► Tell us about you and your podcast
Maria is a keen sewist and when no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you keep looking at what people are wearing and think…I can make that, with ‘this’ pattern and ‘that’ fabric. It’s this mindset that has fuelled Maria during her life to keep sewing, blogging about sewing and sharing her sewing projects on Instagram across the sewing community. It only made sense to Maria to create another social media platform through Sew Organised Style podcast, Australia’s first sewing podcast, to give a voice to her fellow sewists. Maria is your podcast contact point, production developer, general sound engineer wiz and sewing fanatic.
Partnering with online sewing communities that have diehard sewing fans who volunteer their time and expertise to give sewing consumers a voice is the driver behind why Maria has partnered with sewing communities that have the same core values. When you look at the partnerships that are regulars on Sew Organised Style podcast, you’ll realise it really is all about the fabric but it's the person behind each sewists that listeners come back to hear about again and again.
The 2 highest ranking listeners range from 28-34 yr olds and 45 - 59 yr olds and predominantly females The largest listening audience is in the United States of America, then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Australia in third place.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
I had listened to non-sewing podcasts and loved their formats. I decided to start Sew Organised Style podcast in August 2019, after cohosting a live video sewing weekly. My goal was to feature people in the sewing community and then when the pandemic lockdowns struck in March 2020, I felt the need to give listeners something positive to listen to and from their sewing friends during the work week, so they could differentiate their days from the weekend. Lockdown is isolating so the aim of my podcast was to have a friendly voice chatting about sewing during the week.
My first podcast took a day to edit. Now I spend an hour audio editing per 10 minutes of listening time.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
Now I release 2 to 3 episodes per week. As I mentioned it takes an hour editing per 10 minutes listening time.
My editing time is done after work, Monday to Friday. I like to leave the weekend free to actually sew.
I fund the podcast myself - platform hosting, recording account and website hosting. From time to time I get a bit of sponsorship as a thank you.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
The sponsorship I've received has been a 'thank you' for producing a podcast for a community organisation. Nothing big.
If I had a business or a product to sell, I would have a sponsorship plan that had the metrics to show the return on investment.
My podcast builds my social media skills, community networks, trustworthy brand, connects people and generally makes me feel like I'm helping my fellow sewists get through the lockdowns in their countries.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
The tools I use are simply Audacity to sound edit. Zoom to record interviews. Wordpress to run the website.
Getting guests is easy as I've partnered with sewing communities of over 30,000 followers each.
Each episode is cobranded with my podcast partners and I do the rest for them.
► How do you market your show?
My podcast feed is listed everywhere and it's free and will remain free. You can't try selling something they can already get for free.
IG has been my best marketing channel to date.
My podcast partners market my podcasts and their collective IG following is about 80,000 followers.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Give podcasting a real good go.
Do your research before you start a podcast. Look at your fellow podcasters and find the ones that have stopped podcasting so you can figure out why and if this is going to happen to your podcast.
Find as many podcast communities as you can to learn what you're up for. If you come to the end of your podcast journey, pat yourself on your back and say 'I did an great job!'
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
My podcast website is https://seworganisedstylepodcast.com/
My IG account is https://www.instagram.com/seworganisedstyle/
I have a small Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/seworganisedstylepodcast?fan_landing=true
You can contact me about my podcast on seworganisedstyle@gmail.com
My twitter account is https://twitter.com/SewPodcast