You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 122.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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Hi, my strong friends. Hey, happy July. How are you gonna go out and celebrate your freedoms this weekend?

 

I know this last week has been pretty challenging with some of the rulings by the Supreme court. We're starting to feel like some of our freedom is being taken away, but here's the thing. You have the freedom to always use your voice. You still have all of the freedom of choice in anything that you're gonna do in your business. Or if you want to use medium, such as a podcast to get your voice out there and influence a movement.

 

Podcasting has been one of my favorite things about creating my business. I get to set all of my own rules. I get to talk on the subjects that are most important to me. I get to have interviews and bring people on so that we can learn about things in other people's worlds. We can learn new techniques.

 

Everybody gets to have a voice, and this is your chance.

 

You can choose if you wanna create a podcast so that you can get your voice out there, or you can even choose if you wanna include it as part of your business model today, I've brought on my friend, Kara Gott Warner. She's gonna teach you all about how to get your podcast up and running. She even has a really great program she's gonna tell you about on how she can help you to create your podcast in one day so that you can cut down on all of the tech overwhelm. She takes care of all that for you. It's so cool. So I can't wait for you to meet Kara.

 

Meet Kara Gott Warner

Gretchen Hernandez:

Hi Kara. Good morning. I'm so glad that you joined me today.

Kara Gott Warner:

Hey, thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here!

Gretchen Hernandez:

I've got so many people in my audience that are interested in starting podcasts. So I was like, okay, I have to bring on the best and I want you to come and tell them about podcasting. Can you introduce yourself

Kara Gott Warner:

Please? Sure. Okay. So my name is Kara Gott Warner, and I'll just say I'm a peacock of many feathers.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Ooh, I love that description.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah, because I just, you know, I have a lot of colors to me. So I kind of started back to my beginnings, a little bit, I guess. But I come from the design world. I am a former Knitting Magazine Editor and Editorial Director turned certified life coach and podcast coach.

Kara Gott Warner:

Now, I've been podcasting for the past eight years and I just love, love this medium so much. And you know, I just love teaching coaches now that I get to, you know, I've been doing this now for eight plus years and counting. And I really love to kind of encourage coaches to see podcasting as a holistic piece of their coaching business. Right? And so how it can really help them to grow an impactful business through the power of their words.

Kara Gott Warner:

So, yeah. So I first discovered podcasting in 2014 and it was, it was a really kind of like the scrappy process for me.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love scrappy. Scrappy is good.

Kara Gott Warner:

Scrappy is good. And I think it's just to fall in love with the actual art of doing the art of the spoken word is what I love to call it. It really started almost like little notes to self on my audio recorder. And I was going outside in the morning and recording. And one day I said, Hmm, maybe this could become a podcast?

Gretchen Hernandez:

So you were doing it before it was even a podcast. You were just speaking into your recorder.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah.

Gretchen Hernandez:

It's interesting. Because I just heard a counselor talking about this, of doing like a verbal journal because it can help you like process thoughts and stuff. So why were you recording voice memos or however you would describe it before podcasting?

Kara Gott Warner:

Well, yes, on the whole kind of therapy side, you know. Because I'm a talker and I'm a native New Yorker, what can I say. But yeah, like it was, I just really enjoy that. I really love to speak from an emotional place. It just really lit me up and this is like kind of a quirky, funny thing, but I was like, well, I can't see without my glasses. 

 

Kara Gott Warner:

And when I'm out walking and running it, well actually I would be cooling down after a run and I would just like record, oh, I got this idea. And so I would just record it and listen later to it. And then I realized that I was like, wait, I have something that someone could learn from. Right?

Kara Gott Warner:

If it inspires me, maybe it will inspire someone else. So I had no agenda. I had no interest in a result. You know what I mean? Like that, oh, I wanted, I'm gonna do this thing. And I want it to, to provide, you know, this result for me, I wasn't thinking about that. The result, it was like I was getting it every time I was recording. Right?

Kara Gott Warner:

So then I just started recording in my voice recorder. But then I started using apps, like SoundCloud had an app that came out around that time, but it was still really clunky back in 2014. Even though podcasts were called podcasts, but it was still, it was clunky. Like I could count all the podcasts in my space. Now you can't! Now you got a poor glass of wine and Hey, let's buckle in. Let's see. And so then I just, you know, I started, I started from there.

