080. [Case Study] From $0K – $10K In Six Weeks Without Spending A Cent On Traditional Advertising

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Key Points (Timestamps)

Transcript

Machine transcript, lightly edited for reading. Speakers aren't marked. The intro, plugs and closing voiceover are left out.

Welcome, everyone. Today's episode is a very different kind of episode on the Productive Insights Podcast. We are going to be talking to one of my favorite clients, and we're going to be presenting it in a case study format. So let me introduce you to Amanda, my client, and we're going to run through a bit of a background, and then we're going to talk about the work that we did together, the problem we set out to solve, and how we solved it. Amanda is the principal of Lawyers Chambers.

She's also the founder of Lawyers Chambers. She graduated from the University of Sydney's Law School with a first class honors and has a natural talent with language and a flair for creative problem solving. She has a special interest in strata and community titles for American listeners that is common property within a set of apartments. That's what the word strata means. So she has a special interest in strata and community titles and has had considerable success acting as a solicitor and advocate in the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

As the leader of her team at Lawyers Chambers, she authors and conducts workshops for strata managers citywide, exploring difficult legal topics in a simple and concise way. She also deals with commercial matters, including joint ventures, partnerships and businesses generally. Her clients include developers, local councils, clubs and pubs in a past life prior to her baby [son] entering the world. She's been a water polo squad leader, long distance ocean swimmer, a cyclist and a triathlete. She loves her family, her team, all things legal, and anything involving her other baby, her motorcycle.

Amanda, I didn't know you rode a motorcycle. I hardly knew all of that stuff about myself either. What motorcycle do you ride? I have a Honda CBF 250. Wow.

You know, I would love to ride a motorcycle, but I must say that I've seen too many broken femurs in hospitals to risk it. But hats off to you. It's a very cool thing to do. So I'm delighted to welcome Amanda Farmer from lawyerschambers.com.au and also recently the founder of yourstrataproperty.com.au which you'll hear all about soon in this episode. So welcome, Amanda.

Thank you, Ash. It's an absolute honor to be on your show and thank you for that massive introduction. That is a massive introduction. Well, it's an honor to have you on the show, Amanda. Thank you so much for agreeing to be on here.

Our work together has been so awesome and I've really enjoyed it so much that I can't wait to discuss it. So first, let's talk about why it's important that our listeners pay attention to the content of this episode and what do we think they're going to get out of this episode? What do you think is going to be valuable about this episode? Look, I think if there is anyone out there who I guess is like me, a professional working in what I call a white collar industry, maybe doesn't know too much about online business or marketing or content marketing, but thinks that there's a world out there to be explored.

There's something to be tapped here and that was the position really that I was coming from. I've been running my business for close to three years now and things have been going well. I've got a nice little business. I've got good clients. I've got a great team.

I'm doing good work, but I kind of started this year thinking there's got to be more to this. This isn't really where I want to be for the next 20, 30 years, lawyering, trading time for money, I guess. There's got to be a better way. I started looking out there and of course started online as we do in this modern day and looking at what other people are doing in other businesses, in other industries, in other professions and stumbling across online business, stumbling across content marketing and also, I guess, looking at ways to be more productive and to use my time in my business more productively.

That's of course how I came across you, Ash. I think it was a webinar that you did with Suzi Dafnis. She then had the Australian Businesswomen's Network, which she now calls Her Business. You did a wonderful webinar with her where you spoke about little things you can do every day in your business and even in your home life to get the most bang for your buck. That really captured my attention.

We came eventually to be connected. Yes. Yes. You subscribe to the podcast from there and you listen to quite a few episodes. What we talk about a lot in this show is that helped to build a know, like and trust relationship, as recently discussed by Bob Burg in a previous episode, who I believe coined the phrase.

That's how we got to know each other. From there, we've been doing a lot of work together. It's just been an absolute honor and a pleasure. I just want to say that I think it's fantastic that you have made a choice in your business to actually look beyond what you're doing normally. This is something I really genuinely appreciate and respect about you as a lawyer.

There's a lot of lawyers and accountants I know because I'm an accountant by training, but often they tend to think inside the box. I like the fact that you have an open mind. You're quite innovative in your approach to law and you're thinking outside the square. I do believe that this is one of the most important qualities to really succeed in today's world, to be able to exploit things like content marketing, the online world, which gives you the opportunity to productize information and do with information what Henry Ford did with cars. That is something that really lights me up and I have enjoyed the process of helping you do that.

