Episode 31 Transcript
Heather:
I can't believe I'm sitting here with Kate Toon. Seriously, I can't because Kate, I've been following you for quite a while on the socials and I just know you're up to so many good things in this world. And you just told me your book just came out today. So welcome to the show.
Kate Toon:
I know it's great timing, isn't it? Yeah, I've been talking about it for ages, but it actually is physically out today. So it's very exciting. Thank
Heather:
Oh, that's
Kate Toon:
you.
Heather:
huge. Book baby.
Kate Toon:
Yes, and it's something I've been dreaming of for a long time. So it's a big achievement for me.
Heather:
So guys, stay tuned for that, because we are gonna talk about the book coming up soon. But I like to just get straight into the tips because Kate does a lot. I don't even know half of it, but I know Kate, you obviously just finished the book. You, I think you have a younger child?
Kate Toon:
He's 14 now, so he's
Heather:
Oh, 14.
Kate Toon:
14 going on 47. But obviously he was
Heather:
teenager.
Kate Toon:
younger while I was building the business. So yeah, I've been there.
Heather:
Building the business, you've been there, you have your own massive conference that you run every single year as well, which we'll talk about. So you are no stranger to crazy busyness, I'm sure.
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Heather:
So with that, let's start with three tips. What are three tips that you can share with the listeners or the viewers over on the YouTubes that you do personally in your life or you've done with your clients? to help them grow their businesses a bit smarter, less of that sort of cycle of overwhelmed, grinding, crazy stress cycle that we can get in. Like what are three of your tips to not do that?
Kate Toon:
I think for me, the biggest one would be accepting imperfection. You know, I was just talking before we started about how glamorous you look. And here
Heather:
Oh god.
Kate Toon:
I am looking like a little scruffy beast, but I don't care. Like I will go live. I will do the things. I will make the video regardless of, you know, appearance and how I feel and whatever. I just get it out there. So there's not much kind of waiting on ceremony. And that means I can jump on a live. I can make a whatever without. planning it too much. So that immediate action I think really works for me, not overthinking things and having a perfect strategy because you know how it is. You've spent ages on a social media post, real put thoughts in it, make gorgeous graphics in Canva, no one likes it. You post a picture of your dog, you get a thousand engagements.
Heather:
I know.
Kate Toon:
So, you know, so reject perfection is my number one tip.
Heather:
Love it.
Kate Toon:
My second tip is learn to insource. Now this is tying into the little book a bit, you know, especially if you're a parent and you have, you know, young humans, whatever age they are, they're a lot of work. And so I like to put my child to work for me. So he has jobs around the house, which saves me a lot of time and allows me to invest that time either in the family or in my business. So tip number two is insourcing. And then I think the final tip is patience, which I know doesn't sound like a productivity tip. But we do live in a very hustle culture world and there is a lot of pressure to do everything today. And we're used to this kind of dopamine society where we want what we want and we want it right now. But the truth for me is that it's been a relatively slow burn and I'm in this for the long game. So I don't want to achieve everything today because if I did, I'd just make another to-do list tomorrow. So being patient and appreciating that the world will wait and I don't have to get it all done today.
Heather:
Love the tips. I have a few little questions on those as well. So first of all,
Kate Toon:
Mm-hmm.
Heather:
I love that your son's 14. I have two step kids, two boys 20 and 22. And I remember when they were turning 14, they went into the, I call it the, I go into the cave
Kate Toon:
Oh yeah.
Heather:
age of being
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Heather:
a boy.
Kate Toon:
Yes.
Heather:
So I, when I heard that you get some insourcing going with him around the house, I'm impressed that you can get him out of his room.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty good. It's in the morning, we have a little lift and we, I also works for me. So he is an employee of my
Heather:
Wow!
Kate Toon:
company, like a full employee.
Heather:
Yeah, cool.
