Explore How Our Rapidly Changing World Impacts People, Now & In The Future

I'm Rebecca Scott, and I'm the Founder of Vivid Spring Solutions. My company helps organizations inspire their people to help shape the future. I am also a professional public speaker with expertise in innovation, team dynamics and operational success.

My podcast is Humans, Now and Then, where I talk with guests to explore how our rapidly changing world impacts people, now and in the future.

Because of the topic, I have a relatively broad listener base. While many listeners are business people, I also have listeners ranging from teenagers and college students to retirees. Really, it's for anyone who's interested in thinking about how our crazy world impacts us, and what the future may bring. And, of course, how they can help shape the future they envision.

It's interesting, I was never really a podcast listener. I was more of an eBook listener. But one day, I'm driving my daughter to her gymnastics practice, and a powerful moment of inspiration hit. It hit me hard too, like a ton of bricks. "You should do a podcast that explores how our rapidly changing world impacts people, now and in the future." That moment brought me to tears. That was it for me. It was something that had purpose and meaning to me, and I just love having great conversations with interesting people. I'd have an opportunity to learn from others, and bring listeners along that ride with me.

It took me a few months of learning how to podcast and planning before I launched just a month ago, in April 2020.

I've learned a lot over the past few months, including how much time and effort it takes to pull together a podcast. It takes me anywhere from several hours to a couple days to produce an episode, and I'm currently releasing twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This is going to seem crazy to people, but I do have a day job in addition to building my own consulting company, and I'm a mom of four. As you can imagine, it isn't easy to find the time to do this. It does mean working early in the morning, on weekends and sometimes late in the evening. But, this podcast is a mission for me. I hope to make it successful enough to gain sponsors so that I can hire others to help me.

So, yeah, I'm funding the podcast myself right now. I have a very limited budget, but I'm doing my best to invest very wisely. I'm also using my network and social media to market as much as possible at low or no cost. I'd love to do more in the future to push beyond my current time and budget constraints. This is important enough for me to keep working toward that goal.

I am really true to my mission: I'd like to get more people involved in shaping the future. Of course, the dream would be to make the podcast profitable, and drive more business for me. This will allow me to take the podcast to the next level and reach more people. It would also make it more sustainable.

As a new podcast, my goal is to gain sponsors as I grow. For now, the benefit comes from the 5-star ratings and very positive feedback I've received so far. I know that people are finding the podcast meaningful, which drives me to continue, improve and do more.

I use a Blue Yeti mic in my small home studio. I edit using a combination of GarageBand, Audacity and RX 7. I've posted a couple notes about seeking guests, but most of my guests so far have been referred to me by other guests or people in my network. I've been very fortunate to come across amazing guests, many of whom have become friends and advocates.

I make sure to learn about each guest before recording, but in general, I enjoy free-flowing conversation. It will often take us on a journey we couldn't have planned better. I have been complimented on my interviewing style, but I am actually studying interviewing best practices so I can continue to improve. I use Zencastr to record audio and Zoom for video.

Listeners seem to find my show most often through social media and on recommendations from others. It's published in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio...well, pretty much everywhere. Most of my listens come from Apple Podcasts or my website humansnowandthen.com.

I have my largest current network on LinkedIn, so leverage it pretty heavily. I am building a presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,Twitter and TikTok. I plan to continue building my social media presence over time.

The best advice I can give is know that it's going to take a lot of time and effort to do this. I'd also make sure you're making the choices that work for you, based on your limitations, your budget and your motivations. For instance, I would have loved to build a bigger social media presence, publish one of my books in progress, etc. before launching, but I had to prioritize something to get this off the ground. Know what works for you to make this happen, and go to that. Listen to advice, but make the choices that will work best for you.

There's also a great Facebook group called Podcast Movement, which I've found very helpful in gaining advice from other podcasters.

Here are the best ways to connect:
humansnowandthen.com
vividspring.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rscottcbap
Facebook: @humansnowandthen
Twitter: @humansnownthen
Instagram: @humasnowandthen
TikTok: @humansnowandthen
email: contact@humansnowandthen.com