basically audiofeed link to be able to access
(12:40):
to it.
So, from a strategic perspective, the reason that I did this in
my business was that I waslooking to get out of the
webinar world and themasterclass world and the live
workshop world because, asyou've probably seen, or maybe
your clients have seen, the showup rate to those have gone down
drastically over the years.
Where, say, you get 100 peoplesign up?
(13:02):
You might only get 15, 20people who show up live, and
then you're putting all thisenergy into this live session
and it just fizzles out.
And so I figured, well, what'sa better way to still deliver
education, to prime my audiencefor my enrollment period, for my
collective, and to also prequalify them and to make sure
(13:23):
that I'm getting the rightmembers applying to join us?
So I decided I wanted toexperiment with a private
podcast, and so I have pulled myaudience a couple months prior
and asked them what theirbiggest challenges were at the
time.
The biggest thing I heard lastyear, which still continues this
year, is attracting idealclients.
You know it was a big strugglein 2023 and continues to be, and
(13:47):
so I put together the idealclient reset audio series.
It was, I think, a five episodemini private podcast where I
gave people tips on how to findclients, how to raise rates, how
to make sure you close deals,and all throughout that it was
sponsored by my collective, sothey were learning about the
(14:09):
collective.
They could apply right whenthat podcast came out, or, I
think, on the third day.
It was just a great way for meto talk about a specific topic.
It was also time limited, so Ithink this is another thing
that's cool With a publicpodcast your episodes are live.
They're evergreen.
That's great For this.
It's like you got to listenbefore it goes away, because
(14:32):
this is a specific time-basedpodcast.
There's only five episodes.
They're only going to be livefor like, say, a week and all of
these things are.
You know you can think throughwith your strategy, but that was
how I did it and I think itwent really well.
I'd like to do it again.
I'm actually considered doingone in May for our next
enrollment period, and I've alsoseen people do it not in a live
(14:54):
way but as like a leadgeneration way.
So I've seen some people havelike an audio training on their
website as their lead opt-in andit's more of an evergreen.
So it's just another way to useaudio in your business to drive
a little bit more strategic,targeted lead gen as well as, in
(15:15):
my case, to nurture possiblecollective members to apply.
Sonja Crystal Williams (15:20):
Yeah, I think you dropped so many great
points and definitely even as wethink about just trends in
general and how audiences andconsumers are engaging online,
the idea just simply thatpodcast listenership has
dramatically increased so much.
I think I saw a stat recentlythat said 80% of adults listen
(15:41):
to podcasts in the US, which ishuge.
Versus where it was about 20years ago, it was something like
15 or 20% of people.
So the opportunity now, evenwith private and one thing,
Quinn, you can clarify thisprivate doesn't mean
subscription, that some peoplewill also kind of cross the
lines there too.
It does sit, so subscription islike it's behind a wall.
(16:04):
In a sense, you could saythat's private, but what you're
saying was something that wasopen to people who wanted to
register for it.
They just needed to get thatprivate link and it was for a
limited period of time, right?
Quinn Tempest (16:19):
Yeah, I mean there was still an opt-in aspect
, at least in the one I did, sothey had to provide their email
to get it.
But it's not necessarily asubscription in the sense of
like their paying or anythinglike that.
I mean there's definitelydifferent strategies like that
I've seen.
I'm actually in this group, sothe tool that I used was called
(16:39):
Hello Audio.
I don't know if you're familiarwith it, but it's great and
they have a Facebook group.
So it was a great way for me toresearch how people are using
private podcasts, because theway I used it is just one way
people are using it in onlinebusiness spaces but, like you
said, it's just another way todeliver audio content in an
(17:00):
accessible format, and I thinkthat's what I wanted is that so
many of my potential clients andcollective members are on the
go a lot and they don't have aton of time, so these episodes
were 15-minute max.
They could tune into itwherever they were and get that
information and build thatrelationship with me without
having to show up live tosomething.
(17:21):
So the way I did it was justone way.
So there's lots of differentstrategies and I think you just
got to approach it intentionallyand with purpose of like, what
is the goal, what is thedelivery method and then how do
I want to execute this tosupport the overall business
goals I have.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:38):
Got you, and outcomes for you from what
you said earlier, was thishelped introduce people to your
collective as well as you weregetting opt-ins right, so didn't
help grow your email list.
