Tiphany Kane and Stacey Lauren talk about Unleashing Your Story

Talking about this, I feel like for the last two weeks, because I've been so excited to have the fabulous Tiffany Kane come in the do the Thing community. And I'm just so. I'm so happy you're here. I was, like, listening to your pod, our podcast episode, just so you guys know. I know I shared it in the group the other day, but. And I just published it, so if you guys haven't listened to it after this live, make sure you go back and listen to it, because that's where you really get into your story. And so many good nuggets. And so this is just like an expansion now of that. Of that live, which I'm excited about. So, anyway, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here. You're. It's so fun. We got to meet in real life, which is almost unheard of. And now getting to connect in this way in your community and on your podcast is just really a lot of fun.

Yay. I know, it's crazy. Okay, we're going to kind of talk for a minute as I'm, like, making sure everyone sees this. This is always the fun thing where it's like, I missed your live and I couldn't see it. Yes. Yeah. So it's, like, weird because sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't. And I see it's hiding in this one for some reason. It's not showing up. In what group is that? The singles group, which is interesting. Let me check the other one just to see.

We are coming up.

Here. Okay. I don't see us in either.

I'm glad I'm checking. Okay. Yeah. Weird. Hello, Restream.

Yay. Technology. Technology is amazing. Until. Until it's not.

It's so weird. Oh, I see it. It's saying, unable to connect. Okay, so we're on YouTube, so. Hey, YouTube.

So.

So.

Okay, that's interesting. I'm gonna go ahead.

There we are. Okay. So I think what I'm gonna do. We'll see if I could troubleshoot it really quick. If not, I'll just tell everyone to come to YouTube. Yeah. Because I don't know how to do it without. Oh, wait. Maybe I can edit it. It's so weird. I used it this morning. I wonder if that's why. Because I just used it. Okay. I'm gonna post it really quick in the groups just so they can see. See it.

All right.

And then this will be interesting. I've never done it where everyone comes on YouTube.

Oh, somebody from LinkedIn says we're on LinkedIn. Oh, it's Bri. Oh, hi, Bri.

Okay. Awesome. Okay. With Tiffany Kane having all the fun, for some reason, we are unable to stream in the group, but.

We are live on YouTube. Okay.

Okay. Come join us and learn.

Breeze Bree's like, the best cheerleader. Hi, gorgeous. That's what she's saying from LinkedIn.

I love that. I love it. Amazing. Okay, so I'm posting that, and then we'll see. Of course. It's like, I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway. Okay. It's good. It's all good.

See here. And then.

Take an extra minute. This is something we can just note, Tiffany, because I think, like, we both share this thing where, like, it's okay, right? Like, I think it's sometimes it's cool when things don't work because it shows people, like, what's everyone's biggest fear, right? Is, like, something not working. And to show, like, we're still going to do this, we're still going to have fun now it's a way for other people to see it. And so I think this is kind of a cool do the thing moment where I'm helping you guys through my technology.

That you could do a live tomorrow with someone that you've been really excited about doing, and it's going to be okay.

And here's the thing. Here's the thing. It happens to everybody. Single one of us. It doesn't matter how knowledgeable we are, how experienced we are, how many times we've done it. Tech gremlins love to attack. And so if we can just stay cool, calm, and collected through it, then it's all good. It's all good. I tend to get anxiety when my tech doesn't work. I'm like. And I'm very impressed with how calm you're staying.

So it's.

This is impressive.

Thank you. I'm showing my ultimate do the thing right now. So, yeah. So we'll see how this goes. Okay. Awesome. Oh, good. Hi, Bri.

Nice to see you.

So great.

Well, let's pretty much show for anyone that hasn't heard Tiffany Kane's podcast episode with that I just did yesterday, and then there's so many. You're so well known in the industry anyway, but I'd love to just have you share just a little bit about you and, like, kind of just like the nuggets of what you're doing now.

Oh, my gosh. Okay. So asking a podcaster to share their story, short and sweet, is kind of hard. We were just in A meeting yesterday, and somebody said, what is the longest you've had a podcast guest talk without taking a breath? And somebody's like, 50 minutes? 5.

0.

Like.

It'S like, oh, my gosh. Okay, so I'll be. I'll be quick and easy. There's a lot to my story, as there is for most of us. Right? We just. We have a lot. We come from the. The super quick is I was raised in a cult and escaped that and then moved 3,000 miles across the country, started a new life, ended up in a marriage that was not. Not great, and was able to get out of it, but it took me 20 years to get out of it. And then in the midst of all of that, I also was a teacher, and then I worked for a school district. You know, I've been in public education my whole life and got to a point where. And this is the crux of the story, where I hit a brick wall with where I was going to go. I had my administrative credential. I was trying to, you know, really affect change in a large way, and I just kept hitting brick walls and everything I was trying to do. And I sat down with my boss and I said, can. Can you help me figure out, like, what's happening? Why am I not getting moved forward? And the words. The exact words out of her mouth were, tiffany, you're just too passionate.