So, where did we start? Let's talk about the specific problem that you and I set out to solve together and what the situation was before we started working together. Yeah, sure. I guess, as I said, business was going well for me and I happen to work in an area of the law that is growing, it's challenging, it's interesting, and I enjoy it. But I suppose I started out this year thinking I want to work with certain clients.

I had a picture of my ideal clients. I wanted to become known as an expert in this particular area of the law. I wanted to build my authority and I wanted to differentiate myself. Right. And that led me to exploring ways that I could do that.

And I suppose it wasn't so much that I was thinking I want to grow my business or I want to increase my work. I really wanted to focus on the quality, the quality of the work. So, working with the right people, doing the kind of work that I like. So, from a lawyer's perspective, there's a big difference between, for example, if you're a property lawyer and you're doing conveyancing, or you're a property lawyer and you're doing Supreme Court litigation. So, they're two ends of the spectrum.

And I want to be at the Supreme Court litigation end of the spectrum. That's what I enjoy doing. That's what I'm good at. And I really set about wanting to focus my efforts, I guess, my efforts in finding that ideal client and finding that ideal work to lead me to that end. Doing that kind of work that I like, where I'm getting the biggest bang for my buck and I'm enjoying myself.

So, that was, I guess, the problem that I started the year trying to solve. How do I direct my business and my efforts and my energies in that direction to achieve those results? So, that's one of the benefits, isn't it, of becoming an influencer or a leader in your niche. You get to work with quality clients and you get to choose what you want to work on. You get to decide how you want to position yourself.

And that's what we wanted to do with your brand and your business. We wanted to find a platform which we could use to position you as a thought leader in your field and as an influencer in your field. Exactly. So, what did we do next then? You and I met, I came to your offices and we had a talk about what you were looking to do, what you were looking to solve.

We had this very discussion in some greater detail, I guess. And then I suggested maybe a podcast is something that you could consider because it had been working so well for me and it had been really increasing my influence on the market. And almost the proof was in the pudding in a sense because the whole reason you and I were even having that conversation was because you had heard me on my podcast. So, I didn't even have to explain the value of the platform because that is how we came in contact. And so, I think I didn't have to really try and convince you of the value of podcast.

You realize that yourself. Yeah, exactly. And I had been listening to your podcast and a couple of other podcasts. And I had already been forming that thought in my head, "Hey, I can do this. I think I can do this."

Yes. And it looks like fun. Yeah. And I remember that. I remember that's something I really respect and like about you.

I like how you put yourself out there. And it is quite intimidating when you first want to put a podcast out there. I remember how intimidated I was and my mentor really got me to just publish it. I had this interview with a guy called Neil Patel, who's a leading mind in online marketing. And I had it on my computer for a year and I'd never published it.

I didn't know what to do with it. I was too uncomfortable getting in front of camera. In fact, I still haven't gotten in front of the camera to this day. I haven't published any of these videos that I've recorded. So, you too had some concerns and we talked through those, didn't we?

You had concerns about being comfortable with podcasting. Yeah, definitely. That was definitely one of my big concerns. I suppose because my reputation, I guess, I think right or wrong is based on how I present, how I come across, how I explain things, how I give advice. And even though I've been doing that most days for the last 10 years, I've been doing that face to face.

I've been doing that in writing to actually sit behind a mic or sit behind a camera and do just that to the world when you're not sure who's listening, if anybody's listening and what their reaction is. You're not getting any feedback to say, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I agree with that. Oh, that's great. Thanks, Amanda. That's really good advice."

You're not getting any of that. So, I was really uncomfortable about that idea at first. And I was uncomfortable about how I might sound, how I might come across, having to, I suppose, listen to myself and edit myself. And I kind of just felt a bit icky about that. And having the right skills and the techniques, because I had listened to you and I'd listened to others and you just seem so comfortable and so polished and good at what you do.

And being a bit of a perfectionist, I was, of course, starting out thinking, "Hey, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to be good at this." So, I expressed all of that to you and we talked through ways that we could solve those concerns. Yeah. I remember it just cracked me up because when you first said to me, "Hey, listen, I'm not comfortable speaking and I need you to help me get comfortable," I'm like, "Amanda, you speak in court. Why would you not be comfortable speaking?"

