I Asked 1,077 Customers Why They Bought- It Changed How I Sell.

  Sam Vander Wielen: So you have an offer that you want to sell, or maybe you’ve even, or maybe you’ve even sold a little bit of it, but do you really understand why people want to buy your thing, or are we sort of just playing by feel? If you learn what will actually make your customer click to purchase from you or why your current customers already have, you can, like, 10X your sales and stop wasting so much time on marketing strategies that just don’t work.

I see this all the time. People never stop to ask their customers why they buy or survey their customers the way that I’m going to teach you how to today.

And by the way, we’re talking about something completely different than what you’ve probably heard about surveying people in the past. We’re talking about surveying people right after they buy from you, not after they’ve used your product or months after they’ve signed up for your course. That is a huge and very important difference, and it’s honestly something that I don’t think most people in the industry are doing, and they’re really missing out.

Most business owners market to people online completely based off of language that they use in their everyday life or what a few of their own family and friends have said sounds good. So for episode 300 of the podcast, which by the way, ah, we’ll celebrate at the end, but for episode 300, I’m sharing what 1,077 of my recent buyers have told me about why they bought the Ultimate Bundle® right after they bought the Ultimate Bundle®, like immediately after, and what I’ve changed in my business because of it, because it’s been huge, and I don’t think my business would be successful without it

Hey there, and welcome back to On Your Terms®. I cannot believe this is episode 300. I’m just, I’m kind of blown away by that. On the one hand, it feels like this should be, like, 3,000, and on the other, I feel like I started yesterday. But we’ll celebrate at the end. I’ll share a little bit about the behind-the-scenes, like, stats and growth of On Your Terms® and all that fun stuff But if you’re new here, just welcome.

You joined us on episode 300. Congrats. On Your Terms® is a podcast for online business owners who wanna be as present in their lives, as profitable in their businesses, and one of the things that allows me to be super profitable in my business is really paying close attention to what my customer is saying, the way that they’re talking, what they’re experiencing, how, like, my product essentially or what I talk about is showing up as a pain point in their life, and what they want to be different.

So in case you don’t know, I am a lawyer who’s, who helps online business owners legally protect their businesses primarily by selling two digital products. I sell legal templates that are downloadable contracts and website policies.

I also sell the Ultimate Bundle®. That’s my biggest seller by far. And it’s essentially a package of legal templates and trainings that teach people how to start an online business legally and then give them all the contracts they need to do it.

When I first started selling the Ultimate Bundle® almost nine years ago, it sold a little bit but consistently. So it’d be like two a month, and then maybe like four a month, and then it was hovering around, like, maybe selling five to six Ultimate Bundles a month, which for context was about $10,000 a month for quite a while, right?

I remember that was, like, my first plateau, and then my second plateau that I got to was that I was selling about $30,000 of the Ultimate Bundle® per month, but consistently again, but I couldn’t break through it, right? And one of the things that I came to realize was that, you know, it was still pretty early on from when I had left being a corporate lawyer, and one of the downsides to becoming a lawyer when I was 23 and a little baby was that, like, I don’t have a lot of context in my adult life for, like, not being a lawyer, so I feel like, I feel like I’ve been a lawyer for a long time.

Every time I’ve started a business, I’ve been a lawyer. Every time a friend asked me about something with business, I’ve been a lawyer. Like, I’ve just always been a lawyer kind of from my perspective. So it took a lot of work for me in the early years to undo the way that I talk, the way that I wrote especially, um, just kind of the way I carried myself, because I had this lawyer training in me that only knew how to talk and write like a lawyer.

The reason that that’s so important is because when I would write content or write copy for content or captions or something, I would write it like a lawyer, which the people I’m selling to are not lawyers. That’s why they need me, right? So I needed to start learning how to talk their language. I needed to talk m- I needed to talk more in terms of what my actual customer was experiencing and what they wanted to experience differently, not what me, the lawyer, was like wagging my finger and telling them like, “You should do this and then do that, and talk about it like this, and like stop caring about trademarks so much when you don’t even have this.” Like, I couldn’t talk like that anymore because I really needed… If I wanted to grow, I needed to focus on what they were saying .

