From the beef industry to podcasting, this week's guest Kasey Brown has taken quite a journey on her path to finally betting on herself with her company, Teal Hat Communications. Kasey shares her experiences and how she brings them all together, including a love of music, ag journalism training and endless curiosity in her work with creative small business owners.

If this episode had been released when it was originally planned, it would have been part of the official launch of Kasey’s new podcast, Kindly Confident Marketing, where she’ll be sharing great tips and tricks for folks like her clients who want to use a podcast-centric approach to marketing their small business (cough cough, your host raises her hand). Technology and a busy schedule delayed the release, so there are now multiple episodes available (a trailer and 2 episodes to be exact at this moment)!

Bonus: See if you can find the piece of advice from the episode that I put into play right away.

Promised Show Notes Materials (take a drink):

• Sign up for updates on my podcast and what’s happening in the Renaissance People Community.
• Work with me to Find Your Golden Thread
• Join Fertile Grounds, the monthly gathering of the Renaissance People Community
• Ep. 10: The Forever Revolution with Jenni Gritters, Multi-Passionate
• Ep. 9: A Mind for Memory with Brian Skellenger, Survivalist (Sara’s brother)
• RFD-TV
• LinkedIn post of Sara during her TV meteorology days with a bonus rant on the term "weather girl"
• Ep. 8: Bringing Worlds Together Full Circle with Jess Rowell, Renaissance Woman
• Ep. 14: Capture the Flow with Alycia Buenger, Multi-Passionate
• Kasey’s podcast Kindly Confident Marketing
• Kasey’s business Teal Hat Communications

Follow Kasey on Social Media:

LinkedIn | Instagram

A few things Kasey and I discuss:

8:31 Kasey’s journey from the beef industry to podcasting and marketing

13:00 Taking the scary leap into entrepreneurship

16:43 Who her ideal client is (and hint, it’s found in the mirror)

17:02 How podcasting aligns with being a lifelong learner

21:50 Using podcasting as a source of connection (circle of trust)

22:15 Kasey’s ag journalism experience and the impact of role models

30:18 Language in agricultural realms and how it is (and isn’t) changing

42:06 Improv game

44:36 Rapidish Fire Questions (and what strategic confetti is)

45:50 Kasey drops a bombshell

Quotes from the episode:

(Kasey) “Even since elementary school, like I would get really interested in something and then like go in a huge deep dive. So like when I got interested in reading The Wizard of Oz, like I read all 14 of the books, and then I got really into the musical and the movie and all of the things. And like same thing with Titanic, and like you just go through these giant deep dives, and yeah, I'm OK with that because it's super interesting and fascinating, and it's way more fun to follow those instead of worrying about whether it's acceptable.

(Kasey) I started quietly building a website, and I started working on my branding. And then they made that decision for me because I was part of a giant layoff, which honestly was a blessing in disguise, Yeah. I was prepping to leave.

(Sara) Yeah. You just got kicked out of the nest by mama bird. She's like, "You can fly. Go ahead...”

(Kasey) Exactly! It was the kick I needed because I probably would've stayed far too long had I not gotten the kick because I would've been like, "Oh, I'll feel safe enough if I have one more client or maybe one more client past that." And I just, I needed to bet on myself, and that's what I've done, and it's been really, really wonderful.

(Kasey) I know I have a terrible habit, or I did, I've worked on it quite a bit, of interrupting people because I get so excited, and I wanna be like, " Oh, yeah, I know that too!" Or like I'm trying to interact with them. I also realized later of like that seems really rude, and I'm not trying to be.

(Sara)Yes!

(Kasey) I've honed that in a little bit. But because you hear the excitement in their voice, that's another thing I love about podcasting, is that get to feel the excitement along with them. And I think because their excitement is so contagious because they are interested in so many things, that just levels up everything else.

(Sara) And I just realized that I think another bonus of that is that the person who has been the listener gets to connect with you and feel like they already know you. Which means that you as the podcast host get to focus your energy just on getting to know them. And how great does it feel when somebody is not trying to tell you all about themselves, but instead is just curious about you and wants to learn about you?

(Kasey) Ooo yeah!

(Sara) So kind of like, bypasses the need to be like, "Hi, I'm Sara Kobilka, Renaissance Woman. Now I'm gonna talk for 45 minutes about who I am and what I do. Oh, sorry, did you walk away? Never mind. Have a good day." And instead, it's, "You know what? There's a number of different episodes you can listen to to learn all about me, and now that we're together, tell me about you. Because obviously if you thought I was interesting, you must be really interesting too! So let's learn about you."

