Podcast Insights with Holly Wood
In this week's episode, I chat with Holly Wood, The Flourish Entrepreneur and host of the Can we have it All? podcast.
We chatted about how she started her business and got on the road to podcasting!
We also chatted about:
How it's important to be fluid with your podcast and let things grow with you
Not needing fancy equipment to get started!
How podcasting is a helpful platform for her business, especially being able to create deep connections with her audience.
Importance of resharing and repurposing your past episodes
Holly's top 2 pieces of advice:
- Don't overthink it! You don't need to have it all figured out from the get-go.
- Get support. If that's what stopping you from starting, seek out support to make it happen.
Thanks, Holly for coming on and sharing your story.
About my Guest:
Holly Wood, The Flourish MentorⓇ is a digital-marketing focussed Business Mentor and Positive Psychology Coach for women entrepreneurs.
Her mission is to help women flourish and reach their vision of success by attracting ideal clients that truly align.
Her Ultimate Client Attraction System infuses her 13+ years of digital marketing experience & growing a brand online, with a Positive Psychology toolkit that addresses the importance of mindset, alongside strategy.
Holly's Socials
Website - https://holly-wood.co.uk
Facebook Group - http://facebook.com/groups/wecanflourish
Twitter - @HollyNicol
Instagram - @Theflourishmentor
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/hollynicol
If you have any questions or would like some help with your podcast, you can book a 30-min Free Session with me.
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You can leave one here
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I'd love to connect with you on social!
You can find me on:
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Transcript
Hi, and welcome to Podcasting 1 0 1 with Rachel.
Rachael Botfield:This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own
Rachael Botfield:businesses and want to start podcast or who may already have a podcast.
Rachael Botfield:I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast
Rachael Botfield:started and managing it along the way.
Rachael Botfield:I'll also be interviewing other female podcast.
Rachael Botfield:To give you real insight into what it's like having your own podcast.
Rachael Botfield:Hi.
Rachael Botfield:Welcome.
Rachael Botfield:Today's episode today I have with me Hollywood.
Rachael Botfield:Hi Holly.
Rachael Botfield:How are you?
Holly Wood:Hi.
Holly Wood:Thanks for having me.
Holly Wood:I'm.
Holly Wood:I'm great.
Holly Wood:How are
Rachael Botfield:you?
Rachael Botfield:I'm good, thank you.
Rachael Botfield:Holly is the Flourish Mentor, which is a digital marketing focused business
Rachael Botfield:mentor and positive psychology coach for women entrepreneurs.
Rachael Botfield:Her mission is to help women flourish and reach their success
Rachael Botfield:by attracting their ideal clients that truly align her ultimate.
Rachael Botfield:Client attraction system infuses her 13 years plus of digital market experience
Rachael Botfield:and growing a brand online with a positive psychology toolkit that addresses the
Rachael Botfield:importance of mindset alongside strategy.
Rachael Botfield:Wow, that sounds so interesting.
Rachael Botfield:I have seen your positive psychology posts coming out on LinkedIn,
Rachael Botfield:and they're so interesting.
Rachael Botfield:And thank you, um, listening to your podcast recently.
Rachael Botfield:You touch on those as well, which, yeah, I think positive
Rachael Botfield:psychology is such a good thing.
Rachael Botfield:I think we all need to embrace being more positive in our lives rather than totally.
Rachael Botfield:Focusing
Holly Wood:on my, yeah, and I'm definitely leaning into that more,
Holly Wood:which is like well done because my, uh, bio is a bit of a mouthful, I feel.
Holly Wood:But
Holly Wood:, Rachael Botfield: sorry.
Holly Wood:Yeah, I was like,
Holly Wood:. Holly Wood: But I think, yeah.
Holly Wood:You know, I, my background is digital marketing and, and my kind of, um, you
Holly Wood:know, genius zone is about building brand online and marketing yourself online.
Holly Wood:So much of mindset comes into it and I've studied psychology and, um,
Holly Wood:more recently positive psychology and coaching and I've just realized
Holly Wood:that the two just go hand in hand.
Holly Wood:And so, yeah, thank you for noting the LinkedIn because that's kind
Holly Wood:of a new thing for me is leaning into more specifically the
Holly Wood:positive psychology side of things.
Holly Wood:So, um, yeah, there'll be more of that to come.
Holly Wood:Yeah, they're
Rachael Botfield:really interesting.
Rachael Botfield:I.
Rachael Botfield:. I like reading some of those articles on, on LinkedIn and having deeper, deeper
Rachael Botfield:diving into the mindset things cuz it's something that we all struggle with.
Rachael Botfield:But I think.
Rachael Botfield:, I myself, as an online entrepreneur as well, it's something that, you know, you
Rachael Botfield:kind of go in some kind of cycle with, with feeling good and then letting it, um,
Rachael Botfield:kind of feel a little bit negative again.
Rachael Botfield:And it's good to try and have some tools to, to bring you back to
Rachael Botfield:the positive side of things and.
Rachael Botfield:Back with refocusing your business as well.
Holly Wood:Totally.
Holly Wood:And just bringing, bringing all that balance.
Holly Wood:Um, yeah, because it's hard being an entrepreneur, isn't it?
Holly Wood:And so you need that kind of, that, that wellbeing Is, is as important
Holly Wood:to your success as the kind of strategy is in the marketing.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah, absolutely.
Rachael Botfield:Do you wanna tell us a little bit about you and how you got started
Rachael Botfield:in your business before we go into, um, your awesome business?