Quinn Tempest (17:51):
Yeah, definitely.
It was a late summer launch, soI think just overall it was a
little slower and it was myfirst thing back after an
extended maternity leave, so itwas a good way back for me to
kind of ease in.
I think I got around 80subscription, or not
subscription, sign-ups from it.
Many of those were new to myemail list, many of them were
also existing in my email list,but it was, from like a
(18:15):
high-level business perspective,very helpful to get myself out
there again to grow my list alittle bit and to give that
value which then nurtured peoplenot just in that enrollment
period last fall but also in thecurrent one we just closed a
couple weeks ago in February.
Sonja Crystal Williams (18:33):
Wow, awesome.
Any final thoughts just aboutpodcasting from your experience
in general that you think foranyone who is either, maybe
already has a podcast andthey're just seeking ways for
growth, what are some thoughtsthat you have in general about
just how people could approachthat?
Quinn Tempest (18:52):
I think the cool thing about podcasts that has
always surprised me coming froma marketing background where I
love data, I love seeing who'sopening my emails, who's
clicking on them all of that, isthat podcasts aren't the same.
There's more anonymity to whois tuning into your podcast,
(19:12):
which can often be a little hardas a data-driven marketer to
wade through.
But what I've seen anecdotallyis that people are tuning in and
they're also tuning intocontent that I posted on my
public podcast years ago andthey're nurturing themselves
(19:33):
into other pieces of an elementof my business.
Even one of my new collectivemembers just emailed me today
saying she tuned into an episodethat I posted last year and
found it so supportive and itwas a big reason why she joined
the collective.
And so I think it's like thoselittle anecdotes yes, you can't
(19:53):
track things as well of who islistening and what they're
listening to and how it impactedthem in the same way that a
blog article could, but I thinkthat's almost like the magic and
the power is it's doing thework without you, and if anyone
wants to get started, don'trecreate the wheel.
Start with content you alreadyhave that you know is successful
(20:14):
and turn it into an audioformat.
In fact, that's how I gotstarted with my public podcast.
I had been writing emails foryears, every single week, and I
just started taking bits ofthose, creating more verbal
scripts out of them and postingthose as episodes.
So I wasn't doing anything likebrand new at first, because I
just wanted to experiment withthe new format.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:36):
Wow, I love it.
Well, this has been a reallywonderful conversation.
Thank you so much for lettingus just peek behind the curtain
to how you're growing yourdifferent groups, communities,
audiences across podcasts, aswell as just directly with your
online community.
How can people get in touchwith you, Quinn, if they want to
just learn more about thecollective or listen to your
(20:58):
podcast?
Quinn Tempest (20:59):
Yeah Well, I think the best thing to do is to
take my quiz.
If you're interested in thisidea of purposeful
entrepreneurship and intentionalgrowth.
I have a quiz that's now beentaken 18,000 times, which is so
fun.
It's on my website.
So go to QuinnTempest.
com.
It's right on the homepage, andthe goal of it is to help you
tap into your entrepreneurialdrive.
(21:20):
So there's just 12 questions.
You'll get a result at the endof what that could be and it's
just a fun way to kind of getinvolved in my universe.
And then also I'm on Instagramway too often, so you can also
find me @Quinn.
T quinttempest on the 'gram.
Sonja Crystal Williams (21:38):
Awesome.
Well, y'all be sure to followQuinn.
I'm definitely following youmyself and I really enjoyed
talking with you today.
For everyone else, until nexttime.
Thanks for listening.
Bye
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 Minute Marketing.
I'm Sonja Crystal Williams,your host and joining me today,
I have Quinn Tempest.
QuinnTempest.
com is her website and, Quinn,you have such a cool and
intriguing background, so I'mreally excited to ask you some
questions and get you sharingsome things about your work and
(00:26):
the things you do through yourwebsite.
So first, I want to start outby sharing a little thing.
So I googled you, okay, andwhen I googled you, good things,
good things.
But the thing that caught myeye, which was very a great
catchphrase, was grow a businesswithout burnout.
Now that also made the questionpop up in my mind did Quinn
(00:50):
ever experience burnout?
Is she speaking from the heart,or has she seen it?
Have you witnessed it?
So I'm going to start there.