(Sara) I used to have people who thought they were funny be like, "Oh, you're the weather girl." And I was like, "Do you call them weather boys?" And they'd be like, "Uh, no." And I'm like, "Well, maybe don't use that term." And some would be like, "Well, what do I call you?" And I'm like, "Well, there's a thing called a meteorologist. You could, you know, take that term if you wanted to, but, uh, whatever. You can also call me a weather goddess and I'll take that."

(Kasey) So usually my elevator pitch now is I help creative small business owners streamline their marketing efforts, streamline their marketing efforts and trust their voice through a podcast-centered approach…. I help people with that. And by doing that, we learn to trust our voice, and then we use our voice to earn trust, and that is through podcasting. So again, like we mentioned, like creating that one-way connection, so when someone really does resonate with you, then you get to create that connection the other way because...

(Sara) Full circle!

(Kasey) Exactly! So lot of circle, lot of starting to build a community around that.

Follow me, Renaissance Woman Sara Kobilka, on LinkedIn, where I put most of my social media energy, and Facebook.

If you’re extra curious, check out Renaissance Woman Consulting to learn more about some of the many types of work I do.

And should you care to support the production of this podcast, I’d love it if you’d buy me an oat milk cappuccino, my caffeinated beverage of choice.

This podcast is hosted and edited by Sara Kobilka.

Theme music is by Brian Skellenger

Podcast distribution support provided by K.O. Myers of Particulate Media

[00:00:09] Sara Kobilka: Yeah.

[00:00:12] Sara Kobilka: Yeah. You just got kicked out of the nest by mama bird. She's like, "You can fly. Go ahead ... "

[00:00:43] Sara Kobilka: Hello, Renaissance People and folks who would like to cultivate a Renaissance Mindset. My name is Sara Kobilka, and I am the Renaissance Woman, your host for this show, where I bring on all sorts of fabulous Renaissance People where they can inspire us and really show us what it's like to live this Renaissance lifestyle.

Summertime, and the living is easy. Except for it's not easy, because summertime gets really busy for me. I've got a couple of kids. We're in New York, and our school goes until the end of June. And then we travel usually right at the beginning of July to see family. So it's been chaotic, and I've given myself a little bit of permission, which is something we Renaissance People need to do from time to time. Permission to slow down one project so that we can focus energy on some other projects and some other things that need to get done, ' cause if we splatter our energy in all directions, we really don't have that power, that force, that impact that we want to have.

So I did a little bit of strategic focus, which meant I took one week off of releasing a podcast. We'll see if my next episode comes out in two weeks or maybe four weeks from now. But I got two weeks of travel, and I have two other large audio projects that I have to work on in the next couple of weeks. So We shall see what is happening and I hope to share a little bit more about those audio projects in the future 'cause they're kinda fun.

And that is also the month where I am very excited to be kicking off the first Fertile Grounds. So Fertile Grounds is going to become a monthly virtual gathering of the Renaissance People community. It's a place for us to play with ideas and pollinate possibilities. Ooh, look at that alliteration. So you can come and join with your fellow multi-passionates where you can get some help and an outside perspective on a challenge that maybe you're facing. You can find a collaborator to grow a new project ' cause as people have been signing up for my newsletter, which if you haven't already, I recommend doing it.

But if you sign up for the newsletter, you can fill out this form to tell me a little bit more about yourself and I know that finding ways to collaborate with fellow people in this community is something that a lot of you are interested in. So that'll be part of what we do. And then going with our little gardening theme, you can supplement the soil by contributing resources from your unique experiences because as we've said on previous episodes, sharing resources is like the love language of many of us Renaissance People.

And finally, just a place to exercise your creativity where you're not too much. You're not getting looks from people like, "Whoa, slow down, you're overwhelming me." We can take it. We're Renaissance People. So sign up. You can learn a little bit more, and you get to join your first meeting for free 'cause I firmly believe that you gotta give people a chance to try things out before expecting them to pay any sort of money for them, right?

Okay. So let's talk about what's going on in today's episode of Connecting the Dots with The Renaissance People. So I have a fellow podcaster with a varied experience, a Renaissance Person type of background, and her name is Kasey Brown.

