Shownotes
Happy International Podcast Day!
In this special episode of Spiritual Sanctuary: Wisdom for the Divine Feminine, I’m sharing the unexpected story of how podcasting became one of my favorite parts of my spiritual business.
I never thought I would love podcasting. I have always loved teaching, talking, sharing information, and helping people understand new ideas, but I absolutely hated hearing my own recorded voice. The thought of sitting behind a microphone, recording myself, editing episodes, and putting my voice out into the world felt uncomfortable and honestly a little intimidating.
That changed when I began working with Kim from Podcasting for Your Spiritual Business.
Kim helped me understand that podcasting did not have to be complicated or overwhelming. Through classes, office hours, master classes, guidance, and ongoing support, she helped walk me through the process step by step. As someone who has spent most of my life as a teacher, I appreciate when someone can take something that feels confusing and make it understandable. That is exactly what happened for me with podcasting.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about podcasting as recording my voice and started thinking about it as another way to teach.
That changed everything.
Now podcasting feels like another classroom. It gives me the opportunity to talk about spirituality, intuition, tarot, oracle cards, yoga, Divine Feminine teachings, spiritual development, healing, personal growth, and what it is really like to build a spiritual business.
In this episode, I also share more about the leap of faith I took when I left my career in education and began putting more of my energy into my own spiritual work and business. Leaving education did not mean I stopped being a teacher. It simply meant my classroom changed.
Today, I teach through yoga, workshops, private sessions, spiritual development, the Priestess Academy, newsletters, videos, and this podcast.
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that starting a spiritual business requires more than having a spiritual gift or a service you love. You may be an incredible Reiki practitioner, tarot reader, yoga teacher, intuitive, coach, medium, or healer and still feel completely lost when it comes to marketing, pricing, websites, email lists, social media, and podcasting.
That does not mean you are not meant to have a business. It simply means that business is another skill to learn.
That is also why I offer a free self-paced spiritual business class for people who are starting or growing their own spiritual businesses. I also offer private 1:1 spiritual business training for those who want more personalized support.
If you are wondering whether podcasting could help your spiritual business, whether you should start your own podcast, or whether your voice really matters, this episode is for you.
Google Questions Answered in This Episode
How do I start a spiritual podcast?
Can podcasting help grow a spiritual business?
Do I need to like my voice to start a podcast?
What equipment do I need to start podcasting?
Is podcasting good for spiritual entrepreneurs?
How can a podcast help me build trust with my audience?
How do I start a spiritual business?
What should I know before starting a spiritual business?
How can I market a spiritual business authentically?
Can I start a spiritual business later in life?
How do I find my voice as a spiritual teacher or entrepreneur?
What does a podcast coach help with?
Do I need a podcast coach to start a podcast?
How can podcasting help me teach online?
How do I turn my knowledge into podcast content?
Can podcasting help me attract clients?
How do I overcome the fear of hearing my own voice?
What are the benefits of podcasting for small businesses?
How can women over 40 or 50 start a new business?
How do I take a leap of faith and start over in my career?
This episode is especially helpful for spiritual entrepreneurs, yoga teachers, Reiki practitioners, tarot readers, oracle readers, spiritual coaches, intuitives, healers, teachers, women starting businesses later in life, and anyone thinking about starting a podcast as part of their business.
If you are building a spiritual business and want help getting started, visit Bertena.org to learn more about my free self-paced spiritual business class and my private 1:1 spiritual business training.
While you are there, sign up for my newsletter to receive updates about new podcast episodes, Divine Feminine classes, yoga, workshops, Priestess Academy offerings, spiritual development opportunities, and upcoming events.
Happy International Podcast Day, and thank you for listening to Spiritual Sanctuary: Wisdom for the Divine Feminine.
Search Keywords
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Transcripts
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Spiritual Sanctuary: Wisdom for the Divine Feminine. I’m Bertena, and today’s episode is a little special because we are celebrating International Podcast Day. And I have to tell you, I never thought I would be the person sitting here celebrating podcasting because, for the longest time, I did not want to do a podcast at all.