 

Kara's First Podcast Circa 2014

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. What were you talking about way back then when you first started?

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. So I guess this is what, what I was gonna say next is the name of my podcast is we'll sort of qualify that or explain that. So I called it The Morning Cool Down and it was essentially like, you know, after my workout, I would talk about inspiring topics as they pertain to morning routines

Gretchen Hernandez:

Hmmm!

Kara Gott Warner:

And, you know, purposeful and planning and time management and all the things. Right. But mostly how the morning was like this magical container of time. Because it really is. I mean, I really think there's some serious energy there. Of course, we have the serotonin starting and all these other chemicals. Right. But I called it that.

Kara Gott Warner:

And so I just started talking about those sorts of things and a month in, and I always love to tell this story for people that are like, you know, just go with your heart, go with this feeling of like, I just wanna like share my message. Right. So I was still just me using my phone birdies for the background music.

Kara Gott Warner:

And I dunno if you know, Hal Elrod, but he wrote many books now, but he wrote the book called The Miracle Morning and he reached out to me. Yeah. A lot of people know he's pretty, pretty big deal. So, he reached out to me about a month after I started this as a real podcast and he says, Hey, do you have guests? And I was like, yeah, I do now. I mean, I said in some brain!

Gretchen Hernandez:

Right! I do now!

Kara Gott Warner:

And so this is what I mean by this progression. Right. It's like, oh, now I'm gonna do that. And I'm gonna see what it's like to get a microphone. I've had this microphone since then. And geek out a little bit on the tech side because I wanted to. Not because I felt like I had to, but because I wanted to really love the idea. Yeah. Learning how to edit, fade in, fade out all that stuff.

Gretchen Hernandez:

That's kind of fun.

Kara Gott Warner:

He was my first guest, my very first guest.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow. Wow. That's amazing.

Kara Gott Warner:

And then from there I started being more strategic, you know, my second podcast was a whole different animal, so that was kind of, it was like this organic thing. And I was playing the long game. Right?

Kara Gott Warner:

And so that's kind of what I teach my clients. In the very beginning, so hopefully that, and hopefully I didn't go down too many rabbit holes, but like that's kind of my journey.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. Because it really, I got scrappy when I first started too. And it was like trying to figure out like, okay, well, how do I get music? Like even figuring that out, like royalty-free music or do you find a place where you can purchase it, so it's not necessarily royalty-free, but you have rights to it.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And then learning all of those skills of how to edit, like you were talking about the fading in and fading out. That was fun for me, trying to figure out how to do that in the very beginning. And so now when I watch like the academy awards and they're giving sound editing awards, I'm like, now I have an idea of what they do. Because I do, you know, not everything that they do, but editing a podcast. Like you learn those skills on your own and it's fun to learn those skills. And so you got to do that.

 

The Wild West of Podcasting

Gretchen Hernandez:

So you started off with one podcast. How many different podcasts have you done?

Kara Gott Warner:

Well, I would say right now I'm on the fourth, but I've rebranded my current podcast three times. Because I'm of the mind of creating a body of work. I talk about that all the time on my podcast, in my messaging. And it's like, I have pieces in my archives from day one that I can still scoop up and share, even though they pertain to my previous life in the knitting world as an editor of a magazine. Right. But it's like, I can still pull from that.

Kara Gott Warner:

Because I was always talking about business. I've always been talking about mindset from way before I was a, you know, way before I was a life coach. So, The Morning Cooldown was the first kind of experimental. And then my second podcast was called Power Purls Podcast. There's always been P's in my title. It's really funny.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh!

Kara Gott Warner:

Right. But, Power Purls Podcast like knitting and purling. Right. So that was when I used that in a more strategic way to use it like a platform to reach the audience, the magazine audience in a more intimate way. And it was very powerful because it was the first time it was ever done in the company, a podcast for a magazine. And so that was 2015.

 

Kara Gott Warner:
And then, I rebranded that podcast into Craft Your Confidence podcast. So that was when I was still working with designers and mentoring people in the design world and the yarn and the yarn and knitting world. Because I had been mentoring and you know, an influencer in that world. So people had been coming to me and I was helping, helping coach them.