But then when we started working together, I did realize that it can be a little bit daunting and challenging. It reminded me of when I first started. And hey, I was nervous before this conversation. So, though I may come across as sounding comfortable or polished, I certainly am not always feeling that way. And I think it does help to have somebody who's been down that path to help you to work through a lot of the fears.

And a lot of times, it's just reassuring you and just saying, "Hey, listen, you can totally do this." And when someone's done it before and they're telling you can do this, it just makes it that much easier, doesn't it? Yeah, definitely. And when I actually started to do it and we did some practice runs and I would send them to you and you'd come back to me and say, "That sounds fantastic. It's excellent. It's so much better than when I first started."

Exactly, exactly. And that just gave me the confidence having that feedback to say, "Okay, well, I am on the right track. I'm doing the right things. Just keep going." And that's absolutely true.

I did think that you were just very comfortable. You were a natural at it. And I'm not saying everyone's going to be a natural at speaking on a mic and stuff, but it comes with time. It's like anything, right? It takes practice.

It takes effort. And it takes some amount of putting yourself out there, I guess, some amount of risk-taking in a sense. It's not really a risk, but... But you know what? From my point of view, that's part of the fun.

Yeah, exactly. That's part of the fun. To put yourself out there, to do something different. If we're not doing that, then what's the point? Exactly, exactly.

I mean, geez, if I hadn't taken the plunge to start my own business, I'd still be sitting there doing reporting analytics and strategy for some large corporate, which I absolutely hated because a lot of my work never really got used. It was just used for positioning, political posturing and stuff like that, which I couldn't stand. Okay, so the problem then we set out to solve is make yourself an authority and an influence in your field and really get to choose what you want it to work on and get to choose who you want it to work with. And the best way to do that was to create a really powerful brand.

And that's what gave birth to Your Strata Property. That's how that was born, right? Indeed. We came up with that title together. We did.

And I think it's such a great title. Actually, you came up with the title of Your Strata Property. We came up with a few and then I just thought that was really nice and catchy and the recall was good. That's right. And I had you there to bounce those ideas off and you there to say, yeah, that sounds good.

That's going to stand out on iTunes. That's going to get people's attention. That sends the message that you want to send. And having you there to give me that, again, that confidence and that confirmation was just invaluable. Awesome.

And you know what, I really like that it's just really simple. That's when anyone listening, anyone out there listening, when you make a title, I really think clarity trumps cleverness every time. So something simple like Your Strata Property has a lot of simple recall. You know, if I had to do it over again, I would never use productive insights because it is such a hard name. Well, it's good in the sense that it does appeal to people who are fairly well read.

But the recall is difficult because some people say, what is it? Productivity insights. You know, it's not that easy to remember as Your Strata Property. So if you're starting out, I would say, you know, just try and come up with a simple name that and all you must get a name that the dot com URL is available for. So if the dot com and dot com dot au, if you're in Australia, if the dot com dot au dot com URLs are not available, don't bother.

So that's another really important thing. I'm just working with another client now and he's just come up with the most awesome title. He initially had this long forward title and I said, no, it's too long. And he's come back to me with this really simple to a title. It's just fantastic.

So I think simplicity is key here. So we established Your Strata Property and we set up a podcast with a good quality intro. You know, we got professional sound, found the music for you. I got all the intro done. We did a nice summary with that goes inside iTunes, describing the podcast.

We had editing set up. We've got good headlines going on new podcast episodes and you've got me doing all the editing for you on an ongoing basis. So basically I was able to take all the pain away from you of setting up the whole thing because you do charge a very decent rate per hour. And it made sense for you to hire me to just say the word, you know, make it happen. And I went away and made it happen.

Yeah, that was one of the things that I took away. I think one of the first podcasts I listened to of yours or maybe it was your webinar with Suzi was about working out what your hourly rate is and anything that's going to cost you less than your hourly rate to outsource. Go ahead and outsource it. And that's something I've really been putting into practice this year. And I guess it was really another one of those challenges when I thought about podcasting.