Holly Wood:Yeah, I'll give you the abridged version.
Holly Wood:Cause otherwise I feel like it would take over the whole episode, Rachel.
Holly Wood:But in a nutshell, my, I have a fairly, sort of, what I
Holly Wood:say, traditional background.
Holly Wood:I e you know, education uni got a job after uni.
Holly Wood:I always worked in kind of events and that side of things.
Holly Wood:I was a wedding planner for a while, worked in commercial
Holly Wood:events, so it was always quite.
Holly Wood:interested in people and.
Holly Wood:Yeah, and kind of events I suppose, and kind of experiential activities.
Holly Wood:And I started, I guess about 13 years ago now it's probably even a bit longer.
Holly Wood:I started a blog and it was before blogging was a thing.
Holly Wood:I feel like it was quite, this thing that nobody really
Holly Wood:understood or knew what it was.
Holly Wood:My hobby was always in digital marketing, and I remember him saying, you should
Holly Wood:just start a blog to write about the events that you organize in the weddings.
Holly Wood:And kind of a bit like in my head, an online cv, you know, a portfolio.
Holly Wood:There was nothing commercial about it.
Holly Wood:There was no, there was not like brand sponsorship deals and things back then.
Holly Wood:It was just a pure like, Ooh, let's use this kind of new online tool to document.
Holly Wood:My work, and that's how my, I guess, foray into digital marketing started.
Holly Wood:And it quickly became more of a, what is now called a lifestyle blog,
Holly Wood:because I had moved from London to Manchester and I was kind of
Holly Wood:documenting, discovering a new city.
Holly Wood:And you know, people from down south were asking me like, where'd you go out to eat?
Holly Wood:And it became, , yeah.
Holly Wood:What is now kind of termed a food and lifestyle blog, but back then was purely a
Holly Wood:creative outlook for me and just a way of documenting what was going on in my life.
Holly Wood:And I quickly realized I was ranking everywhere.
Holly Wood:Like when you Googled, you know, places to eat in Manchester, my blog would come up
Holly Wood:and I was kind of like, what's, hold on.
Holly Wood:How's that work?
Holly Wood:And so I started to kind of.
Holly Wood:Understand more about SEO and digital marketing and social media started to come
Holly Wood:about and it was about how to, how I could utilize social media to grow my blog.
Holly Wood:And again, that was still quite early days with anybody even thinking like that.
Holly Wood:So that's kind of how the journey of digital marketing started.
Holly Wood:I, again, in a nutshell, um, started.
Holly Wood:Run events for other bloggers in Manchester, and this was on the kind
Holly Wood:of side to my, uh, nine to five and started to build a bit of a community
Holly Wood:up here in the north of people who were then bloggers, now content
Holly Wood:creators or influencers and just, you know, getting together and chatting.
Holly Wood:how to take nice photos.
Holly Wood:You know, we didn't have really cool apps back then and we didn't have, like,
Holly Wood:it wasn't a job, you know, for people.
Holly Wood:We were just figuring out how to, um, make something of this really cool hobby that
Holly Wood:we all had or the shared interest and that kind of grew quite quickly into more of
Holly Wood:a membership community hosting workshop.
Holly Wood:I founded the Northern Blog Awards here in Manchester and suddenly was stood on
Holly Wood:stage in front of 250 people, agencies, brands, and was kind of like, what?
Holly Wood:When did that happen?
Holly Wood:You know?
Holly Wood:Um, and I started to commercialize that, you know, my blog and work with
Holly Wood:brands as influenced the marketing was becoming a thing and I left my.
Holly Wood:I had a baby and kind of started to explore the world of entrepreneurialism,
Holly Wood:which I definitely didn't identify as an entrepreneur back then.
Holly Wood:I was just like, how am I gonna make this work?
Holly Wood:You know, what am I gonna do to bring some money in?
Holly Wood:Um, but I loved it.
Holly Wood:I absolutely loved working for myself.
Holly Wood:I loved building something myself.
Holly Wood:And what I'd realized over that, what by that point was, you know, seven years.
Holly Wood:Was, I built so many skills on how to build a brand and how to market yourself
Holly Wood:online, and I'd always loved that side of things anyway that I started to teach
Holly Wood:other women, you know, and it would be women who did different things, like had
Holly Wood:different businesses, but were trying to build an online presence, and that's kind
Holly Wood:of the start of my journey as a mentor.
Holly Wood:As a coach, which is where I sit now, kind of through the turmoil of the
Holly Wood:pandemic and pivoting and kind of figuring out where my skills lie now.
Holly Wood:Um, I love, love, love to mentor women who are growing their own businesses.
Holly Wood:With their business, but also with their marketing online.
Holly Wood:So that's kind of how I got to where I am now.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:At what point did you introduce the podcast or that you
Rachael Botfield:felt like you came across podcasts and felt like, cuz you seem to be
Rachael Botfield:like blogging from like the very beginning of when you started to Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Old.
Rachael Botfield:I'm old
Rachael Botfield:. Holly Wood: Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:In, in blogging terms.
Rachael Botfield:I am old.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Um, do you know what, it's a good, and I should have lit this up because I think
Rachael Botfield:I've had, must have had my podcast for.
Rachael Botfield:At least four years.
Rachael Botfield:At least four years, maybe a bit longer, but I, it was certainly when I was still
Rachael Botfield:predominantly blogging, but starting to build my business, which back then
Rachael Botfield:I had a business called We Blog North.
Rachael Botfield:So that was the right community that I built, and that was what the awards
Rachael Botfield:were based around and the workshops.