Kara Gott Warner:

And so I said, I'm gonna keep going in that direction. And craft your confidence was the podcast that merged or became that program. My first big kind of coaching program. And then eventually I moved to today's Podcasting with Purpose for Life Coaches.

Kara Gott Warner:

So it's this the same feed, if you will. It's just, it's been the same. And that is where you train your people. Right. Because you know, I'm getting ahead of myself. Cause I know that's one of your questions that you probably had for me. Because it's like, you can do it all different ways. Right. You can rebrand and keep the same backend because no, one's gotta know. Nobody knows you just it's about training your people like, Hey, this is what's coming up. And they'll be people that follow away and people that will continue to follow you.and they just get to see your trajectory and your journey. Your new chapters. Right.

Kara Gott Warner:

Or you just start fresh. Right. Because you're taking a whole new direction. So there's really no right or wrong way. Right? Yeah. It's the wild west. That's what I, so I always say it's the wild west, it still is. And we get to decide.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I think that's what I like the most is that we get to make our own rules. Because being an employee in a corporation sometimes you have to like color within the lines is how I talk about it. That they have a role description for you and you do that role. And some companies allow you to color outside the lines and come up with new and innovative ways of doing things and some don't.

Gretchen Hernandez:

But when you have your own business or your own podcast, you get to express yourself exactly how you want to and your people that love you are gonna come along for the ride.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. And it's like, here we are. It's like, we're having a chat. It's like, I'm drinking my tea

Gretchen Hernandez:

Uh-huh

Kara Gott Warner:

And we're, we're chatting. I mean, isn't that amazing that we get to do this.

Gretchen Hernandez:

It is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It and everybody that we get to meet by doing this. Like you and I, we might have not been able to meet through other circumstances. Right? But podcasting, we have that in common, and we love it. Absolutely. And so it's like now we get to form this friendship, this relationship, and we start bringing more people like us that like self-expression and like helping people and developing people and we get to all come together. And it's like, we almost form our own family. It feels so good.

Kara Gott Warner:

I know it really does. It really does. Yeah. So I'm so excited. I always love doing this.

 

Rebranding Your Podcast

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. So when you rebranded your podcast, did you go back to the beginning episodes and change your intro and artwork? Or did you keep it how it was and just like midway through just changed things.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. With each rebrand, I changed some of the naming conventions of the titles and numbering. For my current podcast, I just removed the numbers together. But, I didn't change the intros. I didn't change anything because I wanted that to be almost like a snapshot of what was happening at that time. Because if someone were to decide to go back to the beginning, they could see where it kind of changed to that next phase.

Kara Gott Warner:

Because I was really training, I hate to use the word training. You could see it as you would kind of progress through the different episodes where it became the new version and what was happening. And here it's coming up, get ready. This is the final episode for, you know, Power Purls, or this is the final episode for this.

Kara Gott Warner:

And then here we go, you know, it's a podcast party, you know what I mean? So that's kind of how I did it. And I'll be honest, even though it's been like this beautiful, I don't know, over 200 episodes, probably in the current feed, but I'm thinking of rebranding. And not rebranding, but you know, starting over, so it's like a clean feed with my current podcast. Just because I'm thinking it would be, I don't know. I just want to.

Kara Gott Warner:

I think that's the decisions that we have to really remember to make like in our businesses and even with our podcasts, it's like, I'm not doing it because I think I should. I'm doing it because I really like the idea of it. I mean I think it's time and I love the idea. Because like I said before, there's no one way to do anything anyway.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Exactly.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And I'm gonna pick up on both pieces of that. So with the showing everybody the journey along your 200+ episodes. I love that because in entrepreneurship we need to pivot in our businesses from time to time. And we have to experiment and we're listening to our clients and what they need most and we're trying to serve them in the best way. And sometimes that does end up evolving our business. And so they can see that that's happening.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And especially if we happen to be working with other entrepreneurs, they get to see that we did that and it normalizes it so that when they're going through it, because people think black and white thinking like you start something one way and if it doesn't work out how you want, you scrap the whole thing. It's like, no, no, no, there's an evolution. There's that experimenting, figuring things out, finding what people really, really need from us. And then we serve at that highest capacity. So we end up giving permission. We're like role modeling how to do it.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. Because there are no critical mistakes. I mean, I heard someone say that like, oh, I can't do that. That would be a critical mistake. I don't believe that at all. I think it's all a big experiment and we're painting. We're painting on the canvas. If I move into doing something different and evolving to the next level with my current podcast, what I've done before is all gonna be intact. It's like, you know, enjoy the catalog. Enjoy that compilation of all these colorful, you know, peacocks feathers, whatever. But you know, it's like all these things that have happened before, Let it have its own life.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Absolutely. And then the deciding that you want to just make that clean break and start a fresh one so that it's very concentrated. Some of the things because I've had that similar consideration for my podcast, too.

