I’m Launching A Podcast Today!

and I’m kinda terrified.

I mean, I’m a family photographer, not a podcaster! Who am I to launch a podcast? What do I even have to say? Aren’t there already enough podcasts in the world?! If you’ve ever bumped into imposter syndrome then you’ll relate!

I’m a self-confessed podcast addict.

I’m no good at reading, I rarely sit down to watch TV and I spend a ridiculous amount of time going up and down the stairs repatriating miscellaneous items to their rightful location around the house (I know you relate to that one!)… so with my phone in my back pocket, podcasts just work for me in this season of life.

In amongst the light relief of ‘Shagged Married Annoyed’ and ‘Parenting Hell’, I am partial to a bit of business chit chat. As a “mumpreneur” building a photography business, I have absorbed tons of useful information from marketing and mindset podcasts in recent years.

But it dawned on me a few months ago that I seemed to be consuming success story after success story from businesspeople who were meditating, manifesting, dozing under red lights, hiking up a mountain and back and getting an hour of yoga in, all before checking in with their team over lunch and regularly hitting 6 figure months!

I became exhausted by it. I couldn’t relate. I had obsessed over clean eating and yoga when I was single in my early thirties, to the point where I almost made myself ill. Now I’m a Mum of two, who has fully accepted that I am going to age and deteriorate. I wouldn’t say no to a 6 figure month (who would?!), but I’m not interested in bio-hacking my way out of the inevitable!

I do however care about my business and the transformation my photography gives to my clients. I love the way my business model is set up now, because it allows me to experience the whole process alongside the families I serve and that is so rewarding!

All that said, running a business with little ones to look after is hard work.

And I know that more and more women feel pushed into entrepreneurship, because it’s the only way they can guarantee the flexibility they need to be present mothers for their children.

I also know that many of those women are entering into the world of business with very little guidance or support. They’re making it up as they go along. For years I did that too!

So I thought… what if there was a podcast about the messy middle?

I wanted to hear the stories of women striving to build a business filled with passion, purpose and profit whilst raising the next generation of humans; the ones dashing out of a call at 2:55pm to go and pick their kids up from school!

I wanted to hear the stories of women just like me. Women who knew they hadn’t yet made it, but who were still trying day in and day out.

I couldn’t find that podcast, so I decided to start it myself.

Then after several months of inaction, I turned 40. And I thought “f**k it”, what’s the worst that could happen?!

So I took a deep dive into what it takes to start a podcast and (with some help from Jenna Kutcher’s Podcast Lab!) slowly but surely got my head around the tech.

I built and launched the Mum Means Business website, YouTube channel, instagram and facebook at the start of July and suddenly it all felt very real! I had announced it to the world. I was committed.

The podcast trailer was just me talking to camera for a few short minutes and I messed up in all sorts of ways… I put the dishwasher on just before pressing record, I had my webcam setup on a crazy high exposure so the video highlights are completely blown and I stumbled over basic words 🤦‍♀️

I didn’t have time to re-record it because my kids then arrived home from nursery with their Dad! Such is life.

So I told myself “done is better than perfect” and sent it out into the world.

Then came the next scary hurdle… actually recording interviews with people! I started reaching out to Mums I knew and Mums I didn’t who I knew had interesting stories to tell about the realities of juggling their business and their babies.

I’d been told it’s best practice to kick off with a week of daily episodes, but having taken the best part of an hour to edit a 5 minute trailer recording down to 3 minutes, that seemed impossible. So I settled for 4 days of consecutive episodes (not much better really!), announced the launch date and started reaching out to prospective guests.

Happily the response has been so good and I have felt really humbled by the amazing women who’ve agreed to set aside time in their busy schedules to talk to me and support this project in its infancy.

When it came to recording I soon realised my children are right - our house is too hard. I designed it that way (much to everyone else’s dismay) and it is not acoustically absorbent by any stretch! So I chose a corner of the room nearest the sofa, stacked my laptop up on cookbooks and scattered cushions around to make it as soundwave-friendly as I could. It’s quite a professional setup as you can see!

My first interview was with Erin Thomas Wong who has made a name for herself as the Life-Friendly Business Mentor. A veteran podcaster herself, she metaphorically held my hand through the whole recording and hers is the interview you’ll hear today!

This has been a very different sort of blog post in that it’s rather light on fine art film photography, but I hope this project will be the start of something meaningful. I’m a great believer in the power of storytelling and if this podcast makes one Mum feel seen as she strives to design a business that supports her family life, then it’s worth the effort to me.

The 6 figure months can wait a little longer 😂

Normal service will resume next week! In the mean time, why not head over to the podcast and have a listen?

Reach out an let me know what you think through my contact page or on instagram, I’d love to hear from you!