Explore Unique & Unusual Jobs For Teenagers

Hi! My name is Gracie and I'm the owner and host of the "Gracie Meets..." podcast! I've been podcasting since May 1, 2020 and I began during quarantine. My podcast explores unique and unusual jobs that teenagers might not know about along with jobs that teenagers might have heard of or seen before but might not know much about. I get into the nitty gritty of a lot of fascinating careers and I've had many good reviews!

My listeners are typically teenagers, but I've actually had many adults tell me how much my podcast is entertaining and helping them too! This shows me that there is really no age limit to learning about different careers!

As a teenager in today's age, our high schools are constantly trying to push us into different pathways to figure out what we want to do in college. I've always had trouble knowing what I want to be when I grow up, so I thought that other teens were like that to. I had always had the idea of starting a podcast, and since we were all in lockdown, I began interviewing adults with unique and unusual jobs to help teenagers get ideas of fun jobs that suit their interests instead of just regular, well-known jobs (like teachers and doctors). My main goals were to help teenagers around the globe find out what career path they want to pursue and help them find professions they are passionate about. As the old saying goes, "If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life".

It took me about a month of planning and recording to release my first episode. My main rule was that I had to have five episodes recorded before I could release my show. So, yeah, it took me about a month to record and edit all 5 shows.

Since I began in quarantine, I had a lot of time on my hands, and by a lot, I mean A LOT! I didn't realize how difficult it would be to actually have to juggle high school, sports, and a podcast, haha! I ended up making a schedule to where I finish editing an episode on Sunday, send the release form to my guest to receive back by Thursday, and schedule my show for the upcoming Saturday. I takes me about an hour to edit a 15 minute episode, but that's because I take a lot of time to make it sound the best it can.

I try not to spend too much money on my podcast, but I did buy microphones, a RODEcaster Pro, editing software, and microphone cables. Since my podcast is nonmonetized, I have to pay for it. I do my own editing, branding, and hosting, so it's really a project I do by myself along with a little help from my Dad.

I started my podcast as a way to find a profession that I want to do. I also realize there are millions of teens out there just like me who have no idea on what they really want to do with their futures. I didn't think it was right to capitalize off my generations indecision. So no, I have not monetized my podcast in anyway, I won't review products for kickbacks, nor do I recommend sites or products that I have not personally used and found helpful in my career discovery path. I am representing all of the people and companies who volunteer to come on my podcast. I feel it would limit me if I monetized, then people might not be as willing to do interviews if a product clashes with their company or their views.

I have entered into a loose partnership with ASA Futerscapes, an industry leader in helping young adults find careers based on their personality. I provided a PSA, they linked to my podcast from their website.

To find the people I interview, it's a very interesting process actually! I, first, have to think of a unique job that teenagers might not know about, which means I probably wouldn't know about it either. I've used Indeed.com to find especially unique career paths, plus many different adults that I'm friends with have cool jobs. Then, I have to send them an email with all of the information about my podcast to see if they would like to interview with me.

To prepare for my episodes, I usually research the careers that I'm interviewing for that episode, then send the questions in advance. I, then, do the interview either over Zoom or in person, whichever works best for the person I'm interviewing. A majority of my interviews have been on Zoom because of the pandemic, though.

For my editing, I've been using REAPER. It's a very cool piece of software that let's me edit tracks together and makes the cuts sound seamless if placed in the right spots.

I do not pay for my show to be put out there into the world yet. It usually spreads by word of mouth, my Instagram page (@gracie.meets), and on iTunes, Spotify, and all other streaming platforms. I usually post a lot on my "Gracie Meets..." Instagram, and I get listens from that. I use Backtracks to tell me how many downloads I get a month, where my listens are from, what my top episodes of the month have been, and the platforms my listeners have been streaming.

Advice that I would give to aspiring podcasters would be to never give up. One of my favorite quotes that I've gotten from one of my episodes has been, "When you start out, your career is not going to look like your vision". This means you won't be the Joe Rogan of your genre of podcast when you first start out. You slowly learn about what you can do better as you continue in your career.

One thing I have learned over my 5 months of being a podcaster is that no one really likes listening to background music in your podcast. Crazy, right? When I asked for feedback about my show, almost all of it was about how I needed to delete my background music from my interviews. People told me they were very distracted by it, so I made sure to take it out as soon as possible.

A helpful resource for podcasting is a YouTube channel created by a podcasting buddy of mine named Ozeal. His YouTube channel name is called, "Podcast Influence" and it has many tips on what kind of microphones are the best to ways to make your interviews pop out from the rest! He's a very cool dude who's amazing at what he does!

Thanks for this opportunity! You can learn more about me and my podcast on my website, www.mindonmymission.com, and my Instagram page, @gracie.meets.