Kate Toon:
So yeah, he's kind of incentivized to do the work for me, but at home, yeah, I think we just got him young. We trained him young from a very young age to be helpful and to contribute. And therefore it kind of, it's not easy some days, but generally we don't have to prod him too much.
Heather:
Love it. Now I want to talk about your first point on sort of that imperfection, just getting out there, do it. I love that you have that in you and I know that about you from the posts that I've seen and how you are. You just are you, Kate, no matter what. It is hard, especially for some business owners that are scared to death of putting themselves out there. Do you have any, I guess, tips for people that are like, I desperately want to do it but I'm so scared?
Kate Toon:
I guess really think about what the worst that can happen is. Yeah. So, you know, you put something out there and some dude called Alan writes a comment saying this is rubbish. You don't know what you're talking about. You know, we can't let the Alans of this world stop us living our best life. I would say in all my experience online, 99% of people are good, supportive, have good intentions and the 1% are the ones that we pay the attention to. So, you know, of course I've been trolled. I've had some negative comments. But in the great scheme of things, really it's minute, you know, and
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
by putting myself out there and doing the things, I've been able to achieve so much and have so many great experiences. So I would just say what you really think is the worst that can happen. The truth is as well is a tiny amount of people are gonna see your content when you start out. So it's a great time to put it out there and make mistakes. The funny thing is I think a lot of business owners are more worried about what their friends and family will think than what complete strangers will think. It's like. My family's going to think, who's she putting that up? What does she think
Heather:
Mm.
Kate Toon:
she is? So, you know, like, if that's the way they are, that's the way they are. You need to find your people, maybe not within your friends and family, you know, maybe find a business group that supports you or some colleagues. And after a while, your friends and family will just stop noticing your posts and you can just crack on. It is challenging. It is nerve wracking and believe me, I wasn't like this on day dot, but over the years, I've just found it so much easier to be myself. It's exhausting trying to be something you're not and pretend to be something that you're not.
Heather:
Yeah. Well,
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Heather:
good advice. So I know you as a copywriter. Is that what your business does anymore? What,
Kate Toon:
No.
Heather:
what, what does Kate do these days?
Kate Toon:
Oh, not very much. My son says I just post silly memes on Facebook and essentially he's right. So no, I haven't been a copywriter now for about four years.
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
Copywriting is my core skill along with SEO and those are kind of the building blocks on which I built my business, but I don't have any clients anymore. My only client is myself. So I write an awful lot of copy for myself, but not for my role in the business is kind of CEO and creative director. So I'm coming up with the products and the services, I'm writing the copy, I'm doing the performances, the lives, the Zooms, the master classes, the speaking, and then I have a team behind me who kind of do the back-end-y stuff and the customer service. So yeah, no clients anymore. It's been a while.
Heather:
Not for you, so you're truly the owner of the business.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, yeah, I have found her in my email, which sounds very pompous. You know, but yeah, and I've tried to step away from the day to day many times. But the truth is that no one is going to care about my business as much as I do and be able to dedicate as much time to it and just understand the intricacies of it. And I enjoy the day to day. My background before copywriting was project management. So I love organizing and bossing people about. So, yeah.
Heather:
So what does your business do?
Kate Toon:
These days, I describe the business as a collection of digital education companies. We have the Clever Copywriting School, which teaches copywriters how to be copywriters. And for that, we have a membership, a directory, a store, events and a podcast. Then we have the Recipe for SEO Success, which teaches businesses how to rank on Google. And for that, we have courses, resources, a podcast. And then the kind of core business now is the Digital Marketing Collective. And that teaches e-commerce and small business owners how to use digital marketing effectively in their business. And we have a conference, a membership, a store, and a retreat and a mastermind. And then on top of that, I wrote a book. So yeah, three podcasts, two memberships, a conference, five courses. It's a lot.
Heather:
I finally, guys, I wanted her to say in her own words what she does because now as we change gears and talk about the book, I just wanted you to have context.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, there's a lot going on for
Heather:
There
Kate Toon:
sure.
