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Elizabeth Blosfield: I think everybody has an interesting story to tell and you just have to sort of ask the right questions to uncover it.
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Claire Waite Brown: So I think we can frame our own mindset as well. To say, yeah, I love doing this doesn't mean I have to be paid
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Claire Waite Brown: for it, although it would be nice.
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Claire Waite Brown: Of course.
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Claire Waite Brown: We believe that the new Publisher page feature, when it's been checked and tested, can could be a great discovery tool for established podcast networks, podcast collectives, podcast producers who work on multiple shows, independent podcasters who just can't stop making new shows, podcasters who want to connect with shows with similar themes and audiences, and probably some other scenarios that I haven't thought of yet. Welcome to Creators from TrueFans, the podcast that, like TrueFans itself, showcases and supports independent podcasting. Hi, I'm Claire Waite Brown, Head of Community at TrueFans.
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Sam Sethi: And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of
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Claire Waite Brown: TrueFans Download the TrueFans app to not only listen to podcasts from around the world, but interact with their creators and start paying the shows you value.
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Sam Sethi: Click on the Big purple Become a Fan button to be notified or emailed when new episodes of this podcast are
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Claire Waite Brown: released, and follow @TrueFans.fm on Instagram or threads to be kept up to date on all the latest TrueFans features designed to improve discovery, interactivity and monetization opportunities for podcasts and their creators.
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Claire Waite Brown: Hello, Sam. Hello, Claire. How are you doing?
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Sam Sethi: Very good indeed. Who are we featuring this week?
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Claire Waite Brown: I am here with Elizabeth Blossfield.
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Claire Waite Brown: Hi, Elizabeth, how are you?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Hi, Claire. I'm doing really well, thanks. How are you?
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Claire Waite Brown: Yeah, I'm very good, thank you.
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Claire Waite Brown: Start by telling me, please, the name of your podcast and what is it all about.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. First of all, I'm really excited to be connecting with you again. I know we met at the International Women's Podcast Awards, and it's been really fun to get to meet you and get to know you. My podcast is called the Adult Ballet Studio, and it's a podcast that's primarily for adult dancers who've either discovered ballet for the first time or returned to it later in life and are kind of reigniting this childhood passion of theirs as well as anyone who's sort of working in ballet to make the field more welcoming for dancers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
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Claire Waite Brown: You know a bit about my original podcast so you'll understand this is right up my street.
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Claire Waite Brown: Tell me why and when did you start?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I studied ballet all my life, starting when I was 3 years old with Creative Movement Classes and kind of took it really seriously all the way through college. I knew that it wasn't going to be my professional career because it's just a really competitive industry, and I wasn't studying at the level where I was going to go on to perform professionally. But after college, I decided to pursue a career in multimedia journalism. And ballet had been such a big part of my life for so long that I couldn't imagine just sort of leaving it to the side and never engaging with it at all. So I started looking for opportunities as an adult to continue to take class, and I started sort of teaching at a local studio and trying to find ways to bring it into my life in a different way than as a career. And it was just really challenging. There aren't a lot of resources for adults. There's sort of this. This stop at the age of 18 in ballet where you either go on to pursue a professional performing career or you kind of leave it, because it's a childhood thing, and then you move on. And that just didn't sit well with me because it's such a beautiful art form, and so many people engage with it for a very long time. It takes, you know, 10 years to make a fully formed dancer, they say, so that's a big chunk of your life. And I know I spoke with other adults who kind of met the same barriers where they just couldn't find classes if they wanted to perform. There were no opportunities for them. And so actually, during the pandemic shutdowns, the studio where I was taking classes was shut down. And so I wasn't able to take ballet class. And Tyler Peck from New York City Ballet was doing these Instagram livestream classes every day, and it was just kind of a fun, free resource for people to take class. And I noticed in the live streams, it was so fun because you would see the numbers climbing, and you were taking class with dancers from all over the world, which you never really get to do. And in the comments, you would see people saying, you know, I'm 50, 50 or 60 years old, and this brought me back to ballet or introduced me to it for the first time, or, you know, taking class with my daughter. We're in our kitchen, you know, using the counter as a bar, or, you know, I studied ballet when I was little, and now I'm getting to take class again. And it kind of created this access point for people to get back into ballet or to discover it who didn't feel like they had those resources. And I don't know if it was just my instincts as a journalist. But I started kind of reaching out to people in the comments who had really interesting or moving stories to me. And I met a lot of people that way. And I actually got connected with this great ballet company called Lee Purdle Ballet Company. They're a nonprofit and they provide performance and class opportunities for amateur adult dancers. And all the dancers within the company also volunteer for outreach to try to expand the ballet field and create more access. And they have a great mission of just bringing ballet to everyone. So I started getting involved with them as a volunteer, kind of helping with their marketing and outreach efforts. And I was looking for a podcast for our founder, Lee Purdle to interview on about an upcoming show. And I couldn't find anything that was focused on adult ballet. I mean, there are a few things here and there, but most of the ballet focused podcasts were with professional companies kind of talking about what professional life is like. So I was sort of lamenting about this to my husband and was like, you know, this is a podcast I would listen to about adult ballet and there's just nothing. And he was like, you're a journalist, you have a podcast for your full time job. You have the skills. Just start one. And I was grateful for that push because I had never really considered that. And it's been such a great joy to sort of marry these two passions for storytelling and ballet. So that went on a little long, but that's kind of my answer to your question.