And she said a few things after that. I did have her repeat that. I'm like, can you repeat that? Did you just say I'm too fashioned? Yeah. So let me get this. I work with kids. I work with kids in a low socioeconomic area, you know, high immigrant population, and I'm too passionate about helping them. Okay, hey, so it was basically her thing was, your passion intimidates people, and we are not sure you're going to be a great leader because not everybody can meet your passion. And I had to really think about that of, like, okay, if I move. She's saying, if I move forward with them, I need to really dim my light and not be me. Or I can go a different path and really lean into my passion and be me. And the reason I told you about the escaping the cult and the marriage is I spent the first 46 years of my life trying to fit in somebody else's mold of who I should be and being miserable and making myself sick over it. And I finally said that's. I'm not. I can't. And so that's when I started my podcast. Starting the podcast opened amazing doors. Eventually, I Was able to quit my job and start a media production company. And, you know, that's the long and short of it. Not an easy journey, definitely a hard journey, but just an amazing one. So. And I see people saying hello, so hi to all of you.

Good to see you. Yeah, it's fun. I haven't interacted on YouTube yet, so this is different. It's a different experience.

Really fun. And I just want to say I love the interacting, interactive type of piece here, so I want to make sure all of you that are commenting and stuff, we're going to definitely interact with you. I love that piece.

Yeah. And I'm so glad Anne Marie Maloney is here. So she. Her podcast is about this life, and she's a teacher right now and also a podcaster. And so, like, I like when you think about the people. Like, when I was like, please come talk on my community. And so I'm so glad you're here. And Marie, because you're like, one of the people, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I really want. I really want Tiffany to be able to say something that might help kind of like, move in the direction, you know, And I love, like, we talked about this, too, where your podcast was started as your side hustle, which was what got you kind of even just started in what you're doing. You've really been like, you left teaching just a couple years ago, right?

Like, yeah, it's two years. Two years. And it wasn't even a side hustle when I started. Right. I just started a podcast. I had something to say.

And then people were like, okay, how are you doing this thing? Like, can you help me start mine? Like, what do I do? I'm well, sure, I'll help you. And then it just listening to what people are asking, what they were saying, just opened doors, which is amazing.

Yeah, let's talk about that. Because so when I was talking to the community about you coming in, one of the questions from someone that wasn't able to come in was like, how do I get more listens? And I know we've talked about this, right? Where it doesn't matter about your listeners, because your podcast, and you said it so well, I just listened to it today, so it's like, fresh in my mind, but the magic portal to open the doors. Right? And I'd love to just kind of, like, speak to that for a minute because, like, what is your. How can we talk to people so then they're not so worried about that. Listening.

Yes, yes, yes. Oh, my gosh. Okay, first of all, we all have a sickness and a disease. Social media has created this Bri. Podcasting is like tattoos.

But we have this weird thing now that we're in this digital age where if you don't have, like a million followers, who even are you? Right? And I'm. I'm as guilty of this as the next person of, like, what, What. How many followers do I have on my Instagram? How many likes did that get? What? You know, And. And there is something to tracking your metrics. Yes, there is something to tracking your metrics. But. But here's the thing. If. If we take away the. I need to have thousands and thousands of downloads to. I need to reach out to the listeners that need me and I need them.

Then that's a different conversation. It's not how. How do I. What is my strategy for getting as many downloads as possible? It's how do I reach the people that I really want to be talking to? And that's a different conversation. And if we're doing this in real life, you and I met at a meetup that had, I think, 30 people at it, and it was vibrant and lively and engaging and an absolutely incredible evening with 30 people. Right? Like. And look what has come out of it. Right? Collaboration and connection and like, things for my business as far as.

Opportunities that have come up just from real life with 30 people. Right?

Totally.

And of those 30 people, I probably got to actively quality engage with maybe 10 to 15, right? Yeah. So when we think like that.

Are you getting the listens on your podcast that are meaningful? Are you connecting to the people that are meaningful? And if you are getting 20 downloads an episode, 30 downloads an episode, that's something to be proud of. If it's listens from people who you're helping to affect change in some way. Whatever your goal. We each have a different goal. Like is our goal. I just want to talk really cool authors. It doesn't matter if nobody listens because you got to talk to your cool author. You know, if your goal is, I'd like this to be a funnel into my business, and I'd like to get, you know, three new clients a month, and this is a very cool funnel, well, then you're going to go about it very differently. Right? But either none of those are, I need to have 10,000 downloads, right? 10,000 downloads is. I'm going to monetize my podcast with ads. Right? That's different. That's completely different. It's a different strategy. I want to point something out to everybody Right now, do you see my.