Rachael Botfield:So it would've been when I had Welo North and.
Rachael Botfield:I was super, super interested and so I had a baby at the time.
Rachael Botfield:In this notion of being a woman, a.
Rachael Botfield:trying to like make your own business, trying to like be a good partner, trying
Rachael Botfield:to be a good mate, trying to be, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:You know, healthy and fit.
Rachael Botfield:And so this notion of can we have it all just kept coming up in conversation was
Rachael Botfield:like me and my peers, like my girlfriends were like, can we really have it all?
Rachael Botfield:Do you know what I mean?
Rachael Botfield:Like, can we have the job that we want and be a good mom and all of this?
Rachael Botfield:And so that's where the idea kind of came.
Rachael Botfield:So it would've been, yeah, kind of during we block North Times that I started it
Rachael Botfield:again, I wanna say, before podcasts were kind of as big as they were.
Rachael Botfield:I mean, they were big in the kind of probably like fiction
Rachael Botfield:space in the, um, more, what I would say, professional space.
Rachael Botfield:But your average kind of content creator didn't really have a podcast.
Rachael Botfield:Mm.
Rachael Botfield:So, , I was just given it a bit of a go.
Rachael Botfield:Um, and I wanted a, um, a platform where I could really deep dive with other
Rachael Botfield:women, and that's how my podcast started.
Rachael Botfield:It was all about interviews.
Rachael Botfield:Um, it shifted a little bit now, but it started, as you know, deep our
Rachael Botfield:conversations with other women who were, you know, exploring this idea of creating
Rachael Botfield:their own businesses and carving their
Rachael Botfield:own.
Rachael Botfield:So when you came up, so you came up with that idea, did you, how did you
Rachael Botfield:find the women that you had to come on?
Rachael Botfield:Were they people that you, that you knew already, um, that you worked
Rachael Botfield:with or the people from your Yeah, the blogging kind of group that
Rachael Botfield:were in the same position as you?
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:I started, as with everything I do, I always look at who is in
Holly Wood:my network already because I.
Holly Wood:I believe that's the easiest place to start.
Holly Wood:It's often the most comfortable place to start.
Holly Wood:And it felt to me natural to kind of almost continue the conversations that
Holly Wood:I was having offline with women online.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. And so I knew that.
Holly Wood:, you know, particularly as content creators, that's is kind of
Holly Wood:predominantly who I started interviewing.
Holly Wood:I knew that they would be comfortable like talking and being kind of interviewed.
Holly Wood:Yeah, so that's how it started.
Holly Wood:I just looked at my immediate community.
Holly Wood:I looked at the blogging community, the women that I'd gotten to know through
Holly Wood:Instagram and the influencer kind of community, and you know, approached I
Holly Wood:think three or four of them just to say, , I'd love to just have this chat with you.
Holly Wood:Totally informal.
Holly Wood:That's kind of how I always approach everything I do.
Holly Wood:Um, let's like try and have a little bit of a laugh with it and see what happens.
Holly Wood:And so I lined up, I think three three of the, the women and recorded them
Holly Wood:to kind of get a few under my belt.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:and then.
Holly Wood:Loved it.
Holly Wood:They loved it.
Holly Wood:And I was like, yeah, let's roll with this.
Holly Wood:Let's do it.
Holly Wood:And kind of did a first season
Rachael Botfield:of it.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So is that, did you plan like just the season to start with or did you kind of go
Rachael Botfield:all in and say, right, I'm just gonna go.
Rachael Botfield:And do it every week or however
Holly Wood:often you can.
Holly Wood:I be really honest with you, Rachel, there wasn't much of a plan other than, and
Holly Wood:then to be honest, there probably still isn't enough of a plan, which I like.
Holly Wood:Do not listen to me, anybody who is listening to this, like be more
Holly Wood:organized than me because I definitely didn't know how I wanted it to
Holly Wood:shape, like how I wanted to shape.
Holly Wood:with everything I do, I do it because I kind of want to and I
Holly Wood:feel like it's the right thing.
Holly Wood:I don't over strategize things.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:I let it kind of unfold cuz I didn't know if I would enjoy creating podcasts.
Holly Wood:I didn't know if people would enjoy listening to them.
Holly Wood:And then, so I didn't want to like map out, I'm gonna do a 12 episode
Holly Wood:series and then I'm gonna break and I still don't really do that.
Holly Wood:I kind of go where my passion goes and where my energy goes.
Holly Wood:You know, this is probably very, this is why we need people like
Holly Wood:you, Rachel, to organize us, right?
Holly Wood:Because I know that I could be far more strategic and far more organized with
Holly Wood:it, but certainly starting off, I just wanted to see where it would take me.
Holly Wood:So I definitely wanted to get a few episodes recorded.
Holly Wood:I remember kind of.
Holly Wood:Probably three, four, maybe even five episodes recorded before I launched so
Holly Wood:that people could have a few episodes to listen to when I launched, rather
Holly Wood:than it just being one sat there.
Holly Wood:So I definitely remember kind of blocking time.
Holly Wood:An energy to kind of pre-record some, make sure they were all good
Holly Wood:to go, and then have them sat there ready and waiting before I did the
Holly Wood:full kind of, I've got this podcast.
Holly Wood:Um, but other than that, I let it kind of roll to where it feels
Holly Wood:like then there's a natural pause.
Holly Wood:So I had a bit of a natural pause, um, after interviewing a lot of guests.
Holly Wood:And then I started to play around with the format a little bit in, um, season two and
Holly Wood:like now I've got a very different format.
