Podcast Insights with Nikki

Rachael: 00:00:08

Hi, and welcome to Podcasting 1 0 1 with Rachel.

Rachael: 00:00:12

This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own

Rachael: 00:00:15

businesses and want to start podcast or who may already have a podcast.

Rachael: 00:00:20

I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast

Rachael: 00:00:25

started and managing it along the way.

Rachael: 00:00:27

I'll also be interviewing other female podcast.

Rachael: 00:00:30

Give you real insight into what it's like having your own podcast.

Rachael: 00:00:43

Hi, and welcome to this week's episode.

Rachael: 00:00:46

This week I'm joined with Nikki St.

Rachael: 00:00:48

Paul and she's the host of the Stories that Connect Us Podcast.

Rachael: 00:00:52

Welcome, Nikki.

Nikki: 00:00:54

Thank you so much for having me, Rachel.

Rachael: 00:00:56

It's lovely to have you here and I've been, your podcast

Rachael: 00:00:59

has been going since March last year, which is about the same time

Rachael: 00:01:03

as I started this podcast as well.

Rachael: 00:01:06

And it's been lovely to connect with you and see your journey with your podcast

Rachael: 00:01:10

and the people that you are interviewing.

Rachael: 00:01:12

So do you wanna tell us a little bit about you and your podcast and kind of

Rachael: 00:01:16

why you decided to start using podcasting?

Nikki: 00:01:20

Yeah, so I am the host of stories at.

Nikki: 00:01:24

And I started, as you said, March last year, March, 2022.

Nikki: 00:01:28

I launched the first episode and you know, I think for me, one of the main

Nikki: 00:01:34

reasons for focusing on storytelling and interviewing guests every other week,

Nikki: 00:01:41

so I have an a new episode biweekly.

Nikki: 00:01:44

My main reason for doing that is I'd always believe.

Nikki: 00:01:48

You had to have a drama or a trauma or something really big happen to

Nikki: 00:01:53

have a story that's worth sharing and that's worth being told.

Nikki: 00:01:58

But then I became to realize that actually, you know, everyday people, we've

Nikki: 00:02:02

all got stories within us and they all.

Nikki: 00:02:05

Can hold so much value for other people.

Nikki: 00:02:09

And so the main premise behind stories that connect us is that whilst our lives

Nikki: 00:02:15

may look different to the person down the road or another country, there are

Nikki: 00:02:19

often aspects of our stories that we can feel connected to each other by.

Nikki: 00:02:25

So that was really what I wanted to do, was to unite people through the power

Nikki: 00:02:28

of storytelling and so that people who.

Nikki: 00:02:32

Had a particular story and was sharing it with my audience that other people

Nikki: 00:02:37

may listen to that and think, okay, I'm not the only one who have gone

Nikki: 00:02:42

through or is going through X situation.

Nikki: 00:02:46

And so that, that really was the, the premise behind stories that connect us.

Rachael: 00:02:52

I love the, we were just talking about that, about the storytelling

Rachael: 00:02:55

element, and it is so interesting.

Rachael: 00:02:57

I find it fascinating talking to different people and hearing, and I,

Rachael: 00:03:02

I think that, like my first podcast I did, um, was talking to different

Rachael: 00:03:06

virtual assistants and, um, sharing their journeys and how they got there and

Rachael: 00:03:11

it's, , like you say, it's so interesting hearing all these different stories and

Rachael: 00:03:17

finding something that resonates with your own story within those people.

Rachael: 00:03:22

And I like everyone likes to hear quote unquote celebrities stories and

Rachael: 00:03:28

I'm actually more interested in just people that are like me or in my network

Rachael: 00:03:33

because Exactly me, like you said, you don't have to have, so, big happen

Rachael: 00:03:39

or be famous for you to have a story that's gonna resonate with other people.

Rachael: 00:03:43

You can have that.

Rachael: 00:03:45

We've all got stories that will help other people

Nikki: 00:03:49

as well.

Nikki: 00:03:49

That is exactly it.

Nikki: 00:03:50

It's everyday people telling us an aspect to their story.

Nikki: 00:03:54

Cuz obviously we can't tell a whole story in half an hour or 40

Nikki: 00:03:57

minutes, but whatever story they.

Nikki: 00:04:00

If there's just one person who either feels less alone or one person who

Nikki: 00:04:07

starts a conversation with a family or friend or their employer, depending

Nikki: 00:04:11

on what the topic is that is being discussed, then that's the aim.

Nikki: 00:04:15

I mean, we can get into that later.

Nikki: 00:04:17

Yeah,

Rachael: 00:04:18

that is, I think that is such a valuable story to

Rachael: 00:04:21

show in a podcast, to have.

Rachael: 00:04:23

Having those, making that connection and that is all what we all want as well.

Rachael: 00:04:28

We all want to have, find that connection.

Rachael: 00:04:30

We want to belong.

Rachael: 00:04:31

That's it.

Rachael: 00:04:31

Yes.

Nikki: 00:04:32

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:04:32

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:04:32

Absolutely.

Rachael: 00:04:34

So what, what made you choose podcasting to help get

Rachael: 00:04:37

this, this storytelling element

Nikki: 00:04:39

out there?

Nikki: 00:04:40

So, I know many people started listening to podcast in lockdown, um, cuz it was

Nikki: 00:04:45

something to do whilst they were on there.

Nikki: 00:04:47

One hour, uh, out today, , I have been listening to podcasts for many years

Nikki: 00:04:53

prior to that and always loved the audio.

Nikki: 00:04:56

Um, and I remember even as a child, Um, this is showing my age now, but

Nikki: 00:05:01

cassette tapes from the library and listening to audio as well as reading.

Nikki: 00:05:05

I did lots and lots of reading of fiction, but I also loved audio cassette tapes.