That is actually pretty funny when you think about it because I am a teacher. I love to talk. I love to teach. I love to explain things. I love those conversations where somebody suddenly says, “Oh, that makes sense now,” because that is one of my favorite parts of teaching. I spent years in education, so standing in front of people and talking has never really been the problem. The problem was hearing myself talk after the fact. I absolutely hated hearing my own recorded voice. I think a lot of people can relate to that. You hear yourself talking every day and everything sounds perfectly normal, and then you hear a recording and think, “Wait. Is that really what everybody else hears?” It is such a strange experience.
So when someone first started talking to me about podcasting, I was not excited. I was thinking about microphones and editing programs and all of these technical things that I really did not want to learn. I thought podcasting was going to be another one of those things that somebody tells you that you “have to do” when you start a business. If you have started a spiritual business, you probably know exactly what I mean. You start out thinking, “I want to teach yoga,” or “I want to do Reiki,” or “I want to read tarot,” or “I want to help people spiritually,” and suddenly people are telling you that you need a website, a mailing list, social media, videos, SEO, newsletters, a podcast, and seventeen other things you did not even know existed.
I remember thinking that I had enough to learn. I did not need podcasting added to the list. But then I met Kim with Podcasting for Your Spiritual Business, and she really changed the way I looked at the whole thing.
What I appreciate so much about Kim is that she does not just tell you, “Go start a podcast,” and leave you to figure it out. She walks you through it. She has classes you can take so you can learn at your own pace, but she also has office hours where you can come in and ask questions. She offers master classes and additional training, and there is ongoing support as you continue learning. That was important to me because, especially when you are starting something new, sometimes you do not even know what questions you are supposed to ask.
Someone can ask you what platform you are hosting your podcast on, and you are sitting there thinking, “I don’t even know what that means yet.” Or somebody starts talking about RSS feeds, podcast directories, editing, show notes, and all of these other things, and you are wondering whether you accidentally signed up for a computer science course. Having somebody say, “Okay, here is what this means, and here is what you need to do next,” makes such a huge difference.
And because I am a teacher, I really pay attention to the way other people teach. I notice when somebody makes something easier to understand. I notice when they explain things instead of assuming that everybody already knows them. And that was one of the things I appreciated about working with Kim. Podcasting stopped feeling like this mysterious technical thing and started feeling like something I could actually do.
Then something happened that I absolutely did not expect. I started enjoying it.
At first, I was still thinking about the microphone and whether I sounded strange and whether people would listen and whether I was doing everything correctly. But somewhere along the way, all of that became less important, and I realized that podcasting was really just another way for me to teach.
That changed everything for me.
I stopped thinking of this as me recording my voice and started thinking about it as another classroom. Except this classroom is different because I may never actually meet some of the people listening. You might be listening to me while you are driving to work, cleaning your house, walking your dog, cooking dinner, sitting at your desk, or getting ready for bed. You may be listening the day I publish an episode or six months later. You might live right down the road from me or halfway around the world.
And I love that.
I can sit down here and talk about intuition or the Divine Feminine or tarot or oracle cards or yoga or spiritual development or what it is like to build a spiritual business, and somebody somewhere may hear exactly what they needed that day. To me, that is teaching. It is just teaching in a different classroom.
I also realized something else along the way. There is a big difference between hearing your voice and using your voice. For a long time, I was focused on hearing myself and thinking about whether I liked the way I sounded. Eventually, I started focusing more on what I was saying and why I was saying it. Once I started doing that, my voice did not bother me nearly as much.
I think that is an important lesson for a lot of us, especially women who are starting over, changing careers, building businesses, or stepping into something new later in life. Sometimes we spend so much time worrying about how we sound, how we look, whether somebody is going to judge us, whether we are doing it perfectly, or whether somebody else could do it better that we forget the reason we wanted to do it in the first place.
For me, that reason has always been teaching.
