Speaker 1: Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly conversation
Speaker 1: about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions
Speaker 1: we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Doctor Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or to find a
Speaker 1: therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for
Speaker 1: Blackgirls dot com. While I hope you love listening to
Speaker 1: and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to
Speaker 1: be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental
Speaker 1: health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much for joining me
Speaker 1: for session three forty four of the Therapy for Black
Speaker 1: Girls Podcast. We'll get right into our conversation after a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. Welcome back to another episode of
Speaker 1: our January Jumpstart mini series. All month long, we've been
Speaker 1: hosting conversations with talented black women leaders across creative and
Speaker 1: professional mediums to assist you in putting the p and
Speaker 1: prioritizing your personal growth. If you've been holding back on
Speaker 1: doing you, this is your sign to jump headfirst into
Speaker 1: the possibilities of a new year. Have you ever wondered
Speaker 1: how the Therapy for Black Girls podcast got started or
Speaker 1: wondered about how to get a job in production, or
Speaker 1: maybe you've thought about creating a podcast of your own. Well,
Speaker 1: you're in luck, because today we'll be taking you behind
Speaker 1: the curtain and getting into the nitty gritty of what
Speaker 1: it takes to create a podcast and to find a
Speaker 1: career in podcasting. Joining me for today's conversation our Therapy
Speaker 1: for Black Girls team members Frida Lucas, our senior producer,
Speaker 1: Elise Ellis, our podcast producer and social media creative, and
Speaker 1: Cindy Ocareke, our former producer and current director of marketing.
Speaker 1: In our discussion today, we drop gyms around finding an
Speaker 1: audience for your podcast, explore some basic tools and supplies
Speaker 1: you should invest in to produce a high quality podcast,
Speaker 1: and explore some ways you can monetize your podcast. If
Speaker 1: something resonates with you while enjoying our conversation, please share
Speaker 1: with us on social media using the hashtag TVG in
Speaker 1: session or join us over in the sister circle to
Speaker 1: talk more about the episode. You can join us at
Speaker 1: community dot Therapy for Blackgirls dot com. Here's our conversation.
Speaker 1: I am very excited to be joined again by several
Speaker 1: members of the Therapy for Black Girls team, So if
Speaker 1: you would, as we always do, go around and introduce
Speaker 1: yourself and your role on the team, We'll start with you.
Speaker 2: Elese.
Speaker 3: Hey, everyone, my name is Elise Ellis and I am
Speaker 3: the podcast producer and then I also produce creative assets
Speaker 3: for Therapy for Black Girls as well.
Speaker 2: Frida, What's up?
Speaker 4: What's up? What's up? Everybody? I'm Freda, the senior producer
Speaker 4: here at Therapy for Black Girls. Been with the team
Speaker 4: two years and I've been podcasting since twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: I'm Cindy.
Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Cindy. I am a producer for Therapy for
Speaker 5: Black Girls, but I've now also transitioned into our marketing role,
Speaker 5: so the director of marketing for Therapy for Black Girls.
Speaker 2: We love a good transition.
Speaker 1: So I'm happy that you all have joined us today
Speaker 1: because this has been on the books for some time,
Speaker 1: making a podcast about making a podcast, So we wanted
Speaker 1: to share a little bit of behind the scenes kind
Speaker 1: of information and a little bit about our journey in
Speaker 1: case anybody else is interested in starting a podcast.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm so so happy that we're doing this, but
Speaker 3: I think we cannot start this conversation without talking to
Speaker 3: you first, doctor Joy. So, starting from the very beginning,
Speaker 3: can you tell us a little bit about how the
Speaker 3: Therapy for Black Girls podcast was created?
Speaker 1: Ooh, a journey into history. Indeed, so I fell in
Speaker 1: love listening to podcasts. So, like many people, my introduction
Speaker 1: to podcasts was The Read. So before Therapy for Black
Speaker 1: Girls was my full time job, I had a forty
Speaker 1: five minute to an hour commute both ways to Clark
Speaker 1: Atlanta University. I was the director of the counseling center there.
Speaker 1: I would just spend that time listening to podcasts, mostly
Speaker 1: The Read and Cereal, I think a couple of others,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like such a beautiful conversation, Like
Speaker 1: it just felt so intimate and like it just really
Speaker 1: passed the time. And I was already blogging on the
Speaker 1: Therapy for Black Girls website, and I thought adding the
Speaker 1: podcast could be another great way to like share mental
Speaker 1: health information. Luckily for me, my husband has a background
Speaker 1: in radio production and so I knew I had an
Speaker 1: in home producer. I did not have to go out
Speaker 1: to find somebody who would be producing the podcast and
Speaker 1: making it sound nice. And so I played with it
Speaker 1: for a while, Like it took me probably several months
Speaker 1: between when I had the idea and like when the
Speaker 1: first episode came out, because I was really nervous, like
Speaker 1: what am I going to be talking about?
Speaker 2: Like what is all this even going to do?
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, though, I took a class called
Speaker 1: the Healthcasters. So doctor Melvin Borkis is a psychologist who
Speaker 1: had a class teaching therapist how to be podcasters. So
Speaker 1: I took his class. I went through all the modules,
Speaker 1: felt really prepared, and then we finally put the first
Speaker 1: episode out, I believe in April of twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: You see, that's some backstory that I didn't even know,
Speaker 3: so I know our audience will be appreciative of it.
Speaker 3: So you talked already a little bit about how you
Speaker 3: guys went from like a dynamic duo now we're kind
Speaker 3: of a band of rock stars. How did a recording
Speaker 3: of a TVG episode look different from when the show
Speaker 3: first started versus now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I'm still recording in a closet just because
Speaker 1: the acoustics are the best. So it's a new closet
Speaker 1: because we've moved home since we started the podcast, but
Speaker 1: I'm still recording in my closet and the addition of
Speaker 1: the band of rock Stares, as you mentioned, I think
Speaker 1: has just done nothing but make the podcast even better
Speaker 1: because while initially it was just me thinking about what
Speaker 1: kinds of things do I want to talk about and
Speaker 1: like getting suggestions from the audience, now we have a
Speaker 1: team of people who can do research and give suggestions.
Speaker 1: We're thinking through episodes like months ahead at a time, which.
Speaker 2: Is really cool.
Speaker 1: That's probably the biggest difference is that when the podcast
Speaker 1: first started, from week to week, I would be likely
Speaker 1: on Tuesday evening, like in the closet recording for what
Speaker 1: would be coming out on Wednesday, and now we are
Speaker 1: typically to six weeks ahead in terms of releasing episodes.
Speaker 1: So that has been great I think in terms of
Speaker 1: the quality of the county. But also my stress level
Speaker 1: is for decreased because we already know what's coming out
Speaker 1: each week weeks in advance.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna shift this question to everyone because Doctor
Speaker 3: Joy you talked a little bit about planning for the future,
Speaker 3: having an editorial calendar and things like that. What are
Speaker 3: some of the other steps of the production process for
Speaker 3: this podcast? Freedo send myself feel free to take the floor.