Heather:
is a lot of amazing stuff going on and I'm sure there's people going, oh Kate, please tell us some like digital marketing tips and things like that. We might end with a few like little, I don't know, big picture tips. We'll see how we go.
Kate Toon:
Mm-hmm.
Heather:
But
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Heather:
I wanna talk about the book. So. Tell us about the book. First, before you tell me, I guess, what's in the book, why the book? Why did you wanna do this book?
Kate Toon:
I wrote a book about in 2017 called The Misfit Entrepreneur. And, you know, I did find that was a really powerful way to kind of improve brand awareness, get people to take me a bit more seriously. For some reason, we still have a lot of respect for people who write books and it kind of opened the doors to a few new opportunities. And I did want to write another book, but time just got away from me. There was COVID, there was life.
Heather:
Ha!
Kate Toon:
And so I came up with the idea for the book. It's called Six Figures in School Hours, How to Run a Successful Business and Still Be a Good Parent.
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
So I came up with that in about November last year. And then I thought, I really want to have a real book, like a book in bookshops by a real publisher. My previous book was self-published. No disrespect to self-published books, but they're very hard to sell because of distribution. You know, you can't physically get them into bookshops.
Heather:
Yes.
Kate Toon:
So it was very exciting for me. I got a real publisher and the why of doing it, like I'm gonna be honest, I feel it's my midlife crisis.
Heather:
Mm-hmm.
Kate Toon:
If I was a middle-aged man, I might buy a Harley Davidson. As a middle-aged woman, I decided to write a book. It's probably cost as much.
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
And honestly, the first reason was I wanted to walk into WH Smiths in Sydney airport and be able to pick my book off the shelf. That was a real dream for me. But now I think it's opened the doors to a lot of opportunities. And... It's something new to talk about, you know, Heather, I've been talking about SEO and copy for 10 years, 15 years, maybe.
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
And so this is a different angle and something fresh and it's exciting. And yeah, so just for fun, I guess, as well.
Heather:
Good answer.
Kate Toon:
Yes.
Heather:
So, what's the book about?
Kate Toon:
Yeah, it's really a handbook. You know, there's a lot of business books that I just think are, A, so dry and boring, and hopefully mine's got a bit of humor injected, but it breaks the whole notion of parenting and business down into five chunks, mindset, productivity, money, family involvement, and then communication and self-care kind of bundled up together. So just really giving people some time to consider why they start their business, what they consider good parenting. What does success look like to them? Moving into productivity, we love a bit of productivity hacks and tips and advice around managing your time. Then really digging into money and profitability. And then family involvement. I talked about insourcing
Heather:
And
Kate Toon:
and
Heather:
you did.
Kate Toon:
I talked about the fact that I hired my son. That's made a big difference to the family business dynamic. And finally, self-care, because I very nearly burnt out and it's helping people avoid that and head it off at the pass before they get. to rock bottom.
Heather:
Do you have any tips around specifically self-care from the book that you'd like to share?
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I mean, I think self-care becomes easier as you get more confident in your business. It's very hard to set boundaries when you're starting out because you're like, I can't say no, because I'll
Heather:
Mm-hmm.
Kate Toon:
never get another client. You know, I have to just be submissive and be their bitch, essentially. And so as you get more confident, better cash, it's all tied in. You get more confident about your money because your cash flow is better and you understand your money better. You get more clear on the time that you want to work and therefore you're better able to set boundaries. But it's going to come down. to a choice, you know, the line that I read in a meme, I live my life by memes, was the only person who's gonna remember you working hard is your kid. And that
Heather:
Oh yeah.