Nikki: 00:05:10

I loved being able to sit there and close my eyes and almost felt like I

Nikki: 00:05:14

was being taken into this other world, particularly if I was listening to fiction

Nikki: 00:05:19

and fairy tales and things like that as a.

Nikki: 00:05:22

as a young girl.

Nikki: 00:05:23

So I've always loved audio as a channel and I think I learned best through audio.

Nikki: 00:05:28

So even, you know, studying, I would always, um, you know, record myself

Nikki: 00:05:33

into a Dictaphone, record my notes, and then listen back and, you know,

Nikki: 00:05:38

hope that somehow, some way that the knowledge subliminally slip into my rain.

Nikki: 00:05:43

So I've always loved audio as a channel, so I think that was why I was sort

Nikki: 00:05:48

of, , um, drawn to, to podcasting.

Nikki: 00:05:53

In terms of why I decided to start it, I mean, I've been wanting

Nikki: 00:05:56

to start it for years prior to 2022, at least two, three years.

Nikki: 00:06:01

Uh, but it had always been one of those things that kind of got moved to the

Nikki: 00:06:04

back of the to-do list, and I'll do it next year and how do I do it and who will

Nikki: 00:06:09

listen, and all those kind of creeping doubts and assumptions that we make and we

Nikki: 00:06:15

stop ourselves from doing what we want to.

Nikki: 00:06:18

Yeah,

Rachael: 00:06:19

I agree with the audio only.

Rachael: 00:06:21

Tana, we were saying just before we came on recording it is something special

Rachael: 00:06:27

and personal listening to something, um, audio rather than watching it.

Rachael: 00:06:32

I, I like to take, I discover podcasting a few years before Covid as well,

Rachael: 00:06:36

and I would go out for a walk and listen to them on my headphones.

Rachael: 00:06:40

I also listen to a lot of stories.

Rachael: 00:06:42

as a child.

Rachael: 00:06:43

My kids absolutely love listening.

Rachael: 00:06:45

Um, not cassettes now though on their Alexa dots and something, but they

Rachael: 00:06:50

absolutely love stories like that.

Rachael: 00:06:52

And I think my daughter listens to Harry Potter on repeat most nights,

Rachael: 00:06:57

and it's just something about that, that world, like you say, that

Rachael: 00:07:02

makes it a more personal, um, form.

Rachael: 00:07:07

engagement, I

Nikki: 00:07:08

guess.

Nikki: 00:07:08

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:07:09

I, I think it allows for real focus on what is being said.

Nikki: 00:07:14

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:07:14

, because there's just, you know, you, you don't have to look at anything.

Nikki: 00:07:17

You don't have to touch anything.

Nikki: 00:07:18

You just press play and that's it.

Nikki: 00:07:20

You just listen.

Nikki: 00:07:22

. Um, so it's just that one sense that you are tuning into, but you are

Nikki: 00:07:25

using all of your other senses mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:07:27

to make sense of what's being spoken about.

Nikki: 00:07:30

So now I really love audio.

Rachael: 00:07:32

What kind of helped you overcome your, you know, your

Rachael: 00:07:37

concerns about, or your about starting and is anyone gonna listen?

Rachael: 00:07:41

How, how did you kind of make the leap into starting?

Rachael: 00:07:45

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:07:45

So I was having a conversation with somebody and you.

Nikki: 00:07:48

The usual thing would come up is, oh, I'd love to start a podcast this year.

Nikki: 00:07:52

And when somebody asks you a question, a really open, a really

Nikki: 00:07:57

good question where they say, well, why haven't you started it?

Nikki: 00:08:00

And it was, it was said in a way that I can't quite replicate now, but it was

Nikki: 00:08:04

said in a way that I was like, oh, why haven't I, you know, what's stopping me?

Nikki: 00:08:08

And.

Nikki: 00:08:09

I think what I was able to overcome was not the, the fear or the, or the doubt,

Nikki: 00:08:15

like that was very much still there.

Nikki: 00:08:17

It was okay.

Nikki: 00:08:19

I don't know what steps 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 looked like, but I can

Nikki: 00:08:25

figure out what my next step is and.

Nikki: 00:08:29

That's the way that I worked it out, I thought, right, what are

Nikki: 00:08:31

the things I know I need to do?

Nikki: 00:08:33

I just made a list, a long list.

Nikki: 00:08:35

I love getting a list out.

Nikki: 00:08:37

me too.

Nikki: 00:08:38

Love a good list, love a list.

Nikki: 00:08:39

Um, so I just made a long list.

Nikki: 00:08:41

I thought, well, I need a name.

Nikki: 00:08:43

I need to figure out how I'm gonna, where I'm gonna host it.

Nikki: 00:08:46

I need to figure out if I'm gonna do solo episodes or.

Nikki: 00:08:51

and I chose the guest for the reasons that I've just spoken about

Nikki: 00:08:54

in terms of connecting through others and sharing people's stories.

Nikki: 00:08:58

And I thought, right, how can I, how can I get some guests right?

Nikki: 00:09:01

Okay, I've got a couple of platforms that I'm a member of.

Nikki: 00:09:05

I'm just gonna post on there and see what happens.

Nikki: 00:09:07

So I didn't have this very, um, sophisticated guest strategy

Nikki: 00:09:13

at the beginning at all.

Nikki: 00:09:14

It was just like, you know what, Nikki, if you just ha get one,

Nikki: 00:09:19

That's all you need to get started.

Nikki: 00:09:21

And that's how I went along for quite a number of months really, until I started

Nikki: 00:09:26

to find my feet a bit more and had more of a, an intentional focus about the

Nikki: 00:09:32

sorts of stories that I wanted to have on.

Nikki: 00:09:35

I really wasn't picky at the beginning.