I thought, oh, I don't know the equipment that I need. I don't know the software. I don't know how to work iTunes in the back end. You know, what's all that about? And really just where do I start?

And I don't have the time either. I don't have the time to learn all this myself. I am running a business, a busy business. And when you said to me, hey, I can do all of that for you. That's part of what I do.

I just had that relief. Okay, great. I already feel like I know and trust Ash. He's now telling me that he's going to get the top of the line mic for me, exactly what I need. It's what he uses.

He's going to tell me what software I need on my PC. He's going to set it up in iTunes. He's even going to write the copy for me that goes on iTunes. And it just made that process not only easy, but quick as well, because I'm there doing what I do best, lawyering. And at the same time, you're there setting up my podcast and we would meet each week often online.

And you'd say, okay, this is what I've done this week. This is where we're at. And within a few weeks, we were ready to go. Right. So we did it over six sessions.

And I just want to say here that you could have done it yourself. You're perfectly capable. You're a super smart person, but the convenience of having somebody do it for you, which means you can focus on your own specialty. That's the benefit it offers. So we did it over six sessions and we started off looking at your whole business, looking at your audience avatar or your listener avatar, try to understand what your typical listener looks like and what problems they are trying to solve.

We worked out that they're trying to understand strata. We worked out that they are typically mum or a dad who has a family who's busy. They don't have a lot of time. And so that's what informed other decisions like how long each episode is going to be, how we were going to promote the episode, what channels we're going to use. We also then went on to look at other products like recurring income business, which we are in discussions about now, and also changing auto responder sequences and email marketing service providers and so on.

So there's a lot of things that came out from that initial discussion where we really spent some time understanding your market and understanding your audience. Yeah, definitely. And that was really valuable for me to focus my thoughts on that, you know, so often you just get caught up in running your business, doing the work that your clients are paying you to do and you forget to take that step back and think, "Hang on, why am I doing this? Where is this leading me? What do I want to get out of this?"

And I actually didn't really expect that level, I guess, of service from you. And I thought, "Okay, well, Ash is here. He's going to set up my mic. He's going to set up my podcast." But when you came in and said, "Okay, no, let's look at your brand. Let's look at your avatar.

Who are we talking to? Why are we talking to them?" I found that all really useful and it's stuff that I still sort of carry around with me today and think about in a lot of the marketing that I'm continuing to do. Which is great. So what that enabled you to do, that conversation or those six conversations that we had, was it allowed you to stop working in your business and start working on your business. And I think this is the other benefit, right, of getting a professional who is not in the area you're in.

Like, for example, let's say I'm not a lawyer. If I want to do my wills, I just don't get around to doing it. I keep putting it off. But when I hire someone to do it, there's a person like a lawyer who knows about wills, who's been doing wills for ages. They can tell me to think about things and they can take me to different mind space that I need to go to very quickly, which I could not get myself to, even if I was doing the research and those sorts of things.

So that's what we were able to do. We were able to just block off that time and really think about your market. Think about your audience. Think about how we can help your audience, what problem you can solve for your audience. And we created some content in the form of a podcast that would help solve that problem.

And now we're looking at creating other forms of content and products and ways of reaching that audience. So that's how we solve the problem of building your authority. Now let's talk about the results. So what results did you find when we launched the podcast? What results have you seen so far?

Well, look, Ash, the hard results, the hard and fast results, the last month I've had 660 downloads on iTunes, which to me is amazing. And I've had 26 new leads in a month. And that's people who are hitting the website and opting in to my subscriber list. So I have always had, before Your Strata Property, I ran two websites, which I still run, which is my Lawyers Chambers website and also Women in Strata. And I've always had that subscriber list kind of sitting there, but I really haven't.

It hasn't been hot. I haven't had leads. I haven't really had people opting in. Your Strata Property, I noticed the difference. People are actually, there's traffic on the website, people are heading over there.

They're reading the articles I've got there and they're opting in to get my ebook. And these are leads that 26 new leads in a month that I can follow up and potential new clients, which is fabulous. Awesome. And there was another great result that I would love you to share with our listeners. Yeah, sure.

Well, something I'm really excited to share is that I have actually had a client contact me directly from the podcast. So a listener of the podcast, he has called me up and said, "Amanda, I really, really love your podcast. I've been listening for a while and I've got a job for you. Will you give me a quote?" That's fantastic.

