Talk About Women 35+ Living Their Best Chapter Yet

Hi! I'm Kristin Duffy, the podcaster being The Second Chapter podcast. I'm an actor, triathlon coach, and producer (amongst other things!) I started The Second Chapter, chatting with women who have changed their lives and careers after 35, as another way to tell the stories of women who shouldn't have to disappear as they get older. My production company, Slackline Productions, focusses on telling the stories of women aged 35+, and the podcast seemed a natural extension. I have had several chapters in my own life and career and love hearing about what other people do and how they've adapted, changed and thrived in their lives. The Second Chapter isn't just for women 35+ -- it's sometimes surprising, often funny, always inspiring, no matter your age or gender identification.

I'll never have time in one life to do everything I want to do, so the next best thing is to help tell the stories of other women who are doing really cool things with their lives and careers. A podcast is a great way to reach people who might not hear these stories. When I started the podcast in October 2020, I hoped that each story would not only be an entertaining listen and insightful interview, but would help to inspire someone who may be thinking about their own life changes or need a little push to get them to take a leap. I think The Second Chapter is doing just that! I debated the podcast for a long time- what I wanted to do with it, who I hoped would listen, what it should be called (!) From initial brainstorming to the release of the first episode was nearly a year!

The Second Chapter is released weekly. After the first season, I plan to keep this format, but will divide into seasons to give myself time to promote, plan and get excited for the next block. I won't lie- I'm doing everything myself at the moment and it is very time-consuming. Luckily, I'm developing it as part of my plan for my production company, so the two tie together nicely. It's self-funded, but I'm on a free host platform, so the main costs are a bit of Facebook promotion and my time. I would like to focus on how to monetise going forward and put a bit more effort into my Ko-fi site as well.

At the moment I'm not sponsored, but the podcast has done fairly well in the first season, so I plan to look at more options for sponsorship in season two. The podcast has fostered relationships with my production company and vice versa (plus it's inspiring me in my own career trajectory!), so its primary objective at the moment is building relationships and a community around Slackline Productions.

My set-up is a Rode NT1-A Microphone with pop filter and a Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface. I record everything remotely, so use Zoom to see my guest and record video, and Zencastr to record audio. I edit on a combination of Describe and Audacity. All of this sounds complicated, but I'm not very techie and have found my way through online research and trial and error. Ifind a lot of guests through Twitter (this is a great way to reach out to people who may not know you, but are usually happy to have a chat!) I also have a guest and a show page on matchmaker.fm, which is really helpful both for finding potential guests and offering to be a guest on other podcasts (good for your own podcast promotion!) I find as much info as possible about each guest online before recording, but because I interview fairly "normal" people, they don't always have a high-profile online presence. I send them a pre-interview questionnaire so that I have some background. From there, I tend to guide the conversation organically so that the conversation is relaxed and friendly vs a news-y interview.

The Second Chapter are listening on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts 37%, Anchor 24%, Spotify 13% and other sources 26%. Though The Second Chapter has a dedicated website, I often point people towards Anchor. I promote it through the Slackline Productions Facebook and Twitter page as we already had a bit of a following, and through Instagram @the_second_chapter_podcast. I find that targeted Facebook ads are really useful to give us a boost each week.

I thought I'd start a podcast and it would be super-successful right out of the gate. Be optimistic, but know it takes time. Love your subject matter, because if you're podcasting about it regularly, you'll talk about and hear about it A LOT. I highly recommend some training to get you started- I was lucky to learn from danmason.co.uk, who made everything easy, broke each aspect of podcasting down and made me feel like I could do it. There's a lot to read online, too. Do your research and have a plan before launching to the world.

thesecondchapterpodcast.com, slacklineproductions.co.uk, ko-fi.com/thesecondchapter, Insta: @the_second_chapter_podcast