 

Starting Over, Launching A New Podcast

Gretchen Hernandez:

What about all of the effort that you've put into those other 200? Does it feel like you're scrapping it? Like how does it help you to what, what are some thoughts that you have on letting that part be complete?

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. So I don't have any problem at all with doing sort of like an encore episode or the best of, or taking pieces from what I've done. If I let's say move into this new chapter or a new feed, if you will, right? A new podcast, but with the same, you know, flavor, I can take some of those best episodes and republish them. There's nothing wrong with that. And in fact, from the beginning, there could have been episodes or ways that I could have taught things differently that I get to do again and use some of what I've done. Pull that back in and add to it.

Kara Gott Warner:

So it's like, you know, revisit those talking points or scripts or whatever it is that I did in those beginning episodes. How can I take those and use those as tools for this new iteration of podcasting with purpose?

Kara Gott Warner:

So those are the things that I'm thinking about. And those are the things that we always get to do. We don't scrap anything. We can give something new life. I always think of like when I was in art school and we would paint. I took this six-hour oil painting class. It's amazing. But every week we would paint the same model. I don't know why if this makes sense, but it kind of came to mind. But I would scrape down maybe parts of it and paint back into it or maybe scrape everything. But I could decide because the paint was fresh or it was pliable because oil paint is. And I could just scrape some of it and add to it.

Kara Gott Warner:

And maybe I would see another dimension and I'd see another shadow, even though the model was set up the same way, but I might see deeper into that shadow and into that contour.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love the picture that you're painting. I couldn't help it. It's kind of corny, but I love to paint too. I've used mainly like acrylics and stuff. I haven't gone for the oil just yet, but there are times when I started to do something and I was making my painting way too complicated, and sometimes I'll do it on canvas. Sometimes I'll do it on wood, especially driftwood. We have a lot of driftwood out here.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And there was this one that I was painting and it can definitely correlate to a podcast too. I was painting this one and I had this idea of like a mandala. And in this picture, in my mind it was beautiful. And then as I was doing it, it started to just look like a big mess.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I was being super critical of myself because it wasn't matching the picture in my mind, but it was just like really complicated. It wasn't giving me that feeling that I was looking for. And although I had family members look at it and go, oh, that's so beautiful. That's so pretty. It wasn't giving me the feeling I wanted and I decided, you know what, I want something more simple. And I did something bold.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I took this bright green paint and I painted over the whole thing. And then I just painted a big, huge, hot pink heart right in the middle. And it was just that it was just one big heart green background. And I put it outside my window so that I could always look out at it of the beauty of the simplicity of it all. But it didn't have to be this complicated thing.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And I think that can also apply with some of our podcasts is that as we go along, we might think that it needs to look in a certain way, but we start to have that wrong feeling. I don't wanna say wrong feelings, but not the feeling that we wanted and that we can scrap it and make it something simpler. That gives us exactly the feeling that we want.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. Because we can't take someone else's thought, and if we feel crappy about it, we're just not gonna get the result that we really want anyway. Right. It's like, you gotta be just like, yes. So it's like you painted over your mandala and that was it. That was what did it for you that made it free. Just free and relaxed and yeah. So I love that!

A Podcasting Routine

Gretchen Hernandez:

And the amount of time that it took to do the complicated one was frustrating and it hurt, but the time to do the simpler one felt good. And so I wanna ask you about like your routine when you're doing your podcast because I know that a lot of folks are worried about the time investment that goes into it. Yeah. What are ways that you do it?

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. I'm glad that you brought that up. Because I was feeling like we need that's we could really transition into, because you were talking about like, you know, when you did the mandala and it was so like hard and time-consuming and it didn't feel good. I know that everybody wants to have the answer to like, this is how you do it and you do it and this is it. Right?