So that’s when I sort of became obsessed with voice of customer. What we’ll kind of generally refer to as voice of customer in our industry. It’s when you literally get to know the voice of your customer, and there are many ways to do this, both through, you know, surveys, but you can also interview your customers.

You can kind of collect all the data as it comes in, like through DMs, or emails, or through your client sessions. , Obviously something nowadays that you guys have that I didn’t have when I started was, like, taking AI notes during your sessions and then kind of getting to know your customer’s language and all that kind of stuff.

And over time, I think you can really start to see patterns and trends in what the bulk of your customers are saying. Especially, by the way, If you have, like, a client that you’re like, “Oh, man, I just wish I had 10 of her.” You know? Like, “I wish I could replicate this person.”

A lot of my coaching friends say this. Like, they have a handful of clients that they just wish they had, like, many more of that person. I’m like, “Well, then pay attention to what she says,” right? You have to pay really close attention, because then you use that language in all of your marketing, and then that’s how you attract…

Like attracting them with honey, right? So, like, you’re gonna attract more people like that. So this is a big part of how you actually grow your business, how you’re going to find more customers, and all that stuff.

But like I mentioned at the top of the episode, what I often see in our industry, and what I think most people do, is that they market their business on social media or wherever else, then they get a customer, and then, like, at the end of the six-month coaching container or at the end of the course or mastermind, they send out a survey and they’re like, “How was it?”

You know? Like, “How, how did it all go?” And then they might ask, like, “Well, what was going on for you when you found me?” And, like, “How has it changed?” And, “What’s different now?” And, like, that’s helpful, right? Kind of. But let’s think about this for a moment. If you have a customer who, let’s say, you’ve coached or has gone through your course, we want to attract more people like them who are at the point in the buying decision where they are ready to press purchase, right?

So it’s your client six months ago, or three months ago, or whenever they purchased from you, not your client now that they’ve taken your course, or coached with you, or have gone through your mastermind. We want to know what was going on in their life when they clicked purchase. So I think what people are doing wrong and where they’re missing out is that they’re not surveying people when it’s hot, right?

So when it’s still top of mind, the customer’s just come in, you haven’t resolved the pain point yet. Because we need to know what was the pain. What were they experiencing? And essentially, like, Where did the pain get so bad that they finally took action?

That’s what we need to know, right? Because if we can hone in on that moment, like what was going on for them, what were they experiencing, what were they worried about, what was bothering them, and then what was the straw that broke the camel’s back and caused them to click purchase, we can replicate that times a zillion, right?

So that is what we are honing in on today, and that is honestly what I think so many people are missing out on in the online business industry, and they’re just flat out not doing it.

So all of this led to me and my business, yes, doing lots of voice of customer research, both in these interviews and collecting all this data and feedback from people, uh, through DMs and inbox and all of that, which again, you can do much more systematically nowadays with, like, different AI tools, I’m sure. But you can, you can collect all that stuff, and that’s great. But I also realized that I wanted to start surveying those purchasers immediately after purchase.

So what I did was create a survey that goes out to people as soon as they buy.

It’s actually integrated on my thank you page, which I would highly recommend. So as soon as somebody purchases and they fill out the checkout form, when it redirects and has a thank you page, it says, “Could you fill out this survey?” And then I also include that as a link in, uh, their delivery email.

And so the goal of this survey, and I’m gonna tell you all the questions that are on it and all that kind of stuff, but the goal of this survey is to find, is for me to be able to find more people like them, right? These hot off the press people. And I need to know what was going on for them when they bought, and if I wait too long, they’re gonna be cured and then forget, right?

They, they… Hopefully my product is so good that I resolve whatever problem they have that they’re like, “I don’t even know what I was worried about ’cause you made it so easy,” right? Like, that’s my goal six months from now, but I need to know what’s going on now.

There’s a big mistake that I think a lot of people make in surveying and in surveys like this, es- especially when you’re trying to survey somebody who’s just purchased from you. A lot of people focus on where people found you.

You know, like how many of you have bought something from a company and they’re just like, \\\\ “Where’d you hear about us,” right? And they wanna know, is it Google? Did you drive by? Did a friend tell you? And that’s important, right?