I get. I've been on camera a ton of times. I teach people how to get on camera. I'm a media production company. I get nervous every time and I get, like, hives. It's just going to happen. So if this happens to you, the do the thing, as you're doing your thing, if you're turning bright red and splotchy, what happens, you know?

And I love that you said that, because so many people think that people that are doing the thing, you know, like, that doesn't happen too, right? Like, that they're un. What is that word? Unbreakable, unshakable, whatever the word is, you know, it's like that we're just like, moving through. But it is true. Like, you have to overcome certain things. And I love. I just saw Neil's here. Neil's great. So we had to go live challenge in the do the thing community. And he was watching through the challenge, you know, everyone going live. And then, like the last day he came on and went live, and it was like, really cool. Now he's got this amazing dog brand, and I'm seeing him on Instagram doing lives all the time, and it's like. But if someone was to look at him now, they wouldn't even know that it took him like that, you know, like, to do it. And so I love that idea of what you're saying where, you know, just because you're doing it, it doesn't mean that you don't have to, like, overcome.

Something, you know, My first live.

I had to work up the courage, and then I think I went, two minutes. It was like, I can do this for two minutes. And this was two years ago. Yeah, I can do this for two minutes. Just two minutes. Just. I. I never was super active on social media.

Never was really in front of a camera very much. Like, that just wasn't how I was. And I was one of those people that was like, if I saw myself in a picture, on a video, oh, my face does it. People have to watch face do that.

And you know what I mean?

Like, so super critical. So that the first time I went live was almost a panic attack. Right? But I made myself do it. And now it's like, whatever. I am who I am, I'm going to turn bright red. It's going to happen. Whatever. It's. It's okay.

Yeah, I love that you said that. I would love to also ask you. You mentioned connecting to the people that are listening, you know, with like, meaningful, connect conversations. So what do you. Do you have suggestions for kind of like, kind of bringing that podcast to life in order to be able to really connect to the people that are part of your. Your platform?

I do, and this is one of my favorite things to talk about. It's. First of all, there's not a right way and a wrong way. There's not a black and white. It's going to be very different according to who you are. And you may do multiple things. You may do one. One of the most powerful things you can do is meet up in real life, right? So if you can find a way even to. Even if it's three to five people, you know, like, you can look on your.

Your metrics for whatever podcast host you have, and usually they'll tell you your most active cities, right? So you can say, hey, you know, a super active city for me is Orlando, Florida. My family's already planning a vacation there. What if I do a meetup and we meet up for.

A coffee chat and I get five or six people together?

Boom.

You know, like, how cool is that?

That is so cool.

So it's some sort of meetup, right? Like any live grassroots thing you can do, you're putting a face and a name and a story and a personality behind who's listening. That's big. Number two, what you're doing, you've got a community of people that you support, that you connect with, you know, their stories. So you're meeting up on a virtual online way. So that's the next best thing to meeting up in person, right? You get a wider community you can bring in.

And. And again, you're learning their stories, you know, their stories about their kids, their pets, their jobs, their dreams. And those are now things you can incorporate in your podcast, right? You know, the questions they have, the things they're concerned with.

So those to me, are two of the most powerful things you can do. And then you can create communities on. And the platform really doesn't matter as long as it's a platform that works for your community, you know. So is your community active on Facebook? Facebook groups are amazing. Is your community active on YouTube doing these kind of like YouTube lives and like that great. Is. Would your community do great on Slack? Fantastic Discord. It doesn't matter. There's. There's off. You know, there's communities like you can do a. A membership community that's even off the socials. Those are a little problematic. People have a hard time kind of going off the socials to me, but, you know, there's Whatever works for your community. Find a way to put faces and names to the people that are listening.

Mm, I love that. Yeah, it's. It's. So. It changes everything, right? When you're. Yeah. When you're able to, like, really connect in that way. And then it also helps you. It's like, I call it this feedback loop where, like, you're seeing, like, what is activating for the people listening, but then what's also activating for you. So then you're acting from, like, your own inner kind of, like, wants and desires.

The other thing you can do, your call to action can be reach out to me. DM me on Instagram, DM me on Facebook.

Whatever. Like, a super easy way for people to reach out to you and. And tell me, what is it? What do you. What do you want to know about? What do you. What are you curious about? Also, when you get new followers on any of those areas, reach out to them. Hey, you know, thanks for joining the community. I. It's really important to me that the things I talk on my podcast are meaningful to you. Do you have any topics, any things you're concerned about? And then when you talk about that, hey, Neil.

Talk to me. You know, Neil asked a question about how do you xyz? And this episode is for Neil. Thanks for inspiring this episode, Neil. Blah, blah, blah.

I love that. That's so good.