Kara Gott Warner:

You have to have the show notes and you have to have bullets and you have to have timestamps. You have to. But the answer to that is no you don't. If you're gonna have timestamps, but you hate doing them, you know, or whatever it is that you're doing. And you're just like, it's a chore, you're gonna pod fade.

Kara Gott Warner:

Right. It's just, I see it all the time.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that term pod fade.

Kara Gott Warner:

Pod fade. Just what it sounds like. When I coach my clients, I say, you know, let's coach pod fade brain going on today. Because it's a thing. It's a thing. So anyway, but you were asking me about I'm sorry. Because I can easily go down the little rabbit hole.

Kara Gott Warner:

My routines. And this is something that I wanna share with your audience, because it's an episode that I did. It's got in the title less is more basically (Less Stuff MORE Impact - How to Use ONE Episode 8 Ways). It's how to take one episode and share it. Basically eight ways to take this one episode and like share it with the world. It's almost like I think of it as the nucleus, your episode is the nucleus, and then, you know, all these are like the sort of radiating off of that center.

Kara Gott Warner:

I'll basically write my talking points. I have a little, you know, like a container, I guess if you will. And all the tasks that I need are, I mean you can, people can do this in Google calendar. I do it in Asana, but I've been using that forever. I used to teach teams how to use this. I love as Asana. I don't know if you're familiar with it. But anyway, the project management program, it's sort of like a Trello board.

Kara Gott Warner:

And it always just replicates. And it's like all the little things that I'm gonna do, like systematically, like for that episode. All inside this one container. And I just keep it really simple. I write my bullets, I record, and I upload it to the host. I create a couple of soundbites.

Kara Gott Warner:

I literally record on my iPad. And edit on my iPad. And I have a template and I do this for my clients. I create little their, I create their intros and our outros and I show them how to do a template. Really literally create it with them. That's how hands-on I am and they're done. And all they do is 10 seconds, up to the cloud or up to the host.

Kara Gott Warner:

It's so easy. I've gotten so scrappy and so streamlined with what I do that literally like the actual recording. The recording is different, right? So maybe you have 30 minutes or whatever it is. Or an interview like we're doing here, but the editing and production side is like minimal. you know, minimal. I don't remove the ums and the ahs and I don't bother with that stuff unless it's something really crucial.

Kara Gott Warner:

When I upload it to the host and I use Buzzsprout, it's like one beautiful blog post that I reshare everywhere. It's Instagram, my email list. I pull snippets out of it for social sharing. You know, I don't get into like the bullets or the timestamps.

Kara Gott Warner:

And I have, I've done it all the ways, all the different ways. Because like I said earlier, I love to experiment, but I keep it as like this really like beautiful. Like it's a blog post. So that it has, it can become lots of different things and I can pull out of it in lots of different ways to share. And I do it all in literally like a Monday morning and it's done.

Kara Gott Warner:

And I work in the week that I want to release the episode. And I do it on a Monday morning and I'm done and I feel it and I'm with it and I just have a bubble bath with it. I schedule it Monday for Wednesday morning, easy and done.

Kara Gott Warner:

So I don't get caught up in all the extra little bits and pieces that everyone says you're supposed to have or do. So I don't know if that gave you a good picture of how I do things, but yeah, it's a big, broad brush strokes without getting too in the nitty-gritty of it. Nothing really complex there.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that. And I love the routineness of it too because a lot of times we start to have emotion, right? Some are derailing kinds of emotions, you know, life can come in sideways and give us unexpected things. And all of a sudden our emotions take over. Or our brain just goes, you know, a little bit haywire and gives us some thoughts that create some emotions that can derail us.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And I think having those routine processes and especially how you talked about how it's in Asana, it's like, okay, even though I'm feeling these derailing kinds of emotions today, okay. What was I supposed to do right now? And then it's like, you can go and you can see, okay, I'm doing this one part, this one part. And it's like, it helps us. And I think it calms down our emotions, too. It ends up being the thing that gives us that peace in our life.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. And I wanted to just add really quick to, that this is sort of like a little hack. So even though I said, I work in the week of, let's say something comes up. Because you just mentioned life happens, you know. I always have an episode in the bank.