Because it tells us which one of your discovery platforms are actually working, right? So was it through an ad? Is it on Instagram? Is it your podcast? And like that’s great for discovery purposes, but what I want to know is why they bought, not just like, “Oh, you saw me on Instagram and then you bought, therefore Instagram is great.”

It’s like, no, no. Lots of people see me on Instagram. Most of them don’t buy. So I need to know why you saw me on Instagram and decided to buy. That’s what I need to know. So as you can see, these things are very different, where people find you and why they buy, very, very different things.

For example, I find through my survey, because I do ask where people found me, it’s, it’s still relevant information, it’s just not the end of the story. But I find out that 40% of people find me through an ad on a meta platform, for example, like Instagram or Facebook. 25% have found me organically through Instagram, and 22% have found me by somebody referring them to me.

So that’s super interesting, ’cause that’s a huge portion of my audience that’s coming to me from referrals, which shows me that all the time and money and effort that I’ve put into nurturing relationships and establishing like referral partners really works.

But okay, so like now I kind of understand like how they come into my universe, but how do I get them to spend like $2,000, right? Especially ’cause like when I look at that data and it tells me 40% of people find me through an ad on a meta platform, I’m like, well, how do I get 40% of people who are finding me through ads to spend $2,000 who just found me, like cold, through an ad, right? They don’t know me from… I would say they don’t know me from Sam, but you know, that’s my name.

So I- they don’t know me from anyone, right? And so, it takes a lot to nurture that person. If anything, seeing these statistics on where people found me just motivates me more to figure out how the heck was I able to convert that many people finding me in that way and then actually purchasing from me.

So I obviously also ask them where they shopped within my universe, as I say. So like, “Did you listen to my podcast?” If they click yes, then it says like, “Well, how many episodes did you listen to?” I wanna know, are, do most people binge my episodes before they purchase from us? Which is the case. So anybody who actually did listen to the podcast tends to listen to many episodes before they purchase.

Very interesting. Also shows me that the podcast is, as much of a conversion tool as what I think it is, not as much of a discovery tool as people think, I, I think, in our industry. Um, but I also ask them, “Did you get on my newsletter?” Like, “Do you follow me on Instagram?” And it’s really helpful for me to see which of these channels that I’m putting so much effort into are discovery versus a nurture or a conversion platform.

Okay, then of course, in the meat of the survey, I get into, like, why they bought from me, right? So the, really the question here is, like, what was going on for you that you decided to purchase the Ultimate Bundle®? And this is where I usually tend to see language that’s just like, “I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. I don’t wanna make a mistake. I wanna start the right way.” You know, all of this kinda stuff.

And I’m not looking at any one-off answer and being like, “Oh, this person just responded this and used this verbiage, so like therefore that’s the verbiage of all my audience.” What I really look for are patterns. And fortunately, once you get so many responses, you get the benefit of having patterns, right?

You get to see, like over time, I see the same phrase over and over again, and I’ve started to get so many numbers of responses that I now have really good data. But in the beginning, I would just have to be like, “Oh, that’s the third person that’s used the phrase ‘sigh of relief.’ That’s so interesting.” I’m gonna start using like, “Do you wanna breathe a gigantic sigh of relief by getting your legal pieces in order?” That’s literally what one of my webinar slides say. It’s because I saw it in a survey.

So I really need to know what was going on for them. I also ask about like kinda the straw that broke the camel’s back question of like, what was the thing, like was there a single moment or an instance, like something that happened that caused you to be like, “Enough,” right? Like, what was your enough moment?

And you can phrase this in your own language and kinda zhuzh it for your own industry. But essentially, you wanna get this idea of like not only what have they been struggling with that was getting in their way, and like why they couldn’t move forward on their own, so, ’cause then that’s where you come in, like why you were needed to complete this process.

Um, but also, what was the thing that just was like, “I can’t, I can’t do this anymore”? Another thing I ask them that I think is so important is who else they considered purchasing from and why they went with me. So I ask them if they checked out any competitors, um, I ask them if there was something about me that just stuck out to them.

This is not to shame any competitors or because anything’s, like, bad about other people selling what you sell or anything like that. The point of asking this question is to find out what your unique differentiators are. Now, over time, I have a really good idea about what my unique differentiators are.