Speaker 5: I think for me, at least when I first started
Speaker 5: producing with Doctor Joy, one of the first things I
Speaker 5: would do is think about what's going on in my
Speaker 5: own life or the things that I'm seeing in everyone's
Speaker 5: life that could potentially relate to therapeutic practice or topic
Speaker 5: or just an idea, and then see if I can
Speaker 5: find the therapist or practice that can match that, and
Speaker 5: then just paying attention to trends that you're seeing, like
Speaker 5: conversational trends. A lot of things cycle and we go
Speaker 5: through things as like a community or a group, and
Speaker 5: that's a way for us to kind of find ideas
Speaker 5: of how to address our audience's needs because for me,
Speaker 5: like this whole thing is about being in service to
Speaker 5: the audience and so thinking about them first and then
Speaker 5: what is it that they need, and like what's going
Speaker 5: on in the world or in their worlds or in
Speaker 5: this particular life stage for them, and then finding a
Speaker 5: licensed professional to match.
Speaker 4: Building off of what Cindy shared, So every week for
Speaker 4: a Therapy for Black Girls, we have a weekly production meeting,
Speaker 4: and during our weekly meeting, we talk about what episodes
Speaker 4: we have in the pipeline and then also what episodes
Speaker 4: we're dreaming about and imagining. And so if you're listening
Speaker 4: to this and you're thinking, oh, I'd love to start
Speaker 4: a podcast. Let's say you know you want to do
Speaker 4: a podcast on movies and you wanted to plan out
Speaker 4: content for well, let me preface this. Therapy for Black
Speaker 4: Girls produces on a weekly basis. Now, we are a
Speaker 4: rock star of teams, as at least said right, So
Speaker 4: if you're starting a podcast, let's say you want to
Speaker 4: do one episode of month. Okay, let's start there. If
Speaker 4: you want to do one episode of month, having some
Speaker 4: kind of meeting with yourself or with whomever you're collaborating with,
Speaker 4: whether that be a co host or someone else, producer, engineer,
Speaker 4: on Okay, we want to do this podcast on movies.
Speaker 4: We're starting in the month of February or March. If
Speaker 4: we think about the remainder of the year, what might
Speaker 4: be topical but also relate to our film. So, if
Speaker 4: we know we're releasing in March, do we want to
Speaker 4: look at a Saint Patrick's Day movie? Do we want
Speaker 4: to look at a movie that's something related to what
Speaker 4: the larger zeitgeist or the community of people that you
Speaker 4: are trying to reach might be interacting with thinking about
Speaker 4: or engaging. So that way, you can also make content
Speaker 4: based off Oh I just watched this movie, I loved
Speaker 4: it so much, and then I'm going to release it
Speaker 4: and hold on to it. But also you can create
Speaker 4: content that you can anticipate your audience might be interested
Speaker 4: in or wanting to do, and prepare for that as well.
Speaker 4: So our weekly production meetings is a combination of that.
Speaker 4: Doctor Joe will be like, I just watched the show
Speaker 4: on X and X streaming platform. Can we get in
Speaker 4: the studio and talk about it? It's a yes, of course.
Speaker 4: And it's also, Hey, in a couple of months, it's
Speaker 4: going to be Mother's Day. What topics related to Mother's
Speaker 4: Day might relate to our audience. And the cool thing
Speaker 4: about that is moms is a big topic. We might decide, oh,
Speaker 4: we want to talk about people who have lost their mothers,
Speaker 4: or we might want to talk about people who don't
Speaker 4: speak to their mothers. Those are very different topics as well.
Speaker 4: And having the intentionality to prepare for that allows you,
Speaker 4: I think, to have a better work life balance, like
Speaker 4: doctor Joy said, but then also have a lot of
Speaker 4: fun because you can spend more time working to bring
Speaker 4: your ideas to life.
Speaker 3: Similar to what you said at the beginning. For me
Speaker 3: at least, and I think this is my favorite part
Speaker 3: of the production process is research. There are so many
Speaker 3: experts out there, whether they're licensement told professionals or you know,
Speaker 3: if we have an episode about what it's like to
Speaker 3: be a woman in sports, or if we're looking to
Speaker 3: talk to black women who have knowledge about gardening. There's
Speaker 3: so many guests and so going through that process of
Speaker 3: looking at the interviews they've done in the research and
Speaker 3: talking to the team and finding that right fit is
Speaker 3: I think really crucial to the production process. And ever
Speaker 3: since I've joined the team, I've really enjoyed like discovering, Okay,
Speaker 3: who is the right fit in defining the types of
Speaker 3: guests we want to be on the show. So I
Speaker 3: think that is so important to like any podcasts, is
Speaker 3: defining what are the types of guests we're looking for,
Speaker 3: what our voices And yeah, it's really exciting when you
Speaker 3: have to like go through that research process and discuss
Speaker 3: it as a team. It's definitely fun for me at least.
Speaker 4: Can I just add to the importance of research And
Speaker 4: I would love to encourage more people in podcasting to
Speaker 4: be research based your lived experience is incredibly valuable, and
Speaker 4: having additional research to support the experiences that you have
Speaker 4: dealt with firsthand only amplifies your impact.
Speaker 1: So I feel like each of you have talked about
Speaker 1: being of service to the community and paying attention to
Speaker 1: what your community needs. But I think this is where
Speaker 1: lots of beginning podcasters struggle the most, is like where
Speaker 1: is my community? Like how do I even find people
Speaker 1: who will enjoy the podcast? So what tips would you
Speaker 1: give to people about how to actually find an audience
Speaker 1: or to tap into an existing audience. What kinds of
Speaker 1: things do you think have been really helpful.
