← The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
900: How One Tiny Survey Helped Me Rebuild My Business with More Clarity and Alignment
00:49:14
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- [00:02]
Jenna Kutcher
Nothing makes me happier than doing work that energizes me and I've always been committed to that, not just for myself, but for my entire team. That's why I'm so excited about the Working Genius Model. It's a powerful tool that helps you discover your natural strengths and where you thrive in your work. When you tap into what you're naturally good at, work becomes more rewarding and you get so much more done. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect when I took the Working Genius assessment, but it blew me away with how accurate and insightful it was. It it affirmed that I am naturally gifted at using my intuition and instincts to evaluate and assess ideas or plans. And it also confirmed my love for self starters and the fact that I can get frustrated if I have to be the main source of motivation for other people to get results. The assessment only takes 10 minutes and it's great for solopreneurs and teams alike. Imagine with me how effortless your teamwork will be if you understand the working geniuses of those that you're working with. Working genius is different from everything else out there because it's 20% personality and 80% productivity. Simply put, if you want to transform your work life, this is it. Get 20% off the 25 Working Genius Assessment, head to workinggenius.com and enter the promo code Gold Digger at checkout. That's working genius.com promo code gold Digger if you've ever found yourself creating content, offers or strategies based on what you think will work, but not knowing what your people actually want right now, this episode is your permission slip to pause and ask. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks. All from my house in small town Minnesota. With my family here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you Grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Gold Digger podcast. It is absolutely wild to think that the last time I ran a full blown audience check in was back in 2020. Since then, life has shifted. The online world has evolved and honestly, so have we. From hustle and grind energy to craving more margin meaning and intentional growth. It felt like the perfect time to pause and ask instead of assume. In this episode, I am joined by my right hand gal, Marissa, the brains behind our brand new audience survey. And we're peeling back the curtain on why this season felt like the exact right moment to check in. We're walking through how we built a wildly strategic zero fluff survey that doesn't just collect interesting insights, but fuels actual decisions, shows us what to create next and makes our business work better for real people just like you. You'll hear how AI helped us shape the questions. Yes, we go there where my own resistance showed up because there was a lot. And how powerful it is to stop guessing what your people need and just ask. If you want to see the survey in action, we would love it to not only have you look at it, but take it and you can be entered to win a $500Amazon gift card. Take our survey right now. It takes like 3 minutes and 36 seconds. Head to Jenna kutcher.com forward/survey. I would love to have you take it and you're gon why? Let's dive in. Okay. This episode feels so fun and I could not do this episode alone. So, Marissa, welcome back to the show.
- [04:09]
Marissa
Hi. Hi. Thank you for having me. It's good to be back.
- [04:12]
Jenna Kutcher
Really, it's so good. I feel like I bring you up in every single episode. There's not an episode that I don't feel like I name drop you like you're a Hollywood star because you are in my universe. So today I really wanted to bring you on because what we're going to talk about is literally your brainchild and it really came from you. And we're going to laugh a little bit too because I had some major resistance against this topic. So you can hear kind of mine and Marissa's relationship, the one that I talk about on basically every episode. But first I wanted to paint the scene of where we are and why this feels so timely. And then I also want to turn it to you, the listener, as to why this is something that you should absolutely consider. And if you have the same resistances I had, hopefully by the end of this you'll be entirely convinced that those are not real. So one thing that's so interesting, and Marissa reminded me of this, is that we have not done a survey on our audience since 2020. And for most of us, 2020 feels like yesterday. I mean, like, part of me feels like it's yesterday and part of me feels like it's a literal lifetime ago. Don't you agree?
- [05:17]
Marissa
Absolutely. It was yesterday.
- [05:19]
Jenna Kutcher
Yes. It's so weird. And so to consider that five years has gone by. I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years, so like, of my journey in entrepreneurship have gone by since surveying our audience. And it's so interesting because the conversations I'm having offline with other people in our industry and with other just friends and peers is that, you know, everything is changing so much. Like, I was talking to a friend yesterday and she was saying that she thinks, like, in the next six months, we're going to see the biggest shift of all time that we've seen in our journey of entrepreneurship. And I honestly have to agree. And so it's so interesting because when I thought about how much time has passed and also how much I personally have changed in the last five years, it does make sense that our audience is also changing and shifting too. One thing that I thought was so interesting is that HubSpot did this 2024 State of the Marketing report. So not even from this year, but from last year. And, and it was saying that 53% of marketers say that audience behavior is harder to predict than ever before. And I think that is so real. Like, I think a lot of businesses are feeling it. I think a lot of industries are experiencing it. I think a lot of people are seeing that, like, things that work so well, so easy, so predictably before are leaving us with, like, question marks or like scratching your head like, what's going on. So I just think this is really interesting and it truly has been a perfect time to do this. So give us your take on this, Marissa, because this seriously came from you. It was your idea. You pushed for it. Why?