I’m also not very well aware of what anybody else in my industry is doing, ’cause I don’t look. Uh, apparently they look at us, but we don’t look at them. And so I don’t, I don’t really pay attention. It’s, it’s… I would say if anything, for me, looking at these responses, uh, every week when I do, it just helps me to have the confidence that I’m headed in the right direction or to, like, just keep doing what I’m doing.

Because for me personally, 99% of the responses about, like, why did you choose me over a competitor is never, it’s never price. It’s never value. It’s never just like, “Oh, you were $5 cheaper than them.” Most of the time they price the… ‘Cause they copy my products, right? Or they’ll, they’ll just, like, mimic the style or the, uh, structure of my product and then make it cheaper.

So oftentimes they are actually cheaper. But every time people mention about, you know, I’m just reporting the news about what they say, okay? I’m not saying that this is what I think about myself. But they will say, like, I’m down to earth and, like, breath of fresh air and, like, you know, you seem normal, which they’re wrong about.

But they, they make a lot of comments about just kind of like me being myself, to be honest, and being authentic. Now, they, they like that I’m very upfront about things. I bring my, like, Philly attitude to stuff, um, which is true. But I, I think it’s helpful in the sense that, like, for, for me personally, I don’t try to be authentic, I just am.

But sometimes I feel like I should try to be something other than I’m not because I’m like, “Maybe people don’t like me,” or like maybe I’m too this or not enough that. And so for me personally, when I see those responses, I’m just like, “Well, I guess just doing what I’m doing works.” Like, just being myself and honestly just not knowing how to show up as anybody other than myself, it works.

So take that for what it is. , I do think that there are, there are, things that you can see in those responses about product differentiation as well. Like, people will say that they love that I had, uh, another business before this one, that, like, I also was a coach and that that helped to influence the products that I sell.

Or they like the fact that I had videos plus the contracts, or that I included more contracts than other people or something like that. So sometimes there are some more, like, logistical, tactical things that I’m like, “Oh, this is really important.” Or like the fact that we include community. People consistently mention that.

So I’m like, “Okay, it’s important. I can’t ditch the community because people really like this. This is part of the buying decision-making process.

Last but not least, I just had to tell you when I was, like, reviewing some of the more recent responses for today’s episode, at the very end of the survey there’s just like, “Hey, is there anything else you wanna tell me?” And I’m so happy that I got this response. I’ve been waiting 10 years to get this response, but someone told me that we share a mutual love and addiction for popcorn, and she respected me for it.

And I was like, “Wow, I have hit the pinnacle of success that someone bought my product because we both love popcorn.” That, that made me feel so seen. The fact that someone else knew that I was that obsessed with popcorn, I was just like, wow, I am hitting it big. So you’re gonna see popcorn everywhere in everything moving forward.

Um, also someone else mentioned that they love my ads with the little duckies in them. So I was very happy about that. But just kidding, I do think it is fun to have… I mean, that really did happen, but I do think it’s fun to have, uh, a little, like, bonus section where they can tell you stuff. Um, a lot of people will, like, send me really kind, sweet messages in there.

I don’t think I’ve had anyone write anything mean yet, so I don’t regret it. Um, but it’s been really nice to just sometimes ch- you know, check these and kind of… You know, it’s weird when you sell things online, you don’t know who’s buying your stuff. And, you know, you might think that you want to sell as much as I’m selling now,

I, I would tell you it also is weird because I don’t feel like I know people all the time unless you do things like this. So, like, this is also, like, a cool way for me to see as people are rolling in, get to know them, and kind of like more of what’s really going on in their businesses and in their lives. And it means a lot to me, at least personally.

Okay, so based on this survey that I have done and, and have sent out to customers now for years, these are the three major changes that I’ve made in my own business because of the responses that I’ve gotten from it

For one, I use their exact words, like literally the exact words. I don’t judge it, I don’t b- glorify it, I don’t do anything. I use their exact words, their phrases, their way of putting things, and I take it and I put it into my copy.

