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At the Dynamic Women® Podcast's seventh anniversary celebration, listener and past guest Jennifer Kanyumwa asked me: What has been your favourite part of hosting a podcast, and what advice would you give someone wanting to start one? It's a great double question, so here's my honest answer to both. What I Love Most About Hosting a Podcast The Conversations My absolute favourite part is having these amazing conversations with wonderful business owners and dynamic women. I get to meet some incredible women, and as I ask questions, I not only hear powerful stories and expertise but also uncover smaller, unexpected things.  For example, I have an upcoming episode with Sarah from Neon Collective. She shared how she had a diagnosis of autism and is still creating this amazing business. We sometimes have things that could hold us back: trauma, different situations in our lives, challenges we're up against, and the fact that the people I get to interview still come out ahead is amazing. Guests Become More Than Guests I find that guests often become friends, collaborators, clients, or community members. I like the idea that once we've connected, you don't just disappear. It's really nice when people come back. Knowing It Impacts Everyday Life Knowing the episodes impact people during their everyday life moments means a lot to me. Maybe you have this in your ear right now as you're walking, doing the dishes, taking care of your kids, or doing data entry in your business. Maybe you're using this as a tool, as part of your education, as a way to move your life and business forward. Creating Long-Term Impact I record these as videos, and people might listen during the week, but sometimes I have people reach out and say, "I remember this episode you had three years ago, and it changed my life." Each person listening is capturing their own golden nuggets, which is fabulous. The only sad thing is that I don't hear enough from my listeners. If you've been listening for a long time, or this is your first episode, I'd love it if you'd email me directly: [email protected] and let me know how the podcast has impacted you, and a little bit more about yourself. Advice for Anyone Starting a Podcast Know Your Why The key thing is to know why you're doing it. People come to me and say, "Oh, you've been doing it for seven years, you must be making a ton of money off of it." That's not the point for me.  For me, the podcast is part of my content. It's how I start creating content. It's my anchor video that then creates the YouTube, the podcast, the blog, all my social posts and content for the week. I don't want anyone else writing for me or creating videos with AI that aren't me. It's all me. That's why I do it. But your why will be different, and that's okay. Just know it before you start. Don't Wait Until You're Ready That's what my podcast mentor, Michelle Abraham of AmplifYou says: "If your first episodes are perfect, you waited way too long." Think about Marie Forleo. Her beginning videos look terrible compared to later on, but she was still her, and her content was still great. You don't need a professional studio or fancy editing. All you really need is a good microphone. I use the Blue Yeti and record on Zoom. Consistency Matters More Than Perfection Many people get going, do a whole bunch of episodes, and then it just dies off. If you think you can only do it consistently once or twice a month, do that. Some people do daily podcasts, not for me, I have too many other things on the go.  You will improve as you go. It won't be the best at first, but it'll get better. Tie Your Content to Your Mission Make sure the topics you put out are tied to your mission, message, business, or community. It's going to feel weird if you go off topic. I can remember following a woman because she was talking about business, and all of a sudden, she was talking about Botox. Then she started branching out into health and wellness, her makeup and hair tips. She kind of lost me because I was there for the business stuff. Always try to have it tied to why people came to you. You Don't Have to Start Alone If you need help, hire someone to hold your hand to make it happen. Michelle Abraham and her team at AmplifYou launch and manage podcasts. Also, my clients have my virtual assistants do it. Having support makes consistency much more doable. A Few Extra Tips Michelle Gave me:
Stay tuned for the next posts in this series, where we feature more burning questions from our anniversary celebration guests. You don't want to miss them. Until next time, stay dynamic!
