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Five years. 109 episodes. More conversations than I ever imagined when I hit record for the first time back in 2021.

This is the final episode of Here's What I Learned... and honestly, it feels exactly right.

This season was built around experiments -- intentional engagement, time tracking, group onboarding, image title SEO, and defining what "enough" actually looks like. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I started feeling the closing of a chapter. This episode is me honoring that feeling out loud.

I'm not disappearing. The work continues. But the podcast as you know it is done, and I wanted to say thank you -- properly -- before I go.

What next?

• For updates on how this season's experiments wrapped up, follow my LinkedIn newsletter: Structure-ish
• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions | OnsoundRoyalty Free Music and Sound Effects discover OnSound
Music promoted by Free-stock-musicRoyalty-Free Music for YouTube, Social Media & Creators
Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0) CreativecommonsDeed - Attribution 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

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What if the answer to burnout isn't doing more... but defining enough?

In this episode, I sit down with Becky Mollenkamp—feminist business coach, author, and liberation advocate—for a conversation that challenges everything we've been conditioned to believe about success, productivity, and money. Becky assigns me a 30-day experiment designed to decondition my brain from capitalism's relentless "more, more, more" and help me discover what enough actually looks like.

This isn't about deprivation or settling. It's about freedom. Freedom from the straight jacket of hustle culture, from chasing arbitrary revenue goals, and from sacrificing sleep, joy, and creativity in pursuit of someone else's definition of success.

If you're a manifesting generator like me (or just someone who constantly feels like you should be doing more), this episode will make you rethink everything. We explore how to define your own enough across money, time, productivity, and values... and why that simple act is one of the most radical things you can do as a business owner.

Topics:

• Why capitalism conditions us to believe "enough" means failure or settling
• The four-week framework for defining and implementing your enough
• How to audit your time and money against your actual values
• Why defining enough is harder (and more liberating) than you think
• The difference between needs, wants, and what capitalism tells us we want
• How Becky's quarterly hotel retreats became part of her enough

You can find Becky Mollenkamp at:

Website: beckymollenkamp.com

Mentioned in the episode:

• Liberate Your Business by Becky Mollenkamp (releasing late April)
• The Enough Experiment details at jackihayes.co/podcasts

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend who needs permission to do less
• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Credits: Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions | OnsoundRoyalty Free Music and Sound Effects discover OnSound Music promoted by Free-stock-musicRoyalty-Free Music for YouTube, Social Media & Creators Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0) CreativecommonsDeed - Attribution 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

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Six weeks into the 90 day Intentional Engagement Experiment, I have a surprising update: Instagram is the hardest platform for me to consistently have real conversations on right now. Between ads, suggested content, and the “either I only see my favorites or I see Unstable Unicorns ads” problem, it is tougher to stay focused on the people I actually want to build relationships with.

In this halfway mark check-in, I share what is working better (hi, LinkedIn and Threads), how I am defining a meaningful conversation for this experiment, and the simple tracking system I built in Airtable to keep the whole thing grounded in reality.

Topics:

• What “intentional engagement” means in this experiment (and what doesn't count)
• Why Instagram has been the most difficult place to engage consistently
• Why LinkedIn and Threads have been easier for actual conversation
• How seasonality and real life impacted the experiment (and why that still counts)
• The Airtable Conversation Tracker system I am using to log interactions and follow ups
• The next piece I am building: a weekly rhythm for engagement that does not rely on scrolling

Mentioned in the episode:

• Jessica Lackey, Deeper Foundations membership: DeeperfoundationsMembership | Deeper Foundations — Deeper Foundations
  
  
• The Intentional Engagement Experiment: Tracking Conversations That Grow Your Business

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• Find the complete show notes and transcripts at jackihayes.co

Say hi!

• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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How much of your SEO is hiding in plain sight... inside your images?

In this episode of Here’s What I Learned, I’m joined by SEO strategist Brittany Herzberg for a real-time experiment: what happens when you stop uploading “IMG4532” and start treating image titles like actual search signals. We get into how Google reads your image file names, what to name them (without turning into a keyword-stuffing goblin), and how to track whether the changes are working using Google Search Console.

If you’re a creative service provider who’s sitting on a backlog of blog graphics, portfolio images, or content assets, this is one of those “small change, big ripple” conversations.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why image titles matter for SEO (and why “IMG_4532” is not helping you)
• How one quick rename can get you showing up in Google Image results
• A simple way to decide what to name images
• Keyword research that does not require a 12-tab spiral
• A practical guideline for image naming length, plus why hyphens matter
• When to use location keywords (and why consistency matters)
• How long to run the experiment and what to track so you actually know if it worked

I’m renaming image titles across my site using Brittany’s approach, then tracking results in Google Search Console for 1 to 2 months. I’ll add my baseline notes and updates after the fact.

You can find Brittany at:

• Website: brittanyherzberg.com
• Instagram: @brittany_herzberg
• Threads: @brittany_herzberg
• The Basic B podcast

Mentioned in the episode:

• Google Search Console (and the “Insights” tab)
• Ubersuggest (free Chrome extension)
• Keysearch (use code KSDISC for 20% off)
• The Energetics & Intention Behind Your SEO Strategy podcast episode

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• This podcast is powered by curiosity—and by listeners like you. Support future episodes at ko-fi.com/jackihayes
• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, a community of indie creators amplifying each other’s work through collaboration and care.

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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In this episode, I’m joined by Jayci Trujillo, founder of Happy Girl Marketing, for a very practical experiment that sounds simple and gets uncomfortable fast… tracking time.