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Claire Waite Brown: No, I love it. It's all the background. It's brilliant. I find it quite interesting that the lockdown for a lot of people really opened up their prospects and the people that they were able to. Me, I did a lot of that online classes with other people that you never would have done if you had been taking class in your own area. How do you now continue to come up with episode ideas and guests?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: It's kind of a combination of things. I mean, it's an interview based podcast, so most of the storytelling is done through the guest perspective and kind of their background with ballet. And you know, I go to a lot of shows and events and classes and so I meet a lot of people there and a lot of my connections have come from those, you know, in person meetings. But I also just get like a lot of ballet content on my social media feed and I subscribe to some different companies newsletters. So, you know, if I see interesting stories in the news or dancers that are doing interesting things, I'll reach out and sometimes I'll have People reach out to me too, who listen to the podcast and want to suggest a guest or want to come on themselves. So then the interviews kind of dictate the story that gets told. But that's sort of how I go about finding guests.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant.
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Claire Waite Brown: Let's talk about time and processes and fitting in, because you've already mentioned your multimedia career. Possibly you may have gone back to teaching ballet in real life again, as well as taking classes when everything came back. So how does having this, your own personal podcast, how do you manage to fit that in with everything else in life?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I like this question because this is a tough one and I know we've spoken about this before off air, but yeah, I mean, I have a full time job as a multimedia journalist. I cover actually something completely different, the cybersecurity and tech space. And so everything I do in the dance industry is sort of outside of that. You know, it's a lot of evenings and weekends. And I think it's just one of those things where if you're passionate enough about it, it has to be worth it too, to spend that extra time doing this instead of watching TV or taking a nap, which I also do. But it's, you know, a lot of work, so you have to love it. And I think what's been actually most helpful to me is just sort of a mindset thing. You know, I've always loved learning and asking questions, which probably why I became a journalist in the first place. As a kid, that was sort of my biggest challenge in school was that I loved so many things and trying to decide how I wanted to channel all of that into a career. And journalism sort of emerged as this really fulfilling career because it allowed me to learn a little bit about a lot of different things, which sort of always keeps my attention. And I think I just sort of brought that energy really early on into my career and still now where I try to just learn as much as I can from everyone around me. So, you know, I've always been really passionate about local and trade journalism in particular, because I think working for smaller outlets with smaller teams is a more collaborative experience and you have your hand in a lot of different things. So I try to just always ask questions and learn from, you know, our marketing and our sales team and, you know, our editing and production teams, ask them to teach me things. And I guess early on in my career, I didn't necessarily know that that was going to lead to me starting my own podcast, but I knew that, you know, it could only serve me to learn from the smart and talented people around me. And so I think that sort of was a benefit because by the time I got to the point where I wanted to start the adult ballet studio, I had tackled a lot of that learning curve early on. And I try to just kind of keep that mindset, and that's. That's how I end up fitting it into my life, is because I think the more that you learn, the more you become efficient and better at it. And then, you know, when I first started the adult ballet studio, the first couple of episodes, it took me, like, two full days to edit the interviews because I was just so slow at it. And now I've gotten a lot faster. So I think part of it was just knowing that, you know, I was going to make mistakes, there was going to be a learning curve. But eventually you get that sort of chunk of your day back once you get better at it.
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Claire Waite Brown: Looking at podcasting generally, whether your journey or the wider podcasting world, what is something that frustrates you about it and then something that really excites you about it?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I mean, there's a lot of stuff that excites me about it. So I'll start with the frustrating part first, is just that I think overall, it's just. It is a lot of work, especially for a smaller, independent podcaster like me. You know, there's never as much time to dedicate to it as you want, and it doesn't provide a ton of financial support, at least at the beginning when you're growing. So it does feel like a grind some days, and you just have to kind of always remind yourself that you're doing it because you love it. That's just the frustrating piece of it. But the thing that excites me is that, you know, I got my start in radio in college working for a local radio station, and when that started to sort of die out, I saw podcasting as the next iteration of radio. And so I always really loved it, even in the early days. And I think just the possibilities that you're creating something that's yours, and you can be as creative as you want to with your storytelling with the guests that you bring on. And, you know, one of the things that I love about being a journalist is just getting to talk to people and hear their stories and then share them. And I think everybody has an interesting story to tell, and you just have to sort of ask the right questions to uncover it. My favorite moment in interviews is when you sort of ask that question that gets someone's eyes to light up. Or they get more engaged in the conversation, it becomes a completely different conversation because you've touched on the thing that they're passionate about. And for me, that's my favorite part about being a journalist. It sort of feels like a treasure hunt, getting to those moments in interviews. And so I love that I get to use podcasting to tell stories that feel relatable and human and connect with people. And I think that's the thing that excites me the most, is just the storytelling element of it.