- [06:58]
Marissa
There are so many components to this. And as you said too, I'm sure there are so many listening who have felt the shift. We started to feel this shift when we started the year even alongside our first launch. And we've heard many say that we are in what could be called a trust recession. Right? Like the world, the climate is changing. As we've talked about, AI is here, and we're still unsure how to fully utilize it without losing that, you know, human connection. And so on top of that, we just knew that we needed to take a pause. And it had been a minute and think about this too, since 2020. You know, your book launched your ecosystem, your. Your evolution, it. It widened. And so even from there, and inviting so many new individuals into our world, it was just not only the season of life right now, just the season of the world, but also just in the evolution of you and your business. And so we knew when starting to craft the bones of this plan that we needed to take a pause, we needed to take a pulse, we needed to build something to where we could truly listen and not build from assumption, but truly alignment. And so now was the perfect time, if ever, to do this and really tune in.
- [08:24]
Jenna Kutcher
And it's so funny because it was kind of a perfect storm in terms of, like, the survey coming to fruition in our summer months. We don't do any big launches, so we do have more bandwidth to toss things in. But also we have a huge project going on behind the scenes, which we'll talk about in an upcoming episode of switching our CRM platform, which is our email platform, over. And it really has kind of ignited this fire in us of, like, what are our best resources? How do we speak to the right audience? How do we give them exactly what they need? We weren't approaching a survey from, like, a data mining standpoint of, like, we're going to use this and we're going to make this offer and we're going to shove it down your throats. It was actually quite the opposite. It was like, we want to reach you and serve you on a better level and there are no new offers coming out of the woodwork, but really it's like, we want to speak more clearly and directly. And so it was this beautiful, beautiful timing of, like, me getting obsessed with welcome sequences and email marketing and Marissa being like, hold the phone. Who are we welcoming? What do they need? And I'm like, wait, what? And so it was this really beautiful, like, time where we both had these really passionate projects happening, and side by side, they coexisted in such an awesome way where we could both see the value of, wow, this actually would be incredibly helpful. And you, I gotta give it to you, you pushed for this. And maybe we should talk about some of my hesitations, right?
- [09:59]
Marissa
Yes, yes. Because I think we need to note here too, like, when we say even the term survey, right, like, survey is not sexy. It's not enticing. You know what I mean? And so I do want to dig into, like, your feelings around that and like, when that word landed and how you felt towards it.
- [10:20]
Jenna Kutcher
Okay. Yeah, you're so right. It's so not sexy. And the thing is, is in my mind, and maybe this is because I am so wired on, like, time is my currency, is that I'm like, who's going to take a survey? Like, you know when you're like, walking through the mall and there's those people with the clipboards and you literally just like, want to dart the other direction, you're like, I don'. Have time for this. And so when you brought it up, I think I had a lot of fear around, like, who's going to have time for this? Or who's going to make time for this? Or who's going to see the value in this? I feel like I worried also that we would get inundated with information that we didn't know what to do with. So in the past I have done quizzes and surveys and we're so excited about them, which this is so my human design. Right? Like, so excited. This is the best thing ever and it is amazing. And then I don't necessarily take those insights and put them into action. And so maybe there was a piece of my ADHD brain that was worried that we were going to get all of this information and it maybe would make things feel cloudy or worse. I would feel guilt or shame that we weren't actually utilizing those insights. Thank God for you, because you would never let that happen. But I think those were my biggest fears is, who's going to do this? Like, what's in it for them? Why would they do it? I also wanted a really fair sampling of our audience. So since audience is so wide, I didn't just want my Instagram followers or I didn't just want my podcast listeners. I wanted it to be a real clear view of, like, how wide our audience is and making sure that we're not just getting one little tiny sample that's not maybe a clear detection of, like, what is true for the whole. And then my third fear was probably that how were we going to integrate this and make this information super useful? And you basically thought of responses for all of those. So let's talk about the first thing I was worried. Why would anybody take this? Walk me through how you set it up the way you did and, like, with the incentive that you created.