Kate Toon:
to me is a real point, like you really have to understand why are you doing this? To what end? You know, like I could work 14 hours a day, but why? What am I trying to achieve? No one cares, no one's looking. I can enter awards and get a pat on the bottom, but at the end of the day, I have to feel right about what I'm doing and so I have to be able to manage my ego and just because I could doesn't mean I should. So it's been a big journey in kind of observing why I do what I do. Why do I want to go and speak at that event? It's going to be a week away from home, it's going to be stressful, it's going to cost money. Why am I doing it? Because I want to show off. OK,
Heather:
Hehehe
Kate Toon:
well then maybe that's not a great reason, you know, like really breaking it down. And I think once you understand yourself better, you're better able to look after yourself.
Heather:
When you were writing the book, was there anything that came up for you out of the, how many different chapters was it? Five or I should say
Kate Toon:
There's
Heather:
segments?
Kate Toon:
five chunks in about
Heather:
Five
Kate Toon:
22
Heather:
chunks.
Kate Toon:
captures, yeah.
Heather:
Okay, so as you were going through those five chunks, which
Kate Toon:
I'm sorry.
Heather:
chunk or what called it, which bit of the book to you held the most profound sort of learnings or weight in the book.
Kate Toon:
I think probably the mindset bit because I'd never
Heather:
Okay.
Kate Toon:
really dug into different styles of parenting and really looked at what type of parent I was or wanted to be, but also how my parenting goals were in conflict with my business goals. You
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
know, you can't say that one of your parenting goals is that you want to read to your kids every night. That's something that you think is important, reading to your kids and putting them to bed. And at the same time, be doing Zooms every night at six o'clock. You know, want something's got to give. Right? You can't have everything. We've been told we can, but we can't. So really sitting down, the book doesn't tell you what makes a good parent, but it challenges you to define what you think makes a good parent. What are your parameters? And I'm not sure I've ever sat down and had that thought with myself. Everyone's always saying to you, what does success look like for you in a business? But people don't talk about what success looks like for you as a parent. You know, a lot of the time, we're just trying to keep our kids alive. And then, you know, But what does success look like? What does a good parent mean to you? That was a bit of a moment for me to really think hard about that.
Heather:
What does success look like for you?
Kate Toon:
as a parent or as a business owner.
Heather:
parent first, business owner second.
Kate Toon:
I think for me that my son can always feel he can come and talk to me and not feel frightened of any kind of judgment and that I let him be himself rather than trying to make him into a mini me and don't put too much pressure on him. And that we have a bond, like me and my son just went to Europe for a month together. He came
Heather:
Wow.
Kate Toon:
to a conference with me, we went to Paris and London and you know, that was a great experience and it made me feel that our bond was strong. So Yeah, I think that's it as a parent and as a business owner, I don't have a huge success metric. I don't have a big why, you know, I've earned the seven figures, I've spoken on stages, I've written books, I've done all the things that you're supposed to do as an entrepreneur. And at the end of the day, these days, I just want to work a little bit, have a nice day, finish at about three, walk the dog and watch the Netflix, which is not very acceptable. I'm supposed to want to be Jeff Bezos. but I don't want to be Jeff Bezos. I just want to potter about and have a nice life and earn decent money, but you know, it's not very impressive to say that, but it's who I am and I've accepted it now.
Heather:
Do you know how many people I've having these conversations with, not just in the podcast,
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Heather:
but just with other business owners? It's more people are actually wanting this more,
Kate Toon:
Yes.
Heather:
way more people than that sort of drive. I want to be the next Jeff. I want to be the next Oprah. You know, I want to be the next Tony Robbins, all that sort of stuff. I'm not hearing people say that as much anymore.
Kate Toon:
I think COVID changed us a lot, didn't it?
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
That time at home and really appreciating what matters. I was speaking all over the world before COVID and had lots of trips lined up and all that went away. And it really made me examine how important that was to me. And I realized it wasn't that important. So yeah, I mean, I think it's great to understand who you are and where you're at and what that does when you're really clear on what you want. It stops yourself comparing yourself to everybody else. You know, now I see... such and such as speaking at a conference and where, whereas old Kate would have been like, why isn't that me? I should have applied. Why didn't I get picked? Now
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
I'm like, good luck to you because I could not be bothered, you know?