Speaker 3: I'd say when I think about therapy for black girls,
Speaker 3: and then I've also started my own podcast outside of this,
Speaker 3: I always try to lean into one knowing that, like
Speaker 3: all of your friends and all of the people who
Speaker 3: support you, they may not be your audience. So I
Speaker 3: think think that's one thing that you have to be
Speaker 3: considerate of. But then find yourself thinking about the communities
Speaker 3: in which you already connect with and what people what
Speaker 3: guess what topics lie within that And so, for instance,
Speaker 3: this podcast exists within the mental health community, so obviously
Speaker 3: we're going to choose therapists, a great guest who is notable,
Speaker 3: or they have a great mission, but then you have
Speaker 3: to walk it back and like, does this align with
Speaker 3: the type of content I want to put out? And
Speaker 3: so I think being very intentional and sometimes for me,
Speaker 3: I even think about the endpoint and what that will
Speaker 3: look like. So as someone who works on social it's like,
Speaker 3: what would the caption be if this guest came, what
Speaker 3: would the title of this episode be, what would the
Speaker 3: description be, and does that align with what this podcast
Speaker 3: is or what I want it to be. Who is
Speaker 3: our ideal listener? And do you think they would click
Speaker 3: play on this episode? And I think for any podcast,
Speaker 3: it's really good to balance being creative, being daring, to
Speaker 3: taking risks, but also serving your audience and continuing to
Speaker 3: align with your intention. So I'd say look for guests
Speaker 3: and topics, not to copy other people, but if you're
Speaker 3: a part of the Facebook group, Okay, what would these
Speaker 3: people like and what they listen to this episode? If
Speaker 3: I view them as ideal listeners? Or if I follow
Speaker 3: an Instagram page and I'm like, man, I would really
Speaker 3: want to be featured on that page. I would really
Speaker 3: want my podcast to be aligned with that, what would
Speaker 3: that group of people lean into. So I think asking
Speaker 3: yourself those hard questions and always remembering like what is
Speaker 3: my end goal? What is my intention? And does this
Speaker 3: topic or does this guest align with that?
Speaker 4: I would say what I've observed to be the most
Speaker 4: beneficial and high impact when it comes to building a
Speaker 4: community is already being a part of one. And so
Speaker 4: what I mean by that is, I think the shows
Speaker 4: that I've worked on who have built the strongest community,
Speaker 4: the hosts themselves have had a three sixty approach to
Speaker 4: that topic and what that might look like for a
Speaker 4: three sixty approach for therapy for Black girls. Doctor Joy
Speaker 4: is literally a therapist. She knows therapists. She identifies as
Speaker 4: a therapist. She was working, as she mentioned, at Clark
Speaker 4: Atlanta in relation to the mental health space, so she
Speaker 4: created something based on the community that she was already
Speaker 4: a part of. For another show I worked on, I
Speaker 4: worked on Content Queens as the executive producer. Content Queens
Speaker 4: was about being a social media creator. The two hosts
Speaker 4: of that show are content creators, so they already know
Speaker 4: content creators. They know what content creators are thinking about
Speaker 4: and what they're looking to do, and so when they
Speaker 4: when to go find an audience, their audience was already
Speaker 4: the people who are looking at them, because those people
Speaker 4: aspire to be content creators. A lot of the people
Speaker 4: who are listening to Therapy for Black Girls identify as
Speaker 4: therapists or people who are studying to be therapists, very
Speaker 4: much so, and so on the flip side, for individuals
Speaker 4: who I feel like were not as strongly connected to
Speaker 4: a community, it was very hard for them to market
Speaker 4: the show because they were relying on their family and
Speaker 4: friends who do not identify with that respective interest of
Speaker 4: theirs or that area of expertise that they have. And
Speaker 4: as at least mentioned, your family and friends simply may
Speaker 4: not be your target audience because they may not gain
Speaker 4: any benefit or it's not the kind of educational resources
Speaker 4: they're looking to pour into their lives. Identifying who you
Speaker 4: are what groups you belong to is imperative, I think
Speaker 4: for the success of a podcast, especially because it is
Speaker 4: a new medium and we know that not everyone within
Speaker 4: your community may even be listening to podcasts, right, and
Speaker 4: so it's a double of is this an area that
Speaker 4: I'm interested in learning about and now it's on a
Speaker 4: platform that I have to learn about as well. That's
Speaker 4: a double education for a consumer. Whereas if I'm already
Speaker 4: kind of into the vibe of what you're doing, I
Speaker 4: like TV, you're making a TV podcast where in a
Speaker 4: TV group or what have you, I might be more
Speaker 4: are inclined to then learn more about the podcasting medium
Speaker 4: and indulge in the art that you're making.
Speaker 5: All of that's super well said, and like for me,
Speaker 5: just the added piece is like always returning to that
Speaker 5: core question, because what you're really aiming to do as
Speaker 5: you're building a podcast or any sort of social media
Speaker 5: platform or any platform really digitally in this day and age,
Speaker 5: is like you're looking for that thousand true fans, and
Speaker 5: like people have said this over and over again, and
Speaker 5: it always starts with one. So if you are one,
Speaker 5: and then you find two, and then you find three,
Speaker 5: and then you continue to grow it, but you always
Speaker 5: have to stay true to sort of why are you
Speaker 5: gathering these people here in the first place, what is
Speaker 5: it that we're meant to connect around, what it is
Speaker 5: that we're meant to learn from one another, and then
Speaker 5: continuously make it a conversation.
Speaker 3: So I want to shift it back to doctor joy
Speaker 3: A bit. And like we said, you went from a
Speaker 3: duo to a team of rock stars. How did you
Speaker 3: grow to a point where you were able to hire
Speaker 3: a production team? And what were you looking for in producers?
Speaker 2: This is another good question.
Speaker 1: So I really wasn't necessarily looking to add to the team.
Speaker 1: It just kind of became a necessity at some point
Speaker 1: as the podcast became bigger. When I'm thinking about what
Speaker 1: you said, Cindy around like the thousand true fans, And
Speaker 1: I feel like we found those thousand true fans pretty
Speaker 1: early in the history of therapy for Black girls, and
Speaker 1: so therapy for Black girls really has grown mostly I
Speaker 1: would say, by word of mouth from black women, so
Speaker 1: telling their friends and their sorority sisters, and their hairstylists
Speaker 1: and their colleagues, and like all of these people would
Speaker 1: just say like, oh, did you listen to the latest episode,
Speaker 1: and like sharing it in group chats and those kinds
Speaker 1: of things. And so I think because the audience was
Speaker 1: so excited about it, the community was so excited about it,
Speaker 1: then we got attention from big networks to join them.
Speaker 1: So we were introduced to the people at the iHeart
Speaker 1: podcast network through someone who listened to the podcast shout
Speaker 1: out to Eve who was our early executive producer. She
Speaker 1: loved the podcast and was working at iHeart and said,
Speaker 1: I think we need to look at bringing them onto
Speaker 1: the network. And so once we joined the network, then
Speaker 1: we had more money to actually find producers to hire
Speaker 1: because I wasn't necessarily paying my husband. He was just
Speaker 1: kind of working, you know, out of the kindness of
Speaker 1: his heart while he also had an outside job. Then,
Speaker 1: so once we joined the iHeart podcast network, then we
Speaker 1: had additional funds to be able to bring on people.