Quinn Tempest (00:57):
Yeah, I mean, did I ever?
I think it's frankly the reasonI have my own business in the
first place was because I burnedout so badly in my first job
out of college.
Actually, when I was living inLA, I went to school for acting,
which I haven't done since, butI've used plenty of those
skills and so I took the firstjob.
(01:18):
That kind of came my waywithout thinking and I burned
out so badly that I ended up inthe hospital.
Very bad case of mono longafter college years and really
had to get my health back ontrack.
And what was good about that,looking back not at the time was
that it really set me on thispath to being more purposeful
(01:42):
and being more intentional, bothin my life but also in my
career.
And so it you know, burnout wasthe impetus for me starting my
own business, because I just hadto learn how to take care of
myself.
I wanted to get in touch withwhat really lit me up about work
, and so, although I was kind ofan accidental entrepreneur, I
(02:02):
think I had all the skill setsthat led me to.
You know, now, 12 years later,still running my business and
doing pretty well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (02:10):
Wow.
So okay, let's talk about theaccidental entrepreneurship.
What was the bridge show you?
Yes, you had that.
You had to overcome thesickness, so at that point did
you go off on your own.
And then what did that looklike for you?
Quinn Tempest (02:23):
Yeah, and so this is a long time ago.
This was back in 2010, 2011,and I just figured I had a bit
of a skill set from a design andmarketing background and I
figured, well, why not get paidto do this?
Although it did feel moreaccidental at the beginning, I
actually got my first client ina coffee shop because he was on
(02:45):
the phone and he needed a pen,and so I handed him one and we
got to talking and then I foundout he needed some design work,
so he became my first client.
Which, funny story, a few yearslater, I ended up meeting my
husband the same way in adifferent coffee shop when yeah,
when I needed a pen.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:01):
So yeah, coffee shop luck.
Quinn Tempest (03:04):
Yeah, it's actually how I got most of my
clients when I was starting out.
But that was kind of the firstthing was I had a skill set.
I met, you know, made aconnection.
I started a business and overthe years have really had to
refine what it is I offer, whatI do, and now my business
obviously looks completelydifferent than what it did in
(03:24):
that coffee shop 12 years ago.
But I'm thankful that everystep of the way led me to where
I am now.
Very cool.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:33):
Who do you work with now?
And then, what does it looklike now in terms of the type of
services you provide?
Quinn Tempest (03:40):
So now I work with really all female founders,
so women's solopreneurs,women's small business owners
and I think the thing thatconnects them all is that they
want to grow and prioritizeintentional growth in their
business without compromisingwhat matters most.
So, because we are all women, Ifind that how they grow a
(04:02):
business and the decisions thatthey make is very different than
some other clients I've had inthe past -- men, corporations,
things like that -- and I find alot of purpose in that type of
work as well is to think abouttheir life, their purpose, their
meaning, and then developstrategies whether it's a
(04:24):
business plan or a marketingstrategy to really help them
grow while valuing the thingsthat are important to them.
And as a new mom myself, I feellike that has become more
salient for me in the past 15months, so it's something that's
important to me.
So I still do marketingstrategy, but I've transitioned
(04:45):
a bit more to business coaching.
I still do a little bit ofdesign work because I love it,
but mainly my focus is nowrunning my collective, which is
called the Create Your PurposeCollective, and it's a community
of women just like this whoneed that mentorship and
accountability to grow withoutburning out.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:05):
Yes, I think that's excellent, and
that's been actually the themeof some of our recent episodes,
just talking about the idea ofonline communities.
Now for you, in a sense, though, you have kind of like two
communities.
You have your Create YourPurpose Community, which I took
a look at and checked out, andit looks amazing.
You all have welcomed 200 to300 members over the course of
(05:28):
the past four years.
My first question is whatprompted you to start that
community, and did you do italone or did you partner with
someone or people to make thathappen?
And then I have a few otherfollow-ups, but that's the first
one.
Quinn Tempest (05:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's a good question, because it was
a long, winding road and I won'tgo into the full story, but
I'll tell you, the biggest thingthat compelled me was that I
was working one-on-one with whatI now consider the perfect
collective member a woman, acollector, a creative, a
(06:06):
consultant or a coach of somesort who wants to be more
purpose-led in their business.