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
Like I wanna be at home, I can't be bothered. And that's such a relief because I spent wasted so much time comparing myself to others and, you know, going down the rabbit hole of looking at what they were doing. And I should have been investing that time in my own business rather than theirs, you know, foolish.
Heather:
Mm.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, learn. You live and learn.
Heather:
You live and learn, you do. So for people that are listening that are hearing this conversation, they're like, I want to potter around the garden.
Kate Toon:
Oh yeah.
Heather:
I want to, I want to get off at three. Um, could you give advice on, on the initial steps to take if they are literally working seven days a week and they're like, they feel absolutely trapped. Where would one start to try and go into that direction?
Kate Toon:
Look, I mean, there's no easy answer. I talk
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
in the book about really being honest about the time that you have. I think lots of people are unrealistic about how much time they have each day and how much of that time they are productive. So the book talks about drop off and pick up in between that time, there's probably about six hours. But in reality, you probably do a good solid three or four of actually doing work that earns money. So I think... There's a reality check there that if you only have four hours a day, what can you really achieve in that and how much can you charge? And then maybe you need to manage your financial expectations rather than continually feeling like a failure because you're not hitting things. You know, four hours a day is not much. Even if you charge a premium rate, which is hard in this market, it's not much. So I think there's a degree of realism. And then obviously for me, the big key to being able to make more money was stopping, exchanging my time for money. So, you know, having an hourly rate that has is great, but you know, that's nothing really to do with the client. Trying to find ways to sell one to many rather than one to one has been the key for me moving from a decent salary. I did well as a copywriter, you know, I broke six figures. It was fine. But. I was never going to go beyond that because I had no more time. So I had to find a way of making money while I sleep as Warren Buffett would say, you know, I needed that PayPal ping of things selling while I was doing other things. And that's been the key for me, the courses, the downloads, the memberships, all of that, which is one to many model.
Heather:
And the training industry changes a lot as well, sort of the info products and the courses. I'm just curious, probably more selfishly for me, but probably half my listeners as well. What have you found is trending right now for education online and to get people to consume it and sign up for it?
Kate Toon:
That's such a good question because I do think the landscape has changed. I don't think courses are a fast route to success anymore. They've been so replicated and I think a good course lives and dies by the support. So the idea you can just make a course, put it out there and it will sell and it's set and forget, I don't think that exists anymore.
Heather:
Agree.
Kate Toon:
I think what people really want is one-on-one attention. So how can you make someone feel like they've got your undivided attention when really they're in a group program? That's the key. So for me, more than courses, I find memberships are the way to educate because they're all year round. People can dip in and dip out. They can access a library of resources, but they can get the info when they get it. You know, courses are great while you're doing them. And then it's a year later and you're like, what was that again? And you can't ask. And sometimes you can't even access the course anymore because it's got like a 12 month limit or whatever. And the thing is people need help when they need it. They need it today. And at someone, I think in my experience, people would rather pay X amount a month to be able to ask one question when they really need it, than X amount upfront for a course which lives and dies, you know. So I think it's the support element and the memberships that really are working for me right now.
Heather:
I am not surprised. So I'm glad that you shared that information.
Kate Toon:
Okay, good, good.
Heather:
Yeah. No, no, no. Cause I've, um, we've built a lot of courses in my company and, uh, over the years, been in, you know, I've been involved with a lot of speakers and I've seen the landscape change so quickly, especially with, um, I call it the coaches, training coaches, training coaches that happens out there.
Kate Toon:
Yeah. Yes, yes.
Heather:
You know what I mean? Um, everyone's like, oh, I just, I just learned from coach A I love their content. Now I'm going to create my own
Kate Toon:
This
Heather:
course
Kate Toon:
is
Heather:
teaching.