Holly Wood:largely because of lockdown and kind of pivoting slightly more into
Holly Wood:the business coaching space rather than purely content creation space.
Holly Wood:So I've got quite a different format now, but again, 2023 I'll be mixing it
Holly Wood:up and kind of, you know, reintroducing interviews and things like that again.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. So I'm a very, I'm a believer in things should be fluid and
Holly Wood:grow with you and evolve with.
Rachael Botfield:I'd agree with that.
Rachael Botfield:I do think.
Rachael Botfield:once you've, if you are what, if you want your podcast to grow
Rachael Botfield:and change and something happens in your business, you change it.
Rachael Botfield:I don't think that you should be afraid to change it.
Rachael Botfield:I'm all for planning and, and, and doing, getting all that started
Rachael Botfield:with, but I, I don't want to be, or I don't think you should be too rigid
Rachael Botfield:in that planning because mm-hmm.
Rachael Botfield:you're kind of making a rod for your own back.
Rachael Botfield:Then if something change.
Rachael Botfield:Circumstances changes you should be.
Rachael Botfield:And, and that is kind of one of the benefits of running your own business
Rachael Botfield:and you being in charge, is that you can make those changes quickly and
Rachael Botfield:Yeah, change your mind because you are not answering to anybody else.
Rachael Botfield:It's your own decision.
Rachael Botfield:So I do, yeah, like that.
Rachael Botfield:And I think that if your podcast, if you feel that it would work in a
Rachael Botfield:different way or a different format, you shouldn't be afraid of changing
Rachael Botfield:it up really, because it could end.
Rachael Botfield:, if it's not working, you're kind of feeling like you're, you're flogging a
Rachael Botfield:dead horse really in, in that respect.
Rachael Botfield:And I think it'll come across in your podcast totally with listeners
Rachael Botfield:if you are doing something that, um, you know, doesn't spark that joy.
Rachael Botfield:And I think you do have to enjoy doing podcasting.
Rachael Botfield:I think if you feel like it's, I mean, yes, sometimes it does feel
Rachael Botfield:like a bit of a chore when you think, oh, I've got all this to do.
Rachael Botfield:But ultimately you must enjoy podcasting to carry.
Rachael Botfield:doing that.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:To doing podcasting as a, as a thing for business.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:And I, I love it.
Holly Wood:I really do love it.
Holly Wood:I had no idea that I would love it.
Holly Wood:Again, I think it was just something, somebody at some point
Holly Wood:said, oh, why don't you try that?
Holly Wood:Like, give podcasting a go.
Holly Wood:I really like the idea of, I'm quite like, I'm somebody who
Holly Wood:likes depth and I like connect.
Holly Wood:It's one of my kind of like, well, my values and what I look for in
Holly Wood:relationships, but also with clients, and I like that there's a deeper
Holly Wood:sense of connection with the podcast.
Holly Wood:I feel like there's something about having someone in your ears.
Holly Wood:It feels much more intimate.
Holly Wood:It feels, um, like you can go into a deeper level than you would
Holly Wood:on social media, for instance.
Holly Wood:And you know, I'm a blogger, so I like long form content.
Holly Wood:Like that's where I come from.
Holly Wood:I come from like bashing out, you know, 800,000 words about something.
Holly Wood:So kind of short captions and things were quite alien to me.
Holly Wood:So when I discovered podcasting, it felt really.
Holly Wood:Comfortable.
Holly Wood:Like, I like being able to go a little bit deeper on subjects and, um, I think that's
Holly Wood:one of the real strengths of podcasting.
Holly Wood:It gives you that ability.
Holly Wood:So yeah, I know.
Holly Wood:I absolutely love it.
Holly Wood:And you know, there's, you know, I've talked about changing format and
Holly Wood:things, but there's always been a theme.
Holly Wood:I always have a theme running through that.
Holly Wood:Can we have it always, always the kind of thread that runs through everything.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. But I think you can play around and kind of.
Holly Wood:what fits right at the time for you.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Like
Rachael Botfield:different aspects of that as well.
Rachael Botfield:It's not just something that is static, is it?
Rachael Botfield:You can change it and as you change and your business changes, you are still
Rachael Botfield:gonna be thinking that same question as Yeah, you go on in your journey.
Rachael Botfield:And so it is still relevant to that.
Rachael Botfield:Absolutely.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So in terms of tech, um, how did you get on with.
Rachael Botfield:like doing the recording, did you go out and buy mics or did you kind of,
Rachael Botfield:cuz I, one thing I think is a bit of a barrier sometimes is equipment wise.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Hopefully.
Rachael Botfield:And I think that you don't need to have expensive equipment to start.
Rachael Botfield:I mean, it's always nice if you can get a nice mic and et cetera.
Rachael Botfield:Um, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So how did you find all the tech side of things?
Holly Wood:So I just wanna start by saying I am not a techy person.
Holly Wood:And so if anybody's listening to this and thinking, oh, I can't start
Holly Wood:a podcast cause I'm not very tech minded, like you absolutely can because
Holly Wood:I'm not, and you can figure it out.
Holly Wood:It doesn't have to be difficult.
Holly Wood:Um, you can get support.
Holly Wood:You know, I had somebody help me set it up and then once it was set
Holly Wood:up, I kind of knew then how to add a recording or how to upload a record.
Holly Wood:. So that side of things, like definitely don't let it be a barrier in terms
Holly Wood:of like, like route of entry.
Holly Wood:I remember buying a little, um, road mic, like a little
Holly Wood:road, um, sit on your desk mic.