And, of course, honor anonymity if it's a more touchy subject. But, um, but bringing in, hey, somebody asked me about this, and so I want to address it, because then somebody hears, oh, Stacy is talk. Answering Neil's question. I bet maybe she'll answer my question.

Yeah, I love that. Okay, now, my question is for the people, and I'm saying teachers, educators, because that's what you were. But insert you guys if you're not in that range. But I see Emory, and then I know V was coming, so I can't tell if she's here or not because of the Facebook glitch. But anyway, that's okay. I'm gonna move on. But a lot of teachers, educators that are in the community that are, like, kind of like they're stepping in their toe. They're dipping their toe in. They've got the podcast.

How do they.

How do they get to the point where they are, like, able to now, like, take this side hustle and turn it into something? Do you have any suggestions for that?

So there's a lot to consider with that. First of all, I'm gonna. I'm gonna tell like the nitty gritty, not pie in the sky piece. I love that you have to think about health insurance, retirement, you know, where you're at with, you know, just all of these pieces and parts and make sure you're fully aware and fully informed what's gonna happen with that and that. No, that leaving is going to be a risk. Some people are more risk averse than others. I.

Am okay taking risks. They also make me sick to my stomach.

So you kind of have to be okay living in that stress risk place. We live in a country where we don't really have great safety nets for health and retirement and stuff. And so that is really important to think about. So I just, I just want to say what I've heard lots of people are like, just go and quit and you're gonna be okay and you'll figure it out.

Yeah.

Not true for everybody in all situations. So have to really just be aware and be thoughtful. So I'm just gonna say anything I say after this. There's that disclaimer. But I, I think what you do is you set a goal for yourself and you set here's metrics I want to hit to be able to quit. Right. For me.

I had a contract and I had to really sit and go, okay, I either our contract is, you know, an entire school year, so I either renew my contract and I've got a whole nother year of side gigging this, or I quit now and really dive full in and, and make this a business, like make this happen.

And.

I happen to have a partner and we can work on it together. And you know, had some, you know, things that, that helped that to happen.

And so that's, that's what I decided to do. Probably if I was in a different situation, I would have side gigged it for a little bit longer. Yeah. You know, five, six months longer. I didn't have that option, you know, so.

I, you know, quit my, my job and, and dove.

Dove off the cliff. So.

Yeah. And so for you, you kind of like then naturally it evolved naturally because you had started your podcast, you were getting success and then all of a sudden people were asking you for help to do the thing you were wanting to do, which then turned into a, a low cost like launch your podcast. Then it turned into a membership and then it, everything kind of like evolved from there.

Yeah. And I, now we're not even. We do a little bit of helping people with podcasts, but that's not even our business anymore. It's more like a fun hobby. Just to stay connected to the community. Yeah. Now we're more media production. I've leaned into my instructional design background and helping businesses create programs, training programs for their staff or for their products. You know, that kind of stuff. We're more in that piece. And the podcast is more just that fun. Part connection. Yeah. The play part, the tattoo, the creative, you know, like, getting the creative juices flowing and, yeah. Your voice out. So.

I'd love to kind of play, stay here a little bit with the side hustle idea because, like, so people that are watching that still have that job, they have the podcast, and.

There'S that piece of, like, you know, the safety net and all that. But in terms of steps, because, yeah, you mentioned they can go big and go for listens and then go for sponsors and do all that paid ads and all that stuff, or they can become probably like an affiliate where they, you know, have. Once they get their audience, they can do that route where they're selling other people's stuff, or they could create their own programs, kind of the route you ended up going, where you ended up creating your own programs, which then led you into what you're doing now. And I was just wondering if you have any advice for, like, that next kind of like jumping off point.

Yeah, yeah. First of all, a podcast is a terrible way to make money. You'll make more money from, like, learning how to crochet socks, I'm just gonna say right now. But your podcast can open incredible doors to opportunity. And so this is the next step is the networking, the connection, the collaboration. And every amazing thing that has happened in my business, like every magical moment, every leap forward came from a networking opportunity, a collaboration opportunity. And it's very simply, hey, I really like what you're doing. Want to do something together. That's pretty much what you did, right? Like you said, hey, you're really cool. Let's do something together. Okay. Awesome. People are usually pretty cool and pretty willing to do that. Right. And so everything that has happened in our business has come from how. How can we work together? How can I help you? How can I. And if you. You come to it from a. This is going to be mutually beneficial or it's going to be really good for you. Like, how can I help you? How can I serve you? Then great things come from it. If it's a, okay, are you going to be a new client of mine? How do let's work together? I want you to be my client. Yeah, nobody likes that. But if it's. Let's, you Know, let's create community together. Let's help people together. Let's. Whatever. Like, Bree right here, who's on, like, she's a master at that. Like, how do we help? How do we help? How do we help? And so that, to me, is the number one. Reach out, be active. You will not do the thing from sitting behind your computer and writing the perfect email or creating the perfect website or, you know, whatever. It's the connections. So go to those meetups, whether they're virtual or in person.