Kate Toon:
- Well, the thing I find is it's like a, we're all passing around the same biscuit. Like
Heather:
Totally.
Kate Toon:
I learned from you and then she learns from him and then they, and it's like, you need to get to the real people, you know?
Heather:
That's
Kate Toon:
And you can be
Heather:
it.
Kate Toon:
in a bubble. You're in a bubble of other marketeers and you're all learning from each other. You need to actually get to the florist and to the builder and to the cleaner and to the copywriter. Get out of the... The bubble that you're in and get to real people who genuinely need your help rather than as you said, trainers, training, trainers, training, trainers, you know.
Heather:
And that's why I think the membership probably works so well for you as well as because there's nowhere to hide in a membership. You really are sharing your years and years and years of wisdom. And you're there for those questions that people want to ask you. Um, whereas the course can be very simply AI these days, as
Kate Toon:
Hmm.
Heather:
everyone's doing AI your course. And, and I, it's, I feel like it's a very weird. environment that's out there. So I love what you do. I've, I, you know, I've looked at kind of some of your memberships and I feel like what you do is so supportive of the business environment. So yeah.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, it's interesting though, because the other thing is I think people get overwhelmed by content. You know, you sign up, I had my SEO
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
course, I actually took a lot out because people are like, there's too much in it, I can't get
Heather:
Interesting.
Kate Toon:
through it. And
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
so, you know, the key with a membership is not giving people too much because if people feel they're not making the most of the resources and they're not being able to turn up to stuff, that's why they leave. Not because the content isn't great, because they feel they're not consuming it at the rate that they should be. And so it's such a fine balance to give people what they want and also
Heather:
Isn't it?
Kate Toon:
to accept that you'll have lurkers that will never join a call. And I've had, I had a member of my community,
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
he's still there. Been there seven years. I don't think he's ever asked one question or turned up to one call, but he stays. You know, and
Heather:
Get
Kate Toon:
I asked
Heather:
something
Kate Toon:
him
Heather:
from
Kate Toon:
about
Heather:
it.
Kate Toon:
it and he's like, I just read everyone else's. I don't feel I need to contribute. I read all the comments. I watch stuff in my own time. And I'm happy and I'm like, okay, if you're happy, I'm not going to complain. But you
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
know, it's, it feels weird when someone's not squeezing the juice out of it, but people squeeze in their own ways, I guess.
Heather:
So true. And speaking of that, now I know you do a lot as we've well established, although you are pretty good at your schedule. I'm quite impressed at how you crafted this life for yourself. So I'm not sure if you can even answer this question, but I'm sure the old you might be able to. Moments of overwhelm, big moments of overwhelm where you have that like flight, fight flight,
Kate Toon:
Yes.
Heather:
crazy heartbeat, crazy, you know, that those moments in your life, what do you do to pull yourself out of those moments if you still have them.
Kate Toon:
Oh, I definitely still do. And often they're very much self-created. You know,
Heather:
Yes.
Kate Toon:
I've set a ridiculous deadline or I'm feeling that I want to do all these things and I definitely have them, you know, generally I just try and take a step back and, and I do a, you know, a three point to do list every day. I do a three point to do list, which is if I could only do three things today, what will I do? But then I highlight one and it's like, if I could only do one thing today, what will I do? Um, and. that kind of clarity of thinking that, you know, just have to get one thing done. That's good enough today, usually calms me down. It's a bit like when I was training for the marathon years ago and it's like, I'm just gonna get out there and I'm only gonna run for 10 minutes. Now, of course you don't run for 10 minutes. After you've done 10, you feel quite good and then you run for 13, but giving yourself permission to do very little sometimes takes away the overwhelm. And again, my attitude is, what's the worst that can happen? You know, I miss a client deadline. Either that client's going to be so full of hell and hate me and want their money back. Okay, have your money back. I'm sorry, I'm human. But literally 99 times out of a hundred, whenever I've said to a client, you know, I promised I would deliver this and I'm not going to hit the deadline. I'm sorry. You know, generally most go, that's absolutely fine. Cause I had no idea how I was going to sign that off. I'm so busy and my kid's sick and whatever. They're relieved. You know, the sweet
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
joy of when you have a zoom called booked and someone cancels.
