What’s the role of AI in YOUR podcast process? It seems like everyone is using it to some extent.

Whether you’re generating show notes straight from your recording file or letting AI choose where to cut your video for social media posts, there are tons of AI tools out there nowadays.

So when we say AI, what are we talking about specifically? What have we ourselves gotten experience with in the pod space? We’re answering those questions and more with this episode.

Through an authentic creator’s lens, there seem to be some genuine benefits to AI, especially when it comes to saving your time – and therefore your money.

After all, if you’re spending less time agonizing over show notes, you’re spending more time doing what only you can do in your biz. 

But where’s the line with AI when it comes to being the authentic voice of your brand?

What are the AI “cons,” or where does it seem to still fall flat or have room to improve?

We’re diving into it all today, from our shared perspectives as an artist and podcast producer, and as a creative writer. 

RESOURCES:

630 ChatGPT Prompts for Content Brainstorming + Copywriting

Connect with Carin to move forward in your creative journey

“Work with a sense of urgency” is some of the worst business advice we’ve ever gotten.

Urgency to us feels like getting caught in a heavy cloud; a confusing, unsettling insistence to do… SOMETHING.

To get out of it, we usually decide to take a bunch of random action to A) show we take this urgency seriously and B) stop feeling this shitty urgency.

Now, does all the shooting-from-the-hip actually accomplish anything? Irrelevant when you’re in urgency mode! 

It’s a huge distraction from doing work that matters and creates a lot of anxiety around our work – often to the detriment of our creative practice. 

In urgency, there’s:

- A load of unhelpful thoughts running rampant.

- Frenetic energy that creates uncertainty.

- No time to build trust with yourself.

NONE of which contribute to feeling solid and steady in your business or creative pursuits.

Also, like… where’s the urgency actually coming from? And why?

This episode of PodMakers explores the concept of urgency, where we suspect it comes from (collectively and individually), and what to do instead of spinning ourselves into a hole in the ground.

RESOURCES:

Episode 12: Normalizing the Fear of Making Mistakes

I Have ADHD Podcast

The RobCast: This Must Be The Void

The Lumineers: Where We Are

Some advice, concepts, or sayings in online business are repeated so often that not only does it get annoying to hear it (again), but the actual content of it has become cliche.

From the pod bros to the bizfluencers to the multi-six-figure coaches (that coach who exactly?) tons of folks popularize cliches and misconceptions about online business. 

Why? For profit. They want to appear as though they have all the answers so you’ll pay them for those answers. But surely it's harmless because we're seeing through the marketing ploy, right? Mm, not necessarily.

Repetitive advice doesn’t make correct advice. In this case, these cliches are doing us more harm than good. Especially when they lack nuance.

-Your thoughts create your reality.

-You get to decide how much you earn.

-Say yes to every opportunity.

Today’s episode is our deep dive into the various online business cliches, tropes, and misconceptions we think need to be retired permanently.

RESOURCES:

Samantha Siffring

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

The Way Out Is In - Plum Village

The Critical Journey (Hagberg and Guelich)

Sapiens

Celia Cain

The Body Keeps The Score

One of the big questions we’re facing at the moment: how are we finding our creativity these days? 

It’s funny that we’re a podcast about podcasting, because the most listened to episodes of our show are the ones that dive into broader concepts than just business or marketing how-tos.

So in this episode, we’re following that thread.

Join us for a conversation about how we’re building an “ecosystem of creative pursuit” (this gem courtesy of Carin) in 3 specific ways: nurturing our creativity, protecting our creativity, and living creatively day-to-day.

This episode will help you:

If you’re like us, you need A LOT OF SPACE to tap into and define creative for yourself.

This is not a problem. It’s just a question of what you need and how you can integrate it into your life. 

If you’re enjoying this space with us, we would SO DEARLY LOVE to hear what you enjoy about it. Please consider taking 15 seconds to leave us a 5-star rating and review of your favorite takeaways from PodMakers. We would love to hear from you!

RESOURCES:

Episode 7: Setting Boundaries in Business When You Are The Business

Make Art, Not Content w Father Bronques

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: your podcast is a content gold mine!

And like, okay, that sounds catchy. But what does that actually MEAN?

You’re a busy business owner, serving clients left and right, and it feels like you don’t have time to figure out how to repurpose content from your podcast.

It’s enough with ideating, recording, and publishing regular episodes, amiright?

But really, you don’t have time NOT to have a repurposing process in place, and this episode will tell you exactly why, as well as give you ideas for how to start doing the damn thing. 

