Deep Conversations About Self-improvement & Mindset

I'm Julian Merten and started my podcast journey in summer 2018. I just love to get connected with people during deep conversations around the topic of self-improvement and mindset with the background of my interesting guests. Until now I only had guests I either knew or other people suggested me people that inspired them through their story. So I am looking for people with a life-changing event for them in order to motivate others and myself as well.

My podcast started because I realised in my job before that the human factor was missing and I just love the deep connection you can get with some people on an inspiring topic. Additionally, I hope that at least one person gets something positive out of this as well then my duty is done. It started in summer 2018 but I had the idea already a year earlier when I just pushed the idea away due to too much other stuff to do but last year I knew I needed to do it. To overcome the fear of starting with it initially I just sat down with a good friend of mine and just talked with my laptop in between us to record it.

I try to continue doing a new episode twice a month because it takes me about a week in total to finish everything up for the release. I guess I got lucky that I started the podcast while being a student so I can divide my time more or less how I need it. The downside is I do not have much money to find my podcast so it's my own production from the recording to over editing in audacity every promotional banner for social media. That's why it takes so long but the upside is that I only pay for the hosting $12 a month and the Yeti mic I bought.

No, sponsors so far and I am actually also not really interested in sponsors because what I get out of it is worth so much more. I learn how to audio edit, get interpersonal skills, talk to amazing people, get motivated myself and if I am lucky I can motivate one or two other people as well. Essentially, I can do what I like which is talking to amazing people in deep conversations with about 60 listeners per month at the moment.

To record the episodes I either use my Blue Yeti microphone or when it is remotely I use ecamm as the skype recording system. As an audio editing software, I use audacity and for the promotional banner photoshop that I got from the University.Additionally, I use iMovie for the video editing for my YouTube channel.
In the beginning, I asked my friends and the friends of friends who were inspiring to record an episode but later on, I already got suggestions from other people and people asking me whether they could be on my podcast.

Usually, I prepare each episode in the sense that I get information about the background of that person and their story and make up a rough structure of how an interview could look like with some example questions to not drift off too much and still have somewhat of a structure.

About 56% are coming from iTunes another 21% from Spotify and the rest is split up between smaller sources. Listeners find me mostly through Instagram and Facebook which I channel to my website (TheAmbitiousSloth.com) where they can choose the link to their favourite platform. Additionally, I upload a video of the podcast on my YouTube channel (@theambitioussloth) which has about 30 views per episode on average. For me, the most effective marketing is the Instagram and Facebook but how I introduce most new people to my podcast is through person to person marketing, by meeting new people and telling them about it.

That for me the most difficult was to start and once that was over I was just in my element of interviewing people which is just pure fun for me. So you actually have to love doing it then you can overcome also some of the downsides of editing or promotional stuff. All the things I learned is just by loving it so much that investing time in learning how to do things did not matter to me.

I also write a blog on my website TheAmbitiousSloth.com so that is the best to learn a bit more about me and what I love doing.

theambitioussloth.com/blog is the website for my personal blog and to know more about what interests me.
My linkedIn: linkedin.com/in/julian-merten/
IG: @TheAmbitiousSloth
FB: @ThAmbitiousSloth