Nikki: 00:09:37

I mean, luckily I got some amazing gets early on, but I think I probably would've

Nikki: 00:09:42

taken anyone who, who said yes that they would wanted to come on the show.

Nikki: 00:09:46

Whereas now I'm.

Nikki: 00:09:48

Actually, well, that's not the direction that I'm going in, that's not the

Nikki: 00:09:51

topics that my audience resonate with.

Nikki: 00:09:54

So I'm, I'm more comfortable to, to say No,

Rachael: 00:09:57

you, you've made an important point there.

Rachael: 00:09:59

Cause I think that when we're all starting out, like we were saying earlier about

Rachael: 00:10:03

podcast evolving and when you start, you don't know what you don't know in effect.

Rachael: 00:10:10

Exactly.

Rachael: 00:10:10

And you do have to start somewhere.

Rachael: 00:10:13

And I think that.

Rachael: 00:10:15

I was the same when I first started mine.

Rachael: 00:10:17

I was like, okay, I really wanted to do a podcast.

Rachael: 00:10:19

What could I do it on?

Rachael: 00:10:21

And then as you go through the process and you have more guests on and you get

Rachael: 00:10:26

more of a direction, you can then start.

Rachael: 00:10:30

, um, you know, moving the podcast in, in that way you're funneling it down.

Rachael: 00:10:34

Yeah, yeah.

Rachael: 00:10:34

You, you don't have to have all the answers to begin with and they're

Rachael: 00:10:38

often the things that do stop us from actually starting the Exactly.

Rachael: 00:10:42

I mean, yes, obviously your fears as well in the Impost syndrome around people

Rachael: 00:10:47

listening and getting your message out there, but none of that will happen

Rachael: 00:10:51

unless you actually get an episode

Nikki: 00:10:52

out there.

Nikki: 00:10:53

That is exactly, it is.

Nikki: 00:10:56

. If you figure out what your next step or even your next step after that,

Nikki: 00:11:01

once you've done that, the next thing will become clear and, and I think

Nikki: 00:11:05

that sounds maybe a bit idealistic, but that's exactly how it worked for me.

Nikki: 00:11:09

I just brainstormed all the different things I think, thought I needed to

Nikki: 00:11:12

do and then just tried to prioritize what I thought was the first thing.

Nikki: 00:11:16

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:11:17

. And I may well look back on that now and say, well, I could have done it this way.

Nikki: 00:11:21

But it's just like, and I think the other thing that I would say is, , I managed

Nikki: 00:11:26

my expectations about what I thought success would look like, so I thought,

Nikki: 00:11:32

well, I'm, I'm not gonna say that I wanna be the next male Robbins or the next

Nikki: 00:11:37

diary of a CEO, or, or, or those shows.

Nikki: 00:11:40

Not saying that people shouldn't strive to, to get to high levels

Nikki: 00:11:45

within podcasting, but for me it was about figuring out why I was

Nikki: 00:11:50

doing it and what I would be happy.

Rachael: 00:11:53

Yeah, it's, it can be hard not to get caught up in some

Rachael: 00:11:59

of the, um, stats like that, like how many people are listening.

Rachael: 00:12:03

And I know for myself, for this podcast, um, you know, I don't have hundreds and

Rachael: 00:12:10

thousands of listeners, but that's kind of not how, why I wanted to start it.

Rachael: 00:12:15

Like you say, you wanted to start it to look at the different stories that.

Rachael: 00:12:21

That connect people and you've not, I think starting a podcast going

Rachael: 00:12:25

right, my whole point of doing this is to get a hundred thousand

Rachael: 00:12:29

listens in this amount of time.

Rachael: 00:12:30

That's kind of like, I think that's the wrong way to start

Rachael: 00:12:34

your podcasting journey.

Rachael: 00:12:36

Um, I've been, I dunno if you've heard of Janet Murray who does the Courageous

Rachael: 00:12:41

Content podcast and she does a lot of, um, stuff online, but helping.

Rachael: 00:12:46

Women, um, business owners with their content, but she's talking about, you

Rachael: 00:12:52

know, there's, there's podcasts that have very small listenerships, but they

Rachael: 00:12:55

still, they're still getting their message across and they're successful Exactly.

Rachael: 00:12:59

In that way.

Rachael: 00:13:00

So you're right.

Rachael: 00:13:01

Changing your view of success.

Rachael: 00:13:03

So like when you're saying, if it could reach us one person and help

Rachael: 00:13:06

them, that would be for me with, with mine, how I started my solo episodes

Rachael: 00:13:10

to know that I've helped somebody.

Rachael: 00:13:13

, like you say, one or two people.

Rachael: 00:13:15

That for me was what I wanted to do.

Rachael: 00:13:18

The whole point was to help other people start their podcast or get

Rachael: 00:13:21

that information out there, because I know what it's like wanting to

Rachael: 00:13:25

start a podcast and not knowing where

Nikki: 00:13:28

you are.

Nikki: 00:13:28

Don't know where to start.

Rachael: 00:13:29

Exactly.

Rachael: 00:13:30

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:13:30

And I knew that, I mean, obviously I'd have loved it if it had got like, you

Rachael: 00:13:34

know, ridiculous amount of views, but that wasn't what I've tried to keep in mind.

Rachael: 00:13:40

shaping my podcast.

Rachael: 00:13:41

It's, that's been at the back burner of it.

Rachael: 00:13:43

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:13:45

And, but I mean, it is easy to get caught up in them, but, um, I think

Rachael: 00:13:49

a lot of people, I've seen a lot of people in the space or like a LinkedIn

Rachael: 00:13:52

and things like talking about not getting caught up in those kind of, um,

Nikki: 00:13:57

statistics and, um, yeah, I mean I do, I do review, um, I did them at the.

Nikki: 00:14:04

Um, I would say because the numbers were so small that I just , I just

Nikki: 00:14:08

thought I'm maybe gonna bother to look.