Holly Wood:I think it was about 60 quid from Amazon.
Holly Wood:And to be honest, that was, again, I wanna say Rachel, you might disagree,
Holly Wood:but if we're looking at like four or five years ago, it wasn't even
Holly Wood:back then, like there wasn't as.
Holly Wood:apps and readily available tools.
Holly Wood:I do feel like, no, there wasn't, no, you could probably buy a really
Holly Wood:good mic now for like 20 quid on Amazon, whereas back then maybe
Holly Wood:60 quid was like the entry point.
Holly Wood:But even that, you know, kind of mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:was a worthwhile investment.
Holly Wood:So I remember putting a, getting a mic and having some headphones because I
Holly Wood:knew that that was gonna help the sound.
Holly Wood:and I first, because it was interviews, I first recorded through
Holly Wood:Skype, so I used a tool, and I'm trying to think of what the app was.
Holly Wood:I might have to like come back to you, but there was an app that would
Holly Wood:pull the audio from a Skype recording.
Holly Wood:Okay.
Holly Wood:And then just turn it into an mp4.
Holly Wood:Right.
Holly Wood:And so then you just have that file and then I would edit it in Garage Band.
Holly Wood:So I still.
Holly Wood:Podcast in Garage Band.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:, because I find it really simple to just, I don't overly edit my podcast, by the way.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:, so because they're quite conversational.
Holly Wood:But if there was anything like a massive coughing fit in the middle, then I could
Holly Wood:just very quickly sort of snip it out.
Holly Wood:And that's about as fancy as I got.
Holly Wood:Um, now I think, you know, I'm sat here wearing, AirPods, you know, which
Holly Wood:didn't exist when I started podcasting.
Holly Wood:The sound is really good.
Holly Wood:You know, I have recorded, when I was away in Italy, a podcast on my
Holly Wood:phone using a voice memo app, you know, and that was great quality.
Holly Wood:So I do think particularly now, you don't need fancy equipment to start a podcast.
Holly Wood:You know?
Holly Wood:Yes, you can have really high production quality.
Holly Wood:However, don't let it block you from starting because you can
Holly Wood:literally just sit there with your.
Holly Wood:And create podcast.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:They're so good.
Rachael Botfield:The quality of them.
Rachael Botfield:It's the same with cameras.
Rachael Botfield:I mean, people make Mm, people make films on iPhones.
Rachael Botfield:I mean there's, yeah, exactly.
Rachael Botfield:I'm a bit of a film geek myself and, and I've read in my film magazines
Rachael Botfield:about people who have entered, I can't remember what film it was now
Rachael Botfield:that made on the, I all on the iPhone edited it on on the iPhone as well.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Probably like Cam Film Festival or something.
Holly Wood:. Rachael Botfield: Yeah.
Holly Wood:Yeah, exactly.
Holly Wood:So to record it, I mean, headphones do.
Holly Wood:, um, like you say, like having your AirPods, or sometimes you can get
Holly Wood:the, the normal plugin ones that have the little microphone on them
Holly Wood:just so it's closer to your mouth.
Holly Wood:But I think that, um, yeah, it's, it's, it shouldn't be a barrier
Holly Wood:to, to stopping you from starting.
Holly Wood:I have met a few people out there that are kind of like,
Holly Wood:oh, , you need all this quality.
Holly Wood:And my, I myself, like my husband's a sound engineer and he, like,
Holly Wood:when he listens to stuff, he's, he, he can pick stuff up that I
Holly Wood:can't and, and I, and I get that.
Holly Wood:And if you're making a radio program or whatever, then yes,
Holly Wood:you do have to have it like that because people are paying for it.
Holly Wood:But I think that at our level, as long as it's not too distracting about
Holly Wood:what's going on in the background, you've not got somebody banging
Holly Wood:the mic or there's a big noise.
Holly Wood:I think that.
Holly Wood:I haven't, I've listened to so many podcasts and very few people I've
Holly Wood:thought I can't listen to that.
Holly Wood:Like probably, probably none.
Holly Wood:Maybe one.
Holly Wood:That was it.
Holly Wood:And that is just shows that you don't have to think, right?
Holly Wood:I've gotta get like a proper studio.
Holly Wood:Yes.
Holly Wood:Anything I would say on sound is think equipment.
Holly Wood:You know, you can use kind of what you've got, but definitely
Holly Wood:try to be somewhere that you are not disturbed by ambient noise.
Holly Wood:Cause I think that is the only thing, unless you are literally, that's the style
Holly Wood:of your podcast, you are like a roving reporter or you know, out on the street.
Holly Wood:It can be distracting for the listener if there's too much
Holly Wood:going on around, can't there?
Holly Wood:So, yeah, at the very, at the very least, you.
Holly Wood:Try and be in a quiet room somewhere whilst you are recording.
Holly Wood:And I feel like that's enough
Rachael Botfield:to start.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah, I, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So those things to do, to do that, like closing windows, turning off fans,
Rachael Botfield:make sure your phone's turned off.
Rachael Botfield:All those little things will just contribute to.
Rachael Botfield:You know, the non background noise, which Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And then everything else just gets, and then speaking clearly, um, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And having the microphone kind of near you as opposed to miles away,
Rachael Botfield:but people generally, yeah, pretty savvy, pretty pretty when it comes
Rachael Botfield:to your phones and things like that.
Rachael Botfield:These, like you say, the tech is so more advanced even from a few years ago, even.
Rachael Botfield:There's so many different apps and everything out there for
Rachael Botfield:you to use and absolutely.