Kara Gott Warner:

Because let's say I am going away or there's some an emergency or I'm like, you know, for whatever reason, I'm not feeling it. I have something waiting because when I have something in the bank or a couple of episodes in reserve, then I get to be spontaneous. So if I'm like, you know what, I feel like recording outside today. Because I do that. I still do that. I can't help it. Because the morning cool down is still in my blood.

Kara Gott Warner:

So I might say, well, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna save this other episode for another time. So I always have extra. I capture those things in the ether. If they're there, I don't let them go away. Like, so it's like, that's the other piece of it too. Don't be so rigid about, oh this is when I record. This is when I do it. Have that structure. But at the same time, allow yourself to be spontaneous.

Kara Gott Warner:

So you have the structure in place, but you also allow for spontaneity. Then you're not doing it because you're like, it's a chore. I have to do it. So that to me is what is so important. And that's what has helped me to keep going for the past eight-plus years. Because it keeps it fun.

Kara Gott Warner:

It's not a chore. And let's say you are struggling to get an episode out. And you're like, well, I didn't write all the, you know, everything I wanted to say and elaborate on the highlights. Just write a little blurb and get it out there.

Kara Gott Warner:

Even if it's just a little blurb. Because guess what? You can add more to that later in the week or another time. And then it'll just update on your podcast. It's not a crucial problem because people wanna hear your message. They wanna hear you. It's an audio medium. Right? So don't get caught up in all the show notes. Because nobody really goes to the show notes. I don't know about you, but I really don't. Sometimes not really don't.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love the creativity of you allowing yourself to record in other places. Like I was just talking with one of my clients last week about where we feel our most creative. And sometimes it's not sitting in front of a computer.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. Usually, it's not! Not for me!

Gretchen Hernandez:

I live off of highway one in California, so it's very windy and it's, we've got the forest in the ocean and I have this one-hour drive to go grocery shopping. And I love it because that's where all of my creative ideas start flowing. And there's been so many times that I thought of recording while I'm driving because those thoughts are better than anything that I come up with sitting in front of my computer or sitting in my car in my bedroom.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. Why not?!

Kara Gott Warner:

I mean, I've done it. I think you have the earbuds that come with our iPhones. They're really good. They produce really good sound. I know some podcasters and they're successful coaches, they use those for their episodes. All the time!

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh thats a great idea.

Kara Gott Warner:

I was like really? Why not? You know? Why not try it? And even if you're like, you get to the parking lot and you hang out and you sit there and you record, you could even bring your mic you're using now. Because it's put it on.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Well, I'm like you, is that unless I'm doing an interview, I record on my iPad. I have an iPad mini 2, like an old one from like forever ago. But I like the sound on that the best. And it's portable I can go anywhere.

Kara Gott Warner:

Well, that's what I was gonna say. You can take it with you. And, since you're recording, I'm sure you have like a camera kit adapter or whatever adapter you need for USB. I don't know. I have a newer iPad. So it only has it doesn't have a lightning port on it. So whatever, you know, find the adapter that you need. And when you're scrappy. Just figure it out. So easy to do nowadays.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Mine is just audio at this point with that. So I do over Zoom when I'm having an interview on. But, I love having that flexibility.

Kara Gott Warner:

It's fun.

 

Starting a Podcast with Confidence

Gretchen Hernandez:

So some of the folks that I've talked to about creating a podcast, need help in coming up with confidence. And so they feel really nervous about starting a podcast and like who would wanna listen to them or maybe they think, you know, that someone will listen, but they're worried about like their voice. Is it going to convey their confidence or is it going to convey their nervousness? And do you have any advice for that?

Kara Gott Warner:

I think it really starts with just being okay that you have to start where you are, you know? And like in the beginning, confidence, doesn't just appear out of nowhere. We create it by doing the thing. Right.

Kara Gott Warner:

So really it's about deciding to be messy and be okay with that. And be like the little engine that could, you know, and you get better and you get better. And then you create that confidence. Because yeah. I mean, I know some podcasters who really love to reflect on their beginning. And how clunky, they sounded or mechanical. And they don't take themselves so seriously. And I could use that advice for myself, but it's true. Don't take yourself so seriously. Life is short and this is about having fun.

Kara Gott Warner:

The truth is that a podcast really is about having fun. Because the byproduct of it is like, wow. Yeah, you could potentially attract people who could become your clients potentially. But I think it's, it's a very powerful vehicle for us to create impact. And there are so many gifts that come out of that.