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Claire Waite Brown: I completely agree.
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Claire Waite Brown: The freedom and being able to tell the stories of people anywhere and everywhere that might not get seen in mainstream media, but are doing brilliant things. You mentioned finances being slightly frustrating at the beginning of that little bit. So does the show have any kind of financial support currently?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Not consistently. You know, we're a very small, independent podcast. We have a great, engaged community. But I saw someone post on social media the other day who's also a podcaster, say, you know, I started with a mic, a ring, light and delusion. And that's sort of my experience as well. And I'm grateful for how much it's grown. You know, we've run some ads and had some, you know, financial support there, but we. We're not receiving consistent financial support yet. That's sort of the next goal for
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Claire Waite Brown: me, I think, as well.
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Claire Waite Brown: You've talked about the passion and wanting to share the stories and the creativity within making a podcast, and I think the idea that it should be monetized can be put upon you.
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Claire Waite Brown: It would be nice, you know, to
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Claire Waite Brown: have some money towards the kit and some money towards your time, but you can also look at it as a really enjoyable hobby. So I think we can frame our own mindset as well. To say, yeah, I love doing this doesn't mean I have to be paid
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Claire Waite Brown: for it, although it would be nice, of course,
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Claire Waite Brown: with regards to Podcasting 2.0 features. What do you know about that? Fill me in on your knowledge on that side of things.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: To be perfectly honest, you sent me an email ahead of this interview with some info, and I googled Podcasting 2.0. I hadn't heard it in those terms before. Yeah, so I'm completely brand new to all of this. I'm new to hosting my own podcast or producing my own podcast. I should say. I host one for work. So some of this stuff is new to me, so I'm open to being educated.
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Claire Waite Brown: Well, I do like to talk personally in these interviews with the guest about Podcasting 2.0 features that I think would be really good for their particular show. So a lot of the features that people, people know are things like transcripts, which are lovely, and chapters. It's these kind of add ons that if your hosting company supports them, you can attach them quite easily to your audio file so that certain apps that also support them can read them. Now the one I liked for this show is something called Podroll.
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Claire Waite Brown: Have you heard of that?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I haven't, no.
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Claire Waite Brown: It allows podcasters to recommend other podcasts. For example, Creativity Found has done it for the Adult Ballet Studio and others. So there are other podcasts there that I believe, as the host of Creativity
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Claire Waite Brown: Found, my listeners might like.
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Claire Waite Brown: So it's just a lovely recommendation from the podcaster rather than from an algorithm. So anyone listening will know that this show is recommended by that person. I like that person. I like that show. Chances are are like these other shows. So that was one I thought could be good for your show in the future. I know that your hosting company doesn't support it, but if you wanted to do that, you can do it directly in TrueFans. Only people who listen on TrueFans will be able to see it. But it's something you could do and I could tell you how to do that in the future. Just a bit of sharing, the love for other similar podcasts.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to learn about this. Thank you for sharing it with me and for recommending the Adult Ballet Studio. This sounds like such a cool opportunity because like you said, yeah, it's better coming from other podcasters you love than rather, you know, an AI algorithm. So I'll definitely look into it and if you have any information to share and I'd love to recommend Creativity Found as well.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant, thank you. The other thing I just wanted to mention is that I have been streaming a very, very, very small amount of money for every minute I've listened to the Adult Ballet Studio on TrueFans. When you sign into TrueFans, you get given a digital wallet. And one of the ways that listeners can support shows is they can stream a small amount per minute of your show. So I've listened to the most recent one before this interview, so I think I've probably paid you about 12 pence or something like that. So don't get too excited. You know, it's not a lot for me to give, but if more people were to do that, it would mean a lot to you. So when you claim your show in TrueFans, which is very easy to do, you click on your show art on TrueFans and it says claim this podcast and you need to make sure you've got your email address in your RSS feed, which you might need to do through your host temporarily. So that means obviously only you can claim your show and when you do that, your wallet will be there and that money that I've been streaming will be sat there in your wallet Waiteing for you.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I appreciate this so much because like I said, I'm pretty new to hosting my own podcast and producing it and everything, so all of these tips really mean a lot to me and you've sold me. I'm excited to sign up for TrueFans and do this.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant. Enjoy. Yeah, having a little play. Thank you so much. Elizabeth, tell us again the name of your show and the other places that people can connect with you.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Yeah, the name of my show is the Adult Ballet Studio and you can visit my website elizabethblosfield.com I'm also on social media at eblosfield on Instagram, Threads and TikTok and Adult BalletStudio on YouTube. Or you can send me a good old fashioned email at theadultballetstudio@gmail.com. Thank you so much Claire for having me as well. This has been such a great conversation and I'm so happy that we met.
