Behind the Scenes (Stumbling Our Way to a Podcast)

Well, here we are!  Stephanie and I have been stumbling our way through this new world of podcasting and making it up as we go.  But, we made it to launch day!

The two of us met through a mutual friend years ago, but in early 2019, that same friend reconnected us because she knew we both were business owners and shared a passion for social entrepreneurship and civic innovation. We don't recall exactly how we decided that a podcast would be a good first project to do together,  but here we are 9 months later launching the Social Change Leaders Podcast. It has been quite a ride! https://www.socialchangeleaders.net

Here is our bulleted list (We LOVE bulleted lists) of some of our ‘behind the scenes’ podcast lessons we have learned (so far) for any of you that have thought about taking on something new:  

• Find ‘partners in crime’ - When you find people that are in your tribe - do something creative together.  A collaborator will inspire you, push you, teach you, share the load with you and you will expand as a person.   

• Keep focused on your passion and your ‘why’ - Stephanie and I took time at the beginning to make sure our ideas for a podcast aligned. Each time we met and got something off our ‘to do’ list, we added at least 747 more things to our list.  Keeping in mind 'WHY' we are doing this kept us going. 

• Don’t try to start a new partnership in the winter in Minnesota - Stephanie and I had to reschedule our first in-person meetings 3 separate times because the polar vortex, piles snow & extreme cold closed down schools in Minnesota.  True story! 

• Your children are among your best assets - at any age!  We are both moms so scheduling time to start a podcast on top of running our businesses and being moms has been tricky.  My son is 16 and has been so helpful in figuring out recording software, our mixer, our microphones and many things related to technology. I actually considered pulling him out of 11th grade to support this podcasting effort, but his dad was not onboard with this idea. Stephanie has two stepdaughters in college who have continuously provided support and encouraging words.  Stephanie’s other children are younger (10 and 6), but they still helped build a home podcast studio in my basement and made testing our audio equipment a very fun experience. 

• Communication is very important - We have spent countless hours meeting in person and even more time communicating via text, email, a video message app called Marco Polo, google docs and Trello.  These have all been so important in keeping this effort moving forward. (Marco Polo, Google and Trello - our podcast needs sponsors! wink, wink!)  

• Laughter is a required partner in launching a podcast - We have been laughing our butts off during the last 9 months.  We mean the whole-hearted, rare belly laughs that comes after mishaps, glitches and hours of frustration. At the heights of our laughing fits, one of us would inevitably call out our mantra for the last 9 months - ‘Yet another lesson learned.’

• Set a deadline / launch date  - Once we established a joint purpose, we set a launch date for the podcast.  We randomly picked Thursday October 10, 2019 which seemed very far away. This deadline has really helped us as we have been meeting regularly to plan, develop, and figure out how to launch this podcast.  Wow - here we are! 

• Get out of comfort zone - For those of you that have not gotten out of your comfort zone in a while, do it!  We sometimes forget how amazing the internet is. It helps you figure out anything and everything.  Now that this podcast is launched, we are ready to take on brain surgery and rocket science - which may actually be a bit easier.

• Lunch margaritas with podcast partners are as good than evening margaritas with friends & family - make time for these!

This podcast was made because we have been SO inspired by leaders and change agents that are innovating new solutions to community challenges. We want to learn together how we can all do better and be better. 

https://www.socialchangeleaders.net