Fabulous. Yeah. So my podcast has been running for only about six weeks now. And that is a direct conversion, which is fabulous. Awesome.

So just a few weeks, you've got a direct conversion, you've got 26 leads in one month. That's incredible. Well done. Congratulations. Thank you.

Now, just going back to your 26 leads, they have opted into your list. So you have earned the right to contact them via email and continue giving them value. You could always say to them, "Hey, listen, I have a special offer for people on my list. Are you interested?" Yeah, definitely.

That's much more likely to convert, right? Yeah, for sure. And I'm looking into the future, looking at doing webinars and doing video series and things like that. And these are people that I can reach out to and say, "How are you interested in this?" And when I have these paid products, then that is hopefully we're looking at a direct conversion there, which is great.

And you're also using a lot of the things that we talked about. So for example, you use the podcast successfully as a stepping stone to connect with one of the leading financial institutions here in Australia. And you're going to be hosting an event on their premises fairly soon. And I'm truly honored that you've chosen me to present at that event at Macquarie Bank. And it's going to be an in-person event on productivity.

This is, again, us creating value for people in the strata property sector. It's going to be very specialized and very targeted information for these people, which solves their problem. And that's what drives business, doesn't it? Yeah, definitely. Just on that point about Macquarie Bank and the results that I'm getting from the podcast, I'm building these kinds of relationships with key stakeholders in the industry and key influencers.

And I am connected to and connecting with people that I otherwise wouldn't really have had a reason, I guess, to reach out to or a platform to talk to them. I've had a speaking invitation that's come about in the last week. And that's from somebody who's been a guest on the podcast. And I wouldn't necessarily have been front of mind for that person if I hadn't had them on and we hadn't kept an ongoing relationship. So that's something I've really noticed.

Reaching out and offering a guest an invitation to come on the show is a really great way to build respect, to build trust and rapport. And then in my industry, these are people who I will continue to work with or who may refer me as a lawyer on to people that they know. And it is because it's a very niche area, it is a very tight knit community, I guess. And this podcast has been a great way to really get me front and center very quickly. It is.

It's such a fantastic excuse. Excuse is not the right word, but the platform, it's an authority platform, right? It's like a blog or a video, but somehow podcasting, I think, has even more cut through with professionals because they tend to listen to podcasts in their dead time, what previously used to be dead time, so while driving in the car or while exercising in the gym. So you have much more cut through. You often have a captive audience.

It's a very intimate experience because they're often plugging you into their ears in the form of headphones. And it's a great way to say to someone, "Hey, listen, I have an established podcast. Would you like to be a guest on my podcast?" Now, if there's no one else doing it in your field, which there isn't, in strata property in Australia that we're aware of, then that makes you even more of an authority. And it's a fantastic reason to reach out.

And it's kind of like saying, "Hey, listen, would you like to come and share the stage with me?" And these people are going to be like, "Absolutely." Yep. And that's definitely been the response. Everybody's been really pleased to be contacted and to come on the show as a guest.

And I want to say this in particular, for all the women out there, this is a fabulous way to get your voice heard. Yes. And my profession in particular, quite male dominated, I mean property law, so even more male dominated. And we have to be realistic, I guess, about the fact that we're often overlooked. Yep.

And that's certainly been my experience. I'm in an area where there's a boys club. I call it the old boys club. Yep. And it's time for the new blood to break through.

And you can't always get that face-to-face meeting. You can't always get that speaking engagement. You can't always get that key client to invite you to their office to deliver a workshop, even though you know that you do it best. And here with podcasting, you've got your own stage, as you say. You've got your own platform.

You have your own way of delivering your message in a way that you're comfortable, in a way that is displaying your skills and your knowledge and your ability. And people are hearing you and their ears are picking up and they're thinking, "Hey, all right, she sounds great. She knows what she's talking about. I want her to come and speak at my next event." And that's what's happening for me.

And if there's women out there thinking about doing this, don't waste time. Just get into it. It's awesome. That is such a good point, Amanda. And I feel passionately about this because I do agree that there is absolutely no reason why women should be paid less than men in professional environments.