Speaker 1: And it was really helpful for me to have Cindy,
Speaker 1: who was our first producer, to help with like some
Speaker 1: of the research and like, Okay, well what are you
Speaker 1: paying attention to? I also think it helps because I
Speaker 1: am in a certain age of my life right, Like
Speaker 1: I'm a mom with two kids, and so I have
Speaker 1: a very different vantage point than like somebody who like
Speaker 1: just graduated undergrad like Elise. So it helped to kind
Speaker 1: of have a a variety of perspectives and like life
Speaker 1: experiences on the team to be able to cover all
Speaker 1: the spectrum of black womanhood that I think we really
Speaker 1: try to capture at Therapy for Black Girls.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just echoing what you said, Doctor Joy, I always
Speaker 3: think about how like black women aren't a monolith, and
Speaker 3: how everyone on our team. Of course we have similarities
Speaker 3: and we share like a lot of common interest, but
Speaker 3: we definitely all bring diverse perspectives. And I even love
Speaker 3: in our wider team meetings outside of the podcast hearing
Speaker 3: the ideas that other team members have for the show,
Speaker 3: because I'm like, I wouldn't have thought of that being
Speaker 3: the twenty five year old that I am, and so
Speaker 3: I think that is also like something if you're looking
Speaker 3: to add members to your team, you want people who
Speaker 3: are aligned with what you want to do, but also
Speaker 3: people who can like challenge you and push you into
Speaker 3: new directions and make you consider other ideas. Opening this
Speaker 3: up to everyone, what resources, platforms, technologies are out there
Speaker 3: for people wanting to create a podcast, and what supplies
Speaker 3: us one need to invest in to make a good
Speaker 3: quality one. I feel like our team we've tried everything,
Speaker 3: so we can definitely speak to this.
Speaker 1: So I will start by saying, having a good quality
Speaker 1: microphone should probably be your first investment, just because a
Speaker 1: podcast is an audio first endeavor, and so people who
Speaker 1: enjoy podcasts, I feel like are sticklers for like good
Speaker 1: sounding audio, and so if you're wanting to get into
Speaker 1: the podcast game, then I think a quality microphone, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be like a five hundred dollars microphone.
Speaker 1: My first microphone was a deal I got on Black Friday.
Speaker 1: I think it was like fifty dollars or something like that.
Speaker 1: So there are definitely different levels of microphones. But when
Speaker 1: you think that you're gonna be serious about podcasting, then
Speaker 1: I think that the first investment should be a quality microphone,
Speaker 1: and then you will need somewhere to record the audio in.
Speaker 1: So there are lots of different hosting platforms that you
Speaker 1: can use to host your podcast. So Lipsyn is the
Speaker 1: hosting software that we use when we initially started Therapy
Speaker 1: for Black Girls. Now we are on Omni, which is
Speaker 1: who iHeart podcast Network uses, But there are tons. There
Speaker 1: are so many different hosting platforms, and the hosting platform
Speaker 1: is what will allow your podcasts to be pushed through
Speaker 1: to all of the places. So Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: like all the places where you see podcasts. That is
Speaker 1: because the file is hosted somewhere else and then pushed
Speaker 1: through to these other platforms.
Speaker 4: Building off of that. So what Doctor Joys talking about
Speaker 4: is also called an RSS feed, And so previously folks
Speaker 4: had to submit any audio to individualized platforms, so you
Speaker 4: would have to send it to Apple. However, there are
Speaker 4: now additional platforms that you can use to host your site.
Speaker 4: Some of them are built into some of your favorite
Speaker 4: streaming platforms. So you can look into different streaming platforms
Speaker 4: that have their own RSS feed amplification, or you can
Speaker 4: look into end handed RSS feeds.
Speaker 3: This is a mix of process and platforms, but I
Speaker 3: definitely say just finding the best editing platform that works
Speaker 3: for you. I think if you're a more interview based show,
Speaker 3: then you might want to look at a platform that
Speaker 3: allows you to edit in like a transcript mode and
Speaker 3: not based on waveform because a lot of times you
Speaker 3: want that editing to be quicker and more efficient. But
Speaker 3: I think that's a process of trial and era and
Speaker 3: kind of researching talking to other producers what does their
Speaker 3: show use. Because if you're a narrative show and you
Speaker 3: want to add in natural sound and music and all
Speaker 3: of that is very crucial to the story you're telling,
Speaker 3: then you might want to use something more waveform based.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think that's something very important to consider,
Speaker 3: like what type of show am I and what's going
Speaker 3: to be the most beneficial to my editing process and for.
Speaker 4: The folks brand brand brand new to podcasting. When Alis
Speaker 4: says a waveform, that means it looks like a dancing
Speaker 4: ocean wave while you're talking, a waveform looks like an
Speaker 4: ocean wave going up and down depending on how your
Speaker 4: voice is fluctuating. Okay, so you can edit looking at
Speaker 4: an ocean wave of your voice, or you can edit
Speaker 4: looking at a transcript, which means you would in the
Speaker 4: same way that you be on certain social media apps
Speaker 4: and you can see what people are saying. You get
Speaker 4: that caption that's subtitling. You can also edit your podcast
Speaker 4: using platforms like that. So those are things to keep
Speaker 4: an eye out for.
Speaker 3: I should say I mentioned a little bit about this
Speaker 3: in my answer, but talk to us everyone about the
Speaker 3: different formats a podcast can take and how one should
Speaker 3: choose which route to go. So whether that's video leaning
Speaker 3: versus audio leaning, or are you a show that wants
Speaker 3: to have a script and be more narrative or are
Speaker 3: you an interview based show. Talk to us about those differences.
Speaker 5: I think one of the key differences for those is
Speaker 5: a time and resources perspective. So, like anything that's more
Speaker 5: video leaning, I would say budget three times the amount
Speaker 5: of time on the edit, just because video files are
Speaker 5: a lot larger, it's a little bit more complicated to
Speaker 5: make it look natural. If you're cutting certain things in audio,
Speaker 5: you can like be like, Okay, well, I know that
Speaker 5: they meant to say this part of the sentence at
Speaker 5: the beginning, and you'd be able to easily swap that
Speaker 5: out so it flows. But when somebody is speaking and
Speaker 5: talking if they said at backwards, you're just going to
Speaker 5: have to leave it that way and hope that it
Speaker 5: makes enough sense, unless you have like multiple camera angles
Speaker 5: so you can cheat it. And these are things that
Speaker 5: I feel like most of the time people record in
Speaker 5: like a one camera setup, so that's the one camera
Speaker 5: you can use, but if you're adding multiple cameras. And
Speaker 5: I say this because I got my start in podcasting
Speaker 5: and like the video leaning side of podcas casting, and
Speaker 5: we worked with a three camera technically four camera setup
Speaker 5: because there's a jib included, and that is very expensive,
Speaker 5: especially if you are going to be going for like
Speaker 5: kind of camera quality that level the number of camera operators,
Speaker 5: the production team around that. That's very expensive and so
Speaker 5: definitely take into consideration what your goals are with it,
Speaker 5: what your runway with a budget is, and then again
Speaker 5: how much time you want to spend in post production
Speaker 5: versus like pre production research and the scripting.
