Debra, Diana and Jesi compete each week to bring you the most interesting true stories from every corner of the universe.

We, Debra and Diana, are identical twin sisters, so we go way back. We met Jesi through a mutual friend 12 years ago and worked on some filmmaking projects together. We became fast friends when we found that we made each other laugh so easily. It was only natural that we continued to work together, and Diana came up with the idea of starting a weekly podcast. Her vision for an episode was to have us each bring an article or true story to the table that would spark the interest of the other two enough to win their votes for the most "spark-worthy" story of the week. Our listeners are all over the world and tend to be those who either vibe with our sense of humor or like the eclectic nature of our content.

We had all listened to podcasts regularly before we started Spark My Interest, so we were all interested in the format and where it was going. Between our busy day jobs and Jesi raising two small kids, we hadn't found an opportunity to work together for a while. Diana's idea for a podcast allowed us to put a lot of the writing, editing and production skills we had developed over our first decade in L.A. into something creative we could all do on our own time and from the comfort of our own homes. Our goals have always been to keep improving our product and growing our audience. We officially released our first four episodes in May of 2019. We recorded them in April to see how it would go, then edited and released them together so our audience had more than just one episode to listen to. When the pandemic hit, the podcast was thankfully something we could continue without missing a beat. We've learned a ton over the last couple years and have cultivated some very rewarding relationships with other podcasters (shout out to Florida Men on Florida Man, The Rants & Raves, and Assorted Goods!)

We release a weekly episode that is typically around 30 minutes long. It takes us about an hour to record an episode, then we each take turns in our episode assembly line. The process continues to evolve, but currently, Jesi processes the audio, Debra edits the episode content into a rough cut, Diana cleans up the audio and does the final cut, and then Jesi does the final pass and posts the episode. Jesi and Debra both work on social media, but Diana has a lot of input. It is a true team effort. We currently fund the podcast ourselves. In terms of production costs, we got started with about $400 for mics, cables, and headphones on top of the gear and software we already owned like recorders and Adobe software. We have continued to improve the gear and software tools we use to make production more efficient, including easier-to-use recorders (Zoom Podtrak P4), audio clean-up software (Izotope RX 8), and a mobile podcast kit that we ship to guests. As we're approaching the 100 episode mark, we have begun putting some money into marketing ourselves beyond just social media. So far, we have only spent $250 for one month on one platform, but we are planning to try out ads on other platforms in the coming months to see what works. So far, we have been happy with the results.

We welcome all sponsors who think we would be a good fit for their brand. Most of our audience is aged 25 and above. We tend to use a few bad words from time to time, but all in good fun. We seek a wide audience, so we avoid topics that are too political or religious in nature. We want our listeners to walk away with information that makes their world a little more interesting and fun than it was before they listened. Our numbers are changing fast these days. Our listenership has more than doubled in the last few weeks. If any sponsors are interested, get in touch and we'll be happy to discuss current numbers. On the personal side, all three of us co-hosts love hanging out together, so having a podcast is really just a way for us to hang out and be creative at the same time. We are all ambitious and goal-oriented, so having a common goal only makes our friendship stronger.

Our podcast process continues to evolve, but aside from the editing workflow we mentioned above, we currently use a combination of Adobe Creative Cloud tools and Izotope RX 8 for audio editing and cleanup. For recording, we use Shure SM48 and Behringer Ultravoice Xm8500 dynamic microphones with Triton Audio FetHead preamps. We use Zoom PodTrak P4 recorders because they allow us to record and be in audio interface mode simultaneously, and they are very simple to use on Zoom meetings with our silent laptops. We use webcams and phone cameras for video-recorded episodes (typically with guests) over Zoom. We use Mogami XLR cables for buzz-free audio to the recorders, and Sennheiser HD280PRO headphones to minimize headphone bleed in the recording.

We market our show on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, and Facebook) and we are now dipping our toes into advertising on streaming platforms like Podcast Addict, Spotify, and through services like AudioGo, which covers multiple streaming services. Most of our listeners are currently using Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Podcast Addict.

The best advice we can give new podcasters is to work on having a good structure to each episode. No amount of advertising will work on retaining listeners if your episodes don't keep listeners engaged. Get the basic equipment you need to sound decent and keep improving. Advice we were given at the outset was that it takes about 4 years to really get traction. We're almost halfway to that point now, and we're starting to see some good pickup, but we have quite a ways to go before we can justify doing this fulltime. The next two years will tell. Also, make friends with the hosts of podcasts you like if you can. They make great guests on your show and vice versa. It's a win-win for a good time and cross-promotion.

We are on just about every podcast platform, but we are hosted by Anchor.fm
https://anchor.fm/sparkmyinterest
To contact us:
sparkmyinterestpodcast@gmail.com
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook - @sparkmyinterestpodcast
Twitter - @interest_spark