Nikki: 00:14:09

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:14:10

. But I, I do now do a monthly review and I'm looking for trends, looking for

Nikki: 00:14:16

themed, looking for any insight that might help me in the future months.

Rachael: 00:14:22

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:14:22

Maybe what particular episodes did better than other episodes.

Rachael: 00:14:26

Exactly.

Rachael: 00:14:26

And what was it about those guests and those things?

Rachael: 00:14:30

Were talked about that really resonated with your audience.

Rachael: 00:14:33

What would you say your, or who would you say your ideal listener is?

Rachael: 00:14:37

Or do you have a specific demographic

Nikki: 00:14:40

in mind?

Nikki: 00:14:42

So, looking again at statistics, looking at analytics, I would say that the

Nikki: 00:14:46

majority of my listeners are about 65.

Nikki: 00:14:49

70% of them are women.

Nikki: 00:14:51

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:14:51

, um, and the rest are, are men.

Nikki: 00:14:54

Um, generally sort of in.

Nikki: 00:14:58

Thirties, forties.

Nikki: 00:15:00

Um, obviously there are people who sit outside of those brackets, but I

Nikki: 00:15:04

think outside of those basic gender and age demographics, my ideal listener

Nikki: 00:15:10

is somebody who really wants to learn and be inspired from other people

Nikki: 00:15:16

who wants to take an experience that somebody else has had and use it as

Nikki: 00:15:22

a way to move themselves forward.

Nikki: 00:15:25

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:15:26

. My ideal listener is somebody that realizes that life is not just full of

Nikki: 00:15:30

highs, it has lows and it has a very messy middle and, and often that's

Nikki: 00:15:36

where a lot of the growth comes from.

Nikki: 00:15:39

And I really try to tease out from the guests that I interview, the

Nikki: 00:15:44

lessons, which they've learned, the advice which they would pass on so

Nikki: 00:15:47

that potentially it could stop somebody else from doing the same thing.

Nikki: 00:15:52

Or maybe they'll still do it, but they'll do it with a knowledge.

Nikki: 00:15:56

of, of, of somebody else's lived experience of, of that topic.

Nikki: 00:16:00

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:16:01

, Rachael: how did you find the tech

Nikki: 00:16:05

Was that, um, did you find that daunting as well?

Nikki: 00:16:08

Or, or were you, are you quite tech savvy, you were happy with, um, getting set up

Nikki: 00:16:12

on the host and microphones and whatnot?

Nikki: 00:16:16

So, I am not what I would class as tech.

Nikki: 00:16:19

. Um, I'm not a technophobe, um, but I'm, I'm not one of those people.

Nikki: 00:16:24

That's always the first to try something.

Nikki: 00:16:26

But I think one of the things is that once I'd realized that I wanted to keep things

Nikki: 00:16:32

really simple, I wanted to keep them either free or low cost at the beginning,

Nikki: 00:16:39

so that then narrowed my options.

Nikki: 00:16:42

Because I was trying to avoid paid options to begin with.

Nikki: 00:16:45

Cause I thought, let me just give this a go and, and see how

Nikki: 00:16:48

I can do it at low to no cost.

Nikki: 00:16:51

And so I, I started using, using YA Anchor, uh, via Spotify and I

Nikki: 00:16:58

listened to podcasts like yours and, and others to, to give me the

Nikki: 00:17:04

steps and the guidance, uh, around.

Nikki: 00:17:06

How to set it up with your hosts.

Nikki: 00:17:08

And often a lot of these platforms themselves have got great

Nikki: 00:17:11

tutorials on how to do things.

Nikki: 00:17:13

They've got help desks, they've got chat, chat, um, functions where

Nikki: 00:17:17

you can just ask the questions and nobody knows who you asked.

Nikki: 00:17:20

You can just ask as many questions as you want.

Nikki: 00:17:23

So I think that was the, that was the main thing I, I had just thought.

Nikki: 00:17:27

Right.

Nikki: 00:17:27

Okay.

Nikki: 00:17:29

Let me just ask the questions.

Nikki: 00:17:31

Let me just give it a go and let me, Trust in the

Rachael: 00:17:35

process.

Rachael: 00:17:37

Yeah, an I started with anca, um, in my first podcast.

Rachael: 00:17:42

I've moved on to a pay platform now, but because I'm a podcast manager as well,

Rachael: 00:17:46

that was something I wanted to explore.

Rachael: 00:17:48

You know, as a, a paid platform as well, but Anchor was perfectly suited

Rachael: 00:17:53

to my needs when I first started out.

Rachael: 00:17:55

I found it quite simple to use once I'd figured it out.

Rachael: 00:17:58

The, like you say, there's a lot of information out there

Rachael: 00:18:01

to, with guides to help you.

Rachael: 00:18:03

Kind of get started and, uh, I mean, I do have the event of having a

Rachael: 00:18:08

husband who's a sound engineer, so he really helped me with, um, he had some

Rachael: 00:18:11

mics and things to start with, um, before I invested in my current one.

Rachael: 00:18:17

Um, but I think it's very easy to start with.

Rachael: 00:18:21

Very low costs.

Nikki: 00:18:22

That's what I did.

Nikki: 00:18:23

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:18:24

I, I, I, I think that there's a tendency, right?

Nikki: 00:18:26

I need the best microphone, the best head, the best headphones.

Nikki: 00:18:30

I need a boomer.

Nikki: 00:18:31

I need this.

Nikki: 00:18:32

I need all, all, all these different things.

Nikki: 00:18:35

And I just, I went with a sort of basic setup and I've upgraded over time.

Nikki: 00:18:42

Um, but that's only.

Nikki: 00:18:47

based on whether you feel that you want to, but to be honest, it's not.

