Seek to show joy in the lives of regular people so we can all remember who are are meant to be - people of joy

I'm a personal development coach with a background in public radio in Canada. I left radio when I was divorced, moving instead into work that paid better as I had two wee sons now depending on me alone. I have always loved working with sound, and podcasting is the easiest way to return to playing with sound now that my kids are grown. My podcast explores joy in the lives of regular people, seeking to lighten the heaviness of our regular lives. My listeners are people all around the world who are looking for the same thing - an antidote to the heaviness in our hearts, a reminder of the good and loving, and yes joyful, people we actually are.
 

In the first year of the pandemic, I who was looking for a way to lighten everyone's heart and remind us of our shared humanity. I realized that we live with so much fear every day, even without a global pandemic. And what's a good antidote to fear? Joy. Joy in our lives, in the lives of regular people. I talk to people I know and we explore what brings them joy. I also feel a connection to nature helps, and so that theme is also evident in my episodes.

I took a few months to envision what I wanted to do, and I hired a local company to bring me back up to speed on the technology, since I'd been out of radio for almost 20 years. And from then on, I've conducted the interviews and handled the technology myself. I want every conversation to sound and feel like a chat among friends that my listeners get to watch from their own space, and that is exactly the feedback I have received.

I just love it when what I hear in my minds' ear comes to life from my mixing... it's kismet! My first podcast was posted in June of 2020. To date I've dropped just over 50 episodes.

In season two, I added a regular conversation with a friend of mine who has studied joy and it's ingredients. We call this the PauseCast within MwT and together, we explore the ingredients of joy. My friend Angie Arendt is a Christian minister, but while that frames her world view, it doesn't limit it. I am spiritual without being branded in a faith (anymore), so many of our meanders wrestle with ideas around joy and it's ingredients in a way that I feel is honest and likely reflective of topics my listeners also struggle with in their lives.
 

I fund the podcast myself. I really believe we need conversations like these, and spaces like this, to live in that wholehearted space that Dr. Brene Brown invites us into. Each episode is an invitation to listeners to pause, and connect with themselves, using the meander as a guide into how to do that, how to reconnect to their own joy, modeled by the conversation at hand.

I try to post every two weeks but I also want this to fit comfortably into my life and so don't stress if I'm not ready on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. The PauseCast comes out on the middle Wednesday of each month, sandwiched between the regular Tuesday interviews. I also take the summer off so I can regroup. But this posting routine, I can't stress enough, is a guideline not a rule. When it feels too heavy, I back off. My stress comes out in the taping, and so it's important to me that the episodes feel spacious and comfortable.
 

I don't have any sponsors but my own company. It's not my intention to monetize the podcast, that's not my currency.

So what do I get out of the podcast? First, I am able to answer the question: what's my part? What's my part in making the world a better place? Creating a space and a model for introspection is what I get out of this podcast. I have listeners around the world - how did people find me from Namibia or Finland, where I have regular listeners? Amazing! I love seeing where people listen from.

Second, I hear from listeners who tell me how much they appreciate what I'm offering. I guess you'd call that positive feedback.

As mentioned, I'm not out to monetize the podcast but to create space for pause and self-reflection. And if this creates just a little more kindness in the world, and joy in people's hearts so they are able to offer compassion to each other, then I'm pretty satisfied.
 

I have an annual subscription to Hindenburg for my sound editing. Every interview is taped there in real time. I conduct each interview on Zoom and when needed I use the audio from there. Yes, it's a "belt and suspenders" approach but I like taking the interview in two places in case there is a problem with the sound on one. I have a professional mic, and I ask that my interviewee us a headset with a mic close to their mouth. I don't encourage Bluetooth mics as they get static-y as soon as the batteries get a tad weak.

There's not much prep for the episodes, truth be told. For my regular episodes, I just start with open questions about their lives. For my PauseCast, I have a theme for each month that get's explored by me and my friend, Angie Arendt. She's the knowledgeable one in this space and I ask the questions I think the listener would like. It's helpful that I'm a trained journalist and personal development coach as I know my way around a conversation. Honestly, I try and edit very lightly as this is what gives the sense of conversation.

I'll edit the beginning and end of the episode, clean up the conversation with as light a hand as possible. I have a taped intro and extro, but I've been playing with doing that differently of late. I'm not sure where I've landed on that yet.

Originally I had run the sound of a walk in the forest behind the interviews. The whole first season is like that. With the PauseCast and season two, I've been playing with using royalty free music that gives the feeling of a relaxed conversation with a friend in a nifty coffee shop. I think that's been going well. Not everyone understood the forest sounds... sometimes the crunching came across as static that I heard some people found confusing. Getting feedback is so important! What sounds right in my ear doesn't necessarily land in my listener's ear. In holding things loosely, I am able to shift as needed.
 

My host, Simplecast, posts my original, and then casts it out to all the other platforms. Apple and Google Play are the most important to me based on my statistics. I also post to my personal and to my company FaceBook pages. That's it. I've been in business 30 years and never used marketing to find work, relying instead on word of mouth and repeat clients. I have applied that same mindset to the podcast. I believe in word of mouth - the people who are drawn to this will find it, of that I am certain. Growth has been slow, and I'm comfortable with that.
 

My best advice is: be you. Find your voice in a topic you feel passionate about, and be that person. Ensure that your product is really what you want to share with the world and sing that tune as best you can. People will find you. If you're having fun with the creating, people will enjoy what you do.
 

My company website https://www.trudychapmancoaching.com/ houses my blog, and you'll learn all about my coaching process with people. I do my best to work from a place of what I call "grounded kindness" and that is the spirit I'm trying to bestow on people when they visit my site.

I can also be found on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/trudychapman/ where you'll learn more about my professional background. I will occasionally write there too, and may not post that on my company blog.
I don't use any other social medial for my company as I am very careful with the time I spend on line. Life is for living in person, not electronically.

I hope you've enjoyed learning about my podcast, Meanderings with Trudy, and I hope you'll both subscribe and find your way back to joy in your own life. Be kind to yourself, and to others.