Speaker 1: And free do you know you initially mentioned a good
Speaker 1: point around deciding how often you want your show to
Speaker 1: come out. So Therapy for Black Girls is weekly, but
Speaker 1: podcasts don't have to be weekly. And I think if
Speaker 1: you are thinking about a podcast, that is one place
Speaker 1: where you want to start is deciding like how much
Speaker 1: bandwidth do you have to produce on a certain cadence.
Speaker 1: And the most important thing for building a podcast is consistency.
Speaker 1: So your audience will rock with you as long as
Speaker 1: they know, like when the podcast is coming. So if
Speaker 1: monthly is all you can commit to, then that's totally
Speaker 1: fine to give yourself a month to get episodes out.
Speaker 1: But I think it's hard when you start out becoming weekly,
Speaker 1: then you move to two weeks, and then you jump
Speaker 1: to a month. It's really hard for your audience that
Speaker 1: predict when they're going to get a new show. So
Speaker 1: I would say to stick with something from the very
Speaker 1: beginning that is easy for you to fit into your schedule.
Speaker 1: I will also say that the thing that when people
Speaker 1: ask me, like, what did you not know about podcasting
Speaker 1: before now, is how much work it's actually involved in
Speaker 1: from a post production perspective in making a show. Right.
Speaker 1: So our show, I would say, is pretty low lift
Speaker 1: in terms of being interview style mostly right. So it's
Speaker 1: sometimes me talking by myself and sometimes I'm interviewing another
Speaker 1: therapist or another guest, and typically the episodes are brought
Speaker 1: between like thirty and forty five minutes, and so what
Speaker 1: you hear as the end product, which is how I
Speaker 1: was fooled by podcast right, because they sound like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's so easy, it's just people talking, right, But for
Speaker 1: any thirty to forty five minute episode, you're probably looking
Speaker 1: at an additional six to eight hours of somebody listening
Speaker 1: to the file and somebody editing the file to make
Speaker 1: sure it sounds nice, and like putting all the pieces
Speaker 1: together writing the show. Notes like, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: additional work that goes into putting out these thirty to
Speaker 1: forty five minute episodes. And so from the front end,
Speaker 1: you do need to know that even if you only
Speaker 1: record like thirty minute episodes. We're not looking at just
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of work more from our conversation after the break.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's definitely something very important to consider.
Speaker 3: What you hear on Apple podcasts or Spotify is not
Speaker 3: what is coming out of a recording session. And I
Speaker 3: think a lot of people do think podcasting is quote
Speaker 3: unquote easy. It's like, oh, it's just talking into a mic.
Speaker 3: But the best shows like ours have such a robust
Speaker 3: production process. And you said sany, that is something that
Speaker 3: you have to think about when choosing your format. Do
Speaker 3: I want to put in a lot of effort to
Speaker 3: find a studio where I can do video and do
Speaker 3: these video edits and work with an editor and give
Speaker 3: them notes and all those different things. So I definitely
Speaker 3: think that's something important to consider. And then, as we
Speaker 3: all mentioned about, like audience in community, what is going
Speaker 3: to be the most beneficial for them? Are you talking
Speaker 3: about a subject matter that is just so popular on
Speaker 3: YouTube that you know, whether it's video only episodes or
Speaker 3: both video and audio, you have to do something that
Speaker 3: aligns with YouTube's format. Is your episode teaching people how
Speaker 3: to cook or how to do something visual? And do
Speaker 3: you have to have that visual aspect or do you
Speaker 3: have so many great gems in your episode that you
Speaker 3: need to break it down for people and be on
Speaker 3: a platform like TikTok where they can see those bite
Speaker 3: sized pieces of information. Are you gen Z focused and
Speaker 3: studies show that they prefer shorter form content, so I
Speaker 3: think you also have to take your audience and community
Speaker 3: into consideration as well. Circling back to Doctor Joan, you
Speaker 3: talked a little bit about this. What are some things
Speaker 3: you wish you knew or considered before starting a podcast?
Speaker 3: And also for our producers, what are some things you
Speaker 3: wish or considered before becoming a podcast producer.
Speaker 1: I think for me, the biggest lesson is the amount
Speaker 1: of time that it actually takes to produce good quality audio.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think some of the best podcasts
Speaker 1: make it sound very effortless, and then you get on
Speaker 1: the other side and you realize, like, oh, okay, this
Speaker 1: is this is a lot of work. I think the
Speaker 1: other thing that I wish I would have known beforehand
Speaker 1: is to account for breaks. So we are pretty much
Speaker 1: like an always on kind of podcast, but I do
Speaker 1: think we are able to take breaks sometimes because we
Speaker 1: have so much of a bad catalog or a queue
Speaker 1: of episodes that we release. But I think thinking about
Speaker 1: like when you're gonna want to give yourself breaks ahead
Speaker 1: of time before you saw it, is probably a really
Speaker 1: good idea.
Speaker 4: When I started off podcasting, I was hosting my own show,
Speaker 4: executive producing my own show. It had a video element
Speaker 4: and multi camera situation, just jumped in be first, head first,
Speaker 4: all the body jumped in the water, and we wanted
Speaker 4: to be a weekly podcast. We want to be a
Speaker 4: weekly podcast so bad. And we were like, how are
Speaker 4: we going to do it? You know, we're just recording them,
Speaker 4: we'll release it. It'll just come out. We ended up realizing,
Speaker 4: to your point of doctor Joy about having breaks, that
Speaker 4: that would mean for the ten weeks that we were
Speaker 4: recording and releasing, like we would be doing two jobs
Speaker 4: at once. And so we ended up deciding that it
Speaker 4: made more sense to do something that's called badge recording.
Speaker 4: So we recorded all all the episodes first, and then
Speaker 4: we took a small break because we were tired from
Speaker 4: doing all that recording. We took a small break, and
Speaker 4: then we went into post production. We were producing it
Speaker 4: and getting it out on a weekly basis. I would
Speaker 4: recommend batch recording for people starting off in production for
Speaker 4: the first time, because the lessons and opportunities of going
Speaker 4: through something the first time is enough without having to
Speaker 4: worry about putting it out. Putting it out it's more
Speaker 4: work than you think, and so giving yourself the opportunity
Speaker 4: to have X amount of weeks. If you're a ten
Speaker 4: episode podcast, I might recommend you do a twelve week
Speaker 4: batch recording period. You give yourself ten weeks to do
Speaker 4: each of the respective episodes, and then you have two
Speaker 4: additional weeks on those weeks that either you don't want
Speaker 4: to because you're tired, or also you can build it
Speaker 4: into two weeks of rest before you get into the
Speaker 4: editing of all that you've just recorded. But for people
Speaker 4: who are starting out, definitely pacing yourself and figuring out
Speaker 4: on a weekly basis in the same way that you
Speaker 4: planned for work, or you plan to make dinner for
Speaker 4: your family, or you plan to go to the gym,
Speaker 4: planning when in your schedule it's going to work for
Speaker 4: you to do this, as opposed to just thinking that
Speaker 4: you're going to have the energy to do part one
Speaker 4: and Part B on the same day. Because I'm gonna
Speaker 4: tell you you're really probably not.