Nikki: 00:18:52

I'm not trying to diminish the importance of good audio, cuz that is very important.

Nikki: 00:18:58

However, if the content's no good , it doesn't really matter.

Nikki: 00:19:02

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:19:03

If the audio is crisp and clear, but actually they're not resonating with

Nikki: 00:19:08

the content that, that you're putting.

Nikki: 00:19:10

Episode after episode.

Rachael: 00:19:11

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:19:11

If, if you are only worried about the tech before you start a podcast,

Rachael: 00:19:15

that's not where you should be.

Rachael: 00:19:17

You should be more focused

Nikki: 00:19:19

on what's your why?

Nikki: 00:19:20

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:19:20

What, what are you trying to get out of it?

Nikki: 00:19:22

What's your measure of success?

Nikki: 00:19:24

If it's a guesting, um, show.

Nikki: 00:19:26

What's your, what, what, um, how are you going to obtain guests?

Nikki: 00:19:30

If it's a solo, what's your first 10 episodes looking like?

Nikki: 00:19:35

What is your content plan?

Nikki: 00:19:36

That should be where you start with.

Nikki: 00:19:38

. Yeah.

Nikki: 00:19:39

Oh, how can I, you know, how many microphones do I need?

Nikki: 00:19:43

And lighting and all of those

Rachael: 00:19:44

things.

Rachael: 00:19:45

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:19:46

. Yeah, absolutely.

Rachael: 00:19:47

I totally agree there.

Rachael: 00:19:49

I, I think, I mean, even with our smartphones these days, you know, you,

Rachael: 00:19:53

there are things that you can do to help make the audio sound better, like shutting

Rachael: 00:19:59

your cats out and shutting the window, and all those kind of things that you can do.

Rachael: 00:20:04

to, to make it sound clear as you don't have those extra outside

Rachael: 00:20:08

sounds coming in on your audio, um, you know, you don't have to spend.

Rachael: 00:20:13

However much pounds on a, on a microphone and a studio setup.

Rachael: 00:20:17

I kind of felt a little bit b because my husband's a sound engineer and he used

Rachael: 00:20:21

to work for the bbc and I was thinking, oh, podcast, radio production, broadcast.

Rachael: 00:20:26

And I was thinking, oh, do I, is that what I need?

Rachael: 00:20:29

And then when like delving more into it, actually no, that's not what you need.

Rachael: 00:20:34

But I think there is a misconception around, around that.

Rachael: 00:20:37

And I know that there.

Rachael: 00:20:40

Some podcasters that were in broadcasting and obviously their take on things is

Rachael: 00:20:44

slightly different to, of course, someone.

Rachael: 00:20:48

myself or for you, starting off for a lot of other solo printers

Rachael: 00:20:51

that wanna start out, um, their podcast, but I think that that should

Rachael: 00:20:56

not be a barrier at all for you

Nikki: 00:20:58

starting your podcast.

Nikki: 00:20:59

You can start on your phone.

Nikki: 00:21:00

You, you literally can start on your phone and I know some people will shudder

Nikki: 00:21:04

when when they hear this, but you know, you can, and then over time, if you know,

Nikki: 00:21:09

you get a few episodes, , then you can start to think about different equipment.

Nikki: 00:21:13

I mean, obviously if you have something outside of your phone, then use that.

Nikki: 00:21:17

But if you, but if you don't, then don't let that stop you.

Nikki: 00:21:20

And I think even something down to the name, it's so easy to get bogged

Nikki: 00:21:24

down in finding the right name.

Nikki: 00:21:27

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:21:28

. And I think for me, uh, it was one of the quickest decisions I've ever made.

Nikki: 00:21:32

I was like, okay, well look, this sounds.

Rachael: 00:21:34

It's a great name.

Rachael: 00:21:35

I one for ages and I couldn't come up with one for, and I just went with

Rachael: 00:21:40

podcasting one-on-one with Rachel because there was some of other

Rachael: 00:21:43

podcasting one-on-ones out there.

Rachael: 00:21:44

But I love your name stories that ConnectUS is so, it's so simple, but

Rachael: 00:21:48

that is exactly what your podcast is

Nikki: 00:21:50

about.

Nikki: 00:21:51

That's it.

Nikki: 00:21:51

And, and I, I, I literally just then did a quick search to see if

Nikki: 00:21:55

there was any other podcast with that name and, and there wasn't.

Nikki: 00:21:58

I created some artwork in Canva, but had the free version of, of Canva,

Nikki: 00:22:03

and it wasn't until later on that I invested in getting some, um, more

Nikki: 00:22:08

professional artwork done and getting a set of social media templates

Nikki: 00:22:13

to help me with, with promotion.

Nikki: 00:22:14

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:22:15

. But to begin with, I just designed it myself.

Nikki: 00:22:16

It wasn't the best looking.

Nikki: 00:22:18

, but it did the job.

Rachael: 00:22:19

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:22:20

I was gonna ask you about, um, marketing promotion.

Rachael: 00:22:23

Um, I know that you do audiograms.

Rachael: 00:22:25

Um, what, how do you feel about audiograms?

Rachael: 00:22:26

Do they work well for you?

Rachael: 00:22:28

Because I've had some conversations with some other podcasters and seen some

Rachael: 00:22:31

things that they or audiograms are dead.

Rachael: 00:22:34

But I mean, I for one absolutely love audiograms,

Nikki: 00:22:37

but I don't know.

Nikki: 00:22:38

I do, I do.

Nikki: 00:22:39

I mean, they are so, To use.

Nikki: 00:22:41

I use Headliner.

Nikki: 00:22:43

Yeah, me too.

Nikki: 00:22:44

Yeah, and I find that it's a quick way of getting a key part of that

Nikki: 00:22:51

conversation out to the audience.

Nikki: 00:22:53

Obviously.