- [12:32]
Marissa
Yes. So let me share this nugget as well. If you are working alongside a creative, fast moving, visionary, manifesting generator, one of the best things you can do is truly package up everything you need and deliver that with all of the context and logic and so that you can truly walk them through why this is the right path or why this should be done.
- [12:58]
Jenna Kutcher
It's so it sounds like you've learned this through doing many times.
- [13:02]
Marissa
Just say gold negative there. And so when we started to craft and I was thinking through the questions that we really, we wanted to know, first I aligned item. Here's what I personally think we need to know. The other piece of the puzzle here is not only did we have an intention of pulse checking our audience, one of the things I wanted to keep in mind was pulse checking health of the business too. Right? Because when we are creating these questions, you know, we're looking at not only do we want to build what's next and create what's next for our people to serve them well, but we also need to serve our business well too. And so that is how I started to build those questions. Then I'm going to get into bringing in AI as my unbiased sounding board. Okay. And so the way that I used ChatGPT and let me say too, like, I was not handing the keys to chat. Okay, we call her chatty. We. I was not handing. Yeah, I was not handing her the keys. I was giving her direction. So after I had line itemed out the questions that I thought would then be tied to action that we could take an insights that were necessary, then I uploaded information to give it some context around our audience, what we already know to be true. So for instance, our media kit uploading some past audience insights and then giving it a very clear prompt around how I wanted to analyze that information and evaluate it so that it could help me improve the questions. Because I think a lot of times as creators, we build in bubbles, right? And we have blind spots. And so this allowed me to rework just clunky questions merge overlaps. And so it allowed us to simplify without sacrificing the depth of the questions that we wanted to ask, which, you know, things I could have missed, gaps that needed to be filled. And so that's why I started the process. And it saved us time, it sharpened our thinking, and I think it just made the overall build process even more seamless and strategic.
- [15:11]
Jenna Kutcher
Well, I loved it too, because Marissa has learned with me where she basically was like, all right, I've basically got everything created for this. I was like, this is epic. So then we went through, and at one point I was like, can we jump in a huddle and let's like, walk through These questions, because one of the things that we have learned, especially as we've gotten more integrated with data in the business, is there is a difference between something being interesting and something being useful. Right. We learned that and that was probably one of our biggest takeaways of like, if we're asking for a data point or we want insight into something, is that just merely interesting and like, oh, wow, that's cool. Or is it like, okay, here's how I'm going to take this information and actually use it and make a difference with it. And so when we were looking at the questions, there was a few where like, for example, there was one that I was like, well, let's ask people what their favorite type of podcast episode is. And then I was thinking about it and I'm like, okay, based on this insight, are we going to change how we're doing the podcast? Because we still need to have diverse topics and we can't just go all in on one. And so then we scrap that question. Right? Because it was like, how is that? That's interesting. Yeah, but like, that's not actually useful information in that context. Right. And so that's just an example of one where it's like cool to know but not really useful. And we wanted to make sure that it was as succinct as possible without losing the depth of what we were trying to gather. And so that was really fun. Like, we were going back and forth of like, okay, what about this one? Well, this one is kind of similar to this one. Is there a way to combine these two? Should we keep this one open ended so people can describe themselves? Because sometimes when I get to like a website and it asked me like, what type of business do you run? I'm like, I don't know, is it marketing? Is it education? Is it coaching? Like, what is it? And so we had some fun. And I think part of what was so awesome about going back and forth that way was we were challenging each other. Like, well, what do we do with this? Or what does this look like? One thing that was really interesting, and I will probably say this is some of the best money we've ever spent, is the way that we incentivized people to take the survey is that we are giving away a 500Amazon gift card. So if you take the survey, it takes about three minutes. You can get entered to win the Amazon gift card. Now a lot of people might say, oh my gosh, 500, it's a lot of money. And maybe it's a hundred dollars maybe it's $50, maybe it's $20 based on your audience. But if you can get a peek inside the inner world of the people that you are trying to serve so that you can serve them better, I will argue it is worth absolutely every penny. Is there any logic behind that? Like, what was your thought in that process?
- [17:54]
Marissa
Well, I thought it was universal, right? Because we had considered too, you know, maybe access to our programs or a suite of access like that. However we wanted it to be accessible, we wanted it to be universal, that anyone could apply it for the needs that they have. And so I think as well, just like Jenna said, it can be an any incremental amount. It can also be time with you if your audience is smaller and, you know, they get to have a one on one coaching session with you, or it can be more intimate. Like it can be whatever you want it to be. We're talking through what ours look like. But don't let that, you know, not allow you to create what's the right fit for you. I would say so.
