Making travel accessible through information.

Hello, my name is Maria and my podcast is called Recipe to the Road. Recipe to the Road is a collection of travel stories and tips to help make travel more accessible to more people.
My background is in journalism and radio and now I work as a podcast producer and manager. I started my business Creatively Contenting almost a year ago because I wanted to travel while working remotely and not be tied to a specific area.
My listeners are those interested in starting to travel, long term travellers, and those who just enjoy a good story. And my family and friends!

I had the idea of Recipe to the Road for a long time as I felt that a lot of people want to travel but so often have a reason why they can't. I grew up with the privilege of having parents who travelled in their 20s and 30s so travelling was always on the cards for me. I was more scared to not travel than I was to travel. But that not the case for a lot of people. I want to shed light on travel to remove the uncertainty that leads to fear and help more people get out and see the world.
I also realised in planning my own travels that I was spending so much time researching stuff online. When I had friends that had been to a certain area or done a certain thing it was so much easier to just ask them for advice. But of course we don't always have friends or contacts who have done all the things we want to do. I want my podcast to fill in this gap. I want to build that one-stop resource where people can enjoy listening but also build up their knowledge ahead of or during their trip or life on the road.
Originally I was thinking of creating Recipe to the Road as a blog. But then after my studies and work in radio I realised that I much prefer working with audio. In hindsight, it makes sense. I always listened to the radio growing up and thoroughly enjoy podcasts now.
After having the idea for years and recording interviews for months I finally launched Recipe to the Road podcast on the 25th January 2023.

I release episodes weekly and I plan to do the podcast in seasons. Season one will have about 18-20 episodes. We are on episode six this week.
My day job is podcast production and management for other people's podcasts so I try to act as if I am just another one of my clients. This helps me to prioritise my own podcast as well as my clients'. I was worried about having enough time though so I recorded the majority of season one before I launched the podcast. Now I just need to worry about production and promotion.
My only financial cost for my podcast is my Canva Pro subscription. I use this for creating my cover art and social media promo graphics and videos but also use it for my business. Aside from that I use Anchor to host which is free. My other cost is my time as I do everything else myself.

I don't have any sponsors at the minute but hope to in the future. Right now I have signed up for some affiliate programmes and am looking at how I can integrate affiliate links into my content.
Podcasting is a creative outlet for me. I really enjoy the entire process. I love hearing people's stories and getting to interview interesting people from all over the world is such a privilege.

If I record interviews in person I use my Zoom H1N mic which records to a memory card. It's small but mighty so it is ideal for travelling. When I interview online I use Riverside recording platform on my laptop. I edit on Audacity and then host my podcast on Anchor.
I have found a lot of my guests through word of mouth. As I am travelling I keep bumping into people with so many stories in hostels, through friends etc. Instagram and Facebook have also been great resources for finding guests. I have an "Apply to be a guest" form that I share wherever I can so that guests can also find me.
My episode prep is usually pretty casual if the guest is someone I met while travelling. I will usually create an outline of what I want to cover and chat to them before about whatever the topic might be. This way I can make sure to ask the right questions. I don't like to over prepare though, because I want the interview to sound natural and conversational.
If the guest is someone I haven't met and we are meeting online I will do a little bit more prep, especially if they are well known. It's a bit of a different dynamic.

Marketing is the part I struggle with the most! My main marketing channel would be Instagram but I am trying to build more of a presence on TikTok as well. I also share my podcast on LinkedIn. As I am travelling word of mouth is also a huge marketing tool for me and I am looking into getting stickers printed to stick up in hostels and to share with other travellers.
As of today my listeners are 59.5% from Spotify and 18.2% from Apple with the rest made up of listens directly on Anchor, on Pocket Casts and on CastBox.

Podcasting takes longer than you think. Always have a plan and have episodes prepared in advance, or have an emergency back up episode that is not time sensitive that can go out in case of emergency. As none of my episodes are time sensitive I like to bank up a load of episodes ahead of time.
Always warm up your voice before recording. You'll save time on rerecording or editing and generally sound better.
And do the launch properly. Don't just start publishing episodes. Make a fanfare on socials, share the process with your followers, get your first episode as clean and crisp as possible. You only have one launch so make it count.
Some resources I would recommend are https://ideablossoms.com/ for information and templates and https://podnews.net/ to keep up with industry trends. You can also find a weekly blog about podcasting on my own website https://www.creativelycontenting.com/blog/.

You can find my podcast at https://anchor.fm/recipetotheroad or you can search Recipe to the Road on all major podcast sites. You can follow the podcast @recipetotheroad on Instagram and TikTok or you can email me at recipetotheroad@gmail.com.
You can find my podcast management services at https://www.creativelycontenting.com/.