Nikki: 00:22:54

Then you would select a clip that you think would resonate and would

Nikki: 00:22:59

want people to download the episode and then listen to the full story.

Nikki: 00:23:04

So that does take time selecting your clips.

Nikki: 00:23:07

But I, I try and select maybe four or five.

Nikki: 00:23:11

Per episode.

Nikki: 00:23:11

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:23:12

and sort of drip feed them throughout that fortnight.

Nikki: 00:23:15

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:23:15

I've got a very clear process now, whereas before it was a little bit more ad hoc.

Nikki: 00:23:19

But yeah, I think, um, you can use free Canva to, to, to, um,

Nikki: 00:23:25

design your cover art or you can, can pay for someone to do it.

Rachael: 00:23:31

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:23:31

I'll use Canva.

Rachael: 00:23:33

I still use Canva.

Rachael: 00:23:35

I have the pro version.

Rachael: 00:23:36

I dunno what I do without Canva.

Rachael: 00:23:38

, I do.

Nikki: 00:23:39

I've got the pro version now, but it started off with

Nikki: 00:23:41

with with the free version.

Nikki: 00:23:43

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:23:44

You said your process took a little bit of time for your promotion.

Rachael: 00:23:47

What kind of process do you use?

Rachael: 00:23:49

You spend the two weeks leading up to your episode promoting the one

Nikki: 00:23:51

coming up.

Nikki: 00:23:53

Yeah, so what I do is a few days before the episodes due

Nikki: 00:23:58

to air, I will start talking.

Nikki: 00:24:02

And revealing the guest.

Nikki: 00:24:04

And then I'll drip feeded a little bit more information about the guest.

Nikki: 00:24:08

You know, they're sort of shortened bio and often the day before I might sort

Nikki: 00:24:14

of release a, a teaser audio, and then on the day I'll, I'll talk about it.

Nikki: 00:24:20

And obviously another thing that's very helpful is actually getting the guests

Nikki: 00:24:24

to support and do their own promotion.

Nikki: 00:24:27

You can't force people to.

Nikki: 00:24:29

, but it's something that I do cover up front and I find that the more successful

Nikki: 00:24:34

episodes are the ones where both me and the host, sorry, both me as the

Nikki: 00:24:39

host and the guest are really trying to, um, get the episode out there and

Nikki: 00:24:46

they're sharing it with their network.

Nikki: 00:24:48

So I, I use Instagram and, and LinkedIn as my two main, uh, platforms as

Nikki: 00:24:53

well as anybody I personally know.

Nikki: 00:24:55

I might share a particular episode with them if I.

Nikki: 00:24:58

That it, it would resonate.

Nikki: 00:25:00

I don't email everybody in my Yeah.

Nikki: 00:25:02

In my connections every single episode.

Nikki: 00:25:05

But if there's one that I think, oh, that person that I know

Nikki: 00:25:08

would find that interesting, then I'll share that with them.

Nikki: 00:25:12

But yeah, LinkedIn and Instagram, I would say that are my main ones.

Nikki: 00:25:16

That's a nice way to

Rachael: 00:25:17

do it.

Rachael: 00:25:17

To send an episode, like personally to somebody.

Rachael: 00:25:22

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:25:22

I haven't, I haven't done something like that.

Rachael: 00:25:25

Do you have email marketing?

Rachael: 00:25:26

Do you have an.

Nikki: 00:25:28

I don't, I I, I think that actually, particularly if people are

Nikki: 00:25:34

doing this as part of lead generation for their business, then they will

Nikki: 00:25:38

likely have an email list mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:25:39

Whereas when I started this podcast, it's, it's a, it's a real passion

Nikki: 00:25:44

project and something which I was doing cuz I was really passionate about

Nikki: 00:25:47

getting people's stories out there.

Nikki: 00:25:49

I can understand if people have a business that they will be wanting

Nikki: 00:25:52

to, um, really drive their supplier.

Nikki: 00:25:58

To other aspects of their business, other parts of their offering.

Nikki: 00:26:01

So that makes total sense.

Nikki: 00:26:03

I, I think that is a good idea now that I'm moving into the world of

Nikki: 00:26:07

breath work and as a breath coach, then there might be ways that I

Nikki: 00:26:12

start to integrate aspects of that.

Nikki: 00:26:14

But, you know, my entry into podcasting was really something that I wanted to

Nikki: 00:26:19

do to share everyday people's stories.

Nikki: 00:26:23

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:26:24

as opposed.

Nikki: 00:26:25

get leads in for the

Rachael: 00:26:27

business, right?

Rachael: 00:26:28

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:26:28

Okay.

Rachael: 00:26:29

I like to just let people know.

Rachael: 00:26:32

Um, I mean, they are people that assigned some, some of them assigned

Rachael: 00:26:35

up through my lead magnet about to let, but I like to let them know like

Rachael: 00:26:39

the episode that comes out each week.

Rachael: 00:26:41

Um, but I do like, uh, sending an episode personally to somebody.

Rachael: 00:26:46

That's a really nice thought as well.

Rachael: 00:26:48

Something, have you thought about putting together like a playlist or anything like

Rachael: 00:26:52

that of your episodes, if any of them?

Rachael: 00:26:55

Particular theme.

Rachael: 00:26:56

Someone brought it up to me the other week and I just thought

Rachael: 00:26:58

it was a really interesting, no,

Nikki: 00:26:59

tell me more about that.

Nikki: 00:27:00

What, what do you mean?

Rachael: 00:27:01

Well, I, I know someone that has guessed on a lot of podcasts and

Rachael: 00:27:04

she created a Spotify playlist on her website so that you could easily find

Rachael: 00:27:08

the, um, episodes that she's featured on.

Rachael: 00:27:10

Um, but in, within my, um, host.

Rachael: 00:27:13

For Captivate, you can create a playlist.