- [18:36]
Jenna Kutcher
Yeah. I love that. And I think you just want it to be juicy enough that people are willing to take the time. And one thing that we did is we literally like timed how long it took to take so we could say it takes three minutes and 36 seconds or whatever it was because we wanted to also just show people this isn't going to take a lot of your time. We're not going to ask if anyone has ever clicked in on a survey and all of a sudden it's like the little tiny bar at the top is barely moving and you're like, oh my gosh, this thing is like 150 questions. I'm never going to finish it. Or you click out of that tab and you promise yourself you'll go back to it. You will never go back to it. And so we just made sure that in communicating it, we're like, it's super simple. This is how long it takes, et cetera. And here's what's in it for you. You're entered to win a 500 gift card. And so I just thought that was super, super smart.
- [19:25]
Marissa
I wanted to insert this other thing. We did differently this time, and it was your idea. And I actually really do think it was advantageous to those walking through. It was. In past, we've always required all responses to each question. And this time with having people's time in mind and not boxing them into answering everything if they didn't feel fit, we didn't require anything. And I feel as if it's actually resulted in more response completion because we're giving the user the freedom to really deliver the information that they want to share with us. And so I do want to note that because I think it was a powerful, small, but mighty shift that we did make this time.
- [20:08]
Jenna Kutcher
I love that. And I think it just comes from a place of two. It's like we're coming at this from such an honest desire of like, how can we do this better or. Or how can we just meet you where you're at? That's probably the best way to describe it. And it was, it was like, just, no, we don't. None of it's like, whatever you are willing to share with us matters. And one thing I think we've been doing since such a good job at, and something that I know we're all enjoying is like really opening up for two way conversation. I think that marketing, and especially as your audience grows, there comes this belief of like, I don't have time for that. Whether you have a thousand followers or a million followers, sometimes you know, at the beginning you're scrappy, you're responding to every comment, every dm. And I feel like some people shift into this idea of like, I don't have time for that. I always have time for that. And I think that our marketing at some point shifted more towards us speaking to people, but not necessarily inviting in that conversation, in that dialogue. And as Marissa said, they're calling this the trust recession. And it's like, we are real humans here. We want to know, like, we are actually responding. Yesterday a gal sent me a DM about a podcast episode I had done and I voice memo'd her back. She had sent this beautiful long message starting with, I don't know if you'll ever read this. And I just took the time to say, hey, I read this, I read everything. Thank you so much for sending this. And then she sent a voice message back and she was like, I cannot believe you took the time to do that. And I think that when you are in a position of serving others, if you don't keep that dialogue open, you have no idea who you're speaking to and what I'm loving. And we can start talking a little bit about, like, the data and what we're already seeing is I am not surprised by the results. I feel like really excited by them. But there hasn't been anything where I'm like, whoa, what? Which is exciting to me. All right, let's take a quick breather and thank the sponsors who helped make this show possible. And while we're on this short break, I want for you to think about this. What is one question you could ask your audience right now that might unlock a whole new direction for your next offer? Because up next we're talking about how we brought AI into the mix, but in a way that still sounded just like me. Stay with me, okay? I've got to tell you about a podcast that I'm completely hooked on right now. It's called this is Small Business and it's brand new season explores one of my all time favorite themes, Taking Bold Risks. Hosted by the amazing Andrea Marquez, this season pulls you behind the curtain as she sits down with founders who transform their maybe one day ideas into let's do this success stories. We're talking nail biting moments, raw honesty about the hustle, and powerful advice that lights a fire in you. I got actual chills just listening to the trailer. Like every single story makes me pause and think, wow. We literally all start somewhere. And if you've ever felt that tug to take your next big leap, this season might be the exact push and confidence boost you've been waiting for. So do yourself a favor. Follow this is Small Business on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. These stories will move you, motivate you, and remind you that courage is the first step towards chasing what really matters. When I first launched my own digital shop, it was to share tools I'd originally created for myself. Things like templates, pricing guides, editing presets. But I honestly had a lot of what ifs. What if I had to manually set up the entire site? What if managing orders became a full time job? What if I couldn't get people to actually go to my shop? Then I found Shopify and those what ifs slowly turned into why nots. Because Shopify takes care of everything for you. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started like mine once was. Can't design a site? Shopify's got beautiful ready to go templates. Need help? Use Shopify's AI tools to enhance product images, write descriptions, and create discount codes. Worried about marketing? Shopify's easy to run email and social media campaigns helps you find your people and if you ever get stuck, their award winning Support is available 24. 7. Turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com golddigger go to shopify.com golddigger shopify.com golddigger so one of the things that I think would be interesting before we talk about like how the execution has gone on is let's talk a little bit more about using AI in the process. You already touched on it, but I think that it is an amazing tool to help you not only create the best, most compelling survey, but also to help you discern the results. Right. So it can kind of serve in every aspect of the survey building process. So if you are listening to this and you don't have a Marissa, gosh I feel bad for you. But how can you invite in a non biased partner to help you ask the best questions? So Marissa used it on the front end. So she created, then brought it in and said, show me my blind spots, help me refine this, help me with wording. We went back and forth a few different times saying, okay, these two feel similar. How could you combine these? Or what options would you offer to an audience, etc, just to refine things. We also used it to tighten the flow. So we had, at one point we had 14 questions and I was like, let's see how close we can get this to 10. And so we were like, which questions do we not need? Are there any opportunities to combine? So again, it's like if you start writing out a survey and you're like, I have 50 things I want to know, maybe it's good to either use Chat GBT or use somebody else outside of your world in your business to say which ones are the most important. And I would argue the fewer questions you can ask, probably the more likely you are to apply the information you're getting. If you're asking 50 questions and you're getting a ton of results, there's no way you're going to apply 50 data points to your creation process. Right? And then the other thing that I think was helpful is even just positioning the survey. So we use ChatGPT in terms of helping us with the copy of like making sure that as we're telling people about the survey, it doesn't feel like just another survey, like how do we let people know, like this is for you and we're creating this for you and help us co create what's next or help us work together. So I just thought ChatGPT was really interesting, but I think it's gonna actually be more interesting on the back end because in the past when I have done things with Open ended responses, my brain shuts down. Even today I popped in to see the results, which we'll talk about, and I was scrolling through some of the open ended responses and it's like my eyeballs started to cross. Not because the information isn't incredible, but because my brain cannot filter through all of those responses. And so in the past, if I were to look at that, I would not know what to do with that information. Right. Like it would just be like, wow, that's all like drinking out of a fire hose. And what's incredible about ChatGPT is you can import in your results and say, tell me the most interesting findings, tell me which actions you would take based on this, tell me the statistics that I might be missing. Right. And it can field through as many results as you get, whether it's 10 or whether it's 2,000. And so I think that on the back end, Chat GBT is really going to be so incredibly helpful and in helping us see the opportunities to utilize this information and put it in. And it's also going to help us kind of create a line sheet of like, this is who we're serving. So everything that we're creating needs to make sure that we're speaking directly to this person. What do you have to add to that?
- [28:39]
Marissa
Well, I definitely want to pedal back because I missed a beat which ties in here with respect to the build. And we also use Chat to help us discern which survey tool to use. Oh yeah, because originally we had been considering Interact because like we talked about at the start, you know, how did we want to approach that and make it compelling so that we could capture, you know, our people's attention to take it. And so Interact was a consideration of ours. It's our quiz building platform. We've used it for a very long time and love it. And so we thought, could we do this and execute in a quiz format? It would be more fun of a user experience. And then when talking with Chat through that, we discerned that that was not going to deliver the data points that we wanted and really capture the insight we needed. And so we landed on Typeform, which would then actually produce the data which we could then aggregate and feed into chat post survey execution, which would then allow us to have just more clear, concise nuggets of what all of those key takeaways were. And so that's an important piece of the puzzle too, of how you can use it to set yourself up for success.
- [29:51]
Jenna Kutcher
I love that. And yeah, it was interesting. I was like, not Arguing with Marissa. But I was like, what do you think about again? See, this was where like my fear and my like limited belief around why would people do this was like, what if we make it fun? What if we reform at a quiz? What you can now all imagine what it's like to work for me. It's the creative side of me that just is like, how do we keep this fun and interesting? And again, I think we are so hyper conscious of the value of time for our audience. And so we're just very thoughtful around that. But I was like, can we take an old quiz and make it new? But then it was like, then we need to redo the results. Then we need to redo. And it was like, okay, this is not. Nope. And so it was really interesting. And one thing too that we are really good at is we will pay like a monthly subscription for a service and then we will cancel it when we no longer need it. Right? So it's like this one time fee and yet it's always been worth it for us. Here's my tip, is if you're ADHD like me, have somebody on your team who's like Marissa or schedule a reminder in your calendar to cancel something so that two years from now you're not like, oh, dang it, I was still paying for that subscription because I have done that.