This year has made that even more meaningful because I made a really big life change. I left my job in education. Education had been a huge part of my life for a very long time, and leaving that world was not a tiny decision. It was one of those leap-of-faith moments where you know that something in your life needs to change, but you cannot see every single step that comes afterward.
And I wish I could tell you that the universe sent me a giant sign saying, “Bertena, everything is going to work out beautifully. Here is your exact five-year plan.” That would have been wonderful. I would have loved that. A sign, an arrow, maybe some glitter. But that is not usually how these things happen.
Sometimes you have to take the step before you know exactly where the path is going.
When I left education, I knew that I was not leaving behind everything I had spent years building. My experience came with me. My teaching skills came with me. My ability to organize information and explain things came with me. The classroom simply changed.
Now I teach through my yoga classes. I teach through the Priestess Academy. I teach spiritual development. I teach Reiki. I teach intuition. I teach through workshops. I teach through private sessions. I teach through my website and my newsletters. And now I teach through this podcast.
Podcasting has actually become one of the bridges between the life I had and the life I am building now.
And that was not something I expected at all.
The funniest part is that I swear podcasting has become one of my favorite things to do. I cannot believe I am saying that because I really did resist it. Now I could probably sit behind this microphone and talk for hours. If someone said, “Bertena, your job today is just to talk about spirituality and teach,” I would probably say, “Okay, what are we starting with?”
That is how much my perspective has changed.
And I think that is part of why I wanted to talk about this on International Podcast Day. Yes, today is a celebration of podcasts and podcasters and the people who listen to them, but for me it is also a reminder of what can happen when we stop automatically deciding that something is not for us.
How many times do we do that?
We say, “I’m not technical.”
“I’m too old to start that.”
“I’m not good on camera.”
“I hate hearing my voice.”
“Nobody is going to listen to me.”
“There are already too many people doing that.”
“I don’t know enough yet.”
And before we even try, we have already written the ending.
I definitely did that with podcasting.
I had decided I was not going to like it before I had really given myself the opportunity to learn how to do it. Then someone came along and helped me understand it, and suddenly I discovered something that I really love.
That is one reason I believe so much in good teachers and good mentors. When someone teaches you well, they do not just give you information. They help you see what you are capable of doing with that information.
And that brings me to those of you who may be listening because you are thinking about starting your own spiritual business.
Maybe you have been thinking about becoming a Reiki practitioner. Maybe you want to teach yoga. Maybe you are intuitive. Maybe you read tarot or oracle cards. Maybe you are a coach. Maybe you want to teach meditation or Goddess Studies or spiritual development. Maybe there is something completely different that you feel called to create.
One of the biggest things I have learned is that being good at the spiritual part of your work and understanding how to run a spiritual business are two completely different things.
You can be an incredible Reiki practitioner and have no idea how to market yourself.
You can be an amazing tarot reader and have no idea how to build a website.
You can be a wonderful yoga teacher and struggle with pricing.
You can have a powerful spiritual gift and still wonder how you are supposed to get people to actually find you.
That does not mean you are not meant to have a business. It just means that business is another skill you have to learn.
You learned your spiritual practice. You studied. You took classes. You practiced. You made mistakes. You asked questions. You learned from other people. You grew over time. Business works the same way.
And that is one of the reasons I created a free, self-paced spiritual business class. I wanted people who are starting spiritual businesses to have somewhere they can begin without immediately feeling like they have to spend thousands of dollars just to understand the basics. You can take it at your own pace, learn some of the foundations, and start thinking about what you actually want your spiritual business to look like.
I also offer private one-on-one spiritual business training for people who want more individualized help because there is not one spiritual business formula that works for everybody. What works for a yoga teacher may not work for a tarot reader. What works for somebody who loves social media may not work for somebody who hates being online. What works for someone who wants a huge business may not work for someone who only wants a small private practice.
The business needs to fit the person.
That is something I really believe.
You should not have to become somebody else in order to build a successful spiritual business. Your personality can still be there. Your values can still be there. Your spirituality can still be there. You are simply learning the business skills that help people find the work you are already called to do.