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Claire Waite Brown: Thank you so much. Me too.
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Claire Waite Brown: You can hear me as a guest on the Adult Ballet Studio Episode 38, talking not about podcasting for a change, but about my dance history and the street dance crew I am currently a member of. In that interview with Elizabeth, I talked about Podroll as a feature to help with discoverability. To see the shows that creators from TrueFans recommends in our podrol, head to the show page on the app. That's the page that lists our episodes. Scroll along the tabs under the photos of Sam and I and our superfan, then click on Podroll. You can play the latest episode from each show right there or click on the podcast art to go to their show screen and choose an episode. Alternatively, click on Playlist to listen to each new episode from each podcast as a playlist. If you'd like to chat with us about your indie podcast or how you can help independent podcasters send a comment or super comment in TrueFans to any Creators episode by clicking on the Speech Bubble icon or on the Comments tab. In future episodes of Creators, you can hear from Josh Craggs about Too Long, Didn't Listen and Floyd Kennedy talking about her audio fiction podcast Am I Old Yet? Now I have a confession to make. Sam is not actually with me this time, since he is on holiday. That bit of chat at the beginning of the episode was one I copied and pasted from a previous episode. Did you notice? Moving on. That's a Sam phrase. I want to talk about another discoverability feature that we are currently fine tuning here at TrueFans Towers. It's based on one of the principles of a traditional podcast network model whereby podcasts within said network promote one another. One way we plan to do this within TrueFans is by having a publisher page. On the show page of a podcast that is a member of a particular network, the user can see a link which if they click on it, will take them to that publisher page where they can see the other podcasts that are in that network. Not dissimilar to what I've just described for the Podrol page. But you don't have to be a traditional network to set up a publisher page on TrueFans. If, like me, you produce a number of podcasts, you can create a publisher page for those shows. I've made mine and called it Creativity Sound. Another idea would be to group together with like minded podcasts to set up a publisher page on a particular theme. For example, my podcast Creativity Found is about finding creativity in adulthood. The Adult Ballet studio that we've just been talking about is about access to dance for grown ups. And the late bloomer actor from David, John Clark, who Sam interviewed for episode 11 of this podcast is about navigating the world of acting in adulthood. There is an obvious synergy there that could be of interest to our various listeners. How this could work in TrueFans is like this. David might decide to set up a publisher page called Never Too Late, for example, and he can invite Creativity Found and the Adult Ballet Studio to join it. We can accept or decline. If we accept, the link to the publisher page will be clear for other listeners to see on our show page on TrueFans. And we might also decide to start cross promoting our shows in other ways too. Now say another podcaster finds this publisher page and they want to join because their podcast is about seniors playing rugby. That's just an example. I don't know if it exists. They can send a request to David and he can either accept or decline. Hopefully he accepts and we start building our Never Too Late community. We could also take this community to advertisers and say we have so many podcasts in our community generating these combined analytics. If you advertise on one of our shows, you get featured on all of them. Therefore making the most of our cumulative clout. We believe that the new Publisher Page feature, when it's been checked and tested, could be a great discovery tool for established podcast networks, podcast collectives, podcast producers who work on multiple shows, independent podcasters who just can't stop making new shows, podcasters who want to connect with shows with similar themes and audiences, and probably some other scenarios that I haven't thought of yet. When the feature is live, I'd love to show you how it works. Well, I'd actually love for Sam to show you how it works, but I'll handle the invitations. So if you'd like to be invited to an online event where you can see the feature in action while also having the opportunity to meet other podcasty folk who like the sound of it, please drop me a line at C L A I R E @trufans.fm. Or if we are already connected, leave a comment in the TrueFans app giving me permission to contact you about this event. Thanks so much for listening. I'm now going to play the outro from a previous episode with Sam's input.
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Sam Sethi: And that's it for this week. Claire if you've claimed your own podcast with TrueFans, you can request to promote that show on our feed here at Creators. On the Episodes page you will see a banner showing what your feature could look like. All you need to do is click on the Ask button, then choose your duration and how much you'd like to pay for that duration. And Claire will then look at your offer and decide whether she's going to be thumbs up, thumbs down, accept or reject. So she has the power.
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Claire Waite Brown: Yeah, brilliant. Love to hear from you on the TrueFans app, click on the purple button and become a fan of this podcast. We would love to have you follow us on Instagram or threads at @TrueFans.FM.
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Sam Sethi: You can also support us by streaming sats from your TrueFans wallet. Click on the Currency or Bitcoin icon under the Play button or leave us a super comment by clicking on the speech bubble icon.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I think everybody has an interesting story to tell and you just have to sort of ask the right questions to uncover it.