- [31:04]
Marissa
So people don't know this about your business, but feels if people don't recognize, like we're a very scrappy business. Like they look and they're like, you are this big brand. But we are actually quite scrappy and very mindful.
- [31:17]
Jenna Kutcher
So yes, we really are. And it's so funny because like we're a small team. We're super tight knit. We are like, we are the ones behind everything. Like it's, it's not just like these huge contractors or like these big agencies. Like we don't, we don't do that. It is just like straight from the human, you know, it was so funny because yesterday I logged in and immediately went to look at type form because we had sent out an email. So our promotion for this survey, what we did is we created three emails to go to our email list and the first two will go out to the full email list. And then I think the third one we were trying to discern, like, do we send it to people who didn't open? Do we send it to people who open but didn't click? We'll get there when we get there because oh my gosh, you guys, the results I messaged Marissa with so many exclamation points on a Monday morning, it was wild. We sent out that first email and within probably an hour or two we had hundreds of responses. So we are now at the 24 hour mark of when the survey executed and we're almost a 2,000 responses. And I am so blown away. I am so shocked. I told Marissa, you can say I told you so as many times as you want. Now here's what I want to know. For most people listening to this episode. If you do a survey, if you get 10 great responses, that is insanely valuable. If you could get on a Zoom with 10 people and do a 10 minute Zoom call and just let them talk at you, so valuable. If you can get any insight, if people answer any question, insanely valuable. We have done so many episodes where it just is about the importance of listening and so our results are probably not going to look like yours. But I could not believe.
- [33:11]
Marissa
I was like, what?
- [33:13]
Jenna Kutcher
What is happening? How did you feel yesterday?
- [33:16]
Marissa
Oh, gosh, I was ecstatic. Truly ecstatic. And anyone who has completed a survey tuning in, thank you. We send so much gratitude to you. We literally will read every single response and are just beyond grateful. So I felt not only joy because again, this insight really will have a hand in what we create next, but also in the building and the effort and also in the just path of us both getting aligned to take it. It felt very good as well though. You know, we're seeing success and people wanting to share their insight with us and thoughts and feelings. So yeah, thank you.
- [33:58]
Jenna Kutcher
This is like Marissa's brainchild from start to finish. And so I was just like, yes, girl. I feel so grateful that we have an audience that is willing to communicate back. Like, I feel like one of the biggest things of 2025 is with all the pivots, with all the changes, with everything going on. I go to bed at night and I'm like, I have the best community. Like, we see it time and time again, whether it's a tech hiccup and people are in the chat just like cheering us on and being so kind and gracious, or in the DMS or in the inbox. Like, I feel so fortunate that we have fostered just a ridiculously generous, kind, driven, amazing community. And I think that's what really fuels us at the end of the day is like, how do we help these people get their stories and their voices and their expertise out into the world? And like, what does that look like? And so let's talk a little bit about how we plan to use the responses, because I think that the follow up is going to be really where the rubber meets the road. And it's so cool because it's like, if you give us three minutes of your time, like, we're gonna take it and run with it. And so I think that we're really excited to just make sure that everything that comes out of us is reaching you, where you're at today, right? And even from the early findings, like, we were just seeing some really interesting stuff that, again, wasn't shocking to us. But, like, so many of our listeners have side hustles, so many of our listeners are solopreneurs. Meaning you don't even have anybody on your team yet. Right. That changes the context of how you share things. It's not super relevant for me to be like, I have a team of 10. It's like, no, what did you do before that? And how did you survive? Or how did you hire your first team member? Or what does that look like? We are learning about where you find us, right? And it's so funny because I stinking don't love Instagram, but so many people find me over there. And so it's like, you know, for me, that's maybe good fuel of, like, keep showing up there because it does make a difference, right? When you feel like you're screaming into the void, it's like, no, no, no. This actually matters. And so, I don't know, it's just very, very exciting. And so what I'm most excited about, especially for myself, is to be able to create and think through the lens of exactly where you're at and think of, like, what did I need then? Or if I were doing this all over again and starting fresh today, what would I do? Right? Because those are so real questions that so many people are juggling and there are million answers, and it can just be so confusing out there. And so, yeah, I'm really excited about that.