And so I was working one-on-one, consulting for them, doing
their brand identity, design,building their websites,
copywriting, marketing strategyall the things I do well.
And I noticed over time thatthey were all asking me similar
(06:26):
questions or doing similarchallenges, like they were
feeling burned out in theirbusiness.
They didn't know how to get newclients, they weren't sure how
to raise their prices All ofthese different swirling
questions that a lot ofentrepreneurs have in those
earlier stages of their business.
And while I felt so grateful tobe able to support them
(06:47):
one-on-one, what I really wantedwas not for them to just talk
to me about it, but for them tobe able to talk to one another
about it, because I'm sureyou've experienced this, where
in your business, something isgoing awry or feeling a little
bit tough and you think it'syour fault.
I always think of the TaylorSwift "antihero song where she's
(07:09):
like it's me, hi, I'm theproblem.
It's me.
And that is what we do,especially as women
entrepreneurs.
We self-blame and we think it'ssomething we're doing wrong,
when really for me, as abusiness and marketing
strategist working with hundredsof women over the past 10 years
, I don't see these as yourfault.
In fact, they're typicallynormal challenges that all
(07:32):
entrepreneurs go through andI've seen them navigate it well.
But it can feel like in themoment that you're the problem
and you're doing things wrong.
So I wanted to normalizechallenges but also give them
the education they need to learnnew skills, the accountability
and then also just theinspiration that keep going,
(07:54):
because entrepreneurship is hard, and so that was kind of the
core motivation was I wantedthese women to be able to talk
to one another, to know that itwasn't just them, and also get
the support they need to takethat next purposeful step.
So that was the initial thing,and when it came to partners, I
wanna say partners in like thetraditional sense, but I did
(08:16):
hire a community strategist whohelped me design the entire
programming.
That then became the collective, the entire experience I wanted
members to have, which I thinkwas probably like one of the
best things I've done in mybusiness because it really
helped me create an idea and anexperience that hasn't really
(08:37):
changed much since the beginningbecause it's been so successful
.
Of course I've iterated, but Ithink going through that
community design process wasinvaluable for me, having the
collective run for now four anda half years.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:52):
That's not something a lot of people
think about.
Like most people think, I'mstarting a group or I'm starting
a community, I'll just go startit, you know, and hope they
will.
I'm dating myself a little bitbut, like Wayne's World, like
build it and they will come.
So I don't know if anyone getsthat reference, but anyway I got
(09:12):
it but kind of along thoselines.
And so you hired someone tohelp you really set up what that
community was gonna look like.
Out of curiosity, was thatsomeone that was referred to you
?
Did you go out on a search tofind someone that could do that
specifically?
Quinn Tempest (09:30):
I did search for someone and how I found her --
her name's Sophie, she's amazing-- was because I was in a
community that was also attachedto a course and I really liked
it and I thought it was reallywell done and I felt like I had
grown so much in my own businessand it was also a very niche
thing it was for web designersto learn processes and so it was
(09:53):
a long time ago in my businessbut I liked it and I remember
looking at the person who ranthat course in community and I
noticed you know who she linkedto and so I ended up on Sophie's
website.
I contacted her and the rest ishistory.
But she taught me so much aboutwhat a community is, because
(10:13):
even before and maybe this issplitting hairs, but I do think
it's important you mentioned Ihave a podcast community and I
have a community- community whenI actually don't think of them
as the same thing.
Like to me, a community is wherepeople are talking to one
another and they can be thereindependent of me, whereas with
my podcast and I think weconflate the term community with
(10:36):
audience, sometimes especiallyonline, like a lot of people oh,
my online community when theyreally just mean like their
following or their email list orwhatever.
To me, like if you take me outof the equation, those people
can't talk to one another, theycan't exist really, because
they're just interacting with mycontent.
So for me I kind of look atthem differently.
(10:57):
And yes, there's communityaspects, but my collective is a
community.
Like you can take me out andthey are tied.
Sonja Crystal Williams (11:06):
I love that.
Okay, but let's shift gearsalso to that podcast.
Okay, so let's relabel itpodcast audience.
But one of the things you and Italked about prior to today was
the fact that you've done bothprivate and public podcast, and
for some people the concept of aprivate podcast is foreign.
(11:30):
So would you be willing toshare, like, what's private
versus what's just a regular oldpublic podcast?