We’re talking about the reasons repurposing content makes so much sense for you as the guardian of your time and energy, PLUS giving specific examples of how to put content repurposing into practice.

And if nobody’s ever told you, let us be the first: when you repurpose content from your podcast – your greatest archive of concepts and teachings – it’s an epic way to create brand consistency. 

And spoiler: we’re talking about that in the episode, too. 

Join us for this conversation and learn more about:

• Specific action steps to consider for your repurposing goals

• How Carin’s artist-first perspective puts a more intentional lens on repurposing

• The 6 tips Kacey shares about how to repurpose content from your podcast

• What to keep in mind as you create processes for repurposing

If you’re enjoying this space with us, we would SO DEARLY LOVE to hear what you enjoy about it. Please consider taking 15 seconds to leave us a 5-star rating and review of your favorite takeaways from PodMakers. We would love to hear from you!

RESOURCES:

Episode 4: The Pressure To Be Everywhere As Business Owners

Make Art, Not Content w Father Bronques

Jessica Lackey, business coach

Shannon Brome-Ward, money mindset coach

Professionalism… Why does that seem like such a loaded word? Is it universally felt or is it just us? 

Broken down into its simplest terms, the definition of professionalism in the dictionary is simply “the competence or skill expected of a professional.”

But how society and culture defines professionalism is so much more than that! 

It encompasses personality, behavior, appearance, language, personal style, background, and more with judgements on top of each layer.

It seems like no one can really agree on what it means.

Then there’s the whole matter of being perceived as professional, which isn’t quite the same thing. 

Take it a level deeper as it pertains to podcasting, and whew. It feels like you're in deep.

Don't worry. PodMakers has your back.

As online business owners, we’re used to filling gaps and taking the lead, so we’re defining this concept for our own internal compass. We’ll share how we each view professionalism, in its most essential terms. 

We also want to ask you, dear listeners, how you define professionalism in your own business? Where does the PERCEPTION of being professional come in? And how does that definition carry into your (current or future) podcasting goals?

Join us for this conversation about professionalism in podcasting and learn about:

-How to think of professionalism outside what we’ve been given

-The importance of creating your own definition of your purpose as a professional

-Professionalism as podcasters - is it different?

-Using ‘best practices’ to your benefit versus letting them trap you

-How to stop using professionalism as a weapon against yourself 

Want to be the podcaster who sounds amazing while making your unique voice heard? Connect with Carin to explore your options as a podcast maker with her support on sound quality and brand identity.

Want to free yourself from the weight of content writing so you can be in your zone of genius? Connect with Kacey to learn how she can make the most of your voice by repurposing your podcast content as blogs, emails, social media captions, and more.

If the thought of making a mistake in your business or during a podcast makes your stomach drop, your heart race, or your palms sweat… consider this our love letter to you.

Yes, the fear of making mistakes can be crippling and put us into a freeze state… but mistakes are a normal part of the process. 

Anyone who tells you otherwise (or acts like they’ve got it all figured out) isn’t being honest.

Sometimes mistakes can show us how far we’ve come, or help us see aspects of our growth we hadn’t realized yet. With a healthy sense of detachment, we can learn from our mistakes – but that detachment has to come from a stable place, not a spiritually-bypassy one. 

Our aim with this episode is to normalize the fear of making mistakes, because ew, who wants to screw up? Especially when it’s our livelihood we’re talking about. It seems silly to spend all our energy fighting off fear when it’s a totally normal, totally human thing to feel.

It’s okay to be afraid of making a mistake. What’s not okay is when it stops us from creating, expressing, and doing the work we find most meaningful. No, it’s not a ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ kind of episode.

It’s a feel-the-fear-and-get-regulated kind of episode. 

We’re sharing:

• Some of our most cringey professional mistakes in recent memory

• How we recovered, and what we did to repair client relationships

• Different perspectives of mistakes that aren’t spiritually bypassy

• Was it a mistake, or was it just uncomfortable?

• The advantages of being less precious with our work

PodMakers is brought to you by two online business-owning women who show up as humanly as possible to serve podcasters and podcast guests.

If PodMakers has helped you in any way, we would SO greatly appreciate a 5-star rating and quick review of what you’ve enjoyed! It helps us know what to make more of AND helps this show reach more listeners like you. Thank you.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”

Yes, we’re quoting A League of Their Own to introduce this episode because A) It’s a sisterhood classic B) This quote can easily apply to podcasting and C) It’s our podcast and we do what we want (and so can you).