Rachael Botfield:What pod, um, podcast . What, um, podcast host do you use?
Rachael Botfield:So
Holly Wood:I'm on SoundCloud, so I.
Holly Wood:Um, upload straight into there.
Holly Wood:I know when, um, I had some help setting it up, you know, that was all
Holly Wood:done for me and the RSS feed and all that techy side was kind of sorted.
Holly Wood:But SoundCloud for me is so easy because as I said earlier, I just edit my.
Holly Wood:Podcast in Garage Band, save it down as an mp4 and then upload it into
Holly Wood:SoundCloud and you get to put in all your little, you know, tags and your, your,
Holly Wood:um, show notes and things like that.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:and then it's straight up.
Holly Wood:It's straight up online.
Holly Wood:So, Yeah, I find it super,
Rachael Botfield:super easy.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Um, I've not used SoundCloud.
Rachael Botfield:Uh, when I first started I used Anchor, which is linked to Spotify.
Rachael Botfield:Oh yeah, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And you can, I, I think you could even record in the
Rachael Botfield:platform now, cuz you can add Mm.
Rachael Botfield:Um, you can edit in there, you can add sound things, little jingles,
Rachael Botfield:jingles, music and all sorts of things if you want, if you want.
Rachael Botfield:I don't do that.
Rachael Botfield:I've, I've used Captivate now for this podcast, but that's because, because
Rachael Botfield:I'm a podcast manager as well, I wanted to try like a paid for platform and um,
Rachael Botfield:captivate a kind of, um, a new company and they're all about their growth.
Rachael Botfield:They have some growth labs, so that was kind of like nice.
Rachael Botfield:Have my own podcast manager journey as well.
Rachael Botfield:So I wouldn't necessarily say if it's your first podcast, cuz
Rachael Botfield:it's a paid platform as well.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And perhaps it's good.
Rachael Botfield:Is SoundCloud free or is that a paid platform?
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Holly Wood:No, I think it's free.
Holly Wood:I'm pretty sure I'm on the free.
Holly Wood:I think as with loads of things, there's different tiers.
Holly Wood:So again, a bit like, a bit like you said, you can have, you know, you
Holly Wood:can use their royalty free music.
Holly Wood:You can create jingles, you can kind of do lots within the app.
Holly Wood:I use it as it at its bare minimum of I upload and then click and go.
Holly Wood:Um, and that's been enough for me.
Holly Wood:So yeah, I, I highly recommend it.
Holly Wood:Super
Rachael Botfield:simple.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So did you have.
Rachael Botfield:Or do you have, uh, an overarching kind of goal for your podcast?
Holly Wood:Well, I guess you know, it, there's always gonna be an element that
Holly Wood:I want it to make sense to my business.
Holly Wood:You know, I.
Holly Wood:What I've realized over the years is the thing I love about podcasting,
Holly Wood:um, which is very different to something maybe like social media,
Holly Wood:is you don't necessarily know who's listening and you don't necessarily
Holly Wood:know how long people are listening for.
Holly Wood:And then, you know, I've had clients.
Holly Wood:Then go, oh, you know, I discovered you because of your podcast and you
Holly Wood:know, six months ago or a year ago.
Holly Wood:So I love that it's a platform that can help my business and help my
Holly Wood:business grow and introduce clients to me and introduce me to new people.
Holly Wood:So that's definitely part of it.
Holly Wood:And the way I'm kind of moving, you know, the content is far
Holly Wood:more kind of business centric.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. But as I said, kind of right at the beginning, like positive
Holly Wood:psychology is something.
Holly Wood:I'm so passionate about that I really do am kind of on a mission
Holly Wood:to raise awareness of positive psychology in all aspects of life.
Holly Wood:And I think podcasting just has this incredible ability to reach people,
Holly Wood:you know, that you would never be able to reach in any other way.
Holly Wood:And so, I guess one of my overall goals as well is to raise awareness about
Holly Wood:positive psychology and how everybody can integrate that incredible science into
Holly Wood:their life and improve their wellbeing.
Holly Wood:So it's kind of two prongs, like yes, lovely to have.
Holly Wood:Clients and grow my business, but also genuinely part of my mission
Holly Wood:is to just raise awareness of this, you know, incredible thing.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:That's really, that is what exactly what I love about podcasts as well.
Rachael Botfield:You can reach audiences far and wide and sometimes when you look at your stats and
Rachael Botfield:you look at the different countries that have listened and it's like, oh bunch.
Rachael Botfield:Didn't realize somebody from there would, would re would like, and, and
Rachael Botfield:you wouldn't never be able to do that.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Years ago, would you be able to, no access, obviously, like we say with
Rachael Botfield:technology coming along as well.
Rachael Botfield:And I like what you said, like at the beg, going back to what you
Rachael Botfield:said at the beginning about it being like a personal voice in your ear.
Rachael Botfield:Mm-hmm.
Rachael Botfield:, that is exactly how I think about podcasts and when I've listened to
Rachael Botfield:them, um, and got into when I first kind of like fell on the podcast a
Rachael Botfield:rabbit hole, if you will, that was one of the, Um, that I liked about it.
Rachael Botfield:That you do feel like that person's talking to you.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And it.
Rachael Botfield:A really great way for people to get to know you as a business owner as well.
Rachael Botfield:Obviously it's, you know, that's not the sole reason why you're doing your podcast.
Rachael Botfield:Uh, same, same with me.