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Claire Waite Brown: So I think we can frame our own mindset as well. To say, yeah, I love doing this doesn't mean I have to be paid
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Claire Waite Brown: for it, although it would be nice.
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Claire Waite Brown: Of course.
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Claire Waite Brown: We believe that the new Publisher page feature, when it's been checked and tested, can could be a great discovery tool for established podcast networks, podcast collectives, podcast producers who work on multiple shows, independent podcasters who just can't stop making new shows, podcasters who want to connect with shows with similar themes and audiences, and probably some other scenarios that I haven't thought of yet. Welcome to Creators from TrueFans, the podcast that, like TrueFans itself, showcases and supports independent podcasting. Hi, I'm Claire Waite Brown, Head of Community at TrueFans.
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Sam Sethi: And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of
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Claire Waite Brown: TrueFans Download the TrueFans app to not only listen to podcasts from around the world, but interact with their creators and start paying the shows you value.
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Sam Sethi: Click on the Big purple Become a Fan button to be notified or emailed when new episodes of this podcast are
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Claire Waite Brown: released, and follow @TrueFans.fm on Instagram or threads to be kept up to date on all the latest TrueFans features designed to improve discovery, interactivity and monetization opportunities for podcasts and their creators.
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Claire Waite Brown: Hello, Sam. Hello, Claire. How are you doing?
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Sam Sethi: Very good indeed. Who are we featuring this week?
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Claire Waite Brown: I am here with Elizabeth Blossfield.
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Claire Waite Brown: Hi, Elizabeth, how are you?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Hi, Claire. I'm doing really well, thanks. How are you?
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Claire Waite Brown: Yeah, I'm very good, thank you.
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Claire Waite Brown: Start by telling me, please, the name of your podcast and what is it all about.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. First of all, I'm really excited to be connecting with you again. I know we met at the International Women's Podcast Awards, and it's been really fun to get to meet you and get to know you. My podcast is called the Adult Ballet Studio, and it's a podcast that's primarily for adult dancers who've either discovered ballet for the first time or returned to it later in life and are kind of reigniting this childhood passion of theirs as well as anyone who's sort of working in ballet to make the field more welcoming for dancers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
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Claire Waite Brown: You know a bit about my original podcast so you'll understand this is right up my street.
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Claire Waite Brown: Tell me why and when did you start?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I studied ballet all my life, starting when I was 3 years old with Creative Movement Classes and kind of took it really seriously all the way through college. I knew that it wasn't going to be my professional career because it's just a really competitive industry, and I wasn't studying at the level where I was going to go on to perform professionally. But after college, I decided to pursue a career in multimedia journalism. And ballet had been such a big part of my life for so long that I couldn't imagine just sort of leaving it to the side and never engaging with it at all. So I started looking for opportunities as an adult to continue to take class, and I started sort of teaching at a local studio and trying to find ways to bring it into my life in a different way than as a career. And it was just really challenging. There aren't a lot of resources for adults. There's sort of this. This stop at the age of 18 in ballet where you either go on to pursue a professional performing career or you kind of leave it, because it's a childhood thing, and then you move on. And that just didn't sit well with me because it's such a beautiful art form, and so many people engage with it for a very long time. It takes, you know, 10 years to make a fully formed dancer, they say, so that's a big chunk of your life. And I know I spoke with other adults who kind of met the same barriers where they just couldn't find classes if they wanted to perform. There were no opportunities for them. And so actually, during the pandemic shutdowns, the studio where I was taking classes was shut down. And so I wasn't able to take ballet class. And Tyler Peck from New York City Ballet was doing these Instagram livestream classes every day, and it was just kind of a fun, free resource for people to take class. And I noticed in the live streams, it was so fun because you would see the numbers climbing, and you were taking class with dancers from all over the world, which you never really get to do. And in the comments, you would see people saying, you know, I'm 50, 50 or 60 years old, and this brought me back to ballet or introduced me to it for the first time, or, you know, taking class with my daughter. We're in our kitchen, you know, using the counter as a bar, or, you know, I studied ballet when I was little, and now I'm getting to take class again. And it kind of created this access point for people to get back into ballet or to discover it who didn't feel like they had those resources. And I don't know if it was just my instincts as a journalist. But I started kind of reaching out to people in the comments who had really interesting or moving stories to me. And I met a lot of people that way. And I actually got connected with this great ballet company called Lee Purdle Ballet Company. They're a nonprofit and they provide performance and class opportunities for amateur adult dancers. And all the dancers within the company also volunteer for outreach to try to expand the ballet field and create more access. And they have a great mission of just bringing ballet to everyone. So I started getting involved with them as a volunteer, kind of helping with their marketing and outreach efforts. And I was looking for a podcast for our founder, Lee Purdle to interview on about an upcoming show. And I couldn't find anything that was focused on adult ballet. I mean, there are a few things here and there, but most of the ballet focused podcasts were with professional companies kind of talking about what professional life is like. So I was sort of lamenting about this to my husband and was like, you know, this is a podcast I would listen to about adult ballet and there's just nothing. And he was like, you're a journalist, you have a podcast for your full time job. You have the skills. Just start one. And I was grateful for that push because I had never really considered that. And it's been such a great joy to sort of marry these two passions for storytelling and ballet. So that went on a little long, but that's kind of my answer to your question.