And it still happens. There's a lot of inequality, just gender-based out there. And I think this is a great step in the right direction to put things back in balance. And I totally agree to all the women listening out there, this is a great opportunity. And even men, you can definitely build your platform and build your authority.

Two days ago, I was speaking to somebody else who happens to be a lawyer and works in the property sector. I just mentioned in passing that one of my clients has a podcast and she happens to be a lawyer. He was a general counsel and he goes, "Oh, can you send me a link to the podcast? I want to hear it." And I was like, "Absolutely."

So it's little conversations like that. And the thing is, it's just a case of you sending a link, isn't it? I mean, it's not even like you have to say, "Hey, now I'm going to play this for you and you have to sit here and listen for half an hour while I'm playing it." You just send them a link and they can listen to it at their convenience. And so you can get to that person on their terms.

You can meet them where they are on their terms. And that's the other benefit of podcasting. It doesn't require you to have a screen to consume it. Yeah. And those are also terms that I think we as women are particularly comfortable with.

It's not overly aggressive. It's not in your face. It's not pushy. It's not salesy. It's delivering information to solve a problem in a way that's easily consumable and consumable the way that your listener wants to consume it, as you say, in their own time, on their own terms.

And that's something that we can be comfortable with. It's certainly something that makes me feel good about what I'm doing. Cool. Okay. So those are fantastic results. 26 leads in one month, significantly increased authority, a great way to reach out to other influencers in the market, and a seminar that we're going to be holding in Macquarie Bank together.

So that's a great result. That's a fantastic result. Okay. So let's talk about some of the biggest challenges you solve or you experience when you were trying to solve your problem and how you overcame them with regard to increasing authority, leads, and so on. Solving them, sorry, challenges with the podcast in particular, sort of getting started.

Yeah. Any challenges that you experienced through this process and how did you feel you were able to overcome them? Look, I really felt with you there, Ash, it wasn't a difficult process at all. I suppose before we really started, my concerns were about do I have time for this? How much is this going to take me away from my business?

I was concerned about how much time it takes or I thought it would take to put episodes together. I've been blogging for a number of years now and I always have articles up on my practices website and on my Women in Strata website. And I know the time that it takes to write a blog and to distribute it. And I was a bit worried that this was just going to be another thing that I was having to put time and energy into. So that was a concern at first and not having the knowledge and not having the skill about how this all works and how to do it well and not annoy people was something that was front of mind for me.

So in terms of overcoming those challenges, having you there to do a lot of the grunt work for me, I guess that really solved that time issue. You sourced the music for my intro, you source the voiceover. I mean, that's something I would have spent hours doing, finding the right voice, finding the right music. You helped with that, getting everything set up in the back end. I seem to remember it was something like nine o'clock at night and I was sitting down watching a movie and I was getting a text from you saying, "It's live. I've put it up."

I thought, "Wow, that's great. It's all done." So that was good. And definitely, yes, I think I had a real misconception about the effort that each episode takes because I've been doing this now. I think we're up to episode 11 I've just recorded.

And it is literally half an hour of a really enjoyable conversation with one of my peers or colleagues. And that's it, really. I hit stop on the record button and I shoot it off to you, which is a wonderful, a wonderful luxury to have. And then it comes back to me and it's done. So where I'm otherwise spending hours or have been spending hours writing blog posts, I'm now spending half an hour recording a podcast episode, loving every minute of it.

And it's fabulous content that's then there to send down a number of different avenues. So if anybody's concerned about not having the time to actually podcast, forget about it. That's just not an issue. It's a lot easier than you think. And the beauty of that is you can just take the audio of yours and if you have permission from the guests, then of theirs as well, put it in Rev.com, transcribe it, and you have a blog post.

Yeah, that's actually what I am doing now. I've hired a VA, which is all part of my productivity boost, and she's transcribing my podcasts. And I am doing exactly that, turning them into blog posts, which is great. Awesome. So there is just for the listeners, there is a little bit more that goes into podcasting.

And in Amanda's case, she's outsourced that to me, which is great, but there is more to recording it. So you record it and then you have to create good quality timestamps. You have to create a headline that attracts attention. You have to upload the image into WordPress and create and make sure the podcast is published and looks good and everything on iTunes. But absolutely, you can outsource it.