Rachael Botfield:I want to be able to help women who dunno what to do with starting a podcast or
Rachael Botfield:need some help with their podcasting.
Rachael Botfield:So that's kind of the idea around it.
Rachael Botfield:But it is a way for them to get to know who you are, what you talk like, whether
Rachael Botfield:they feel like they would gel with you.
Rachael Botfield:So it's a kind of a nice.
Rachael Botfield:I dunno, pre-qualifier kind of thing as well for them to get
Rachael Botfield:to know you a little bit more.
Rachael Botfield:Um, I find it.
Rachael Botfield:With social media, and I was saying this to somebody the other day in a networking
Rachael Botfield:group, I kind of prefer, um, talking like one-on-one or in a networking group.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:I found this recently because on social media when you're writing comments
Rachael Botfield:and things like that, which is fine, it's a nice way to keep in touch is
Rachael Botfield:kind of like a text or something.
Rachael Botfield:But I feel like you, you don't really get to know somebody very well unless you
Rachael Botfield:have some conversations with them as well.
Rachael Botfield:And that's when you get to know whether you really gel with them.
Rachael Botfield:And I think podcast can, podcasting can be a great introducer to that.
Rachael Botfield:Um, hopefully from your perspective as a business owner.
Rachael Botfield:And then, Perhaps being, um, part as your community and then engage with
Rachael Botfield:those people on a personal level after they've listened to the episode as well.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:But I, I feel like it's a really
Holly Wood:great communicator.
Holly Wood:It's definitely like a connection builder.
Holly Wood:And I think like picking up on what you said, I totally agree.
Holly Wood:They're hearing someone's voice.
Holly Wood:Is so key to that.
Holly Wood:No, like, and trust, because I think, you know, we're, we're facing a world
Holly Wood:where we see so much like text and, you know, emails and, and they're great and
Holly Wood:they have their face and I love them too.
Holly Wood:But there's nothing like hearing the way somebody says something and hearing what
Holly Wood:their personality's like and you know when they laugh and what may, you know.
Holly Wood:And I just think that's why podcasting, I know when I listen and when I sort of.
Holly Wood:BINGE list, and particularly when you really get into a podcast,
Holly Wood:you're like, oh, I'm gonna listen to like five episodes on the truck.
Holly Wood:You feel like you know that person, don't you?
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. Yeah.
Holly Wood:And you definitely feel like if you were to bump into them, you could have
Holly Wood:a conversation because you know what they sound like and how they speak.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:And I think that's quite a special, you know, a special thing.
Holly Wood:Um, That you don't get on all the
Rachael Botfield:other kind of platforms.
Rachael Botfield:No, and I do think that, um, once you've listened to someone's podcast and you are
Rachael Botfield:consuming their social media content, like cuz I've listened to your podcast and when
Rachael Botfield:I read your posts, I can kind of hear your voice anyway coming through your posts.
Rachael Botfield:Because, yeah, I've listened and I, I know what you sound like and what you're
Rachael Botfield:talking about and things, so that's kind of like maybe a nice addition that
Rachael Botfield:could happen as well for people that are looking at your content online.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And speaking of social media and online content, so how do you
Rachael Botfield:go about promoting your podcast?
Holly Wood:So anywhere and everywhere, basically.
Holly Wood:Anywhere that you show up, talk about it.
Holly Wood:I think one of the biggest things I would say is host it on your website.
Holly Wood:If you've got a website, so I've got a a page.
Holly Wood:That my podcast episodes get fed into, and so that I have, it's essentially like
Holly Wood:a blog post that every podcast episode.
Holly Wood:And you know, there's a couple of reasons for that.
Holly Wood:It means that if people find you, um, they will, like, if they're a podcast
Holly Wood:like listener, they will likely navigate and try and see if you've got one.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:, it's great for your seo, so it means you, your podcast is more
Holly Wood:searchable and it also means it's great when you're marketing.
Holly Wood:Feed the traffic through your own site.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:You know, before they then go onto SoundCloud or Apple, I, uh, apple
Holly Wood:Podcast or whatever, feed it through, because, you know, I'm a digital market
Holly Wood:marketer through and through, so I want you to have the traffic, right?
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. So if you're hosting your podcast on your own website, you know, in
Holly Wood:terms of having a, um, them on a page that can really, really help.
Holly Wood:So that's the first kind of thing that I did.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Was made sure I had a podcast tab on my blog, podcast tab on my business website.
Holly Wood:Um, and then it's, you know, shouting about it on all
Holly Wood:your social media platforms.
Holly Wood:It's talking about it in person at events.
Holly Wood:You know, we forget in the online space, we can still communicate
Holly Wood:in actual real life, you know, and say, Do you like podcasts?
Holly Wood:I've got one here.
Holly Wood:Get it up on your, you know, on your iPhone and also in groups that you are a
Holly Wood:part of, you know, online or otherwise.
Holly Wood:So, um, you know, share those episodes if you know that something's a, a useful
Holly Wood:topic to people that are in the group.
Holly Wood:And it's okay to do so.
Holly Wood:Share it.
Holly Wood:Like, share the, share the episode.
Holly Wood:I.
Holly Wood:I feel like podcast is very similar to blogging, which is
Holly Wood:obviously why I'm drawn to it.
Holly Wood:In that you can run the danger of thinking, oh, I've done the
Holly Wood:episode, I'll never talk about it again when actually, yeah.
Holly Wood:The beauty of podcasting, just like blog post, is you can
Holly Wood:repurpose it again and again.
Holly Wood:You can pull out an episode from the archives and talk about it again.