Heather:
Yes,
Kate Toon:
You're
Heather:
yes.
Kate Toon:
like, excellent, I've got an hour back in my day. Very rarely am I like, unless I've messed my whole schedule up. So generally, I just. I've been in this game for a long time and the worst has happened, and it's never as bad as you think it is. Everything is recoverable, fromable. And that confidence, again, is just something that comes with time. So step back, three thing to do list, one thing to do list. And what's the worst that can happen?
Heather:
Beautiful. One last question for you. And this one might make you squirm a little bit, but we'll
Kate Toon:
Oh
Heather:
see
Kate Toon:
good,
Heather:
how
Kate Toon:
I
Heather:
we
Kate Toon:
love
Heather:
go.
Kate Toon:
a slang.
Heather:
Oh yes. What makes you extraordinary?
Kate Toon:
Oh god! I'm British, I can't answer that!
Heather:
That's, I knew you, I
Kate Toon:
WHA-
Heather:
knew you wouldn't like it, but I have to ask, because I already know many reasons just from this conversation, but
Kate Toon:
Oh, you're
Heather:
I want
Kate Toon:
lovely.
Heather:
to hear.
Kate Toon:
Um, look, I think I'm an, I think I'm an ideas person. I'm never short of ideas. Like I can sit and talk with one of my members and they're like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, we could do this, this. And within 10 minutes I've come up with a hundred different ideas and they're just like, wow. So I
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
think my brain still fires, but it's something I talk about in the last chapter of the book. I think I'm, I'm still astonished that this is my job. That my job
Heather:
Ugh.
Kate Toon:
today involves talking to you. This is my job. Aren't
Heather:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
I lucky? I get to work in my pajamas, in my shed, in my back garden, make decent money, still spend time with my son. And that astonishment and that joy in what I do keeps me going. So I think that kind of naive astonishment is probably my extraordinary quality.
Heather:
I love that. Oh, Kate, this is so good. Before we start to close down, where, just remind everyone all the places that they can go and do things with you. Memberships, book, conference.
Kate Toon:
Oh, so
Heather:
Where do they
Kate Toon:
much.
Heather:
go?
Kate Toon:
The good thing is, is because I did start with SEO, I'm relatively good at SEO. So if you go and type Ktune into the Google beast, you'll find my hub site. And from there, you can jump off into all my various bits and bobs. So Ktune.com.
Heather:
Perfect you guys, kattoon.com and that's also where they can go and check out your book.
Kate Toon:
at my new book. Hoo hoo!
Heather:
And they might suit in the airports and all
Kate Toon:
Yes,
Heather:
over as well.
Kate Toon:
on Amazon. It's on Amazon. It's on Amazon, everyone. Yes.
Heather:
I'm so buying it, I'm so excited and just wow. Before we say goodbye, are there any last tips or ideas that you want to leave the listeners with?
Kate Toon:
I guess, I guess I just think that it's important to acknowledge how hard it is to run your own business and it is super challenging and that's okay. You know, because I think it's very lonely sometimes running your own business. We're lucky we've got to chat today, but there have been periods in my business where I've not seen anybody other than my dog for weeks on end. So really trying to find a little gang of community for people that are your people that you can whinge with and celebrate with. I think is super important. And I think, you know, for all the things I do in my business, the thing I'm most proud of is the communities I've created, the free ones and the paid ones, because it's hard. Your partner doesn't get it. Your friends don't get it. Your kids don't get it. And your dog doesn't give any good advice. So trying to find your people, I think is my top tip.
Heather:
Excellent. Well, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here and just giving so many beautiful tips to everyone.
Kate Toon:
Thank you, I loved it.