Speaker 5: I definitely agree with that, And I think for me,
Speaker 5: I started in an interesting way. So I was primarily
Speaker 5: like in the marketing side, but I mostly worked on
Speaker 5: larger productions. So for me, like becoming a producer for
Speaker 5: just audio at the time was learning how to scale
Speaker 5: back with an understanding about like where you could possibly
Speaker 5: scale too. So I feel like I did the opposite
Speaker 5: of a lot of people who start out in audio,
Speaker 5: and so because of that, I think I always knew
Speaker 5: how much time and effort and resources went into it,
Speaker 5: and so I'm never surprised when someone quotes me something
Speaker 5: or is like it's gonna take X amount of hours
Speaker 5: or whatever. I'm like, oh, I've seen that export before, Yes,
Speaker 5: that will take twelve hours. And the thing is people
Speaker 5: don't realize that sometimes like literally some camera you record
Speaker 5: it for an hour, and if that camera file is
Speaker 5: shooting in like four K, like you literally easily could
Speaker 5: be there for twelve hours just having it saved down
Speaker 5: just to open it in premiere. And I think it's
Speaker 5: the balance of that.
Speaker 3: This might be more of a trivial one, but when
Speaker 3: you're a podcaster, you consume so much media, whether it's
Speaker 3: your own show watching things for research, and so sometimes
Speaker 3: for me at least, it can take the joy out
Speaker 3: of watching things or listening to things mindfully, because sometimes
Speaker 3: I'm always think about, ooh, this is a good idea
Speaker 3: for work, or we should talk about this on the podcast.
Speaker 3: And so I do think having your kind of decompression
Speaker 3: shows or podcasts that are just for you is really great.
Speaker 3: And sometimes at the end of the day I don't
Speaker 3: want to talk to anyone because I've listened to like
Speaker 3: three to six hours of audio and been in recordings
Speaker 3: and be in meetings, and I'm like, whooh, these ears
Speaker 3: are tired. So I think that's just something to be
Speaker 3: mindful of, Like, yes, you can love podcasting, and of course,
Speaker 3: like I love the show I'm working on, but sometimes
Speaker 3: it's just like, oooh, I've listened to and I've consumed
Speaker 3: so much. I need a break and I need to detox.
Speaker 3: And so that's something I've definitely had to be more
Speaker 3: mindful of as my podcasting career has progressed.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I'm definitely known to just be sitting in
Speaker 5: like a silent room. I feel like people ask, like,
Speaker 5: what's your serial killer trade? It's like at the end
Speaker 5: of a long day where you've had multiple recordings, you've
Speaker 5: worked on multiple shows, or done a bunch of different
Speaker 5: notes on video edits, and you basically like, my eyes
Speaker 5: can't work anymore and my ears don't work, so I'm
Speaker 5: just gonna not see your listeners to anything.
Speaker 3: So we've all seen the jokes about how Amazon needs
Speaker 3: to stop selling podcasting mics on social media. We've seen
Speaker 3: an uptick in podcast bros and viral problematic clips from
Speaker 3: popular podcasts. How does one make sure that the podcast
Speaker 3: they are creating is ethical and offering meaningful resources slash
Speaker 3: knowledge to the community.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is our hot take version of
Speaker 1: a question, right, So I think at least we have
Speaker 1: to start with understanding that everybody is not ethical, and
Speaker 1: so because we have seen so much virality, I think
Speaker 1: from podcast clips, it has encouraged some people to kind
Speaker 1: of go into the field for that reason, as opposed
Speaker 1: to wanting to share knowledge and like help their communities.
Speaker 1: I think if you are interested in only just going by,
Speaker 1: then I don't think that you probably won't be listening
Speaker 1: to this show anyway. But I think for most people
Speaker 1: who want to go into podcasting because they have a
Speaker 1: story to share, or they want to help their community
Speaker 1: in some way. I do think it is important to
Speaker 1: always make sure that you are tapped into that community. Mean,
Speaker 1: you know, for Therapy for Black Girls, my training and
Speaker 1: my license because I do still have an active license
Speaker 1: to practice, definitely gives perspective to the way that we
Speaker 1: approach the show, because I am never wanting to do
Speaker 1: anything that harms our community or giving people information that
Speaker 1: is not accurate or has not been well researched. So
Speaker 1: I think if you are wanting to make sure that
Speaker 1: you're acting ethically, it is important to have people that
Speaker 1: you are checking in with. I think you mentioned this Indy,
Speaker 1: not just having people who will agree with you on everything,
Speaker 1: but people who can push back and say, I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's who we want to put in front
Speaker 1: of our audience, or do we really want to give
Speaker 1: this person a platform. I think having people that you
Speaker 1: answer to that there's a group of you actually responsible
Speaker 1: for the show is one great way to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're acting ethically.
Speaker 3: I guess like the slug or like the slogan for
Speaker 3: the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is where mental health
Speaker 3: meets pop culture. But I also think people have to
Speaker 3: realize that every topic in pop culture, and you know,
Speaker 3: every trending topic on Twitter, does not need to be
Speaker 3: discussed in audio format, and so you have to think
Speaker 3: what new perspectives am I offering or am I existing
Speaker 3: in an echo chamber? Like you said, doctor Juid's always
Speaker 3: great to have people on your team who keep you
Speaker 3: in check, but I also think some of these ideas
Speaker 3: that you're discussing, it's always great to have I don't
Speaker 3: want to say opposing perspectives, but also make sure you're
Speaker 3: considering a breadth of perspectives when you're approaching any topic.
Speaker 3: So I think that's really important. And then what free
Speaker 3: to say is research is so important. So are you
Speaker 3: speaking to hear yourself speak and to have your own
Speaker 3: perspective validator or are you really trying to explore and
Speaker 3: have your audience explore.
Speaker 2: And so that is.
Speaker 3: Something that I think about a lot when I'm listening
Speaker 3: to podcasts, Like I love pop culture podcasts, I love
Speaker 3: a chat show, but I also really appreciate a chat
Speaker 3: show that is able to say, you know what, someone
Speaker 3: wrote an article on this and you guys should dig
Speaker 3: deeper there. Or maybe even I was thinking about this,
Speaker 3: and I talked to my therapists or my friends and
Speaker 3: this is what they said about this, or you know,
Speaker 3: helps you put some of these larger ideas in the
Speaker 3: context of what has happened and what is happening in
Speaker 3: the world. And so I think whether you're a listener
Speaker 3: or someone looking to create a podcast, you really have
Speaker 3: to think about the aspect of kind of credibility and
Speaker 3: how people are going beyond their own beliefs and thoughts
Speaker 3: to offer their audience or even themselves like a different
Speaker 3: or better perspective. All right, So I'm going to move
Speaker 3: to the next question. Beyond recording the podcast itself, how
Speaker 3: important is branding? What steps should someone take to promote
Speaker 3: their podcast, and what does good branding look like?