And that is the biggest point, I think, that came across to me, Amanda, which was when you hired me, you were able to just outsource the whole thinking, the whole creating, the whole researching. Everything was done for you. And this is one of the biggest challenges I find professionals face, and I did as a professional when I was working full-time in corporate, was having the headspace and the time to actually come up with a strategy and a solution and then executing on the solution. So when you hire an expert, just like you would a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant to solve problems in various areas of your life, particularly if you're earning a high income, then you can just outsource the problem and it will solve it for you.

So what are the action steps you think a listener can take out of this podcast, Amanda? If you're thinking about podcasting, have a chat to Ash, I guess. Gosh, that's what I did. And look where it took me. I can't recommend you highly enough, Ash.

If you think you don't have the skill or the knowledge, you do. Think about what you want to achieve in your business, what you want for the future, what direction you want to go in, and that's going to shape the kind of content, I think, that you deliver and that you should be delivering and the medium through which you deliver it. So I suppose taking a step back, if you're thinking about a podcast, the first question is, is that the right medium for me? Great point. Yes.

And I know that's something that you do talk through, Ash. If it's not a podcast, it might be video, it might be, you might be better to be blogging, and that all comes down to what you're doing and who your market is and what they're going to be interested in. So that's probably a good thing to start thinking about first. Yes, I absolutely agree. You're welcome to have a chat to me.

But even if you decide not to have a chat to me, what I recommend is think about your audience. It all comes back to your audience and the problem that you're trying to solve for your audience. If you have a specific problem that your audience is trying to solve, then great. You ask yourself, is a podcast going to solve it? If you don't know enough about your audience and the problem they're trying to solve, then that's the first thing you need to do.

I can help with that. Definitely, that is the first place to start, in my view. Understand your audience, understand their problem, and then ask yourself, how can I solve that problem for them more efficiently? And is the podcast the best platform? It isn't the answer for every situation, but I think it is for almost every situation.

So it's definitely something worth considering. Okay, let's talk about books, Amanda. What books have had the biggest impact on you and why? I know you're used to asking that question on your podcast. Yeah.

Oh, funny. I actually didn't expect this question. So I have actually just finished reading. I'm going to give you a parenting book because it's at the front of my mind. Yep.

And I've just finished reading The Collapse of Parenting by Dr Leonard Sax. And I think it's his newest one that just came out earlier this year. I am mum to a three and a half year old boy. And a friend of mine recommended Dr Leonard Sax to me. He's got a fabulous website.

And he just gives this wonderful sort of history of how parenting has changed over the years. And it has a lot to do, I guess, with how our lifestyles have changed and how we now have women in the workforce, women running their own businesses and doing distracting things like podcasts and how we can be better parents to our kids, even while we are building our business empires. So that was a book that I really enjoyed. And I recommend it to any parent out there. Cool.

So maybe you can actually be a parent to both your children, your motorcycle and [your son], and maybe you can take him for a spin on the bike. I'm sure that's one of the things. Oh, yeah. He would love that. We'll see.

That's one of the dangers of being a motorcycle rider. And there's no way that I'll be telling him when he's 17 that he's not going to be on a bike. So challenge for the future. Yep. Okay.

So, Amanda, how do listeners find out more about you and is there anything you'd like to add before we say bye? Okay. Well, you can find out all about me and my podcast at www.yourstrataproperty.com.au. I am also on LinkedIn. My legal practice is lawyerschambers.com.au.

And I also have a networking group for women working in strata management. And that is www.womeninstrata.com.au. So you will get everything you need to know about me on those websites. And for any of the listeners out there, especially the American listeners who aren't familiar with the term strata, I'll spell it out. It's your strata spelled S-T-R-A-T-A, property.com.au.

And the other URL was www.womeninstrata.com.au. So that's where you can find Amanda. Amanda, thanks for being on the show. You were just awesome. It's an honor to have you.

And it's just been a pleasure working with you and I look forward to working with you again in the future. Thank you, Ash. Thank you so much for having me. It's been great to talk through what's really been a whirlwind experience. I feel like I've known you for a lifetime, but when I look back, it's only been a couple of months and it's just crazy what we've been able to achieve in that time.

So thank you. You're most welcome. And that's probably because you've been listening to my podcast for longer than two months. That's probably what it is. Exactly.

Well, thanks again. Bye. Thanks. Bye.