Holly Wood:You know people are gonna find you at different times, and unlike a social media
Holly Wood:feed, It's kind of gone after a few days.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:You can go back to the beginning and listen from, you know, four
Holly Wood:years ago if you wanted to.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:So.
Holly Wood:I always say keep sharing and repurposing and kind of, yeah.
Holly Wood:Pointing backwards as well as, you know, to
Rachael Botfield:your current episode.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Repurposing is a big one, I think, and um, one of my clients has me,
Rachael Botfield:Edgar, and they use, you can, it's really good for evergreen content
Rachael Botfield:so you can plug all content in and then, um, it'll like shuffle.
Rachael Botfield:All the stuff.
Rachael Botfield:So it kind of shuffles cool.
Rachael Botfield:They've got different clips, sometimes a full length episode, so that's
Rachael Botfield:really, that works really well for them.
Rachael Botfield:So I see them repurposing their stuff all the time.
Rachael Botfield:And now with my own, um, I kind of do mine on a four weekly basis,
Rachael Botfield:like I batch mine and I have now.
Rachael Botfield:Cuz I just ended up thinking, oh, I've just haven't, why am I not
Rachael Botfield:talking about all my other episodes?
Rachael Botfield:So like, bringing those back into my current, um, what I'm doing for.
Rachael Botfield:my digital marketing is bringing those episodes back out.
Rachael Botfield:Um, yeah.
Rachael Botfield:And, and talking about them because like you say, they are still relevant
Rachael Botfield:and people are joining you at different points in their journey.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:So they may well really wanna go back and listen to that at the beginning.
Rachael Botfield:And I think that, that as well, you've got like a.
Rachael Botfield:A massive big content bank there for yourself, and you can keep repurposing
Rachael Botfield:them in terms of whole episode clips.
Rachael Botfield:Yeah.
Rachael Botfield:Creating social media captions, creating carousels.
Rachael Botfield:There's a whole load of things that you can do with them and, um, yeah,
Rachael Botfield:rather than kind of, it is easy to forget the, just the, I've done those.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:And, and, and they're there in the, in the vault.
Holly Wood:But yeah.
Holly Wood:And I, and I, I certainly, you know, so.
Holly Wood:That maybe people wouldn't think of is, you know, if you are creating blog posts,
Holly Wood:for instance, you can, if you're talking about a topic, you can say, oh, if you
Holly Wood:like this or you wanna know a little bit more, I, I recorded a podcast episode
Holly Wood:on it and just, you know, embed a link.
Holly Wood:It doesn't always have to be Yeah.
Holly Wood:Or singing or dancing, like promotion.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. But it's that kind of, you know, Linking that journey that you want your
Holly Wood:audience to go on when they find you.
Holly Wood:And if they're landing on your website and they're interested in a
Holly Wood:topic, can you serve them a podcast episode to take them to that space?
Holly Wood:You know?
Holly Wood:And it's really thinking of that, that user journey or
Holly Wood:that that audience journey.
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Which is why I love it.
Rachael Botfield:Talking about audience, do you have, what is your target audience?
Rachael Botfield:Um, I know you talked about having mums and, and entrepreneurs.
Rachael Botfield:Is it more specific now that.
Rachael Botfield:Pivoted towards more the mentor side of things,
Holly Wood:I think.
Holly Wood:I mean, it's largely the same.
Holly Wood:I, I, you know, predominantly help women, solopreneurs, mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:, so women who are building their businesses pretty much single handedly
Holly Wood:now as I've grown and my clients grow, That turns into, you know, women
Holly Wood:entrepreneurs with little teams of people and, you know, or business partners.
Holly Wood:So it's not like I've only ever worked with women who only work on
Holly Wood:their own, but I think predominantly solopreneurs, um, who are probably, you
Holly Wood:know, started their business journey.
Holly Wood:So they're, they're in it and they.
Holly Wood:That they want to do it and they know that they're doing something that kind
Holly Wood:of works, but they dunno where to go next and they dunno how to build it.
Holly Wood:Like that's where I can really help women and support them and help them
Holly Wood:flourish in their businesses, um, and their income, but also just feeling
Holly Wood:good doing it because I think this is part of it, like we need to enjoy.
Holly Wood:And have fun whilst we do it.
Holly Wood:We don't start working for ourselves for an easy ride.
Holly Wood:It's not the easy option.
Holly Wood:, you know, despite what some people might think or what it might look
Holly Wood:like on social media, you don't work for yourself for the easy option.
Holly Wood:You work for yourself because you wanna change.
Holly Wood:The world or you, you love it.
Holly Wood:You wanna change the way your life is.
Holly Wood:Mm-hmm.
Holly Wood:. So it's not about, you know, um, it, it being easy, but it's about, it should
Holly Wood:be fun and it should be enjoyable.
Holly Wood:And that's what I aim to help women kind of figure out, you know?
Holly Wood:Yeah.
Holly Wood:Um, yeah.
Holly Wood:Yeah,
Rachael Botfield:yeah.
Rachael Botfield:It's, um, it, it should be fun and I mean, it isn't, like I said, it isn't easy and
Rachael Botfield:you do have no hard days, but, um, Having that guidance to help you, you know,
Rachael Botfield:get on that way and be, stay positive and enjoy it is, is an important thing.
Rachael Botfield:I've seen a lot about your, um, your away.
Rachael Botfield:Is it your away days that you do My retreat.
Rachael Botfield:Retreat, that's it.
Rachael Botfield:Oh, in fabulous pictures of, uh, yeah, the retreat