And of course, when you put two people who are podcasters together, what do you think happens? Technology. Right. Of course you have to have audio problems. My audio in particular is less than spectacular, but oh well, you'll listen, right? Hopefully.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about Kasey's journey from the beef industry to podcasting and marketing, the scary leap that she took into entrepreneurship, who her ideal client is, and just a hint, she sees it in the mirror at her house, and I see it in the mirror at my very own house. We talk about how podcasting actually aligns with that Renaissance Person trait of being a lifelong learner, and how you can use podcasting as a source of connection, a kind of circle of trust that I really love how she describes it.

And she gives all sorts of great advice if you're someone who's also interested in starting your own podcast. So while the show notes may not have quite as much as usual, there is so much to hear on this episode that I think you're gonna really, really love it.

And in fact, at the very end, she drops a bombshell, and, because it took two weeks to release this, the bombshell was no longer a bombshell, which is that she has her own podcast that just started. And so you can actually listen to even more spectacular advice from Kasey Brown on her own podcast.

We also got into a few other tangents, because tangents are the most interesting place to go, 'cause that's where the creativity happens, and in our case, we talked about Kasey's ag journalism experience and the impact of role models on her, as well as language in the agricultural realm, and how it is and isn't changing.

And finally, she threw out a term that I'd never heard before, and I'm kind of in love with, and I need to be doing a little bit more of it. We're gonna learn what strategic confetti is. So if you're not already curious, you should be at this point in time. Here we go

OK, we are started, and we are going to do what I always do, which is jump headfirst, diving on in into my favorite first question, which I actually use to help myself think about what I was gonna say in the podcast episode that will actually come out tomorrow at the time we're recording, but everyone else will be able to listen to it, which is your identity.

So I'd like to know, Kasey, which of these terms aligns best with your own personal identity? Renaissance Person, like Renaissance Man... Woman, a multi-passionate, generalist, versatilist, Jack, Jill, J non-binary term of- all - trades, boundary spanner, polymath, I've added that in, or something else?

[00:07:08] Sara Kobilka: Love it, and you are following a trend. More than 50% of my guests have chosen multi-passionate, which I actually talk about in the episode. Some people see passionate as, like, a bad thing, but I think as Renaissance People, we don't look down on the word. We don't think somebody who's passionate is, like, overwhelming or too much.

We're like, " Yes, let's dive in. Let's, let's go for it." So I love that you're OK with that

And like same thing with Titanic, and like you just go through these giant deep dives, and yeah, I'm OK with that because it's super interesting and fascinating, and it's way more fun to follow those instead of worrying about whether it's acceptable.

I wanna do, like, the weirdest…

[00:08:29] Sara Kobilka: animal known to mankind," I feel like.

[00:08:31] Sara Kobilka: It's so messed up, and it's so wonderful. So, yay!

Well, wonderful multi-passionate Brown, delighted to have you on the show finally. We've been talking about this for a little bit, and she's also a fellow podcaster, which I'm very excited to hope that maybe you have an announcement that you can make on my show about something coming in your future.

But, I've said a few things about your areas of expertise, but why don't you kind of explain yourself a little bit more? Brown, what are some of your areas of expertise or maybe where you're a known quantity?

And so that is why I started in journalism. I started at, a beef breed magazine. But as journalism has evolved, we had to do digital, we had to do... Um, I got volun-told to do a podcast, that's where this story is going,

[00:10:18] Kasey Brown: of the editorial team, I was the youngest on. We had two publication, two major publications. I was the youngest on the commercial side. And so, it just kind of fell to me to figure out how to do a podcast.

And it also worked out because I have always been a musical person. I started playing piano when I was four. was in the band, was in the choir, love musical theater. and so hearing things, being on stage, being on a mic has always interested me. And so being on the didn't intimidate me like some of the other editorial folks. They were much more comfortable with the byline being behind the scenes essentially.

But then as I dove into it, I realized that it combined two of my favorite things about my job, which was talking to cattlemen or researchers or extension agents, and really learning about what makes this exciting, what makes this usable. And then the musical side of it on the audio editing side of how do I take out the things that are detracting from the story, from the practical bits. And how do I hear that? How do we make sure the levels are correct? How do I fade out the music? And I learned that that's called ducking. How do you make it sound like a cohesive, polished piece of information?

And I really loved that I got to combine both sides of my interests with podcasting. And so that was really, really fun. But eventually I left that magazine, and I went to a marketing agency, but kept the podcast editing on the side. And so the marketing agency taught me a lot.