I put it in my social media content. I will use it here on the podcast. It influences the kind of, um, content that I would even think to create, like maybe the positioning of the content And thinking about how to even like title an episode, for example, being like how to start an online business the right way because I see people use the right way all the time.

Like my people tend to be the ones that are really worried about getting it right and like doing it right. So I know by using that language that speaks to them and exactly what they’re going through.

One of the things I learned actually at James Clear’s mastermind last week was that he does something very similar, uh, with like chapter titling, but I think we could do this in, in content creation and online business where you really get to know your customers’ problems and then you pitch the solution that they want as the title of your thing, right?

So like me saying like, uh, how to start an online business the right way is pitching it as a solution that based on a problem I think that they’re worried about or I know that they’re worried about. So I thought that was really smart that he does it that way.

So when I was culling through some of the survey data yesterday and I saw that one of the people who just purchased the ultimate bundle® a couple of days ago said, “I want to grow my business and have all of my ducks in a row,” , I was like, “Oh, that’s great,” ’cause I usually… I- other people say this. This is a consistent response.

And I will use phrases like, “I’ll help you get all your ducks in a row,” or like, “Do you feel like you don’t have your ducks in a row in your online business?” Like, I will say that at this very start of a, probably at a reel that I’ll create this month.

The second change I make is that it tells me what is working in my marketing, right? So I mentioned earlier that the most common answer to the, like, why’d you buy from me thing is that I’m myself. I’m authentic, and I’m down to earth. So it keeps me on track to be like, I don’t need to change. I don’t need to add all these fancy things.

I can kinda just continue on the way I’ve been continuing on because it seems to work and speak to people. But again, it also tells me what p- which pieces of my product or my process even are working for people. If people consistently mention the podcast, for example, it’s like, okay, I gotta keep, keep doing this with the podcast. I have to keep talking about my product or if I s- at some point it becomes, like, very meta where I see phrases, for example, like I started saying legally up to snuff years ago, um, in my marketing. Now I will see in the survey responses, like, “I just wanted to get legally up to snuff.” I don’t think that people are thinking that independently. I think they’re mimicking back to me what they’re seeing in the, in the content that they’re getting attracted from, you know, like into my universe.

And so it’s interesting ’cause, like, I think it speaks to them. It’s just not necessarily what they would have said off the top of their head, but now they are, and so now I use it even more. So I’m like, oh, that language obviously spoke to someone ’cause I can see even a little bit where, like, the, some of the things that I’ve done or said have actually pulled people in.

The third thing it’s changed is that it tells me what to focus on and what to drop within my own marketing. So if it means a lot to people to know that I had a coaching business before, it’s really important for me to keep telling that story. The longer that you have your own business, the easier it is to forget and just like, I don’t know, move on from some of your stories or like earlier things like your hero story, your journey.

You start to assume, not because you think everybody cares about you or everybody knows you or anything, it’s just, you just kinda get used to it, and you assume like, “Oh, everybody knows that about me,” right? Everybody knows I used to be a corporate lawyer and I left. Everybody knows I had brain surgery.

Everybody knows like I started a coaching business first, and then that’s what led me to the legal business. Like, you just start to make assumptions when the reality is actually when I look at the data, most of the people who are purchasing from me found me recently. They… So every once in a while when I look at the surveys, people will say like, “I’ve been wanting to buy the ultimate bundle for four years.”

They are the outliers, right? So most people, their customer journey is that they’re seeing me in an ad or they, they find one of my reels on Instagram. They comment. They get onto my email list. They sign up for my free legal workshop. They buy the bundle, right? So it’s a very tight window, and they, that probably means they have not heard any of those things, right?

They’ve not read about any of those stories. So if somebody is hanging around on my Instagram, for example, for six months or they’re waiting until the next time I do a live workshop or something like that, it’s important to get back in their ear and share about, “Hey, I used to have a coaching business. That’s why I know,” because I know that it’s important for them to make the purchasing decision down the line to know that I had a coaching business, right? So the survey data is, is really impacting like where I stay on course and like what I continue to hammer on.

Now, if you wanna turn around and create your own survey, uh, well first I’ll tell you that if you don’t feel like putting in any of the time or effort, know that if you buy the Ultimate Bundle®, you actually get a copy of my survey questions for free, because when you buy the bundle, I ask you the survey, and then as a thank you, I just send you the survey so that you can use it and make it as your own.

