► Tell us about you and your podcast
I (Michelle) have a background in media and PR, with the last 16 years being a voice actor. Liz ran a successful events and publishing business with her husband. We met in the street when I moved a couple of doors down from her.
Our podcast is about our next chapter in life: redefining life over 50 as empty nesters, embracing the highs and lows of midlife with celebrity guests and experts, sharing a laugh on their podcast sofa. We talk about real concerns, issues and fun topics that affect us, our friends and our family.
Our listeners are just like us (and oftentimes their kids!), mid lifers, empty nest women. We are downloaded in 40 countries with about 2/3rds of our listeners in the UK. All marketing has been done through ourselves on social media so we're pretty proud of what we've accomplished so far. Next step is definitely to find someone to promote us!
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
Like many new podcasts, we started ours during lockdown. Long conversations in our gardens chatting about anything and everything with lots of laughs thrown in. It was our kids who suggested we take our 'chats' online and share with people like us. We genuinely want to provide a platform where women like us will feel part of the conversation and welcomed. Midlife is not just about the menopause (although the brain fog certainly features a lot in our podcast!) but a time of dynamic change and opportunity. It's been fabulous to explore new topics and raise awareness of things that really should be talked about.
Our first episode came out in November 2021, about 2-3 months after we decided to go for it.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
We are entirely self-funded at the moment. We try to release bi-weekly - and our second season should reflect that more, now that we've got better at the technical side and attracted some fabulous guests - but we were a bit sporadic during the first year as we got our feet under the table. Liz doesn't work but does a lot of volunteer work. I (Michelle) still work regularly as a voice actor but my job is flexible and I can work odd hours to fit it all in. We basically do all the techie stuff, marketing and handling our website ourselves.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
We would take sponsorship for sure! To be honest we started this as a 'passion project', something we both really enjoy and push ourselves to do. We've had incredible feedback from our listeners where topics have resonated - and that's where we see this growing, in our listener community and via our website.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
Being a voice actor I'm used to editing one track audio - multi track has been a huge challenge. Over the last year I've learned to use Garageband for editing, riverside.fm for recording. Finding guests is fun. We read a lot, talk a lot, watch the news and we've planned content right through to Spring 2023. We pick guests that are well known and just ask! Unbelievably they've started saying yes! Because we record on riverside remotely we can assure them we won't take up more than 30 minutes of their time - and that seems to go down well. We go to events and meet potential guests, connect with them via social media or their book publishers etc.
► How do you market your show?
Most of our listeners are via Apple podcasts. That's been one of the trickiest things... educating women of our age where to find and play the podcast as many don't know how to do that. It's still such a growing medium and some feel they don't want to subscribe to new platforms.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Just be you - don't try to copy another format. Make episode plans but be organic and flexible to change as relevant topics come up. We started out using Buzzsprout and they have really great resources, eventually moved to acast as we felt the monetisation opportunities might be better and it's now such a well known host.
We actually started out as Lifestyle Lounge but had to pivot after we'd set up our branding when we realised there was a swingers club in LA with the same name that kept coming up in google searches!!
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
So please follow us and listen! We're on pretty much every platform: Apple, Spotify, Google, iheart, Amazon etc - and of course you can listen for free via our website at www.twowomenchatting.com or the show website on acast.
Our website has blogs and resources which are super useful. Instagram @twowomenchatting. Twitter @ChattingTwo
Email us anytime at twowomenchatting@gmail.com
Join us on our podcast sofa.... there's always room for one more!