1. That journalism skills can be paid!

[00:12:09] Kasey Brown: Right? Other places will pay more for this kind of skill set. But then also just, like, the foundations of, of brand awareness and education content, and I mean, the funnel. It feels kinda gross to talk about the marketing funnel, but I mean, it's solid foundational things about inviting people into what you offer.

So I did that for probably two years, and then decided... It hit me one night as I was editing a podcast on the side of like, " I make three times more per hour doing this than I do in my job with a client who is slowly killing me right now." And I was like, " what if I did more of this? What if I tried to do this on my own?"

And so I started quietly building a website, and I started working on my branding. And then they made that decision for me because I was part of a giant layoff, which honestly was a blessing in disguise,

[00:13:00] Kasey Brown: I was prepping to leave.

[00:13:06] Kasey Brown: Exactly! It was the kick I needed because I probably would've stayed far too long had I not gotten the kick because I would've been like, "Oh, I'll feel safe enough if I have one more client or maybe one more client past that." And I just, I needed to bet on myself, and that's what I've done, and it's been really, really wonderful. And I, I mean, I have two kids, so now by owning my own business, I get to craft my workday around being their taxi because the bus doesn't come out to our house. And it just really lets me pick the things that I am really good at, and really get to dive into those. And it helps me meet so many wonderful people like you, and actually several other of your guests, that kind of coaching group referral. But getting to meet all these really cool, creative entrepreneurial people is really fun.

And so that is a long way to talk about. Now I help small business owners, streamline their marketing efforts, by centering on a podcast. So I help my clients trust their voice, and then we use that voice to earn trust. But we get to do it strategically. We figure out how best to repurpose all this long form gold that you create with your voice, to make sure that it reaches the people that you are trying to reach in a way that they are ready to consume it, right?

So maybe not everybody has the time to listen to a full episode, but maybe that means we write a recap article on your website so they can get the good value from it, but they can read it. They're still coming to your website. They're still coming to you. Or we figure out how to like really induce that curiosity in a newsletter, because I can't tell you how many times I have been reminded to listen to something from a newsletter, so solid strategy there. But you ask the good questions and, and so you really spark that curiosity there.

They're very different styles of writing, which is pretty fun, but it's all based on what you have said. It is not AI slop. It is from your heart, it is from your voice, and it is really, really, really juicy and beautiful. And so that's what I help small business owners do. Or if you don't hate social media, we can do small clips so people can find you there.

So, it's all about meeting your listeners where they are and kind of inviting them in to all of your, your goodness.

Yeah, funnel feels nasty to people who are maybe entrepreneurial, free creative minds. But the concept of it makes sense, and I can transfer that information, and I can share that information and translate it into such a way that my clients can understand the value of it." And I can also think like a farmer, think like a, an audience member that you might not traditionally think of when you're saying, like say, podcasts.

But think about, like how do you talk to these people? And I, I love how you've had that experience talking to different audiences, because I think, like a lot of the traditional journalists are thinking about, like either, quote, "the general public," which doesn't exist,

[00:16:23] Sara Kobilka: Or they're thinking about people who watch TV, or people who read a magazine or still have a newspaper, subscription.

But you're thinking about a very, I hate to say it, but niched, 'cause I'm anti-niche, but there is also focus when you know who you're trying to reach out to, and you can be so much more strategic in your messaging if you know who you're trying to talk to.

And I realize, like as you mentioned, the topics of my podcasts clients that I edit and help, they're all very wildly different. Like, of them, it's my cattle breed association. So we're still talking about breeding philosophies. We're talking about expected progeny differences. We're talking about maximums versus optimums and like environmental fits for their cattle. And I love geeking out about that too. But then on the other side I'm learning about one of my other clients owns a kitchen retail store, and I am learning so much about like what goes into actually making high quality kitchen knives or what goes into like solving problems of like a high quality pepper grinder and like how they made it so that it could be used with one hand.

Everybody has such cool stories and I really love that, especially as a Renaissance Person. Like, yes, I'm doing the same thing. I am editing their audio, and I am repurposing their content. But I get to learn so many cool things or I get to listen about it. Like one of my last cattle episodes they were talking to a breeder in Mississippi, And she was talking about how she was gonna go alligator hunting the next weekend.

[00:18:08] Kasey Brown: I learned that it takes two seven-foot alligators to make a pair of boots. And I have a pair of boots that are caimans and I was like, "Now I know!" It took two alligators to do that!

[00:18:31] Kasey Brown: Oh that is awesome!