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Recently, I went to Web Summit Vancouver as part of the media and was lucky enough to interview some amazing female founders. In this blog, I’ll share about pre-, during, and post-events and how to get the most out of them. It's from my experience over the years, as my energy levels change, and from my goals and what my business needs.  PRE-EVENT 1. Get on the Conference App As best as you can, try to get on the conference app. Web Summit has an amazing app where you can:
If you're going to start connecting with people, have a purpose. For me, I was looking for female founders. I started going through the list, trying to find them and the businesses they started. 2. Connect with Intention You only have one chance at it. What I did was say straight up: "Hey, I want to talk to you because you're a female founder and I'm looking for guests for my podcast called Dynamic Women." Put a link to whatever it is you want them to know about. As my coach says, this is "being in service." Imagine a waiter putting a napkin on their arm when you go to a nice restaurant, then welcoming you in and serving you. You want to come into your connection, serving the person. Even if it's like "Hey, I'd love to learn more about you. I see that you're doing X, Y, Z. Maybe you'd like this article", something where you're serving, not where you take the napkin, put it like a bib, and come with the intention of "give me, give me, give me." I had a few people reach out wanting to connect and say things like "Hey, this is my business. You can book a call to learn more here." I'm probably not going to even connect with them. On LinkedIn, always send a connection request with a note so the person knows why you're reaching out. 3. Plan Your Schedule If there are multiple stages/speakers, where do you want to be at what time? Which makes more sense?  At Web Summit, their app is fantastic. You can:
If you're at the conference and know certain sessions are recorded, plan to go back and watch them later. This gives you the freedom to attend meetups, have hallway conversations, or attend master classes (not otherwise recorded). 4. Know Your Goals and Intention Before you go, think about: What are my goals? What am I hoping to get out of this? If you want to have a good ROI (return on investment), you want to make sure you know your intention for being there. Why I attended Web Summit? Two reasons: 1. Interview female founders. With my media pass and podcast, I can provide a platform, reach, and airtime to women who may not otherwise get it. Often, the media wants you to interview more well-known people. My approach is different. I want to give airtime to those who wouldn't normally have it. 2. Learn about AI for my virtual assistant agency (VA Made Easy). We're in the age of AI. I was there to learn what we can integrate into our business and what I can bring into VA Made Easy to make it easier for my VAs and clients. Many small business owners think, "I can just use AI to replace employees, contractors, and my VA." Don't, don't, don't, don't. When you replace a virtual assistant (a person) with software, you become the manager of the software; you're the AI manager. I attended to explore how we can have the virtual assistants become more managers of the AI to free up more of their time. Their current tasks can be completed faster, allowing them to take on more and increase their value to their client. When you know exactly what you want to do going into it, you can have a better ROI of your time and energy. Even if you were going to something that is free, it's still a killer of your time. You want to make sure you're getting something out of it. DURING THE EVENT 1. Manage Your Time and Energy There are a lot of night events, and they're fantastic. But for me, I'm looking to get most of my stuff done during the day. That means some of the things I step out of, and then I listen to the recording as I'm on my way home or later in the evening.  I don't necessarily need to be at the night events to reach my goals. Some of the founders I've interviewed might want to attend these night events to meet investors, mentors, or other founders. Just know how your day needs to be based on your energy level and your goals. 2. Use the App as a Connection Tool At Web Summit, we have name badges with a QR code. We can scan them and connect with the person on the app. This is a feature that many big conferences are now doing. But I suggest you also connect with them on LinkedIn. The reason: if you connect on LinkedIn, once you're done with the app, you can still move forward and have that connection. You don't always remember who you connected to. If you have them in the conference app as well as LinkedIn, you can refer back to the app. 3. Take Screenshots and Photos Once you've made that LinkedIn connection, if there's one you don't want to lose, take a quick screenshot to save it to your images. You can add that to your Notes section and write something below it. You can also take a photo together. Take the photo and send it to them on LinkedIn and say, "So great meeting you and talking about XYZ" (whatever the topic was). I've had a lot of people connecting about interviewing them. I said, "Message me on LinkedIn and say we're going to talk about being on the podcast" or "I'm going to be on your podcast", just so it's that reminder. You meet hundreds of people, and then afterwards you go "Shoot. What was the name of that person who was wearing the red outfit, who did that business I wanted to connect with?" Hopefully, on LinkedIn one day you see a post from them and remember, "That's who it was." But we want to be more intentional about the connections. 4. Make a List at the End of the Day Have a list of everyone you want to follow up with. I promise you, a week or two weeks from now, you're not going to remember everybody. POST-EVENT This is where a lot of my business-owner clients, before they come to me, completely waste opportunities. If you're going to be a vendor at a trade show, a speaker at an event, or just attending, you want to have a post-event strategy. The Three-Part Strategy 1. People You Connected With Go back, look at all the people you connected with, and move them into some buckets. Use your CRM, Google sheet, notepad, or something. Put them in the list of:
Set reminders in your CRM so you know: I'm going to connect with this person in a week, or tomorrow, or a few weeks, depending on the urgency of that connection. Post those photos you took. If you took that selfie with someone, make a big post with lots of images and tag that person so they can see it. Make a general post about the event, thanking whoever hosted it, and tagging a bunch of the speakers you want to stay connected with. Hopefully, you've taken images of them, because as a speaker you don't always have your own photographer on hand. If you can take some nice photos of a speaker you want to get connected with, even some short video, and if you have one little nugget you can say that they taught you: "So great hearing from Mary Smith, and she spoke about [insert the title]. My biggest takeaway from them, or the piece that I'm going to implement, is..." That's really nice feedback for the speaker. They're going to see that because you've tagged them, and they're going to think, "Wow, this person cared about my talk," so they might care about connecting and engaging with your post. Once you've done these posts, don't just leave them be. Go back. Check on them. Comment back. There might be some more connections that happen. Ninja tip: Google or search for the event hashtags, then look at the event's profile on different platforms. Maybe you're in some of the photos, and you didn't know. Other people might be posting, but they didn't know your name. It's also great to be reminded of people, "Oh right, that's that person. I wanted to connect with them, but didn't get their LinkedIn." 2. Your Notes: The 10-24-7 System One thing I like to do is called 10-24-7:
I promise you: the next day it's all fresh, and you'll think, "Oh yeah, those things were so awesome." A week later, you've already forgotten it. Unless you've put those highlighted things on your calendar to implement or done some goal-setting around them, you're probably going to forget them. Look at all the highlighted items and put them on your calendar if you haven't yet, even if it's three months down the road or six months down the road. Put it as a task to review the goal or add that in so you have those golden nuggets there. Otherwise, with the information you gathered, it was a waste of time. We've heard a lot about "shelf help." We don't want any of the self-help or professional development to just get lost and forgotten on a shelf. Otherwise, you’ll keep making the same mistakes. 3. Implementing: The 12-3-1 System You don't have to implement everything.
That one thing could be really big, so you might have to break it down into something smaller. What do you do next month? Go back, look at your list (maybe you have 11 things now, or maybe you've added one). Ask, "What are my top three, and what's the one I'm going to do this month?" This really helps you actually lock in and put into play the things that matter most. Don't Do It All Yourself If this is overwhelming and there are so many things you want to implement, don't do it all yourself. A lot of times, I'm in the middle of a workshop or talk, and I'm texting my virtual assistant or messaging them on WhatsApp (the free way to do it, especially when they're in the Philippines). I'm saying:
Or I'm in Trello (my project management platform), adding a task specific to them. Quick Implementation Example One example was quote cards. One of my coaches shared that rather than a business card, make a quote card with 10 quotes connected to your business, not quoting other people, but quoting yourself with your business info on it. As he's talking, I'm writing down the 10 quotes I think would be great. I shoot that over to Kristine, my VA and say, "Hey, can you make a business card with five quotes on each side?" I took a picture of his, and sent it over. She had it back to me pretty quickly, so at break I showed him. I said, "What do you think?" He gave me a few pointers, and I was already off and running, sending it off to my printer. This is how you have massive, quick action: by not implementing everything yourself. If you're like "Oh yeah, but Diane, you have a team", you can have support too! You wouldn't believe how affordable it is to bring on a virtual assistant. And I make it super easy for you. Our company VA Made Easy, starts at just 10 hours a week. You don't have to hire full-time staff. You don't have to have an office they work in. You don't have to buy them a computer. It's all set, and it's definitely doable. We have an upcoming delegation workshop titled “Build Your Business & Reach Your Goals with the Help of a Virtual Assistant”. It’s free to join here. But if the date has passed when you read this, email my team at [email protected], and we will let you know about the next dates. Get the Best ROI When you're going to invest time and money in an event, use my recommendations to make sure you get the best ROI. Share this with a friend or another busy business owner who wants to achieve better ROI (return on investment) in their time, energy, and money. Until next time, stay dynamic!