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Claire Waite Brown: No, I love it. It's all the background. It's brilliant. I find it quite interesting that the lockdown for a lot of people really opened up their prospects and the people that they were able to. Me, I did a lot of that online classes with other people that you never would have done if you had been taking class in your own area. How do you now continue to come up with episode ideas and guests?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: It's kind of a combination of things. I mean, it's an interview based podcast, so most of the storytelling is done through the guest perspective and kind of their background with ballet. And you know, I go to a lot of shows and events and classes and so I meet a lot of people there and a lot of my connections have come from those, you know, in person meetings. But I also just get like a lot of ballet content on my social media feed and I subscribe to some different companies newsletters. So, you know, if I see interesting stories in the news or dancers that are doing interesting things, I'll reach out and sometimes I'll have People reach out to me too, who listen to the podcast and want to suggest a guest or want to come on themselves. So then the interviews kind of dictate the story that gets told. But that's sort of how I go about finding guests.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant.
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Claire Waite Brown: Let's talk about time and processes and fitting in, because you've already mentioned your multimedia career. Possibly you may have gone back to teaching ballet in real life again, as well as taking classes when everything came back. So how does having this, your own personal podcast, how do you manage to fit that in with everything else in life?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I like this question because this is a tough one and I know we've spoken about this before off air, but yeah, I mean, I have a full time job as a multimedia journalist. I cover actually something completely different, the cybersecurity and tech space. And so everything I do in the dance industry is sort of outside of that. You know, it's a lot of evenings and weekends. And I think it's just one of those things where if you're passionate enough about it, it has to be worth it too, to spend that extra time doing this instead of watching TV or taking a nap, which I also do. But it's, you know, a lot of work, so you have to love it. And I think what's been actually most helpful to me is just sort of a mindset thing. You know, I've always loved learning and asking questions, which probably why I became a journalist in the first place. As a kid, that was sort of my biggest challenge in school was that I loved so many things and trying to decide how I wanted to channel all of that into a career. And journalism sort of emerged as this really fulfilling career because it allowed me to learn a little bit about a lot of different things, which sort of always keeps my attention. And I think I just sort of brought that energy really early on into my career and still now where I try to just learn as much as I can from everyone around me. So, you know, I've always been really passionate about local and trade journalism in particular, because I think working for smaller outlets with smaller teams is a more collaborative experience and you have your hand in a lot of different things. So I try to just always ask questions and learn from, you know, our marketing and our sales team and, you know, our editing and production teams, ask them to teach me things. And I guess early on in my career, I didn't necessarily know that that was going to lead to me starting my own podcast, but I knew that, you know, it could only serve me to learn from the smart and talented people around me. And so I think that sort of was a benefit because by the time I got to the point where I wanted to start the adult ballet studio, I had tackled a lot of that learning curve early on. And I try to just kind of keep that mindset, and that's. That's how I end up fitting it into my life, is because I think the more that you learn, the more you become efficient and better at it. And then, you know, when I first started the adult ballet studio, the first couple of episodes, it took me, like, two full days to edit the interviews because I was just so slow at it. And now I've gotten a lot faster. So I think part of it was just knowing that, you know, I was going to make mistakes, there was going to be a learning curve. But eventually you get that sort of chunk of your day back once you get better at it.
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Claire Waite Brown: Looking at podcasting generally, whether your journey or the wider podcasting world, what is something that frustrates you about it and then something that really excites you about it?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I mean, there's a lot of stuff that excites me about it. So I'll start with the frustrating part first, is just that I think overall, it's just. It is a lot of work, especially for a smaller, independent podcaster like me. You know, there's never as much time to dedicate to it as you want, and it doesn't provide a ton of financial support, at least at the beginning when you're growing. So it does feel like a grind some days, and you just have to kind of always remind yourself that you're doing it because you love it. That's just the frustrating piece of it. But the thing that excites me is that, you know, I got my start in radio in college working for a local radio station, and when that started to sort of die out, I saw podcasting as the next iteration of radio. And so I always really loved it, even in the early days. And I think just the possibilities that you're creating something that's yours, and you can be as creative as you want to with your storytelling with the guests that you bring on. And, you know, one of the things that I love about being a journalist is just getting to talk to people and hear their stories and then share them. And I think everybody has an interesting story to tell, and you just have to sort of ask the right questions to uncover it. My favorite moment in interviews is when you sort of ask that question that gets someone's eyes to light up. Or they get more engaged in the conversation, it becomes a completely different conversation because you've touched on the thing that they're passionate about. And for me, that's my favorite part about being a journalist. It sort of feels like a treasure hunt, getting to those moments in interviews. And so I love that I get to use podcasting to tell stories that feel relatable and human and connect with people. And I think that's the thing that excites me the most, is just the storytelling element of it.