And I think it was my brother who said this, that when you meet a fellow Renaissance Person or somebody who's passionate about something, as a Renaissance Person, you can get passionate about it too, just because they're passionately talking about it. Like, you feel that energy, and you are happy to go with them.

And they can throw out some big words, and maybe you'll ask a question if you don't know what their jargon is. But you're happy to, like, go down that rabbit hole with them. And I think people appreciate us for that reason, because in a way, we're good listeners, which is what you have to be to be a good journalist, is you have to be able to listen to the story, think about where other people might get confused by the story, and be willing to, like, bring that up and ask clarifying questions and that sort of thing.

But if you're not really willing to go down rabbit holes with other people, I don't think you're gonna make it in the field of journalism

[00:19:29] Sara Kobilka: a marketer for someone other than your own company.

I also realized later of like that seems really rude, and I'm not trying to be

[00:19:56] Kasey Brown: I've honed that in a little bit. But because you hear the excitement in their voice. That's another thing I love about podcasting, is that you get to feel the excitement along with them. And I think because their excitement is so contagious because they are interested in so many things, that just levels up everything else.

And so that experience, enthusiasm is contagious, and I think people who are really interested in a lot of things they get joy from so many things because that enthusiasm just kind of bubbles up and over. And I think that's probably my favorite part about podcasting is because you get to hear that, and you get to sense it.

And even though it's like a one-way connection with your listeners, you're still getting to share that bit of you. And then when they have listened, and then they decide, "Hey, I wanna work with her because you know what? I feel like we're kindred spirits," done its job, and that's really cool. And then once you do talk, you've already kinda got that connection, and you get to like vibe off of that, I guess .

And how great does it feel when somebody is not trying to tell you all about themselves, but instead is just curious about you and wants to learn about you?

[00:21:26] Sara Kobilka: So kind of like, bypasses the need to be like, "Hi, I'm Sara Kobilka, Renaissance Woman. Now I'm gonna talk for 45 minutes about who I am and what I do. Oh, sorry, did you walk away? Never mind. Have a good day." And instead it's, "You know what? There's a number of different episodes you can listen to to learn all about me, and now that we're together, tell me about you. Because obviously if you thought I was interesting, you must be really interesting, too, so let's, let's learn about you."

Because again, that's part of the Renaissance of, like, this is fascinating! Tell me more. I want to know about you. And I think that's really cool.

Did you ever consider broadcast journalism, or when you were looking at school, were you really focused on studying to be a print or some sort of a written word journalist?

[00:23:05] Sara Kobilka: To change the world.

And so I went into ag communications and journalism thinking, like, this is what I want to do. I want to use my words, and I want to, disseminate information basically. But then as I got into it, I started in ag leadership again, the I don't know what I'm gonna do with this yet, but I like leadership. That's cool. Let's learn about that.

[00:23:35] Kasey Brown: And so then all my favorite electives were my ag comm classes. And so I was like, "OK." Because, ooh, this was why I didn't, I just remembered, I was scared of writing. I didn't wanna be a writer.

[00:23:47] Kasey Brown: So that's so funny because

[00:23:50] Kasey Brown: Exactly ! I spent 11 years as an editor. I didn't wanna write because I hated high school research paper writing. And journalism writing is very different than research paper writing. But I hadn't really learned to disconnect the two.

And so my favorite classes were my ag comm classes. I took ag publications, 101 basically, and fell in love with that. I was like, "I could be in charge of getting to decide what goes in a magazine? That's really cool!" And so I kinda went down that road. And so, like, at age 19, I decided, I've always been a goal getter, very much a high achiever, as most of us are. But, I decided at 19 I'm gonna be a managing editor of a cattle beef breed association. And I did, which was cool. But

[00:24:35] Kasey Brown: Right.

[00:24:37] Kasey Brown: We're doing it! Yeah. it took a long time. It did not look like anything like I thought it would. But just I liked that the style of writing in a magazine, you still get to have your voice. Like, it didn't have to be so black and white and sterile.

[00:24:53] Kasey Brown: Absolutely. So I think, part of it was just maybe a convenience thing of like, this feels good. I'm just gonna keep going there. And I have always loved being on stage, so I'm kind of surprised I didn't look at broadcast. But, there are just far fewer, like, ag broadcast options.

So he was a person who had grown up on a farm, and I think he shared a lot of your interests in recognizing that agriculture is so important, particularly in the Midwest, but just honestly for all of us, we should know more about where our food comes from and all that sort of stuff. But he was really dedicated to making sure that stories on TV were being told about it. But I imagine he probably didn't have that many role models.