So you’ve got that going for you. Um, the sale, uh, for my Ultimate Bundle® actually just ended a couple of days ago. If you’re just listening to this now and you’re like, “Darn it. I should have got in on this. I was away. I missed it,” whatever, just shoot me a quick DM @samvanderwielen on Instagram.

Let me know you want in. I’m happy to help you. I will honor the deal. Um, or send me an email. That’s fine. You can reply to any of my emails. Just hit reply, and I will take care of you and honor the deal last week.

Beyond that, if you wanna go out and create your own survey, I would say to really get clear on what was going on in your customer’s life when they were looking for you or somebody like you, or they found you, or they found your product, depending on what it is, because the key really there is to figure out what was their pain point. What was, what was causing this tension, right? Where were they getting stuck? What couldn’t they figure out themselves?

Next you wanna figure out what was the tipping point. What made them buy? What got so bad that they had to take action? This is like the deeper pain point or the fed-up point, that tipping point that we need to know that they experienced the pain long enough that then something like tripped them to do something about it.

And yes, like I said, you do wanna know where did they hear about you. I just think that that will… Again, that is a discovery question that is just going to tell you where you should keep showing up and where your marketing efforts are really working. Last but not least, I’d ask who else did they consider? And why did you go with me instead? This is what’s going to tell you the differentiation that you need to know to keep leaning in to what makes you uniquely you and allows you to stand out in the crowd.

Okay, now with that, we have to take a moment to celebrate that this is the 300th episode of On Your Terms®, and I’m gonna share a little behind-the-scenes stats for you in case you’ve ever thought about starting your own podcast or, or you just like to know, if you’re nosy like me, and you just like wanna know the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Um, so I cannot believe that this is 300 episodes. My first episode actually aired way back in July 2021. It’s a little COVID baby. I started the podcast when I’d already had an Instagram. I had a pretty decently sized email list at that point, maybe 25,000-ish or something like that. And I was honestly…

It was probably the start of me feeling frustrated with social media and, like, where I felt social media was headed. Boy, I did not know, um, just how bad it could get. But I, I felt like there was no room for nuance or any deeper discussion. I was already getting sick of like, you know, especially back then, I was being kind of pushed or encouraged to do, like, a eight-second, like, dancing reel, where you were, like, pointing to random words on the screen, and I was just like, “Wow, how did my life come to this?”

Like, why are we, why are we doing this? And it just felt like in a world where everybody wanted quick, snappy answers to things… I’m not a quick, snappy person, as you can probably already tell. But I’m also like… I was also kind of sick of being told that I should be. Like, I… You know, not everything’s quick and snappy.

And honestly, I think a lot of the bad advice that you’ve been served up over the years, and probably the courses that you’ve bought that have felt like a waste of money, the coaches you’ve invested in that felt like they were no good, um, I think was because of quick and snappy. Um, because people feel such a pressure to just tell you like, “This is how it is. This is how easy it is. Follow this trend, and this thing will work. Do this, and then that will happen.” And that’s just not the way it is. It’s not the way that businesses are built, and I just think that there are, yeah, deeper things in life than just giving you, like, an eight-second reel. So that was really the hope, uh, and goal for this podcast.

It was also to create a bit of a library of resources. So I have hundreds of episodes for you on legal issues that don’t change. And- You know, I initially thought that this podcast would be all legal stuff and just kinda like lead to the bundle, lead to my free legal workshop. And over the years, and as I’ve created that resource library, I realize I don’t need to keep doing these episodes ’cause I’ve done them, right?

Um, but also I realized, and I think this is what really helped the podcast to grow, is that that’s not really what I wanna talk about all the time. I don’t think it’s what you wanna listen to about the t- all the time. And although that’s what I sell, I know that you have other stuff going on in your business, like figuring out how to find more customers, for example, through surveying them immediately after they purchase, that we can talk about.

