The Curious Introvert

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

I’m Meredith Hackwith Edwards (a mouthful, I know) & I’m the most extroverted introvert who ever introverted.

I also collect people & believe in curiosity as a characteristic worth spending time on. Each episode is a 30 minute interview with someone new. They range from a felon who did a decade in prison & is now a million dollar business owner to a woman who summited Mt Everest with just 8 weeks of training.

Off the mic, I’m on-camera talent & a model who is ocean & travel obsessed & figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up. I truly am an introvert who re-charges away from people, but I consider people & their stories to be treasures worth seeking after. If we lead with curiosity (instead of judgement), we can make the world a better place (cue the kum ba ya music).

My goal is give bright, meaningful entertainment. My listeners are the people who can’t stick to one podcast genre & love to run down rabbit holes.

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

I spent 16 years as a leader in direct sales & noticed that I enjoyed getting to know new customers more than the sale. I also noticed that season of life was coming to an end.

I discovered podcasts around the same time & realized the interview dynamic there was similar to what I had done in my selling appointments – build fast rapport, find commonalities & draw the person out to discover who they were.

In the course of one week, my husband came home & said, “You’d make a good podcaster” & a free “Principles to Podcasting” lunch & learn showed up in my town. It was there I met the people to help me with the tech part of things. Hiring them also gave me can’t-back-out-now deadlines & within the course of 4 months (on November 4, 2019) the podcast launched!

My initial goals were to create content that I could look back & feel good about & grow my audience with the promotional skills I had learned in direct selling.

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

The initial funding came out of our savings account with continued support coming from my direct sales customers & sponsors from host-read ads.

I release an episode every Monday, but I batch record 4-6 at a time at a local museum when it’s closed to the public.

I probably spend about 10 hours a week on average on the show. I outsource the video & audio editing, but the rest is me – coordinating sponsors, guests, social media, email marketing & growth strategy.

Thankfully, being self-employed for so long has given me both the freedom to prioritize tasks as I see fit & the time management skills to get it all done.

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

I have two cash paying sponsors & two barter sponsors (one barter is for our shot location; the other for nation-wide ad space). I got my first two sponsors before the show launched. One was the location sponsor & the other was a barter with my gym for a free membership.

I used my experience in direct sales to pitch an idea to both that I genuinely felt benefited both of us & with podcast ad stats in hand, simply asked. I approach current sponsors in the same way. I want those arrangements to be more than a mutual extraction of benefits – I want them to be meaningful relationships, where we both genuinely appreciate the other’s business. That may be overly idealistic, but hey – I’m going with it!

I get an average of 131 downloads in the first 30 days that an episode releases.

My podcast has a host (see what I did there?) of benefits for me. Since I’m in transition with my career, it has served as a reason to have focused conversations with people living outside of the box, allowing me to explore the outer edges of career possibilities.

Additionally, when I’m on set as talent for a commercial, I’m often asked what else I do & naturally, the podcast comes up. The person almost always takes out their phone & adds me to their playlist. This serves as an elaborate business card to show-case my hosting abilities & opens up doors for future bookings.

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

My podcasting process starts just like the name of my show, as a curious introvert. I become curious about a person or topic & quietly cyber stalk them in the comfort of my own home.

If it’s a subject I’m curious about, I look for a local person first. I may ask around, use Instagram hashtags, Youtube or Facebook. If it’s a person I’m curious about, I try to look for examples of them talking on camera or on mic, to check their comfort level. Then I reach out via email to them or ask for an introduction from a mutual contact. I book my guests a couple months out, because I never want to feel desperate to fill a spot.

I try to have a good mix of local and non-local guests, as my goal is to be more than the local podcast personality & leveraging the promotional power of people around the globe works great for that! I also find it incredibly fun to watch my listener reports pop up in all kinds of random places (shout out to whoever keeps listening in Cairo, Egypt!).

Since my episodes are just 30 minutes & most of my guests are not people already in my life, I have found it helpful to have a 15 minute test chat a week or two before to dial in sound & lighting if it’s via ZOOM, but also to dial in our topic, build rapport & put my guest at ease.

My podcast host is Buzzsprout & I’ve been super pleased with the support & community that has come along with that. Although I started the podcast with both an audio engineer & camera man, I have since purchased my own audio equipment – the Rode Caster Pro bundle – and me & my camera man team up on shoot day to make it come together. I outsource the audio editing to a local radio guy.

► How do you market your show?

I go where my audience is and currently, that is mostly on Facebook. I chose a fan page instead of a group, because of the “shareability factor.” I post daily Monday – Friday with new episode announcements, a listener of the month, random interviews I do with people, funny introvert memes, videos of my interviews, etc. I copy most of this content to LinkedIn.

I use Instagram feed & stories as a more personal reflection on my guest or our topic & also share it to my Twitter & personal Facebook page. Instagram also serves as a total macro picture of my broad scope of interests & my life. YouTube has been helpful by way of SEO, but I have found that YouTube & podcasts audiences are separate audiences.

I also have an email list, which I believe, has contributed to my steady growth. Each episode has an invitation to opt in by texting REAL to 66866 (something easily done at a stop light). Getting these emails allows my listeners to know when a new episode comes out, what it’s about, have clickable links to their favorite podcast ap & get quotes, pictures & clickable resources about the guest or topic.

Additionally, I make it a priority to be discoverable on as many podcast platforms as possible. Most (over 70%) of my listeners are on some kind of iOS app or device (lots of folks listening on watches!?).

With all the ways I share the show, it’s hard to say how people find me specifically, but I can say that treating my guest well has gone a long way, because when the process & end product is something they are proud of, they share it & it reached a whole new group of people.

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

I would say be authentic & try not to torture yourself with criticism. Also (& maybe most importantly), consider your goal with podcasting BEFORE you start. If you can’t pinpoint what success will be for you, you’ll always feel the weight of comparison.

Something I’ve learned that surprised me is that making a 30 minute podcast episode isn’t exactly the same as chatting with someone in line at Starbucks. That approach is interesting to ME, but doesn’t necessarily create an end product interesting to a listener.

Flip flopping my perspectives from listener to creator & back again, allows me to improve & keep the attention of the listener longer.

I have found the Buzzsprout Facebook community to be a super helpful resource facebook.com/groups/BuzzsproutCommunity as well as Pat Flynn’s book Superfans.

You can find my podcast on your favorite app here linktr.ee/meredithforreal, follow me on Instagram instagram.com/meredithforreal or keep up with me on Facebook facebook.com/meredithforrealthecuriousintrovert.

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

You can find my podcast on your favorite app here linktr.ee/meredithforreal

Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/meredithforreal or

Keep up with me on Facebook facebook.com/meredithforrealthecuriousintrovert.

Text REAL to 66866 for episode updates.