- [36:38]
Marissa
I want to include too. I know that there was nothing like, super surprising, but I will say this is an example of how you can think, you know, an audience and then be slightly surprised. So I have this deep feeling. I was like, our audience has evolved. We have shifted out of the side hustle phase. And I think a larger segment of our audience are now those who are in thriving businesses that are already having teams established, etc. What we have found thus far, as Jenna just shared, is that our biggest segment is still those side hustlers and solopreneurs. So I again, was already assuming what I thought I knew to be true, had this deep, guttural feeling about that and was off. And so, as she said, too, that will help us then understand that we are still meeting people in the trenches. I mean, they are busy, they are scrappy, they don't have the time. And so we need to meet them where they are at. Do you want to share a couple of the other two, like, full top ways as well?
- [37:41]
Jenna Kutcher
Time was the biggest factor for people, which, honestly is so aligned with me. Like, I actually loved that. Not because you guys are strapped for time, but I loved it because, again, like, time is my currency. It has been for so long. And all I want to do is teach you strategies to get you your time and your life back. I want to teach you how to run a business that doesn't run your life. And so that felt so in alignment with me. And I feel like too lately I've been leaning into more of, like, how do I manage my time? Or what are some, like, productivity hacks that actually work for neurodivergent brains or things like that, where it's like, so many of us are juggling so many things, so how do we make it the simplest way to growth? So that was really inspiring to me because I think oftentimes entrepreneurs will automatically assume, like, oh, it's just money. People just don't have money. And that is a real factor. But for my audience, it's time and you're in the right place. That's all I can say is, like, that was just very affirming of, like, good, you're thinking the same way I do, and, like, I can actually help with that, which felt really good. Okay, before we jump into the big takeaways, we're going to take a quick moment to thank today's incredible sponsors. And while you're listening, think about this. When was the last time you built something with your audience instead of just for them? Coming up next, we're sharing super simple steps that you can take if you're ready to reconnect, realign, and rebuild with more clarity. One of Quinn's favorite games is asking me to be an airplane and fly her around the house. And every time, she picks a new destination, places like Arizona, Nashville, even Florida. I started to notice that the places she chooses, they're all spots we've traveled to as a family. Travel is something we absolutely love. And whenever we travel, we opt to book an Airbnb. It gives us space to be a family. Like when we stayed in Arizona and had a pool A putting green and separate bedrooms for the girls. Hello, better sleep. It was the perfect place to make memories that have stuck with all of us. That trip reminds me how thoughtful hosting can be and how much it can shape someone's experience. But I also know how much work goes into creating that kind of state. That's why I love that Airbnb now has a co host network you can team up with someone local who takes care of all the details, guest communication, check ins, even setup so that your space still shines even when you're not the one managing it. If you've been dreaming about hosting but wondering how you'd actually pull it off, this is your sign. Find a co host@airbnb.com host you ever get served an ad that made you wonder how did this even end up in my feed? The other day I got served an ad for a luxury penthouse concierge in Manhattan. Like I live in small town Minnesota. Our idea of valet here is a teen in Crocs handing you your iced coffee at the drive thru. Unless that penthouse comes with mosquito spray and a Tater Tot hot dish, I'm out. It's frustrating, not just as a consumer, but for the business wasting their hard earned budget on the wrong audience. That's why when it comes to reaching the right professionals, the olution is clear. LinkedIn Ads with over a billion users on LinkedIn today, your message stands the best chance of reaching the people who actually matter. And that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. LinkedIn lets you target by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, even company revenue. Basically all the professionals you need to reach are right there in one place. So stop wasting your precious budget on the wrong audience and start connecting with the right people only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you $100 credit on your next campaign. So you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com goal that's LinkedIn.com goal. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
- [41:26]
Marissa
The other one too was I thought this was great was that we asked too what they wanted most. Oh yeah, and it wasn't a million dollar blueprint by any means. It was steady reliable income, which I'm sure so many listening are nodding their heads to. Like yes. And so it truly tells us too that our next, you know, anything we build next needs to be built also around predictability and not pressure. And so I found that really interesting as well.