And like, sure, I can help you get all the legal stuff, but like I have a lot more to offer you, cause I’ve done okay in, in my business. And so yeah, that was… That’s been really kinda like the evolution of On Your Terms®. And I think because of that, it’s funny, I’ve probably branched out the most in the last year on the podcast in terms of topics, and our downloads are up 81% in just the last 12 months.

We’ve almost doubled the podcast, um, downloads month over month. It’s crazy. So like I said, this is our 300th episode. We’ve actually had 319 episodes total in terms of when you round in all the bonuses that we’ve done. And we’ve hit over 227,000 downloads, which, you know, is funny. I float in circles where that sounds like a, a day’s work or something for some people, but I look at this number and I’m just like, “That’s an insane number of downloads.

That’s, uh, so many. I can’t believe…” That’s, that’s a lot of people. It’s a lot of people taking the time and giving their attention and effort to listening to this podcast, and I just appreciate it so much. I also think that that downloads number is gonna climb pretty steadily now that we’ve increased so much, and I, I do think that the podcast is like headed in a cool direction and could experience a lot of growth over the next few years.

I think it’s really funny that my most downloaded episode ever is actually one of my most recent, number 280, on how I got my first 1,000 subscribers on Substack. I just thought that was so funny that that episode took off so much. I, I think what’s behind that episode doing really well are a couple of things.

One is that Substack is intriguing to a lot of people, and people want to start there, and that’s, like, a nice concrete thing of, like, 1,000 subscribers sounds sort of doable versus, like, here’s how I have 100,000 subscribers on my Kit list or something like that, which feels like if you’re starting out far from now.

So, like, 1,000 subscribers feels relatively, um, doable. I also think people… I, I’ve learned, uh, looking through the data that people sort of like to see my, what I’m calling, like, guinea pig journalism or guinea pig experiments. So, like, me starting a Substack and saying, like, “I’m not gonna take my 70,000 something email list over from Kit.

I’m just gonna try to grow it natively there and see what happens,” I think people are then like, “Oh, that’s interesting. Like, I wanna, I wanna see how you did it.” So they just want, like, a little behind-the-scenes look.

Yeah, so I’m really excited for the future of On Your Terms® as I continue to bring you episodes that, you know, are for business owners, as I say, who want to be as present in their lives, as profitable in their businesses. I really try to think of everything through that lens. Like, any business strategy or tip that I’m teaching you, really my goal is for it to make your life easier and your business easier.

But also, if it makes your business easier, I hope it’s so that you go out and actually live your life, um, because I’ve personally just found that that’s what’s kind of key to longevity in this business. But also, I, you know, I just think to a more, more enriched life. So that’s what I want to keep doing here on the podcast.

Um, and sharing… I think what’s also been really fun this year is that I’ve started – doing episodes that are kind of like recaps or behind the scenes of different cool events I get to go to. So like the episode I just did on James Clear’s mastermind bringing you along to Craft and Commerce Kit’s Conference every year.

I do a follow-up episode after I go to my mastermind called Aspen every time. I think just little things like that have been really fun this year and kind of like bringing you along, uh, for the ride.

Hopefully you’ve liked it too. So you’ll have to tell me, um, how you’re feeling about the podcast these days. I love hearing from you. Um, th- I was gonna say thank you to all my listeners who listen every single week, especially to the ones who reach out and say hi. I just wanna give you a special shout-out because it’s, you know, podcasting is a lot of fun, but the weird part about it is that you feel like you’re talking into a microphone to no one and no one’s listening.

So it’s, uh, it’s especially cool when someone emails you or sends you a DM or something and is like, “Your episode today, like I, I loved when you talked about this, or this, this is how it came out for me,” or whatever. I love hearing from you. So, um, shout-out to all the listeners, especially the ones who reach out.

Thank you to Michelle, who’s here right now, um, staring at me producing this podcast. Um, Michelle and my team does everything behind the scenes for the podcast, and without her, this podcast would not get to you. And to Lindsey and Leanne on our team as well, um, for everything you guys do to not only keep the podcast running and the listeners well taken care of, but the business, uh, churning like a, a beauty every single day.

I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you all for listening, and thank you for letting me celebrate this 300th episode. I’ll see you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms® podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps To Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business at Samvanderwielen.com and to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram at samvanderwielen and send me a DM to say hi.