Rachael: 00:27:16

So depending, I guess it depends on what your podcast's about.

Rachael: 00:27:19

So I thought about maybe creating a playlist of all my guests to offer the

Rachael: 00:27:23

offer insights, um, into what it's like podcasting or the ones, the episodes that

Rachael: 00:27:29

really help people out in the beginning.

Rachael: 00:27:31

Um, so maybe if there's particular.

Rachael: 00:27:34

Um, of yours that resonate with somebody.

Rachael: 00:27:37

Um, or like there's a theme going on.

Rachael: 00:27:39

Maybe you could create like a little playlist that helps with a

Rachael: 00:27:42

particular issue or a particular

Nikki: 00:27:45

good movie.

Nikki: 00:27:46

Cause there are, there are a number of episodes that are related that people

Nikki: 00:27:50

talking about self-care, about self-love, about joy, you know, those things.

Nikki: 00:27:56

, they are interlinked.

Nikki: 00:27:58

Yeah.

Nikki: 00:27:58

So there might be opportunities to group certain things together

Nikki: 00:28:01

so that if somebody is interested in anxiety particular or Yeah.

Nikki: 00:28:06

Or, um, depression for instance.

Nikki: 00:28:09

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:28:09

, if there are a couple of guests who have spoken on those topics, then

Nikki: 00:28:12

helping them to know you might also like to listen to these other two.

Nikki: 00:28:17

Yeah, I, I really like that idea actually.

Rachael: 00:28:20

Yeah, it was actually, actually my friend Hannah, my client as well,

Rachael: 00:28:23

she had the idea and I thought, oh, that's a really good idea actually.

Rachael: 00:28:26

It just helps just keep those ones.

Rachael: 00:28:29

And that might be something to send to somebody personally as well that might

Rachael: 00:28:32

enjoy like a collection of your episodes.

Rachael: 00:28:36

Right.

Rachael: 00:28:36

So that's something we can both take away, . Exactly.

Rachael: 00:28:38

What's this space?

Rachael: 00:28:39

Yeah, . Um, how do.

Rachael: 00:28:44

Feel that it's all going as podcasting.

Rachael: 00:28:46

Are you happy with, um, how your podcast has evolved and progressed

Rachael: 00:28:51

and do you have any, I say future plans, but is there anything that you

Rachael: 00:28:57

would like to do with your podcast?

Nikki: 00:28:59

So in terms of how do I feel it's going?

Nikki: 00:29:02

I mean, I am now on season two.

Nikki: 00:29:05

I have launched 21 episode.

Nikki: 00:29:07

, and I've been going since March, 2022.

Nikki: 00:29:10

So at that level, if you'd have told me in March, 2022 that I would've

Nikki: 00:29:15

had 21 episodes and in my second season, I would've said, oh my

Nikki: 00:29:20

goodness, how am I gonna do that?

Nikki: 00:29:22

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:29:22

, because my original vision of success was, look, Let me get to six or seven episodes.

Nikki: 00:29:27

Cause that's more than a lot of people get to.

Rachael: 00:29:30

Yeah, you're right.

Rachael: 00:29:30

Yeah.

Rachael: 00:29:31

There is a lot of people that drop off the

Nikki: 00:29:32

absolutely.

Nikki: 00:29:34

Uh, pod fade, I think they call it . Yes.

Nikki: 00:29:36

Um, and so the fact that I haven't faded and the fact that I'm in the second season

Nikki: 00:29:41

at that top level, I am, I'm really, really proud of getting to that point.

Nikki: 00:29:47

In terms of, I guess qualitatively, one of the things that I love is when people.

Nikki: 00:29:54

contact me and say, I listened to this person's story and

Nikki: 00:30:00

I really resonated with it.

Nikki: 00:30:02

I listened to this person's story and I shared it with a friend who's

Nikki: 00:30:04

going through a similar thing.

Nikki: 00:30:06

I listened to this person's story and I had a conversation with somebody that

Nikki: 00:30:10

I've been meaning to have for ages, and these are things that I've received, and

Nikki: 00:30:15

so that tells me that I'm doing something that's providing value to to other people.

Rachael: 00:30:23

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachael: 00:30:24

Having that feedback from, directly from your listeners,

Rachael: 00:30:28

it's a really good feeling.

Rachael: 00:30:30

Um, you are probably my most engaged listener, Nikki , and I love it when

Rachael: 00:30:35

you send me little messages like that.

Rachael: 00:30:36

Um, so yeah.

Nikki: 00:30:38

So thank you.

Nikki: 00:30:38

No, I do, I do love to support other podcasters as well.

Nikki: 00:30:41

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:30:41

. Um, because sometimes you're feeling like nothing's working out and someone

Nikki: 00:30:45

can just say to you, hang on a minute.

Nikki: 00:30:47

No.

Nikki: 00:30:47

Like, that episode that you did that really helped me answer a question.

Nikki: 00:30:50

I.

Nikki: 00:30:52

. So I, I think it's a small thing that you can do, but you can make a big

Nikki: 00:30:55

impact on, on somebody else's day.

Rachael: 00:30:57

Yeah, I do try and support, um, the other podcasts

Rachael: 00:31:01

that, um, I listen to as well.

Rachael: 00:31:03

And like you say, it, it's nice, I think.

Rachael: 00:31:07

, when you are putting podcasts out, episodes out there, you,

Rachael: 00:31:09

you know, you don't know how they are being received, moved.

Rachael: 00:31:12

No.

Rachael: 00:31:13

Um, and it is nice to know that you are hitting the mark,

Rachael: 00:31:17

if you will, and Exactly.

Rachael: 00:31:19

And your podcast is doing what you would love it to do for people.

Rachael: 00:31:23

Have you got a piece of advice to somebody who is looking to start a podcast?