Jayci is in a growth season. More clients, a growing team, bigger decisions. And like a lot of service business owners, she realized she was making those decisions without really knowing where her time was going or what her actual hourly rate looked like once everything was counted.

So we designed an experiment. For at least two weeks, Jayci is tracking every part of her workday. Not just client work, but the context switching, the quick check-ins, the strategy time, the things that quietly eat up hours without showing a clear return.

We talk about why most business owners underestimate how much they’re working, how tracking time can surface what is no longer worth your energy, and why this kind of data makes scaling decisions clearer instead of heavier.

If you’ve ever felt busy without being sure what’s actually moving the needle, this episode gives you a grounded place to start noticing.

Topics covered:

• Why tracking time is essential during growth and scaling seasons
• What your real hourly rate reveals once everything is counted
• How context switching impacts focus and decision-making
• Choosing tools that make time tracking realistic, not rigid
• How to use time data to decide what to automate, outsource, or let go

You can find Jayci Trujillo at:

• Website: Happy Girl Marketing Co
• Instagram: InstagramLogin • Instagram
  
  

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• This podcast is powered by curiosity—and by listeners like you. Support future episodes at ko-fi.com/jackihayes
• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, a community of indie creators amplifying each other’s work through collaboration and care.

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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Onboarding one client is one thing. Onboarding a group is an entirely different experiment.

In this episode, I’m joined again by Bridget Baker to unpack what really happens when you try to onboard a group program in a way that feels inclusive, clear, and genuinely supportive without turning yourself into a full-time concierge.

Bridget shares what she learned from running her virtual writing retreat, including where things broke down, what surprised her, and how her expectations shifted around tools, timelines, and participant behavior. We talk honestly about Slack resistance, missed emails, manual workarounds, and why “just doing what works for you” often falls apart at scale.

This conversation is about letting go of perfection, designing for real humans with different preferences, and treating your business like a series of experiments instead of a fixed system you have to get right the first time.

Topics covered:

• Why group onboarding requires a fundamentally different approach than 1:1 onboarding
• The hidden risks of manual processes when managing multiple participants
• Designing onboarding that works across different tools, learning styles, and comfort levels
• Managing expectations without forcing everyone into the same container
• How small onboarding gaps compound in short-term programs
• Treating every launch as an experiment you can learn from and refine

You can find Bridget at:

Website: bridgetbakerbranding

Instagram: @bridgetbakerbranding

Mentioned in the episode:

Running a Location Independent Business with Bridget Baker

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• This podcast is powered by curiosity—and by listeners like you. Support future episodes at ko-fi.com/jackihayes
• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, a community of indie creators amplifying each other’s work through collaboration and care.

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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What happens when you stop letting good conversations get buried in your DMs and actually start paying attention to them?

In this episode, I’m joined by Jayci Trujillo of Happy Girl Marketing to kick off Season 10’s first experiment: intentional engagement. We’re talking about tracking conversations on purpose, not to be salesy or weird, but to understand what’s actually helping your business grow.

We dig into why being strategic about conversations doesn’t cancel out being human, how tracking helps you stop losing connections you genuinely care about, and why relying on memory or the algorithm is a losing game. I also share why this experiment hits one of my biggest avoidance patterns and what I’m hoping to learn by committing to it for 90 days.

If you want more clarity around where leads, collaborations, and opportunities actually come from, this experiment is for you.

What We Covered:

• What intentional engagement actually looks like in a real business
• Why tracking conversations doesn’t have to feel transactional
• Which conversations are worth tracking, even when they start casually
• How tracking helps you see patterns in leads and opportunities
• What I’m testing in my 90-day intentional engagement experiment

Jayci Trujillo is the founder of Happy Girl Marketing, a boutique social media agency helping business owners reconnect with social media in a way that feels fun, human, and sustainable.

You can find Jayci at:

Website: happygirlmarketingco.com

Instagram: @happygirlmarketingco

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• This podcast is powered by curiosity—and by listeners like you. Support future episodes at ko-fi.com/jackihayes

Say hi!

• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, a community of indie creators amplifying each other’s work through collaboration and care.

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Send us a text

This episode is a full, honest debrief of a launch that didn’t convert — and what I learned anyway.

I promoted a brand-new workshop more than any other offer I’ve ever put out into the world. I showed up consistently. I talked about it everywhere. And it got zero signups.

Instead of spiraling or scrapping the idea entirely, I treated the launch like an experiment. In this episode, I walk you through what I tested, what actually happened, the data I’m paying attention to, and the questions I’m carrying into the next iteration so I can learn something real from the experience.

If you’ve ever had a launch that felt disappointing or confusing, this episode is an invitation to step out of shame and into curiosity.

In This Episode, I Talk About

• Why I treat launches as experiments instead of personal verdicts
• The workshop I launched and the problem it was designed to solve
• What “going all-in on visibility” looked like for me this time
• The actual results (including traffic, emails, and conversions)
• The questions I’m asking instead of immediately changing everything
• The one variable I’m changing when I rerun this offer — and why that matters

What I’m Testing Next

I’m not throwing this offer away. I’m rerunning it and changing one thing so I can compare results and actually learn what made a difference. I share what I’m keeping, what I’m adjusting, and how I’m thinking about timing, format, and messaging moving forward.

If This Episode Resonated

I’d love to hear from you. What’s one experiment you’re running in your business right now — or one launch that taught you more than you expected?

What next?

• Follow Here's What I Learned on your favorite podcast player
• Leave a review so the podcast is seen by more people like you
• Share this episode with a friend
• Find the complete show notes and transcripts at jackihayes.co

Say hi!

• Follow me on Instagram at @jackihayes_obm

Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US