The think about the guests you have on your podcast. Make sure there are people that inspire you that you'd like to do stuff with. It doesn't have to be every guest, but, you know, if. If one out of five guests are like, let's do something together, then amazing things can happen. And. And additionally reach out and ask, like, if there's something, you know, somebody needs that you can really help with. Hey, can I help you with that? Even if it's a volunteer for the first time. Right. Like, for instance, PodFest Expo, it's a great, great conference for podcasters. The first year my partner and I went to PodFest Expo, we were like, okay, we're going to this thing. We're diving in with both feet. We. We knew. We liked the people that were organizing it. How do we volunteer? How do we get involved? Put me, like, put me in coach. Do you need me to manage a track? Do you need me to, you know, hand out badges? Do you need me to. Whatever. So we volunteered. Just got as involved. We were massively, insanely crazy. Volunteered, volunteered, volunteered. Same with the second year. Put me in. How do I help? Let me, Let me volunteer, whatever. This year we reached out and said, hey, you know, we want to. How do we help? Blah, blah, blah. Also, do you already have a vendor for your av? If not, we'd love to help you with that is what we do. And they're like, oh, put in a bid. This is. Yeah. And so we put in a proposal and we got the audio visual job, right? Yeah. So we get to do the AV for PodFest Expo. And it's still mutually beneficial because they have champagne taste on a beer budget. And we can be like, we'll volunteer our time. You don't have to pay for us. You know, we'll labor is the most expensive piece. We put a team together that is like, okay, this sounds fun. Let's do it. And so we don't have to pay the normal labor rates. Right. So we're able to help them and get A really cool job. Right. So thinking about that as you're building your business, don't think 10 years down the road of like, I've got, you know, a solid customer base and I don't have to do abcd. No, when you're starting, you're giving a lot. And honestly, 10 years down the road, you should give a lot too. But you're giving a lot and everything that you do should be, how do I help this person that I'm with? How do I make this better for them so that it's a mutually beneficial thing? And 1. And when you have that attitude, just doors open left and right because people like working with you.

Yeah, I love that so much. And that's why, like, when you're starting, for people that are starting a podcast or that have a podcast, like, you want it to be something that like really screams at, like from your insides, because that's who you're going to be connecting with are people that are aligned with that thing. And I feel like you've done that because you have had podcasts through different phases of your life too. And you're open to also saying goodbye to podcasts when they don't serve you anymore.

Yeah, absolutely. Look, it's you. This is one of the things I tell everybody when they're thinking of starting a podcast and they're agonizing, agonizing for the perfect name and the perfect art and the perfect. Just get started. Yeah, you're gonna change your mind. You know the great podcasters out there that are up to 10 million, 25 million downloads. Their podcast today looks nothing like the podcast they started with. It doesn't have the same name, it doesn't have the same art, it doesn't have the same focus. It's changed.

Almost every single one of them, with the exception of, like, branded podcasts that are like super curated. But like the, the others, you know, when you, you think of the big ones, the other big ones, like, they've changed.

What do you think about when you do change your podcast? But it still has the same premise because I have someone in the community that did that, where he was started off with like one idea of who he was talking to and helping. I think it was just mental. And now he's opened it up to everyone. And do you think it's okay to just do a season difference for that or do you think it's time to just start a brand new podcast? Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think.

There are a couple ways to think about it. Keep the same podcast. If 50 to 60% of your audience is staying the same and you're just making a shift in the messaging and whatever, keep the same podcast. I'm on my third podcast name and, and all of that, but I've kept the same RSS feed because it's.

It's fed.

It's like, been a natural progression. It's fed itself that way. Okay. But then there are other podcasts that I've started that have nothing to do with this topic. And so, yeah, you're going to start a new podcast because it's a completely different audience, completely different messaging, completely different topic. Right. So. And know that when you change.

You may lose some of that audience you had before. Right. Because remember, at least maybe 50 to 60% of your audience will stay with you when you. You shift. Right. Also, the more niche your message is and the smaller audience you're talking to, usually the more successful your podcast is going to be. When we try to talk to everybody, we don't really talk to anybody. But when we have a very specific audience, you know, dog owners that have problem pets and, you know, they're. They're trying to solve problems with their pets, that's a more niche audience versus everybody that has a pet. Well, is it a cat? Is it a llama? Is it a rodent? Is it a rabbit? Like, when you're a little more niche, then you're gonna do better.

Yeah. And I'm thinking of you, Neil, because, like, he. His product is going to be for dogs, for people that are traveling specifically. And so that's like, really niche. And what a fun podcast that would be, you know, where you're able to talk to people that have.

Where they travel with their pets or experts that are familiar with that, too.