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Claire Waite Brown: I completely agree.
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Claire Waite Brown: The freedom and being able to tell the stories of people anywhere and everywhere that might not get seen in mainstream media, but are doing brilliant things. You mentioned finances being slightly frustrating at the beginning of that little bit. So does the show have any kind of financial support currently?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Not consistently. You know, we're a very small, independent podcast. We have a great, engaged community. But I saw someone post on social media the other day who's also a podcaster, say, you know, I started with a mic, a ring, light and delusion. And that's sort of my experience as well. And I'm grateful for how much it's grown. You know, we've run some ads and had some, you know, financial support there, but we. We're not receiving consistent financial support yet. That's sort of the next goal for
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Claire Waite Brown: me, I think, as well.
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Claire Waite Brown: You've talked about the passion and wanting to share the stories and the creativity within making a podcast, and I think the idea that it should be monetized can be put upon you.
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Claire Waite Brown: It would be nice, you know, to
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Claire Waite Brown: have some money towards the kit and some money towards your time, but you can also look at it as a really enjoyable hobby. So I think we can frame our own mindset as well. To say, yeah, I love doing this doesn't mean I have to be paid
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Claire Waite Brown: for it, although it would be nice, of course,
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Claire Waite Brown: with regards to Podcasting 2.0 features. What do you know about that? Fill me in on your knowledge on that side of things.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: To be perfectly honest, you sent me an email ahead of this interview with some info, and I googled Podcasting 2.0. I hadn't heard it in those terms before. Yeah, so I'm completely brand new to all of this. I'm new to hosting my own podcast or producing my own podcast. I should say. I host one for work. So some of this stuff is new to me, so I'm open to being educated.
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Claire Waite Brown: Well, I do like to talk personally in these interviews with the guest about Podcasting 2.0 features that I think would be really good for their particular show. So a lot of the features that people, people know are things like transcripts, which are lovely, and chapters. It's these kind of add ons that if your hosting company supports them, you can attach them quite easily to your audio file so that certain apps that also support them can read them. Now the one I liked for this show is something called Podroll.
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Claire Waite Brown: Have you heard of that?
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I haven't, no.
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Claire Waite Brown: It allows podcasters to recommend other podcasts. For example, Creativity Found has done it for the Adult Ballet Studio and others. So there are other podcasts there that I believe, as the host of Creativity
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Claire Waite Brown: Found, my listeners might like.
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Claire Waite Brown: So it's just a lovely recommendation from the podcaster rather than from an algorithm. So anyone listening will know that this show is recommended by that person. I like that person. I like that show. Chances are are like these other shows. So that was one I thought could be good for your show in the future. I know that your hosting company doesn't support it, but if you wanted to do that, you can do it directly in TrueFans. Only people who listen on TrueFans will be able to see it. But it's something you could do and I could tell you how to do that in the future. Just a bit of sharing, the love for other similar podcasts.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to learn about this. Thank you for sharing it with me and for recommending the Adult Ballet Studio. This sounds like such a cool opportunity because like you said, yeah, it's better coming from other podcasters you love than rather, you know, an AI algorithm. So I'll definitely look into it and if you have any information to share and I'd love to recommend Creativity Found as well.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant, thank you. The other thing I just wanted to mention is that I have been streaming a very, very, very small amount of money for every minute I've listened to the Adult Ballet Studio on TrueFans. When you sign into TrueFans, you get given a digital wallet. And one of the ways that listeners can support shows is they can stream a small amount per minute of your show. So I've listened to the most recent one before this interview, so I think I've probably paid you about 12 pence or something like that. So don't get too excited. You know, it's not a lot for me to give, but if more people were to do that, it would mean a lot to you. So when you claim your show in TrueFans, which is very easy to do, you click on your show art on TrueFans and it says claim this podcast and you need to make sure you've got your email address in your RSS feed, which you might need to do through your host temporarily. So that means obviously only you can claim your show and when you do that, your wallet will be there and that money that I've been streaming will be sat there in your wallet Waiteing for you.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: I appreciate this so much because like I said, I'm pretty new to hosting my own podcast and producing it and everything, so all of these tips really mean a lot to me and you've sold me. I'm excited to sign up for TrueFans and do this.
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Claire Waite Brown: Brilliant. Enjoy. Yeah, having a little play. Thank you so much. Elizabeth, tell us again the name of your show and the other places that people can connect with you.
