Welcome to episode 41!

This week I chat with Nikki, the host of the Stories that Connect Us podcast.

Nikki started her podcast in March 2022 (like me!) and she shares with us her journey to creating her podcast.

We chat about why Nikki wanted to start a podcast, her love of audio, how she leapt into starting her podcast, managing success, how she handled the tech side, and podcast promotion.

Nikki's top piece of advice for those of you looking to start is to take messy action.

I LOVE this!

"Life is not neat and in boxes. It is not highs and no lows. It is messy at times. And so I would say, let's get messy with our action and we will learn and grow along the way."

This really resonated with me, sometimes I feel frozen to act because I'm going to do something 'wrong' and I should know everything.

Messy Action perfectly describes how we can move forward, dropping all the perfectionism ideas and accepting that life's just not like that.

Thanks so much, Nikki for coming on and sharing with us.

About Nikki

Nikki is a storyteller and podcast host of Stories That Connect Us, in each episode she looks at the highs, lows and messy middle of life. The show was launched in Mar 2022 with a mission to unite people through the power of storytelling. Everyone has a story. Our stories matter. The hope is that people feel connected through the stories shared and can listen, learn, and be inspired. 

As a Certified Breath Coach, Nikki wants to give people back the gift of breath, something that can be in the back pocket when there’s a need to find balance or stillness. She aims to help people unlock and optimise their breathing. Busy, stressed, anxious and tired but wired - breath coaching can help manage the struggles of modern-day living.

Connect with Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkistpaul/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiesthatconnectus_podcast/

If you have any questions or would like some help with your podcast, book a podcast enquiry call.

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If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

You can leave one here

Thanks so much!

I'd love to connect with you on social!

You can find me on:

LinkedIn | Website

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Struggling with your podcast promotion? Grab my Easy-Peasy Podcast Promotion Checklist here!

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.