Quinn Tempest (11:36):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think, from a strategicperspective, it really depends
how you want to use them.
So a public podcast, I think,is something we all know and
love, right?
We all are subscribed to many,we listen to many.
It comes to us on any podcastplatform we want to listen into
and it's for everyone.
(11:56):
Now, a private podcast is arelatively new thing and it can
be used in multiple differentways.
The ways I used to have used itwas last summer I decided to do
a private podcast.
Now I called it an audio series, but you can call it a private
podcast.
I've seen them called a pop uppodcast before and what that is
(12:19):
is it is literally only for thepeople who sign up to receive it
, and they can't find it onSpotify, they can't find it on
Apple podcasts.
They have to sign up to get apersonalized link.
Now, of course, they can listento it on those, but they have
to get a private basically audiofeed link to be able to access
(12:40):
to it.
So, from a strategic perspective, the reason that I did this in
my business was that I waslooking to get out of the
webinar world and themasterclass world and the live
workshop world because, asyou've probably seen, or maybe
your clients have seen, the showup rate to those have gone down
drastically over the years.
Where, say, you get 100 peoplesign up?
(13:02):
You might only get 15, 20people who show up live, and
then you're putting all thisenergy into this live session
and it just fizzles out.
And so I figured, well, what'sa better way to still deliver
education, to prime my audiencefor my enrollment period, for my
collective, and to also prequalify them and to make sure
(13:23):
that I'm getting the rightmembers applying to join us?
So I decided I wanted toexperiment with a private
podcast, and so I have pulled myaudience a couple months prior
and asked them what theirbiggest challenges were at the
time.
The biggest thing I heard lastyear, which still continues this
year, is attracting idealclients.
You know it was a big strugglein 2023 and continues to be, and
(13:47):
so I put together the idealclient reset audio series.
It was, I think, a five episodemini private podcast where I
gave people tips on how to findclients, how to raise rates, how
to make sure you close deals,and all throughout that it was
sponsored by my collective, sothey were learning about the
(14:09):
collective.
They could apply right whenthat podcast came out, or, I
think, on the third day.
It was just a great way for meto talk about a specific topic.
It was also time limited, so Ithink this is another thing
that's cool With a publicpodcast your episodes are live.
They're evergreen.
That's great For this.
It's like you got to listenbefore it goes away, because
(14:32):
this is a specific time-basedpodcast.
There's only five episodes.
They're only going to be livefor like, say, a week and all of
these things are.
You know you can think throughwith your strategy, but that was
how I did it and I think itwent really well.
I'd like to do it again.
I'm actually considered doingone in May for our next
enrollment period, and I've alsoseen people do it not in a live
(14:54):
way but as like a leadgeneration way.
So I've seen some people havelike an audio training on their
website as their lead opt-in andit's more of an evergreen.
So it's just another way to useaudio in your business to drive
a little bit more strategic,targeted lead gen as well as, in
(15:15):
my case, to nurture possiblecollective members to apply.
Sonja Crystal Williams (15:20):
Yeah, I think you dropped so many great
points and definitely even as wethink about just trends in
general and how audiences andconsumers are engaging online,
the idea just simply thatpodcast listenership has
dramatically increased so much.
I think I saw a stat recentlythat said 80% of adults listen
(15:41):
to podcasts in the US, which ishuge.
Versus where it was about 20years ago, it was something like
15 or 20% of people.
So the opportunity now, evenwith private and one thing,
Quinn, you can clarify thisprivate doesn't mean
subscription, that some peoplewill also kind of cross the
lines there too.
It does sit, so subscription islike it's behind a wall.
(16:04):
In a sense, you could saythat's private, but what you're
saying was something that wasopen to people who wanted to
register for it.
They just needed to get thatprivate link and it was for a
limited period of time, right?
Quinn Tempest (16:19):
Yeah, I mean there was still an opt-in aspect
, at least in the one I did, sothey had to provide their email
to get it.
But it's not necessarily asubscription in the sense of
like their paying or anythinglike that.
I mean there's definitelydifferent strategies like that
I've seen.
I'm actually in this group, sothe tool that I used was called
(16:39):
Hello Audio.
I don't know if you're familiarwith it, but it's great and
they have a Facebook group.