Rachael: 00:31:29

or your top tip?

Nikki: 00:31:31

Yeah, so it's a term that I came across actually recently, so I

Nikki: 00:31:34

can't, um, put my name to this phrase, but it really resonated with me.

Nikki: 00:31:40

So messy action.

Nikki: 00:31:42

That is, that is the thing that I'm going into in 2023 is that I can sit

Nikki: 00:31:48

and, and I can ruminate over all the things that could go wrong and all

Nikki: 00:31:53

the things that I don't know, and all the people that won't listen.

Nikki: 00:31:57

or I could just take some messy action.

Nikki: 00:32:01

And I, I think for, for me, that's the path that I would encourage and

Nikki: 00:32:08

support people to walk down that path of just taking messy action.

Nikki: 00:32:12

And it will get tidy as you, as you move along if you, if you really are keen

Nikki: 00:32:17

for things to be neat and in boxes, but that's just not how life works anyway.

Nikki: 00:32:20

No, life is not neat and in boxes.

Nikki: 00:32:22

It is.

Nikki: 00:32:23

Highs and no lows.

Nikki: 00:32:25

It is messy at times.

Nikki: 00:32:27

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:32:27

. And so I would say, let's get messy with our action and we will learn

Nikki: 00:32:33

and grow with a along the way.

Nikki: 00:32:36

And it's, and I think the other thing I would say is it's okay to to pause

Nikki: 00:32:41

if you need to, if you've got things going on in your life and you can't

Nikki: 00:32:44

launch episodes for a period of.

Nikki: 00:32:47

. Just communicate.

Nikki: 00:32:48

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:32:48

, communicate with your audience.

Nikki: 00:32:50

Say to them like, the next episode will be in whenever you think it's gonna

Nikki: 00:32:53

be, and then coming near to the time.

Nikki: 00:32:57

Then you relaunch and say, Hey, the, the next episode is coming out on Tuesday.

Nikki: 00:33:01

Don't forget to subscribe.

Nikki: 00:33:03

Mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:33:04

. So we all have lives that sometimes things come in left field.

Nikki: 00:33:08

So that would be my advice is messy.

Nikki: 00:33:12

And it's okay to take a pause or it's okay to decide that you want to stop as well.

Nikki: 00:33:17

Like that is equally fine.

Rachael: 00:33:19

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachael: 00:33:21

I love the messy action and that really resonates with me right now.

Rachael: 00:33:25

, kind of like we were saying before we hit record, that that is

Rachael: 00:33:29

something that, um, I feel like.

Rachael: 00:33:34

, well, we were talking about the comparison game, weren't we?

Rachael: 00:33:37

And I've been looking at trying to look at my business more strategically

Rachael: 00:33:41

and, and looking at my podcast as well.

Rachael: 00:33:44

And then I, I feel a little bit frozen in that.

Rachael: 00:33:48

Am I going to do it right?

Rachael: 00:33:49

And like you said, unless I actually start doing something, taking that

Rachael: 00:33:53

messy action, well then you won't do

Nikki: 00:33:55

anything Right.

Nikki: 00:33:55

If you haven't started mm-hmm.

Nikki: 00:33:56

. Yeah, exactly.

Nikki: 00:33:58

And I'm not saying it's easy.

Nikki: 00:34:00

Um, it's, it's not, I think that would be naive of me to say that, but

Nikki: 00:34:03

if you just put one foot in front of the other, just like walking, Yeah.

Nikki: 00:34:07

And

Rachael: 00:34:08

that, that next step, what's that next step?

Rachael: 00:34:11

That's it, mate.

Rachael: 00:34:11

Yep.

Rachael: 00:34:11

I actually did make myself a list in, uh, a sharpie that I'm gonna stick on my wall.

Rachael: 00:34:16

I was like, right, do this and this and this, and don't worry about

Rachael: 00:34:19

anything else and stick to that little list, , I've got it here.

Rachael: 00:34:23

Actually, you can't see this on the podcast.

Rachael: 00:34:25

I was like, right.

Rachael: 00:34:26

Do this . That's what I'm gonna do.

Rachael: 00:34:29

So yeah, that's, um, that is great.

Rachael: 00:34:32

That is great advice.

Rachael: 00:34:33

And for all of.

Rachael: 00:34:35

Wanting to start a podcast, um, and you think it's gonna work well for you?

Rachael: 00:34:40

Get into that messy action and get started.

Rachael: 00:34:43

Thank you so much for coming on, Nikki.

Rachael: 00:34:45

You've shared some such valuable insights and advice into your podcast.

Rachael: 00:34:49

Do you wanna just let people know where they can find your podcast?

Nikki: 00:34:53

Absolutely.

Nikki: 00:34:53

So stories that connect us is available on all the major podcast platforms.

Nikki: 00:34:58

Just type in stories that connect us in the, in the pod,

Nikki: 00:35:01

in the platform that you use.

Nikki: 00:35:02

And, uh, you'll find me there, I've got loads of episodes, loads of

Nikki: 00:35:06

things for you to get your teeth stuck into, so please do, um, check it.

Rachael: 00:35:11

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachael: 00:35:11

And what I'll do is I'll put all the links in the show notes so

Rachael: 00:35:14

you can go directly from here to listen to Nikki's Awesome podcast.

Rachael: 00:35:18

Thanks so much.

Rachael: 00:35:19

I'll catch you soon.

Nikki: 00:35:21

Thanks for having me, Rachel.

Nikki: 00:35:22

Bye bye.

Rachael: 00:35:26

Thanks for listening to the show.

Rachael: 00:35:27

If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch, then head on over to my website.

Rachael: 00:35:31

If you like the episode, then I'd love it if you could leave me a

Rachael: 00:35:34

review in your chosen podcast app.

Rachael: 00:35:36

Your feedback is much appreciated.