And if podcasting becomes part of your spiritual business, then I really believe that having someone like Kim in your corner makes the whole process easier. You can work on the business side with me and learn the podcasting side through Podcasting for Your Spiritual Business, and those things complement each other so well.
One person can help you think about what you are building, who you are helping, what you are offering, and how to structure your spiritual business. The other can help you take your voice, your expertise, and your message and turn it into a podcast that becomes part of that business.
And when you think about it that way, podcasting is not just another marketing task.
It becomes another way to connect.
That is what I love about it now.
I do not sit down and think, “Okay, I need to create content.”
I usually think about what I want to talk to you about.
What happened this week?
What am I teaching?
What is coming up in my classes?
What is something somebody asked me that I think other people might be wondering about?
What is something I learned the hard way that might save someone else a little time or frustration?
Those are conversations.
And I think that is why podcasting finally worked for me.
I am not trying to be a radio personality.
I am being a teacher.
I am being myself.
I am talking to you the same way I would if you were sitting in a class with me or sitting across the table having a cup of tea.
And maybe that is something somebody listening today needs to hear.
If you have been thinking about starting a podcast, you do not have to sound like anybody else.
You do not have to have the perfect voice.
You do not need the perfect microphone.
You do not need to have every episode planned for the next five years.
And you certainly do not have to wait until you stop being nervous.
You just have to start learning.
That is the part I wish more people understood about taking a leap of faith. Faith does not mean you jump off a cliff and hope something catches you. You can have faith and a plan. You can have faith and take classes. You can have faith and get a mentor. You can have faith and ask questions. You can believe in yourself and still admit that there are things you do not know yet.
That has been such a big part of my own journey this year.
Leaving education and putting more of my energy into my own spiritual business has required faith, but it has also required me to keep learning. I am still learning. I hope I always am.
And somehow, one of the things I learned along the way was that I love podcasting.
I still laugh when I say that.
The woman who did not want to hear her own voice now has a podcast and would probably record every day if she could.
Life is funny that way.
Sometimes the thing you are resisting is not necessarily something you are supposed to avoid. Sometimes it is simply something you do not understand yet.
Sometimes you just need somebody to show you how.
So on International Podcast Day, I want to say thank you to everyone who listens to Spiritual Sanctuary. Whether this is the first episode you have heard or you have been listening for a long time, I appreciate you being here. Every time someone tells me that they listened to an episode or that something I said helped them think about something differently, it reminds me why I keep doing this.
And I also want to say thank you to Kim at Podcasting for Your Spiritual Business because I truly do not think I would love podcasting the way I do today if I had not had somebody walking me through the process. Between her classes, office hours, master classes, and support, she helped turn something I was intimidated by into something I now genuinely love.
That is a pretty amazing thing.
So if you have been thinking about starting something new, whether it is a podcast, a spiritual business, a class, or something completely different, maybe your message today is simply this: you do not have to know everything before you begin.
You just have to be willing to learn the next part.
That is what I have been doing.
I left my education career, took a leap of faith, and started building this next chapter. And somewhere in that chapter, I found a microphone.
Who knew?
If you are building your own spiritual path or spiritual business and you would like to stay connected with me, visit **Bertena.org** and sign up for my newsletter. That is the best way to hear about new podcast episodes, classes, workshops, yoga, Priestess Academy offerings, spiritual development opportunities, and the other things I am creating.
You can also learn more there about my free self-paced spiritual business class and my private one-on-one spiritual business training if you want some support building your own business.
And if podcasting is something you have been thinking about, definitely look into Podcasting for Your Spiritual Business with Kim because I am living proof that somebody can go from saying, “I really do not want to do this,” to saying, “Can I just podcast all day?”
Thank you for listening. Thank you for letting me teach. Thank you for letting me share my journey with you, and most of all, thank you for being part of Spiritual Sanctuary.
I’m Bertena, and from my microphone to wherever you are listening today, Happy International Podcast Day.
I’ll talk to you next time.
