Creatively Contenting Podcast Management is one year old this week! And I am so grateful for the last year. I’ve always been the kind of person who needs to enjoy their work and feel passionate about what they do. I didn’t always know that podcast management was going to give me this job satisfaction but since becoming a podcast manager I can confirm it certainly has.
But how does one become a podcast manager? I will talk about my journey from commerce student to podcast manager.
What is a podcast manager
A podcast manager is responsible for supervising the complete process of podcast creation, from idea development to production to promotion. The podcast manager will also look at big picture planning and the growth of the podcast.
Read more about what a podcast manager is and does in this blog.
My background in media
When I was in school I found it very challenging to decide what I wanted to do with my life. Podcast management didn’t even come into the equation. I don’t even think it was a profession at that time.
After some time I eventually settled on studying commerce international. I thought it seemed like a pretty solid foundation for whatever I might eventually do. On completion I didn’t really see myself going into the corporate world so I decided to do a masters in journalism. This is when I found my passion- audio. I’d always loved listening to the radio but never thought it was possible to actually work in. I thought people on the radio were celebrities and I definitely was not.
I picked up editing much faster than I thought I would and adored our assignments making short radio documentaries. I loved the idea of giving people the opportunity to share their story and making it sound amazing.
After college I worked in various jobs in radio and print journalism. I also spent some time working in a media production company. My time in radio taught me so much more about radio production and I actually got the opportunity to produce a current affairs show. The show was nominated for a national radio award during my time working on it.
My partner and I decided to move to Canada in January 2020 where I was ready to start at the bottom of the media pecking order again and try to find myself a job when the COVID pandemic hit. I got a job in finance and settled into the pandemic, not really thinking about my career. I was just happy to have an income at the time.
How I became a podcast manager
Throughout COVID I worked completely remote. I noticed some friends working from different locations in Europe and in Canada. As we neared the end of our Canadian visa and wanted to travel a bit I realised we could do the same. I just had to figure out what kind of job I could do. That’s when I thought about freelancing. I realised there were people online who needed their podcasts edited. I put posts up on Fiverr and Upwork and started getting jobs immediately. I paused both of my accounts until I was ready to fully commit.
We travelled to Mexico with a view to travel slowly and to work online. At first I was looking for anything to do with writing and podcast editing. But then it struck me. I could combine all of my skills together and start managing podcasts.
Podcast management is where business and journalism meet and I was skilled in both of those fields. And bonus points, I was a radio producer too. As soon as I started focusing on promoting my podcast management offering on Fiverr people got in touch. This just fueled me to invest more in my business and expand my podcast management packages.
I launched my website and started targeting my audience by posting valuable and useful content on social media.
What I like about being a podcast manager
As I mentioned above I love my job as a podcast manager. And I love owning my own business. These are my favourite things about them both:
- Enabling people to share their story
- The satisfaction of hearing the final podcast
- The ability to work from anywhere there’s power and wifi
- Being able to choose my hours
Biggest challenges in becoming a podcast manager
Of course, nothing worth doing comes without challenges. These are the things I found the most challenging in the last year of business and why.
Knowing my value
I spent the first while in my business seriously undervaluing myself. I struggled so much with setting prices and imposter syndrome would creep in and tell me I was charging too much. I worked more than I was supposed to for clients and always ended up giving away at least some of my time for free.
Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome didn’t just show up in my pricing. It causes me to doubt myself and question if what I’m doing is really worth it. It allowed me to be manipulated by clients who took advantage of that weakness. The funny thing is that it took me months to actually realise I struggle with imposter syndrome. Before that I guess I just thought I was a rightful imposter.
Showing up on social media CONSISTENTLY
I recently learned that to break through the noise of social media now you need to be producing 80 pieces of content per week. 80!
But even without doing that, having a presence on social media is time consuming. Creating content daily for multiple different platforms hurts my brain. Luckily with time and experience this got easier and now I have started implementing a social media strategy that I am happy with.
Starting a podcast? Download my free guide or contact us with any questions or inquiries!