People are going to be passionate about that, right? People that want to travel with their pet, they're passionate about traveling with their pets, and they go to great lengths to make it happen. And so they're going to look for that.

Yeah.

Versus, hey, I talk to everybody that has a pet. Well.

Like, yeah, I don't know if that really applies to me or not. Yeah.

I'd love to have you share about your podcast now, the one that you're working on now, because I feel like that's the direction, the direct thing for what you were saying earlier with the. I wrote it down, but it was the hidden, like, feeling hidden.

And now you're like, yeah, so my, like, passion project podcast is called Raise youe Volume, Raise youe Volume Academy, because we're we're the Rivas. We're learning how to raise our volume and talk about the things that matter and things that maybe we'd stayed quiet about before. Also starting a podcast with Jessica Kupferman from she podcast live for the Sonic Bloom podcast, Sonic Bloom Awards. So that's in the works now. We've been doing recording for that.

And, well, I have a couple other projects happening too, so. But, yeah, but the raise your volume is my main one.

And what do you. What are you mostly talking about on that?

It's women, which is kind of a big niche, but it's not really niche. It's 51% of the population. But typically it for me, it's women pretty much like Gen Xers women of my generation. We're kind of on the cusp of good girl versus you can bring home the bacon and fry it in the pan, right? Like, we're in that generation of.

Like, who should we be like, and what can we talk about? And should we talk about it? And so that's pretty much my audience is, you know.

Pretty much Gen Xers.

Women that are like, okay, screw it. Like, I'm. I'm ready to be heard. I've raised my kids. I'm. I've done the career thing, the marriage thing. Like, who actually am I? You know, like, I need to raise my volume on these things that matter to me.

I love that. That's so good because that's when you're, like, officially doing something for you, right? Like, after you've done all that and you're kind of in this new phase where you. It's almost like you woke up, you know, perfect.

It's exactly what it is. You spend so much of your life doing the things people say you should do. You know, the 2.3 kids and the marriage and the white picket fence and the college, you know, degree and the. And. And you. Not any. That anything is bad. Like, none of them is bad. But many of us don't ask, is that what I really want? Is this really the path I want to be on? Is this the right thing for me? And then once we get to a certain point, we can start going, what is it I really want? Yeah. What do I really want to talk about? Who really am I? What is important to me?

So, so good. I love that. And do you mind sharing? You mentioned the awards thing, and I know that was something you mentioned at the Pod Fest meetup, too, is like, for some of the people here that have podcasts and they're, like, wanting to Just kind of like, I don't know what the word is. I feel like I want to say validate, but that's not the right word. But something where it just creates more something buzz around your podcast, you know.

Oh, friends, awards are amazing things for your podcast. There are, but, but, but, but many awards programs are very expensive, right? Like they can be just to apply for an award is $250 and then to get your award is another $250. You know, like these can be very prohibitive, very cost prohibitive. But getting an award and being able to say I'm an award winning podcaster, that's, I'm pretty darn cool.

So I got together with Jessica Cooperman from she Podcast Live and it's like, okay, here's the problem. Women, female podcasters, we're only 30% of the podcast host population. Most of us are independent podcasters. Most of us are trying to do all the things and may not have a ton of extra money. And paying $250 to just apply for an award, like doesn't make a lot of sense. And so we came up with an award just for female independent podcasters or female identifying or non binary. Right. So it's that population which only makes up 30% of podcasters and super affordable. So it was like $50 and you could apply for three different categories, whereas others, it's 250 per category. Right. So, and then people could be nominated. They can nominate themselves or nominate somebody else and you know, have the awards. And so we've been through that process and January we're having our award ceremony and we're just, it's really exciting to be able to honor independent creators, independent female creators. So I highly recommend going for things like that, getting an award. Yeah.

And how would they, how would they go about finding that? Is it, is there a resource?

Well, there's, I don't, I'm sure somewhere there's a resource of the different awards you can apply to. Off the top of my head, some of my favorites are the Davie Award.

Davie Award.

Again, it's, it's pricey, but this, it's a nice award.

It's nice. Yeah.

So these are.

Davie Award is merit based rather than like one winner per category. And so there's like a scoring process and if you score high enough, you get the award. And so there will be multiple winners. So that's why this award is really nice because you, if you're doing quality work, there's a good chance you're going to get an award.

Yeah.

So that's really nice.

So the Davey Award, the Communicator award and the W3 award all have podcast categories and they're all merit based, which means you have a better chance of getting the awards. David's on. Hi, David. I love you. He's my partner. He put the link for the Sonic Bloom Awards. Sonic Bloom Awards are closed right now, so you can't nominate anymore. The there. We've already announced our finalists and winners are announced in January. But so anyway, those.

Davey, D A V E y, Communicator and.

W3, those are all merit based. Pricey. But if you do good work, you're probably going to get an award. Then there's the.

