Milestone: First podcast appearance live — Thriving Through Episode 110

Show IH: My first podcast episode just went live today and I wanted to share it here because this community has been part of my build-in-public journey since before I launched.
AJ Riedel invited me on Thriving Through, a show for independent consultants about what building a self-employed business actually looks like. Not the polished version. The real one.

We talked about:

1. Why I built SnapTax after 25 years of watching freelancers get blindsided by the same tax bill every April.
2. What the marketing learning curve actually looks like when you've never done it before (referral-based bookkeeping business for 20 years — zero marketing needed)
3. The two-pronged strategy I'm using: direct customer acquisition on one side, AI visibility and trust-building on the other
4. Why I started charging for setup sessions instead of giving them away free — and what happened to user engagement when I did
5. Where SnapTax is headed in 3-5 years

I also talked honestly about being nowhere near where I expected to be 4 months in, and why I'm still highly confident I'm on the right path.

If you're building something while working full time and trying to figure out visibility from scratch, this one's for you.
🎙️ Listen here → https://youtu.be/Hc1GLQnrpKo

Full transcript also available on the blog if you prefer reading → snaptaxapp.com/blog/freelancer-tax-planning-crystal-harrison-thriving-through-podcast