- [41:56]
Jenna Kutcher
Doesn't that just feel good too? Like it feels like we're just like moving Away from, no offense, bro, marketing and like, into a different discussion of, like, we're busy and we need something that feels safe. Safe. I mean, I think a lot of it comes down to, especially for women, predictability is safety for a lot of us. And it was interesting too, because there was a lot of mindset, right? Like, mindset was a huge point of contention. And it is just really interesting to me. I think those are all things in my wheelhouse that I have had to unpack over and over and over again and that I think every woman has experienced at some time in their life or another of, like, worthiness and security. And like, that's what I want to help women build. So it's like, let's go. It's very exciting to me. I am so thrilled. Marissa, I'm so proud of you because this really was you're doing and you're pushing. And I also just love how we worked together on this. There was a point in the project where Marissa and I have very different human designs. Marissa's a human design junkie. And I was like, hey, I'm super excited about this welcome sequence. How about I don't lose my energy on this and I just write it and then after the survey, we can take everything and we can, like, infuse them and marry them together so I don't get stuck waiting and like, noticing how we've learned so much about each other and our energy styles and how we make decisions. It was just like this beautiful point where we were both like, yep, you go, I go. You go, I go. And I was like, yeah, look at us go.
- [43:34]
Marissa
I think too, it's where you say you're proud of me. Like, I'm proud of us. Because it truly is collaboration, just like with a survey you are co creating with your audience we co created in the build and execution of this. And so, I mean, thank you as always, for just supporting me in the way that you do and letting me run with things wildly because it. That is how I truly thrive personally. So it's. It really works for us both.
- [44:01]
Jenna Kutcher
So for everybody listening, here's what I would do and. And here's what we would ask of you if you are listening to this episode and you've made it to this point. Well, you take three minutes and 36 seconds. We timed it to go take this survey one so that you can see exactly what questions we asked and maybe consider what questions you would ask inside of your own business. So this is like the best way to study, but also to give us Your feedback. If you are here at this point of the episode right now, you are exactly who I want to hear from. You are exactly who I want to create for. I don't want to sit down to a microphone and speak into the abyss. I want to speak directly to you. And so jennacutcher.com forward/survey. It's so much sexier than you think. It's so much simpler than you think as well. And go give us your feedback. Tell us about you. Like, Marissa and I are geeking out over this. We are reading the responses. Enter yourself to win a 500 gift card because get on with your bad self. I know you got your Amazon cart filled. And don't be afraid to ask those questions. I think that sometimes we are rooted in this weird fear of getting information, of like, maybe it's not going to be what I want to hear, maybe it's not what I think it is. And it's almost like the scary monster under the bed when you lift it up and you see like oh wow, that, that was actually amazing. Or there's nothing there to be afraid of. Man, you can change the world. And I think at the end of the day, in this economy, in this trust recession, the clearer you can communicate to the people you are trying to serve, the more effective you will be and the more difference you'll make. And so this is really exciting to me and I am so glad we nerded out of the okay, if somebody's listening and they're still not on board, Marissa, what is your final like plea or call to action to just take a minute to pull their audience or do a little survey or check in with who it is that they're trying to reach.
- [46:02]
Marissa
Man, I really hope that you take away that this doesn't have to be a 10 question masterpiece or a fancy tool even sending two question email to your list or putting something on stories to ask what your people are struggling with and what they want more of. Like, I think at the core that's it. And it's not about doing it perfectly. If anything, if you've been a long time listener, Golder, you know, it's not about doing it perfectly, but it is about taking action and about starting that conversation. So honestly, I also believe that that tiny bit of clarity that you can capture, I mean that truly might just unlock like your next big move. So why not? I think. Why not?
- [46:55]
Jenna Kutcher
I love it. Go for it. I think as you were saying that, I was just thinking about how so much of marketing has felt for us and for everyone else just like screaming out into the abyss and hoping it catches the right person. And I think that a lot of us desire to be able to just like whisper to the right people and have no with like that guttural feeling like, yeah, this is the right thing or the right place or the right person or the right offer. And so the way to do that is just talk to them and to open up that dialogue and to open up that conversation. And the survey that you pushed us to do so beautifully is doing just that. So I hope everybody listening goes to jennicacher.com survey. Use it as your own study tool to see what questions we are asking. And also, we would absolutely love to hear from you because everything that's coming out of us from this point forward is going to be creating with that in mind, with you in mind. And it's coming from such an earnest, honest place of like, we're not, we're not trying to do anything but just speak to you and help you from where you're at. And I'm so excited about what that will look like, like, as we pan it out. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to gold diggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much, much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time. Gold Diggers.