And we know the importance of role models, particularly for girls, and this is from the Girls in STEM efforts that I've been part of. And we know that girls in particular are less likely to see something as an option if they haven't seen a female role model or somebody who seems similar enough to them actually doing that as a career.

[00:26:37] Sara Kobilka: We'll look it up and put it in the show notes. Take a drink of water or whatever you want, 'cause you're sharing resources like a good Renaissance Person.

[00:27:14] Sara Kobilka: OK

[00:27:42] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:27:51] Sara Kobilka: I was one of those examples of broadcast people telling a little bit of an agriculture story. and I think I told you this one time when we were virtually meeting. But I used to record basically the, what is it? Cheesemaker Association, I believe.

[00:28:08] Sara Kobilka: They would create news stories and send them out to the TV stations, but then the TV stations would have somebody locally record the audio for it.

[00:28:18] Sara Kobilka: And so I was the voiceover person for all these cheese association stories when I was working at a TV station in La Crosse, Wisconsin. And so I got to learn all about the, like, the science of cheesemaking.

[00:28:30] Sara Kobilka: Was fun. It was really interesting, and we certainly had agricultural stories at all the stations I worked at, including in Iowa, but that's such a small percentage, I think, of the stories that you see.

So not surprising that kind of there's that, that lack of role models or just You know, your family didn't sit down to watch the local news just to see the story about agriculture. If, if you sat down to watch the local news, it was most likely to get, like, the weather forecast or the sports team, that something like that

And I think that's really what happens to a lot of folks who study ag communications. There's plenty, like, and we talked about earlier, like knowing your audience, there's plenty of opportunities within the ag industry to use your communication skills because there's lots of information to move... move out.

[00:29:35] Kasey Brown: And a lot of it being able to communicate to that audience, it really helps to have that background. Actually from both the publication and both marketing agencies I worked at, so many of us were like, "I craft this communication in a way that my dad would use, or that my grandpa would find helpful, or that my cousins would use."

And so it was very much a keeping your audience top of mind kind of deal. And so that, I think that's something I took very much and that I use now still of what does my audience need? What is the what's in it for me right away? And that has been a really good guidepost for most of the communication or marketing or writing anything, or podcast scripting that is really, really helpful

[00:30:24] Kasey Brown: Nice.

But anyways, I notice the language a lot of times around agriculture being highly male.

[00:30:54] Sara Kobilka: say cattleman as opposed to a transition to, like, cattle person, versus, like, fireman versus firefighters has been kind of a move that some have made.

Do you feel like that industry is having that kind of a shift to thinking about female audiences more and women working in agriculture. Or even just, like, more diversity in who is a farmer who works in agriculture? We're seeing some more of that just broadly across agriculture, but what do you see in the specific area that you're focused?

[00:31:40] Sara Kobilka: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:13] Sara Kobilka: OK.

[00:32:27] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:32:30] Sara Kobilka: Wow

[00:32:32] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:32:46] Sara Kobilka: And they've always been there,

[00:32:48] Sara Kobilka: They just haven't been the big names being recognized too, 'cause it's a family affair when you work on a farm. You don't get to just dad and the boys do all the work

[00:33:04] Sara Kobilka: Yep.

[00:33:06] Sara Kobilka: The cows don't feed themselves, right?

[00:33:10] Sara Kobilka: Except for when they eat grass, but you know, that's separate.

[00:33:41] Sara Kobilka: Sounds fun.

[00:34:02] Sara Kobilka: Cattleman's Association.

[00:34:05] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:34:07] Sara Kobilka: Yeah. But that's like saying, "And today we have the sports and the women's sports."

[00:34:12] Sara Kobilka: And it's like, uh, hold on now.

[00:34:15] Sara Kobilka: Yeah.

[00:34:16] Sara Kobilka: Not so much a fan

aspects potentially. But it's, it's, moving. I think it's moving in the right direction

You could, you know, take that term if you wanted to, but, uh, whatever. You can also call me a weather goddess and I'll take that." But...

[00:34:51] Sara Kobilka: We were live at some of the schools, and I'll throw a link in the show notes to a picture of me showing a bunch of kids how to make a tornado with, like, the tubes and that little connector.

[00:35:00] Sara Kobilka: But it's actually not a tornado, it's a vortex, but I digress. but we would be live at the schools, and I was jokingly telling, I think it was the art teacher about this, and she's like, "You're the weather goddess? OK." And then she comes back, like, two hours later, and she's made me this whole picture of myself, the weather goddess, and I still have it.