But wait… isn’t podcasting easy? That’s in the title, after all. And in many ways, it is. The barrier of entry into the podcast space is low, recording capabilities are more accessible than ever, and there’s no shortage of ideas for podcasts.

In the online business space, though, it’s different. 

Here, we’re using our podcasts as a part of our business marketing strategy, and there are tons of threads connecting to that.

Perfectionism around the content, the sound quality, the takeaways, the way our voices sound, trying to please others – whether that’s you, dear listener, or the people whose voices are loudest in our heads – plus the fact that our podcasts are tied to our income and our ‘professionalism,’ and all the preconceived notions about consistency with podcasting.

Like Carin said so well, podcasting can be a microcosm of the personal growth and healing that you're already confronted with when you’re a business owner. The “both/and” concept means we’re always making space for nuance and complexity.

Still, there are things that do come easily to us as podcasters. In this episode, we talk about how our complementary strengths as pod partners helps podcast creation feel much more aligned and in flow, plus what we and our clients find most challenging when it comes to showing up to the mic.

Join us as we explore how podcasting is and isn’t easy for us as humans, and consider how to keep showing up in ways that uphold your values. 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Samantha Siffring Coaching

Angela Morris Media

Connect with Carin on her website

Connect with Kacey on her website

The blinking cursor in a blank document…

The feeling of dread when you think about your podcast…

Wondering whether podcasting does anything for your business or if you should just quit… 

If you’ve ever been stumped when it comes to podcast episode ideas, we want to normalize that whole struggle. Just like in nature, we each have seasons where we feel pulled to ideate, create, and produce and then seasons where we feel pulled to slow down, go inward, and rest.

Your podcast will go through the same phases because your podcast is part of you — an extension of you and where you are in life and business.

And just like in life and business, there’s inner work to do when it comes to showing up for the mic.

There will be times that, for whatever reason, working on the podcast feels like a slog. There will be times when you feel like you have nothing interesting to share, and times when imposter syndrome flares up.

All totally human, totally normal, and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you or your pod.

But how can you tell the difference between being in a creative dry spell versus an issue of the podcast “not working”? 

How do you know whether to quit altogether, take a break, or keep going?

What are some podcast episode ideas you can steal for when your creative spark just isn’t sparking?

We’re answering all of these questions AND MORE with today’s episode, and our conversation includes:

-How to use nature’s seasons as a framework for your cycles as a human

-Why it’s okay, and even encouraged, to consider quitting

-Evaluations of your podcast and what it brings to your business presence

-Taking note of where your attention goes and how that can generate ideas

-Methods that help us land on podcast episode ideas that resonate

-10 podcast episode ideas YOU can steal for your next recording session

We love serving you through this podcast. If you’re enjoying it so far, we would greatly appreciate a quick 5-star rating/review telling us what you love! 

RESOURCES:

Visit Carin Huebner’s website for all things podcast production + editing

Visit Kacey Hayes’ website for guest pitching strategy + ongoing pitch support

Whether you’re recording your own podcast regularly or you’re making guest appearances on other podcasts, creative anxiety will come up. It’s human. 

The struggle happens when we make our anxiety a problem.

True, there are different facets of creative anxiety and different ways to guide yourself through it. But it all depends on your own nervous system and where the anxiety is really coming from. 

Which means… you need to get to know your own personal baseline to be able to interpret those messages from your body accurately.

Ohhhh yeah. It’s one of THOSE episodes. We’re tying in the deep work it takes to feel ‘safe enough to make.’ 

Take a dive with us as we explore:

- Normalizing versus intellectualizing what we’re feeling

- Knowing your body’s specific cues and messages around regulation

- The role of psychological safety when it comes to creative expression

- How to help yourself feel ‘safe enough to make’

- Ways to discover (or rediscover) your creative sparks

- Questions to ask yourself for attention and attunement to your mind-body

Thank you so much for going on this journey with us. If you found this episode helpful, please consider leaving us a 5-star rating + review so more people can find us! 

RESOURCES:

Get on Carin’s newsletter to stay in the loop on her courses + services

Connect with Kacey⁠ for podcast guesting strategy

HEAL + GO PUBLIC - Carin’s podcast

HEAL + GO PUBLIC Episode with Amy Morrison 

The Artist’s Way

Amy Shenk Morrison therapeutics

Coping Skills for Resilience in Difficult Seasons