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Elizabeth Blosfield: Yeah, the name of my show is the Adult Ballet Studio and you can visit my website elizabethblosfield.com I'm also on social media at eblosfield on Instagram, Threads and TikTok and Adult BalletStudio on YouTube. Or you can send me a good old fashioned email at theadultballetstudio@gmail.com. Thank you so much Claire for having me as well. This has been such a great conversation and I'm so happy that we met.
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Claire Waite Brown: Thank you so much. Me too.
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Claire Waite Brown: You can hear me as a guest on the Adult Ballet Studio Episode 38, talking not about podcasting for a change, but about my dance history and the street dance crew I am currently a member of. In that interview with Elizabeth, I talked about Podroll as a feature to help with discoverability. To see the shows that creators from TrueFans recommends in our podrol, head to the show page on the app. That's the page that lists our episodes. Scroll along the tabs under the photos of Sam and I and our superfan, then click on Podroll. You can play the latest episode from each show right there or click on the podcast art to go to their show screen and choose an episode. Alternatively, click on Playlist to listen to each new episode from each podcast as a playlist. If you'd like to chat with us about your indie podcast or how you can help independent podcasters send a comment or super comment in TrueFans to any Creators episode by clicking on the Speech Bubble icon or on the Comments tab. In future episodes of Creators, you can hear from Josh Craggs about Too Long, Didn't Listen and Floyd Kennedy talking about her audio fiction podcast Am I Old Yet? Now I have a confession to make. Sam is not actually with me this time, since he is on holiday. That bit of chat at the beginning of the episode was one I copied and pasted from a previous episode. Did you notice? Moving on. That's a Sam phrase. I want to talk about another discoverability feature that we are currently fine tuning here at TrueFans Towers. It's based on one of the principles of a traditional podcast network model whereby podcasts within said network promote one another. One way we plan to do this within TrueFans is by having a publisher page. On the show page of a podcast that is a member of a particular network, the user can see a link which if they click on it, will take them to that publisher page where they can see the other podcasts that are in that network. Not dissimilar to what I've just described for the Podrol page. But you don't have to be a traditional network to set up a publisher page on TrueFans. If, like me, you produce a number of podcasts, you can create a publisher page for those shows. I've made mine and called it Creativity Sound. Another idea would be to group together with like minded podcasts to set up a publisher page on a particular theme. For example, my podcast Creativity Found is about finding creativity in adulthood. The Adult Ballet studio that we've just been talking about is about access to dance for grown ups. And the late bloomer actor from David, John Clark, who Sam interviewed for episode 11 of this podcast is about navigating the world of acting in adulthood. There is an obvious synergy there that could be of interest to our various listeners. How this could work in TrueFans is like this. David might decide to set up a publisher page called Never Too Late, for example, and he can invite Creativity Found and the Adult Ballet Studio to join it. We can accept or decline. If we accept, the link to the publisher page will be clear for other listeners to see on our show page on TrueFans. And we might also decide to start cross promoting our shows in other ways too. Now say another podcaster finds this publisher page and they want to join because their podcast is about seniors playing rugby. That's just an example. I don't know if it exists. They can send a request to David and he can either accept or decline. Hopefully he accepts and we start building our Never Too Late community. We could also take this community to advertisers and say we have so many podcasts in our community generating these combined analytics. If you advertise on one of our shows, you get featured on all of them. Therefore making the most of our cumulative clout. We believe that the new Publisher Page feature, when it's been checked and tested, could be a great discovery tool for established podcast networks, podcast collectives, podcast producers who work on multiple shows, independent podcasters who just can't stop making new shows, podcasters who want to connect with shows with similar themes and audiences, and probably some other scenarios that I haven't thought of yet. When the feature is live, I'd love to show you how it works. Well, I'd actually love for Sam to show you how it works, but I'll handle the invitations. So if you'd like to be invited to an online event where you can see the feature in action while also having the opportunity to meet other podcasty folk who like the sound of it, please drop me a line at C L A I R E @trufans.fm. Or if we are already connected, leave a comment in the TrueFans app giving me permission to contact you about this event. Thanks so much for listening. I'm now going to play the outro from a previous episode with Sam's input.
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Sam Sethi: And that's it for this week. Claire if you've claimed your own podcast with TrueFans, you can request to promote that show on our feed here at Creators. On the Episodes page you will see a banner showing what your feature could look like. All you need to do is click on the Ask button, then choose your duration and how much you'd like to pay for that duration. And Claire will then look at your offer and decide whether she's going to be thumbs up, thumbs down, accept or reject. So she has the power.
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Claire Waite Brown: Yeah, brilliant. Love to hear from you on the TrueFans app, click on the purple button and become a fan of this podcast. We would love to have you follow us on Instagram or threads at @TrueFans.FM.
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Sam Sethi: You can also support us by streaming sats from your TrueFans wallet. Click on the Currency or Bitcoin icon under the Play button or leave us a super comment by clicking on the speech bubble icon.