I have to dig it up downstairs. But I was like, "Yes, I shall embrace that."

[00:35:25] Sara Kobilka: I'm not the weather girl, I'm the weather goddess.

[00:35:28] Sara Kobilka: And, and you get to talk to a lot of people in agriculture 'cause they do care a lot about the weather. We have a lot of good relationships with them.

[00:35:36] Sara Kobilka: I wanna ask you. So I think you've worked a lot on trying to explain yourself. You're multifaceted. You have this whole background. You've got this kind of winding portfolio career. Right now, how do you explain yourself when you meet somebody brand new and you've got a really short time period? How do you introduce yourself without overwhelming them? And how do you feel when they ask you that dreaded question of, "So what do you do?"

[00:36:11] Sara Kobilka: OK, this is your chance. Here's the test. So, , what do you do?

[00:36:22] Sara Kobilka: That's exactly what I do too!

So usually my elevator pitch now is I help creative small business owners streamline their marketing efforts, streamline their marketing efforts and trust their voice through a podcast-centered approach. What I do in business is e xactly what I myself need to do, right?

[00:36:59] Kasey Brown: Exactly! So trusting your voice, trusting in your own expertise, in your own story, in your own capabilities and worthiness and, and nice light things, right? but trusting in your competency, even though everyone I work with and everyone I have met through these kind of organizations are wildly capable. It's just the belief in themselves with that, and so it's the underlying shame and vulnerability and like all those emotional triggers that are way harder to dig into.

Like I love Brene Brown's work, like that kind of stuff. So I help people with that. And by doing that, we learn to trust our voice, and then we use our voice to earn trust, and that is through podcasting. So again, like we mentioned, like creating that one-way connection, so when someone really does resonate with you, then you get to create that connection the other way because...

[00:37:55] Kasey Brown: Exactly! So lot of, lot of circle, lot of, kind of starting to build a community around that.

[00:38:08] Kasey Brown: Yes! Yeah. Yeah, with most of my clients, like I have a framework, and I think people get really like rigid around frameworks. it is not that at all. It is mostly of, here are pieces that have been known to work. So here's, here's what works, very broad. how do we tailor this to what makes sense for you and your business?

So, I have a framework, it's called the four Ps. So it's purpose, production, promotion, and partnerships. And so within this framework, like I said, it's pretty broad, but like purpose is how do we set up that foundation for your podcast? How will this support you? How will this support your business?

So it's not just an expensive content hobby, right? Nope. Ain't nobody got time for that.

[00:39:15] Kasey Brown: Absolutely. And part of it is believing that you have earned the trust or that you deserve the trust.

[00:39:23] Kasey Brown: And knowing that, yes, we're building trust over the long game, but also knowing that me repeating my calls to action, so my major call to action is book a mic check call with me, which is like a free 30-minute, we talk about your show, and I give you like one to two solid strategy pieces, whether you have a show or you're thinking about it.

So that's my discovery call, basically. I have to trust that that has enough value that I can repeat it all the time. I can talk about this, and I feel good about that. Like, I have to know that I'm not bugging people when I talk about it a lot.

[00:39:56] Kasey Brown: Yeah!

[00:40:05] Kasey Brown: and you have to move your call to action up. It's not pushy if you talk about it early. It's OK.

[00:40:11] Kasey Brown: And I know, I mean, you and I have talked about this.

Like, let's just say it at the top. "Hey, let's find your golden thread and work with me and let's do it together."

[00:40:44] Sara Kobilka: People like me.

[00:40:46] Sara Kobilka: You know that commercial?

[00:40:49] Sara Kobilka: Yes. I'll, I'll put a link in the show notes. You can find it on YouTube because I've actually posted about it before of the SNL skit where,

[00:40:58] Sara Kobilka: Al Franken is actually the one involved with it, who has a weird second-degree connection to me 'cause the best man at our wedding, his parents were Al's literary agent. And so he knew Al pretty well, and Al was over at his house sometimes, and Al would call and, like, leave voicemail messages like, "Hey, Ross, happy birthday."

[00:41:19] Sara Kobilka: So Al Franken was one, yeah, second-degree, third-degree connection.

[00:41:24] Sara Kobilka: It's great. Little tangent.