Speaker 5: So for podcasts is super important. I know that it's
Speaker 5: primarily an audio space, but there are opportunities for you
Speaker 5: to visually key your audience in what you pick for
Speaker 5: the thumbnail for your podcast, what you put in the
Speaker 5: banner space for the Apple podcasts, and there are now
Speaker 5: more and more visual surfaces that allow for your audience
Speaker 5: to kind of tap into what your show is about.
Speaker 5: So really thinking about what are the principles of your podcast.
Speaker 5: So if you notice a lot of money podcasts, like
Speaker 5: they use reds and blacks and greens, because those are
Speaker 5: kind of like the colors of the stock market. Money
Speaker 5: wellness podcasts, a lot of times it's like browns and greens,
Speaker 5: like it's about growth. Think about like the thematic colors
Speaker 5: for your branding, what messages that you're trying to carry through.
Speaker 5: There's like a whole thing about the psychology of colors,
Speaker 5: even some of the psychology behind certain fonts and things,
Speaker 5: and that's something that you should just always pay attend
Speaker 5: to do as your branding. But it also needs to
Speaker 5: feel like it speaks authentically to you. And then always
Speaker 5: remember that most people are consuming things on mobile, so
Speaker 5: like make sure that it looks good and clear when
Speaker 5: it's scaled down really small, because a lot of times
Speaker 5: people get wrapped up in like I love how this looks,
Speaker 5: and they're looking at it on a big screen and
Speaker 5: so it looks great, and then when you make it small,
Speaker 5: no one can see the title. They can't even see
Speaker 5: your face. You need to like remember that the visual
Speaker 5: needs to both scale up and scale down.
Speaker 2: Those are such great tips.
Speaker 1: I think you also though from the very beginning need
Speaker 1: to be mindful of when you're choosing the name of
Speaker 1: your podcast, because I think you know, if you think about, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you and a couple of friends like want to start
Speaker 1: a podcast, and y'all have this very clever inside joke. Well,
Speaker 1: of course it's clever to you all because you're a
Speaker 1: part of the joke, but your audience will not know
Speaker 1: what that inside joke means. And so being very clear
Speaker 1: I think with the naming of your podcast, so that
Speaker 1: people very quickly can get a gist of what the
Speaker 1: podcast is going to be about. Right, So not being
Speaker 1: cute with your name or if you are cute, like
Speaker 1: saving that for a subtitle, but making like the main
Speaker 1: title of your podcast something that's very easy for people
Speaker 1: to recognize and understand what you're going to be talking about.
Speaker 3: So, as someone who's working like both on the podcast
Speaker 3: and in social media, I think one a big part
Speaker 3: of branding is giving people other formats to digest the
Speaker 3: information of your podcast. And so whether that means you're
Speaker 3: making tiktoks about your podcasts or graphics about your podcast,
Speaker 3: I don't think you can only rely on the full
Speaker 3: audio version or the full YouTube version. A big part
Speaker 3: of branding is like, how can I reach as many
Speaker 3: people as possible? And so you never know where a
Speaker 3: thirty second clip or three tips or a quote from
Speaker 3: the show, where that'll go. Someone could post it on
Speaker 3: their LinkedIn, they can post it on their Twitter. It
Speaker 3: could be, you know, an affirmation that they say to
Speaker 3: themselves every day, and someone could be like, where do
Speaker 3: you hear that from? And so thinking about of course
Speaker 3: honing in on your audience, but other smaller ways that
Speaker 3: you can make your brand and your podcast successful is
Speaker 3: really really important. And then I think something we do
Speaker 3: great at is having just a really strong tagline for
Speaker 3: your podcast in ways that you talk about your show,
Speaker 3: and I think that's a lesson in intention and not
Speaker 3: trying to shift and mold what your show is. So
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of people can listen having a very
Speaker 3: strong point of view and a very strong way you
Speaker 3: discuss your show, so that everyone understands what it is,
Speaker 3: but also everyone can say, you know, what is this
Speaker 3: for me? Do I want to check it out? And
Speaker 3: you can invite people in by just being confident in
Speaker 3: the way that you talk about your show. So, before
Speaker 3: we close out, let's talk money. How does a person
Speaker 3: make money from a podcast, and what does the process
Speaker 3: of working with companies and sponsors look like to do
Speaker 3: things like in person events, build virtual communities, or just
Speaker 3: have money to produce their show other than what's coming
Speaker 3: from their own pockets.
Speaker 1: This is a great question at least, and I think
Speaker 1: more and more people are getting into podcasting as like
Speaker 1: a career. I didn't necessarily start the podcast thinking like
Speaker 1: I would be able to make any money from it,
Speaker 1: and it just so happened that I was able to
Speaker 1: turn it into my full time career. But I think
Speaker 1: if you are thinking about it as a career interest,
Speaker 1: there are several different ways that people make money with podcasts.
Speaker 1: So primarily for us, we make money through ad revenue. So,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned, we're part of the iHeart podcast network,
Speaker 1: and you will hear ads on the podcast. So we're
Speaker 1: talking about shopping at Macy's or Tied Detergent, are those
Speaker 1: kinds of things, And so iHeart is responsible for getting
Speaker 1: those sponsors for us, and then we say yes or
Speaker 1: no to whether we want to work with certain sponsors,
Speaker 1: and then you will hear the ads show up on
Speaker 1: the podcast. But other podcasts make money through live events.
Speaker 1: Lots of podcasts have paid tres or other communities where
Speaker 1: they will have versions of the podcasts that are not
Speaker 1: no ads are read, or they have like little mini shows,
Speaker 1: or like other video content that they share only with
Speaker 1: their exclusive community. People do lots of different things, I
Speaker 1: think with podcasts, and so I think that that has
Speaker 1: been the cool thing is that like it feels like
Speaker 1: there are no shortage of ways that you can actually monetize.
Speaker 1: But I will say, though, you should not expect that
Speaker 1: you will like start a podcast and like be making
Speaker 1: money in month two. So, like I mentioned, like we
Speaker 1: started the podcast in twenty seventeen, and I don't think
Speaker 1: we signed with iHeart until twenty nineteen, so we were
Speaker 1: doing the podcast for about two years before you know,
Speaker 1: we were really making any kind of consistent income from
Speaker 1: the podcast. And so I do want people to make
Speaker 1: sure that you keep your expectations realistic, because you won't
Speaker 1: necessarily start making a ton of money from a podcast overnight.