Have you ever gotten to the end of your day and thought, “I worked all day, but I didn't actually move anything forward"?  It's probably because you're focusing on so many things at once. You…
But all the important things that would move your business forward didn't have time to get done. That's because there's a huge difference between working IN your business and working ON your business, and most business owners are spending almost all of their time in it. Working IN Your Business vs. ON Your Busines Just to make sure we're on the same page: Working IN Your Business This is:
You're basically operating the machine that is your business. If you're not doing the things in your business, your business doesn't run. Working ON Your Business But there's another layer to it, a higher layer. What does that look like? That's:
Working ON the business is where scaling happens. Growth happens. Revenue increases. But most women rarely get to put time, energy and resources there. Why Is This Happening? Because there’s a lot to do, and being busy feels productive. But being busy doesn't mean you're earning more revenue. You can be super busy and super poor at the exact same time. Honestly, for a lot of business owners, being busy feels safe because you're not necessarily doing some of these higher-level tasks that might be a little bit out of your wheelhouse or a bit of a stretch. You know how to execute. You know how to do your activities. You know how to handle things and people rely on you. There's reward that comes with being the one who keeps everything moving. You get to check off your list, which is fun sometimes. But eventually, you are the bottleneck. Because if you're the one working the machine, making everything run, then the business can't really grow past your personal capacity. You are the bottleneck to getting things done, and you are also the one holding your business back from growing. The Cost of Staying IN the Business If you're continuing to work in the business, you never have enough:
 You stay in reaction mode. Reaction mode may maintain the business, but it rarely scales it. If you're thinking, "Yeah, but I don't want to scale my business". Yeah, but you also don't want to be the bottleneck in your business, or what’s stopping the revenue growth, or you enjoying life. You can't build to the next level of your business while you're spending all your time maintaining the current one. You have to have both. What Working ON the Business Unlocks When you finally spend time on the business, you start to:
Honestly, it just feels so much lighter. You can't be carrying every moving piece yourself. I see business owners try to do this. Even ones that have been in business for decades are still doing each part or at least most of it themselves, and that's going to feel really hard. And it’s hard to maintain. When your core limiting belief is “I am not enough,” getting things done becomes proof of your value. That’s what keeps you stuck working in the business instead of stepping back to lead it. The Difference When you're in the business:
Working on the business can feel slower and less visible at first, but in the long term, that's the work that changes everything. Shift the Identity Stop asking "what needs my attention today" and start asking "what's actually moving the business forward?"  Often, people just get lost in their tasks. In the same way, when we work on tasks, we're not necessarily working on projects. It's a completely different way of operating. Why Support Really Matters It's not that you're incapable of doing everything. Maybe that's the problem. You're in the capable woman trap, where you can do everything, so you try. But because you're buried in daily operations all day long, you've never really had the time to lead, to be in the vision, and to be where you need to be on the business. I was leading the Dynamic Wealth Accelerator program and hearing from one of my clients: "I would have more leads if I had time to get them. I know there are things I have to do, but I'm not able to do them" because she's working in the business. She's not able to build out that vision because there are too many little pieces needing her attention. It's that shift that needs to happen. The Three Roles (Coming Next) In the next blog, I'm going to break down this framework even further from a book I think everyone should read: The E-Myth Revisited (get the updated version). In it, they talk about the three roles most business owners are playing (or we hope they're playing):
The problem is that most people in the business are focusing on just the technician role. Most women, most business owners, are massively overfunctioning in one of these areas, more than likely the technician, because that was the skill set that they had in the beginning. Ask Yourself How much of your time is spent IN the business versus ON the business? If you can answer that with honesty, you may also find the reason things feel so heavy right now or why you haven't reached your goals. The Solution We have a workshop called, Build Your Business and Reach Your Goals with the Help of a Virtual Assistant. It's on Thursday, May 21st, 2026 from 1-3 PM PT. You can register here for free. This is my gift to you. It is virtual, so I'm going to cover aspects of delegation, maximizing their time, and how you can gain more time freedom and better results. I'll tell you, when you get support under you, you have more time, energy, and ability to work on the business while your virtual assistant can work in the business. If you can't make it, but you know you definitely want a virtual assistant, or you want to explore the idea even more, please reach out to me [email protected]. I have a couple of virtual assistants who have some availability right now, so they can take a lot of tasks off your plate. Until next time, stay dynamic!