Ambies again, that's only one winner per category, so go for it. Try. But you can do that.

I would say those would be kind of probably my.

Is that. Did I say six With Sonic Boom, I think it's top six, Top five or six. Try for those. Sonic Bloom's gonna be the most cost effective if you're a female.

Okay, that's amazing. That could be a fun do the thing dare.

Yeah, David's like putting in all the links. Nice job, David.

Oh my God. I'm gonna show that.

Here's our W3.

Oh, wow. Those are so pretty. I just want it because it looks pretty.

Right? Isn't that fun? This is a fun one. This actually David won for best video editing. So this isn't a podcast one. This is a gold for video.

Amazing. I love it. That's so cool.

Yeah.

And so I'd love you to talk about also because you are doing a low cost podcast university and I know there's people that are listening that are going to be interested in that. So I'd love you to talk about that as well.

Thank you for bringing that up. Again, it's a passion project.

We want because podcasts open so many doors for us. We want to make it super accessible for people to learn all the things about podcasting. Really affordable, really like low barrier to entry.

It's not a main revenue stream for us.

So we don't need to make super high price things. Right. So it's 19.99amonth and you get access to multiple master classes taught live a month by experts. These we search out industry experts where they're in the podcast industry full time, not necessarily independent creators, not, you know, influencers, but they work for some sort of branded podcast or some sort of podcast agency or something along those lines where they have a different viewpoint and they're able to share that with the independent creator. And I think that's really valuable because a lot of the kind of influencer podcasters out there often say things in a way that is kind of just not necessarily the truth. Like there's a lot of. There's one way to be a successful podcaster and you've got to do xyz, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, that's not. There's so many different definitions of success for each of us. Like I said, your definition of success may be, I just really want to talk to cool authors. Then you don't have to do all of this stuff that that podcaster, that influencer is saying. You've got to have systems and procedures and consistency. And, well, that may not work for you. Like, you may be able to do this once a month. And being able to talk to one cool author a month is really awesome for you. Cool, right? Yeah. So this university was created to kind of push back a little on some of the rhetoric that we hear out there.

And give a different perspective and give people a really affordable way to hear from lots of different experts. And so we try to bring in two to three experts a month. Live. They teach live, there's always a replay. And then you have access to the whole library of whoever has taught before. And it's just 19.99amonth. So super affordable. Right.

Just even sound real. It's like so good, you know, so.

Some of the people we've had, it's just been so exciting. So Stephanie Ericalian, who is the audience and marketing expert, she's the director of that over at Impact Theory. So Tom and Lisa Bayou. Tom has a university that's 199amonth to.

Be a part of. Yeah.

But she works for them. And she got Tom's Impact Theory podcast up on in Times Square.

Oh my gosh.

And it's the second podcast she's gotten up in Times Square for the second company she's worked for. Like, she's amazing. And so she's taught Jessica Kupperman from she Podcast Live.

We had Chris o'. Keefe. He worked for Jar Audio, which is a big branded podcast production company. They make podcasts for Amazon, for Cirque du Soleil, for ge. Like they do the big ones. And so he was able to give us insight. You know, how do you take the lessons from a branded podcast and turn them into your independent. What do you need to think about? So anyway, we've had experts like that and.

We've got some more cool ones coming in, so I'm just really excited.

Yeah, yeah, it sounds amazing. And especially because you're, like, keeping people in momentum, right? So you're kind of helping prevent that podcast fading that I think can sometimes happen because you're giving them a space to learn and then connect together, too.

And the best thing is there's a community that goes with it. And so not only are you going in to learn, but now you've got a community. We have a Facebook community for it. And so there's a community supporting each other. And it's really lovely. It's really lovely.

We've had a lot of really big life things happen to people in that community, and the way that community comes together and supports and is there for each other is wonderful. And so.

That'S a really nice part of it, too, Lila. It's called Casa Media University. And David posted the link in the notes. Yep, that's it. It's kind of a long link. Sorry.

But I'll. I have it from our episode, so I'll. I'll message it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be great. So. Oh, my gosh. Well, I can't believe it's already 5:45. I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's been incredible getting to talk to you. I feel like. I mean, we've got. There's going to be more.

More stuff that we could do. I just am so just, like, love talking to you and, you know, I really appreciate you coming on. And for you guys that haven't listened to the. Our full episode, we have it on the do the Thing podcast I published. It was a couple days ago. It was so good. Oh, my God. Okay, please just give them a nugget of what you said about fear being in the driver's seat, if you don't mind, just for anyone.