Speaker 4: I think the business models that I've seen work be
Speaker 4: best for podcasts that are especially within that first two
Speaker 4: year marker where you are least likely to be making
Speaker 4: money from ads, because you may not have a distribution
Speaker 4: channel that is assisting you and finding ads and partnerships.
Speaker 4: So if your mom and pop style fundingate yourself by
Speaker 4: your own brute straps, however you like to say it.
Speaker 4: Live events is what I think I've seen most podcasters
Speaker 4: really prophetize on because they've made a community the people
Speaker 4: whomever listen to their podcast want to meet in person,
Speaker 4: and they charge nominal fees to get people really invested
Speaker 4: in the brand to feel like they are part of
Speaker 4: a community. So that way those people continue to listen
Speaker 4: because the most important thing that is going to be
Speaker 4: needed to be picked up is to have a community
Speaker 4: of unique listeners that are growing per month. So that way,
Speaker 4: when whomever calls you says, oh, your show is so great,
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, I've got twelve thousand people, I've got
Speaker 4: five thousand people, I've got ten thousand people, I've got
Speaker 4: fifty thousand people that continuously come and listen to my show.
Speaker 4: When I tell them I'm having an in person event,
Speaker 4: they want to spend additional money to support this business.
Speaker 4: So in person events, I would feel like granted when
Speaker 4: we talk about making money for in person events, especially
Speaker 4: in some of the places our listeners are, which is
Speaker 4: major metropolitan cities, it's hard enough to break even. But
Speaker 4: I do like to think of podcasting as a long
Speaker 4: term investment. So let's say you do an event and
Speaker 4: you put two three thousand dollars into it. Prayerfully you
Speaker 4: will have created such a community amongst yourselves that when
Speaker 4: you get that fifty thousand, seventy thousand dollars deal from
Speaker 4: whatever major platform wants to pick you up, those initial
Speaker 4: fees are nominal at this point. They're minis school at
Speaker 4: this point. But if you are looking to get some coins,
Speaker 4: I recommend in person events and if you can have
Speaker 4: the initial investment in merch, have merch at that event.
Speaker 4: Have stickers, have posters, have something that your audience, your
Speaker 4: community can once again grab onto to cement themselves in
Speaker 4: your community so that they stay with you for the ride.
Speaker 4: And most importantly, don't go broke on podcasting because in
Speaker 4: the long term, you're going to need to take care
Speaker 4: of yourself. This is a long game. So if you
Speaker 4: blow ten fifteen and you're out in a situation where
Speaker 4: you can no longer provide for yourself and your podcast,
Speaker 4: you've done it wrong. I'm gonna completely echo that Freeda
Speaker 4: and speaking from my own experiences like starting my own podcast.
Speaker 4: I did in person event and I think it allowed
Speaker 4: me to test how strong community is attracted to the
Speaker 4: content that I'm putting out there. And so I think
Speaker 4: that's you know, even if you have five or six episodes,
Speaker 4: trying to do that and just seeing okay, is this
Speaker 4: something that brings people out in real life? Because I
Speaker 4: think that's something that sponsors are always looking for. I
Speaker 4: also think the more you talk about the things that
Speaker 4: you love on a show, there are going to be
Speaker 4: companies are people that represent those things that are going
Speaker 4: to be attracted to your show, And that's where it's
Speaker 4: important to niche down and have a strong point of view.
Speaker 4: If you're kind of a variety show, some companies don't
Speaker 4: know where they fit in when it comes to aligning
Speaker 4: with your show. But if you have a very strong
Speaker 4: point of view, whether you're talking about sexual health or budgeting,
Speaker 4: or you're talking about personal style, if you're able to
Speaker 4: showcase that, then it'll be no problem to get any
Speaker 4: type of company, whether it's a women's health company, or
Speaker 4: if it's a budgeting app, or if it's a reselling app,
Speaker 4: to say, you know what, this show is something that
Speaker 4: we want to invest in because our audience is aligned.
Speaker 4: So when you have such a strong audience and you
Speaker 4: take those steps to figure out what is that audience
Speaker 4: and what are the different ways in which they'll show up,
Speaker 4: I think you'll start to see monetary value from your podcast.
Speaker 4: So we've shared just a wealth of information here and
Speaker 4: I know everyone's going to be wondering, how can I
Speaker 4: keep up with this team of rock stars? How can
Speaker 4: I tap in with therapy for black girls? So before
Speaker 4: we go, how can we keep up with your work
Speaker 4: and stay connected? What are your social media handles as
Speaker 4: well as any website information you'd like to share.
Speaker 5: So you can just keep up with me. I'm at
Speaker 5: Essence of Zen like Essence of cin or you can
Speaker 5: find me on like LinkedIn, maybe TikTok. I'm trying to
Speaker 5: kind of social detoks a little bit. So right now
Speaker 5: I'm mostly just active on Instagram and TikTok and LinkedIn.
Speaker 4: Okay, So for me, I would love to direct people
Speaker 4: to my LinkedIn so you can find me on LinkedIn
Speaker 4: at Frieda Lucas. That's f Rdia Lucas l Ucas on LinkedIn.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to share more as it relates to creating
Speaker 4: in the podcasting space, share more insights on how people
Speaker 4: can begin sharing their stories and also meet other podcasters
Speaker 4: who believe in creating magical art that benefits the world
Speaker 4: and foster's positivity. So please find me there.
Speaker 1: And you can find me most often on Instagram. I
Speaker 1: am at Hello doctor Joy both there and on threads.
Speaker 3: You can find me on Instagram at E l l
Speaker 3: I C E E l l I S and my
Speaker 3: website is Elise Ellis dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks y'all, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: me and having such a great conversation today. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad Alise, Cindy and Freedom were able to join me
Speaker 1: for this conversation, so learn more about the work they're doing.
Speaker 1: Be sure to visit the show notes at Therapy for
Speaker 1: Blackgirls dot com slash Session three forty four, and don't
Speaker 1: forget to text two of your girls right now and
Speaker 1: encourage them to check out the episode. If you're looking
Speaker 1: for a therapist in your area, visit our therapist directory
Speaker 1: at Therapy for Black Girls slash directory. If you're looking
Speaker 1: for a support system to aid you in your New
Speaker 1: year journey, join us in the Therapy for Black Girls
Speaker 1: Sister Circle. It's our cozy corner of the Internet where
Speaker 1: we celebrate support and practice vulnerability each week. This January,
Speaker 1: we're setting the foundation to turn our resolutions into realities.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Frieda Lucas, Alis Ellis and
Speaker 1: Zaria Taylor. Editing was done by Dennis and Bradford. Thank
Speaker 1: y'all so much for joining me again this week. I
Speaker 1: look forward to continuing this conversation with you all real soon.
Speaker 2: Take good care,