Let me ask you something: How many ideas are sitting on your to-do list right now… things that you know would move your business forward, but they are not getting done?  It's not because you don't care or you're not capable, but the problem is they're not getting done. A lot of people say it's a time problem, but maybe it's not. This may be an implementation issue. The Idea Graveyard I see this all the time in the businesswomen that I work with and the busy corporate professionals that I coach. You're smart, you're driven, you're not lacking ideas or strategy. But that actually might be part of the problem. You have so many:
But they're not fully executed. Over time, this creates a backlog, an idea graveyard of all these things, so many good ideas that never become results. The Secret: Just Implement I was pulled up front at a mastermind where my coach was talking about the successes I've had. People came up to me afterwards and said, "How have you had so much success?" They were looking for a magic pill. The key thing I said to them is: Implement. You just got to implement. Granted, I have had a lot of great strategy and ideas, but the thing is, I was implementing a lot of what my different coaches were telling me. It's maybe the truth that people don't want to hear, because it will actually get you faster results than anything else. Your coaches can give you strategies all day long, but if you don't implement them, you're not going to see the results. Knowledge Is Not the Edge We live in a world where you can Google anything. I'm sure you have used one of the AI platforms, Claude, ChatGPT or whatever, to come up with ideas. You can learn anything. It might not be entirely correct, but you can still learn from it. But that knowledge is not necessarily the edge. Though you need to be an expert at your own material, execution can actually be the edge. The women who are growing, scaling, and fueling momentum are no more special than you or I (though I'd love to say they are). It's more so that they're just getting things done. It's not that they know more, though sometimes they do have great strategies and ideas. They're just the ones implementing. Why Things Aren't Getting Done Your time and energy are pulled in so many directions, probably too many directions. You're:
The sad thing is, you're constantly in reaction mode. Probably 50% of your day is in reaction mode with these small tasks.  Then, when you have time, you're tired, decision-fatigued, or you don't have the mental space to execute, or you're delivering on the things you have sold or are good at, like client or customer service. Permission to Stop Seeking More Ideas I'm giving you permission now not to seek more ideas, but to implement the great ones you have. If you don't have a strategy or ideas, then of course, go and get it. But once you have it, implement before you gather more ideas. What Most People Do (and Why It Doesn't Work) Most people try to just get more organized:
That's not always a solution, because you're still the one doing everything. A New Way of Thinking Here is a shift that I hope you can have: What if the problem wasn't time management or discipline? What if the problem was you're the only one implementing, or you're only one of the few that are implementing? Think about that for a moment. Think about your organizational chart and all the different roles you have. Not only that, within every role, you're:
Of course, things aren't getting done. It's tiring to do all of that. You're just running out of capacity to get everything done because you don't have the right structure in place. Imagine This You have an idea and it actually gets implemented. You have an idea, and then it gets done very quickly:
It's not because you found more time in your own schedule. It's because you're not doing it alone anymore. How Do We Do That? This is where most people just jump in: "Today I need to hire help. I need to hire someone to work with me. I need to get an office. I need to rent space. I need to hire an expert." Yes, support is part of the solution, but you don't have to do it in a way rooted in old thinking. Before You Hire Even before you hire, it's thinking about: What do I really need to implement? You need to understand that first. Out of all the ideas and strategies you have:
What's the thing that's going to actually move the needle? That's what you need to delegate. I'm going to be doing a series here around delegation, passing off tasks, and using a virtual assistant to do this, so you don't have to rent an office, and you don't have to pay North American or Western rates. In my next blog, I will talk about the difference between working IN your business vs ON your business. Real Results Example One of my virtual assistant clients said to me, "Wow, I landed five new clients in the first two weeks." I said, "How did that happen?"  She said, "Well, I had this idea for a follow-up sequence to be done in emails that then set up calls with me. All I did was have my VA (virtual assistant) actually implement that idea for that email sequence. I was able to have a bunch of these calls set up, and I was able to close five of those leads into clients." Wouldn't that be amazing if in the next two weeks, you could have that type of result? Take Action Today Make a little list. What are the things that are unimplemented, that are not put into action right now? I'm not saying every idea you have needs to be implemented. I believe there are certain seasons for certain ideas, and this is not the time to judge yourself. It's just about awareness. Awareness is the first step to change. If you want to get the results you're looking for, and not just have this massive to-do list, then let me connect you with a great VA. Book a chat here. Or attend the next training. Until next time, stay dynamic!
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