Fear. Fear. I'm like, what did I say? Fear being in the driver's seat. Yeah, okay, so that. That's another one of my things is it kind of irks me when people are like, oh, just push through fear. Or go, you know, get rid of fear or whatever. That's never going to happen. Like, look, we stay afraid. Like, fear is always here with us, and so we just need to make friends with it and put it in the seatbelt on the passenger side. Fear doesn't get to drive the car. Right. You're not going to ever get rid of fear. You're not going to push him out of car and be like, fear. You have no Place for me. Because actually fear is a healthy thing, right? Like, we need certain amounts of fear to propel us forward, to protect us, to learn lessons. There's lots that fear teaches us. So just being like, ah, fear is bad. That's, that's not true. But you just don't want fear driving the car, flying the plane, right? Fear gets to be a passenger with a seatbelt and maybe a Diet Coke, right? Like, keep it busy, keep it happy.

It doesn't get to drive the car.

Oh, my gosh, you're so good. And then please share because we're on LinkedIn too, so anyone that is a company that's looking for branded. Oh, the notes. Yeah, I'll, I'll message you later. I saw that was Carmen. Right. So I'll, I'll message you later what the link is. But yeah, if you don't mind sharing your Casa Media as well. And what that. Who would be reaching out to you for that too?

Oh, great. Thank you. Yeah. Casa Media. So we do video production, we do podcast production. We really focus on audio and video together, how they work together. So if you have a project that you're working on where you need audio and video put together.

We'Re not cheap, so we're not going to be like going to Fiverr and being like, hey, can you make my podcast real? It's more of like a project. So you're, you know, we work on creating training programs and things of that sort. So when you're working on that kind of thing, then that's what we do. My partner is the most gifted editor. He is brilliant. We're in the process of getting all of the funding together and everything for opening a studio. So hopefully in, you know, four months time, we have a studio open and ready and that will hopefully be our next meetup. So hopefully you'll come.

I will be there, yeah. Oh, and then we have another question. How do you find your niche amidst many different ideas or paths? The podcast can go.

Ann Marie. Spoken from one multi passionate person to another.

I think you choose one knowing that you always have the option to change, shift, move, start another. You're not stuck in one place, right? So what's really speaking to your heart right now? What is something you can be really interested in? Podcasts are hard work. They're hard work. So what makes it joyful, what makes it interesting? Pick that passion, right? Just stick to something and then just know. I mean, for me, my first topic, I got to about a year in about 100 episodes, just slightly short of 100 episodes. And I went, I woke up one day, I was like, I'm done talking about this, I'm ready to shift. And I shifted. So that's multi passionate people. We hate the idea that we have to be stuck with something for forever. So just know if you're multi passionate, guess what? Choose something and shift when you're ready to shift.

Yeah, I love that. That's the reason I did like eight different challenges last year. Like I did get, I did a dating challenge, get fit, start a book. I just was like interested in different things. The commonality was the do the thing formula. But it's great. It's great to be able to explore. And it's almost like you're a kid again, right? You're like, oh, what do I want to do? And being able to explore these different ideas.

Yeah. And you know what, Being able to lean into. Heck yeah. I'm a multi passionate person. Like being able to lean into that, that's fine. There are people that have talked about the same topic for seven years. You know, like I think of like the Amy Porter fields of the world. Right. Like once you've listened to about 10 of her episodes, you don't need to listen anymore because it's going to be kind of the same thing. Right. She's talked about the same thing for seven years. She's highly successful at what she does. Like massively successful. There's obviously a winning formula to that. If you would ask me to speak about the same thing for seven years, I would probably throw myself off the building. Like, I can't. Like when I was a teacher, I was a multiple subject teacher where I got to teach lots of different things and change it up. And every year I would like change grade levels. Levels. I just am a multi passionate person and so I'm not going to talk about the same thing for seven years.

And that's okay. That's the beauty of getting to do your thing. Just do the thing, be you. And there's a space for the people that can talk about the same things for seven years. And there's a space for the people. They're kind of a Jack of all trades. Right. Like, let's explore. Let's go for it. Yeah.

So good. Okay, so your last thing is just like any kind of advice for people that are just what's coming alive for you right now, Something that you can just sort of land the plane with.

Okay, well, I'm gonna stick with the do the thing because I love this, I love this idea. I love this topic and do it so many times. We are our own worst enemies. We create our own brick walls. We. We stop ourselves. There's. Most of the time, there's nobody else stopping us. So do the thing. And it doesn't have to be the big thing. I think we talked about this in the podcast episode too, right? Like, what is the next small step you can take? Like, for me, going, like, getting comfortable on camera, it was okay. Can you spend two minutes live? Just two minutes. That's it. Just go two minutes live and. And that's it. So what's the next small thing you can do? Because eventually lots of small things lead to that big difference. Right?

So good. Thank you so much for doing this, Tiffany. It's amazing. I love. I love talking to you. And thank you guys for coming. And Bree, it was nice to meet you. And thanks, David, for sending us all.

The links and so nice. Anne, Mar and Lila and Neil and Brie and David. So great.

So good. And all right, you guys, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it. Thank you.