For Private Office Lessons - Part 2 of 3, Jen Amos continues to reflect on the experience of having a private office for the first time, compared to working from home or at coffee shops. She shares the lessons she learned, the benefits and challenges of having a private office, and her decision to move her office back home. She also discusses the importance of boundaries and productivity in a work environment.

For Private Office Lessons - Part 1 of 3, Jen Amos introduces the podcast and discusses her experience of having a private office for the first time. She reflects on the lessons she has learned from having a private office compared to working from home or in coffee shops. She talks about her 13 years of being self-employed and her different business endeavors. She explains why she wanted to have a private office after the pandemic. She discusses the adjustments and benefits she experiences, such as a dedicated and quiet space, productivity, podcast recordings, and personalized decorations.

For Part 4 of 4 Podcast Consultation with Michael Blankers, Michael and Jen wrap up about faith and their family's religious journeys. Michael shares how his wife converted from Catholicism after attending his non-denominational church. He also discusses how his siblings have different levels of involvement in their faith, from his sister who is deeply religious to his brother who is spiritual but does not attend church. Michael emphasizes the importance of faith in overcoming life's difficulties and expresses gratitude for being able to have these conversations about faith.

For Part 3 of 4 Podcast Consultation with Michael Blankers, Jen shares her faith journey and how she came to Christianity (from a Catholic upbringing) after her father passed away. Jen shares how she found a new understanding of God through Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life and attending Saddleback Church. She also shares how she was baptized as an adult in 2018. Michael then shares his faith journey, especially after his father passed from cancer.

For Part 2 of 4 Podcast Consultation with Michael Blankers, Jen shares that her faith comes first and that she helps lead worship at her church. She discusses her mantra of finding purpose in the present and living joyfully. Jen also talks about everything she does being purposeful and her 13 years of self-employment building things she enjoys. Michael is impressed by her concise yet meaningful answers and says people like her are who he wants on his podcast to convey a message of hope. He relates Jen's faith to his sister's family motto of "Faith first, family always."

For Part 1 of 4 Podcast Consultation with Michael Blankers, Michael discusses the possibility of starting a podcast. Jen shares her previous method of finding podcast guests before her current partnership with The Rosie Network. Michael expresses his interest in defining specific target listener numbers. Lastly, they question whether it might be more sensible to write a book before launching a podcast.

For 158 - Commentary - Podcasting Basics - Part 6 of 6, Jen Amos discusses when it is appropriate to hire a virtual assistant. She shares that she currently has three virtual assistants from the Philippines who she pays between $3-6.50 per hour through Upwork. She recommends hiring a virtual assistant when a task is repetitive and systematic, and you have grown tired of it but know it needs to be done. She provides tips on training virtual assistants, such as using screen recording tools like Loom to demonstrate workflows. Overall, she advocates outsourcing work to virtual assistants as a way to focus on higher-level tasks and support economic opportunities in other countries.

Resources Mentioned:

• UpWork - https://www.upwork.com/ - To hire virtual assistants
• Loom - https://www.loom.com/ - Convenient way to share and record screen sharing
• Fathom - https://fathom.video/ - Convenient way to share and record screen sharing for Zoom

For 157 - Commentary - Podcasting Basics - Part 5 of 6, Jen Amos discusses tips for working smart with podcast marketing. She recommends creating content in bulk and in phases, starting with brainstorming, then conducting pre-interviews, interviews, post-production like editing, and finally the marketing phase. She also recommends tools like Descript for editing and Metricool for scheduling social media posts. Finally, she recommends her favorite web hosting services.

Resources Mentioned:

• Anchor.fm - https://podcasters.spotify.com/ - Now owned by Spotify, a free web hosting service recommended for beginners
• Captivate.fm - https://www.captivate.fm/ - If you want to host more than one podcast show and/or offer a paid private podcast

For 156 - Commentary - Podcasting Basics - Part 4 of 6, Jen Amos discusses strategies for online marketing a podcast or other content. She talks about creating lots of content upfront by recording it in bulk and chopping it into shorter segments. She recommends using scheduling tools like Metricool to efficiently post content across multiple social media platforms. Jen also shares details about how she planned and recorded her podcast Season 7 over a period of 6 months before partnering with The Rosie Network.

For 155 - Commentary - Podcasting Basics - Part 3 of 6, Jen Amos discusses how to repurpose content that is recorded through video, audio, or images. She recommends using video as it is most effective for building trust with strangers online. She also mentions audio can work well when people are multitasking. Jen recommends using the program Descript to chop up recordings into shorter clips for various marketing purposes like Instagram, YouTube, etc. She says Descript is worth the investment to make content creation and editing easier. The meeting ends with Jen saying the next episode will discuss what to do with all the chopped-up content.