Welcome to the show! I’m so glad you decided to join me today. And thank you! Today we’re going to give you the lay of the land. A bit of background about me and why you and I will be here together on this show.
So, how do you sell your products, services, your message, essentially yourself; especially as a woman? Whether you are marketing, selling, or speaking through podcasting or video platforms, social media, in-person or wherever, making an emotional connection with your audience is done through the power of your voice. You can look things up in a thesaurus all you want, but the actual words you use will NOT convey the same meanings as when you say them out loud. My best example is saying I love you. Three little words that have so much meaning depending on HOW you say it.
So how do you deliver the right tone or message? To convey what you are truly trying to say?
The best way to do that is with a podcast. Since you’re listening to this, you already know the power of this medium, whether you are conscious of it or not. Podcasting is intimate, like no other form of media. You and I are sharing something like a secret message through your earbuds or speakers. There are no other distractions like in video. It’s just my voice and you. So think about in terms of your own podcast. (Or future podcast!) You as the host, get to become the new best friend of all your listeners. This I know all too well from my background in radio.
So who am I you ask? Well, if you really want to throwback all the way to when I was in grade 6, I made my first mixtape. Oh yes, the early 90’s and cassette tapes. How old are you in grade 6? 11, 12 years old? It was in elementary school and there were only two grade 6 classes all housed together one floor, so we got to know everyone fairly well and banded together with the other class to do lots of work and go on field trips. It was a pretty special setting now that I look back on it. Anyway, it wasn’t even *my* grade 6 teacher that was leaving, but she made enough of an impact on me that I created this mixtape for her. Now, this wasn’t just any old mixtape of songs. I wanted to share why I also picked them, so I created a mini-radio show on tape for her. I blended the songs with my messages and me saying goodbye.
Fast forward towards the late 90’s when in high school for career prep, we did one of those career type questionnaires and it revealed that I should be a movie producer or work in radio. I was always listening to the radio. I would put my earbuds through the sleeve of my shirt to listen in class and I don’t think the teachers ever really knew. After that career test we did and I saw RADIO on it, it blew my mind. It never occurred to me that I could BE ON the radio. It launched me into job shadowing, a two-year radio program, and almost 20 years into a very fun and challenging radio career as a commercial producer and voice over artist and dabbling in on-air for a bit too. I felt like I was creating mini-movies in 30-second time slots when I worked in radio. I didn’t want it to end, but it did.
As most large corporations went through a restructuring and continued to pinch pennies, I knew that things were shifting and downsizing was a term I heard all too often. It still comes, not as a surprise, but more of a shock, when you get that phone call that my department has been eliminated due to cost-cutting measures, that I had FINALLY lost my job. It really felt like the end of my career because I didn’t want to move to another city for a radio gig (which are few and far between) and uproot my little family from the city I loved and lived in for 15 years. What hurt, even more, was that I was still recovering from a very bad concussion (aka a mild traumatic brain injury) and I say this story now, not as a shock factor, but it’s part of my life now. It’s part of the path that got me here. So it’s part of my story and I’m not looking for a pity party here, but as a fact, I was hit by a car on my bicycle only a year earlier from that career-ending phone call. So, physically and mentally, I was not ready to go back to work either, so I was torn about my options.
The idea of starting my own business came to me when I was slowly walking home after another medical appointment and dun-dun-dun-dah! I was listening to a podcast! It wasn’t a very good one, quality-wise. I could hear every little edit, the background noises were quiet but they were still there and distracting. The volume on my phone was turned up to the max, yet it still felt too quiet to hear when I was outside. The content was good, but I was straining to listen, so I stopped. Then it hit me, if I am struggling to listen, others must be too! I have this audio skillset from my previous career that I can put to good use by helping people create better-sounding podcasts!
Having all the time in the world now without a job, I dove deep into learning about the podcasting industry and how it would be that springboard from radio. I wanted to create my own show and use that as my new “work”. If you’re curious, my first podcast is about being a homestay family to international students who study abroad. It’s called the Homestay Kitchen and I learned so much from producing that show even though yes, most of my radio knowledge did transfer over very easily. I used that existing skill set that I had from radio to make most of it happen. But today in our weird time of 2020, since travel has stopped, students have not been arriving and so my co-host and I put that podcast on hiatus while our families dealt with having all our kids at home with us ALL THE TIME.
And on the topic of the pandemic, it really got me thinking about my past and the journey to where I am today. When I was in radio, I loved collaborating with people, creating amazing audio, and coaching voices to get the best read possible. At times I would coach clients that had never been behind the mic before. I get them to relax, be themselves, and share their personality all through reading a script. I loved it and still miss that part. But then realizing since I already had so many transferrable skills that I knew like the back of my hand. Content creation, audio recording, audio editing, project management, storytelling, voice-over, scripting, the list goes on. It was a natural fit and so I started my business Organized Sound Productions to create dynamic audio stories through podcasting.
With one client at a time, I’ve built up my own return to work schedule, allowing for client work and recovery because this concussion is a doozy. I’ve since added launching podcasts and strategy sessions to my list of services and it has definitely been a huge learning curve starting my own business. But I truly believe it took getting downsized and yeah, getting hit by a car, to get me to where I am today. Empowering you to have the self-confidence to use your voice in a way that my previous career could never do.
This is my second podcast and so if you are already a podcaster, in the throws of creating a podcast or even just pondering about creating your first show, my goal is to empower you to make an impact with your vision, message, and your stories using the power of your natural voice. The world needs diverse voices and I’m so glad you are a part of this audio adventure with me.
This is only the beginning of our podcasting journey together on this show, “the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice”. So thank you for listening today.