[00:41:26] Sara Kobilka: Tangent, pew, pew, pew. OK, we're back

[00:41:31] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:41:43] Sara Kobilka: Love that. And I literally can see that as, like, a visual spiraling loop that I think is wonderful. And the idea of spirals and full circle has come up in two podcasts, one with Alycia, who you might know through Jenni Gritters, and another one with Jess Rowell, who's the science teacher. So

[00:42:00] Sara Kobilka: Circles, spirals,

[00:42:02] Sara Kobilka: cycles, science, dance, steam, everything.

[00:42:06] Improv Game

[00:42:19] Kasey Brown: Correct.

So you know you're a Renaissance Person if somebody asks you, " How did you make that jump again?"

[00:42:35] Sara Kobilka: Like, "Wait, I... Why did you do that?"

[00:42:50] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:42:56] Sara Kobilka: That's why they do crop rotation between soybeans and corn. I could talk about that. Heck yeah, I lived in Iowa.

[00:43:14] Sara Kobilka: Yes. I, that's so much truth. OK, I've got another one. I, I'm gonna make you do another one too, so you can start thinking now. OK. You know you're a Renaissance Person if you get the book for your child that's called My Mouth Is a Volcano, about a child who listens to other people, gets really excited, and then explodes with ideas and interrupts people. If that really speaks to you and you're like, "Was this book written for children or was it written for me?"

[00:43:46] Sara Kobilka: Uh-huh. And at least with a podcast, you kind of have to do it so you don't have to edit out all of these interrupting voices. So it, it like almost forces you to

[00:44:08] Sara Kobilka: I will be biting my tongue and it will be bleeding in my mouth, but I will shut up.

[00:44:32] Sara Kobilka: You don't have enough digits...

[00:44:33] Sara Kobilka: to continue the crossing process. I like that.

[00:44:36] Sara Kobilka: Maybe that'll be part of our rapidish fire first question since we're limited on time. But, what's one metaphor, as we transition, what's one metaphor that you find yourself using frequently?

[00:44:49] Sara Kobilka: I don't know what that is, but I like it.

[00:44:51] Sara Kobilka: Celebration! Confetti!

[00:45:06] Sara Kobilka: So it's like a paper shredder?

You take your whole long thing, you use the paper shredder, you cut it up into small pieces, and you throw it everywhere.

[00:45:13] Sara Kobilka: I love it, and I need to do more of that too.

[00:45:19] Sara Kobilka: Yeah

[00:45:22] Sara Kobilka: You must be a fan of Pride events too then, because they are

[00:45:26] Sara Kobilka: so sparkly! I'm currently helping my daughter she decided she wanted to sew a butterfly wing with a rainbow fabric, so that is our next project that we're gonna do in three days time. We'll see how that one goes. Yeah. So tell me, what's one rabbit hole that you've gone down recently?

[00:45:49] Sara Kobilka: yes, please!! Please tell me!

So, that's my rabbit hole is actually making myself use what I teach and do my own podcast. I'm so excited. Thanks. If you ever need a guest

[00:46:28] Kasey Brown: Yeah

[00:46:37] Kasey Brown: absolutely. Yeah.

[00:46:39] Kasey Brown: but

[00:46:47] Kasey Brown: yeah,

[00:46:48] Kasey Brown: I am currently revamping my website. I feel like such a, like, a legit business owner because I actually hired a web designer to help me with this instead of just doing it myself.

[00:46:58] Kasey Brown: So Teal Hat Communications is where the major hub is. It will look very different in mid-July, which I'm so excited about. I'm mostly on LinkedIn, so Lynn Brown, so it's K-A-S-E-Y... I don't know why my middle name got in the URL, but it is. So it's K-A-S-E-Y L-Y-N-N Brown, just like the color. I would love to connect with anybody.

You can find my free mic check call on my website. I have a free newsletter, lots of stories, podcasting tips, marketing, strategic confetti examples. Yeah, that's primarily where I am. But Kindly Confident Marketing is my own podcast, so hang out with me there. Give plenty of feedback. I'm always open to that. I'm using this basically as, one, my own marketing, but two, as a giant test and learn for my own clients, because this is, like, where I'm gonna try stuff out.

I'm trying a new hosting platform. You got me on this one. I'm trying Captivate this time.

[00:47:50] Kasey Brown: We're gonna see how that goes, so I may need to pick your brain on that. But yeah, so that's awesome.

[00:48:10] Kasey Brown: Thank you. We'll talk again. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me today.

[00:48:12] Kasey Brown: Bye.