So it was a great way for me toresearch how people are using
private podcasts, because theway I used it is just one way
people are using it in onlinebusiness spaces but, like you
said, it's just another way todeliver audio content in an
(17:00):
accessible format, and I thinkthat's what I wanted is that so
many of my potential clients andcollective members are on the
go a lot and they don't have aton of time, so these episodes
were 15-minute max.
They could tune into itwherever they were and get that
information and build thatrelationship with me without
having to show up live tosomething.
(17:21):
So the way I did it was justone way.
So there's lots of differentstrategies and I think you just
got to approach it intentionallyand with purpose of like, what
is the goal, what is thedelivery method and then how do
I want to execute this tosupport the overall business
goals I have.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:38):
Got you, and outcomes for you from what
you said earlier, was thishelped introduce people to your
collective as well as you weregetting opt-ins right, so didn't
help grow your email list.
Quinn Tempest (17:51):
Yeah, definitely.
It was a late summer launch, soI think just overall it was a
little slower and it was myfirst thing back after an
extended maternity leave, so itwas a good way back for me to
kind of ease in.
I think I got around 80subscription, or not
subscription, sign-ups from it.
Many of those were new to myemail list, many of them were
also existing in my email list,but it was, from like a
(18:15):
high-level business perspective,very helpful to get myself out
there again to grow my list alittle bit and to give that
value which then nurtured peoplenot just in that enrollment
period last fall but also in thecurrent one we just closed a
couple weeks ago in February.
Sonja Crystal Williams (18:33):
Wow, awesome.
Any final thoughts just aboutpodcasting from your experience
in general that you think foranyone who is either, maybe
already has a podcast andthey're just seeking ways for
growth, what are some thoughtsthat you have in general about
just how people could approachthat?
Quinn Tempest (18:52):
I think the cool thing about podcasts that has
always surprised me coming froma marketing background where I
love data, I love seeing who'sopening my emails, who's
clicking on them all of that, isthat podcasts aren't the same.
There's more anonymity to whois tuning into your podcast,
(19:12):
which can often be a little hardas a data-driven marketer to
wade through.
But what I've seen anecdotallyis that people are tuning in and
they're also tuning intocontent that I posted on my
public podcast years ago andthey're nurturing themselves
(19:33):
into other pieces of an elementof my business.
Even one of my new collectivemembers just emailed me today
saying she tuned into an episodethat I posted last year and
found it so supportive and itwas a big reason why she joined
the collective.
And so I think it's like thoselittle anecdotes yes, you can't
(19:53):
track things as well of who islistening and what they're
listening to and how it impactedthem in the same way that a
blog article could, but I thinkthat's almost like the magic and
the power is it's doing thework without you, and if anyone
wants to get started, don'trecreate the wheel.
Start with content you alreadyhave that you know is successful
(20:14):
and turn it into an audioformat.
In fact, that's how I gotstarted with my public podcast.
I had been writing emails foryears, every single week, and I
just started taking bits ofthose, creating more verbal
scripts out of them and postingthose as episodes.
So I wasn't doing anything likebrand new at first, because I
just wanted to experiment withthe new format.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:36):
Wow, I love it.
Well, this has been a reallywonderful conversation.
Thank you so much for lettingus just peek behind the curtain
to how you're growing yourdifferent groups, communities,
audiences across podcasts, aswell as just directly with your
online community.
How can people get in touchwith you, Quinn, if they want to
just learn more about thecollective or listen to your
(20:58):
podcast?
Quinn Tempest (20:59):
Yeah Well, I think the best thing to do is to
take my quiz.
If you're interested in thisidea of purposeful
entrepreneurship and intentionalgrowth.
I have a quiz that's now beentaken 18,000 times, which is so
fun.
It's on my website.
So go to QuinnTempest.
com.
It's right on the homepage, andthe goal of it is to help you
tap into your entrepreneurialdrive.
(21:20):
So there's just 12 questions.
You'll get a result at the endof what that could be and it's
just a fun way to kind of getinvolved in my universe.
And then also I'm on Instagramway too often, so you can also
find me @Quinn.
T quinttempest on the 'gram.
Sonja Crystal Williams (21:38):
Awesome.
Well, y'all be sure to followQuinn.
I'm definitely following youmyself and I really enjoyed
talking with you today.
For everyone else, until nexttime.
Thanks for listening.
Bye
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