Kara Gott Warner:

So, I mean, I just say, just be willing to show that side of you that's a little bit vulnerable. Because also you're going to be helping the people that you wanna reach to say, wow, look, if she can do that. If she can just be like vulnerable and you know, just put herself out there. That means I could, I could probably do it too.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. Oh, I totally agree. Last week I was looking at a previous episode that I did like way back, like in the twenties and I'm at over 120 or so by now. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna use this one. I think I'll repurpose it. I'll republish it. Cuz I hadn't done that yet. You know, just like TV shows, you know, there are reruns occasionally, you know, or during the summer season they'll do reruns and people still enjoy the reruns.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And so I thought, you know, here's this one really good episode. It hasn't been out for, you know, like two years or something. So new audience members probably have never heard it before. And it was relevant to what people needed at the time from the different folks that I was talking to. And I went back and I was looking at it and I was like, oh no.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I was looking at the show notes, just like to do like a quick glance over the transcripts to see, okay, is this really getting the point across that I was trying to get? And all of a sudden I realized, I was like, oh my gosh, this episode is so clunky. That's a great word that you provided. So thank you.

Gretchen Hernandez:

But that was exactly what I thought is I was reading over it and I'm like, I can't even follow this. And I know what I was trying to convey at the time. And I was like, all right, this will be a good one for me to re-record now because now I, now that I've been doing it for a while, I can convey it in a clearer way.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yes. So that's, that's definitely a great option. And the other option is commentary at the beginning and say, this is an early episode that I did where I was a little clunky or whatever you wanna say. Just to kind of show people like, Hey, this is where I started. And it's okay. Like it depends on what you're speaking about in the episode too.

Kara Gott Warner:

I love that because then you're like, wow. You know, you're showing people your experiences in the beginning and how you were kind of tripping over yourself.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that because just like with any job that we might have throughout our lifetime in the very beginning, we're not gonna be great at it. There's a learning process and eventually, our skills start getting a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better. And then we can look back. And this is what I loved about having that historical record is to look back as a milestone. So I can compare my progress and go, wow, look how far I've come.

Gretchen Hernandez:

That felt pretty great. And that in itself was a confidence boost. But if I didn't have that record to start with, I'd never know.

Kara Gott Warner:

Well that's right!

Gretchen Hernandez:

And if I hadn't given myself a chance to experiment and be scrappy, I wouldn't have gotten to the place where I'm at now.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. And it's kind of like insurance like I love the word scrappy and just like getting out there and doing the thing because you're like creating this insurance for yourself. Of course. I'm gonna try it. I'm always gonna try it. I'm gonna get out there. I'm gonna get out from behind the bush.

Kara Gott Warner:

I always remind myself of that. It's like, if I'm gonna do it even if I'm afraid. And I'm in it for the growth and the learning and all that stuff, then that's the insurance that, you know, that I will in whatever, whatever way that means. Right?

 

How Much Does Podcasting Cost?

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, I love that.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And so one of the other things that I hear them bring up that they're concerned about is the cost of it. And I was scrappy starting because, you know, I wanted to make sure that I could afford to keep doing something for the long haul. And that I could afford to still cover bills and things, you know, as you're grown, you don't have an income source at first. So can you talk about the costs that you've experienced?

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. I mean, you know, in the beginning, I like to call it bare bones. Bare bones podcasting. it's really not a huge investment. It really isn't. And, a lot of people think, you know, from the equipment side that they have to get all these fancy pieces of, you know, like the editing software and the microphones.

Kara Gott Warner:

This microphone that I'm talking on, that people can't see, but it's called an ATR 2100. I know you're using your The Samson. And that was the thing that I will, you know, share with people like use that. It's got a great sound. And if you wanna record your interviews or even your own solo episodes on Zoom, you can do that too. So first right there off the bat, you've got everything you need.

Kara Gott Warner:

As far as editing is concerned, there are some amazing apps out there. I'll just kind of throw a few out there. The first one is free. The first one I'm gonna recommend is called Audacity. The top podcasters use that and it's free. It's free and it's great. It doesn't have bells and whistles. You don't need bells and whistles. So it's very, very easy to learn.

Kara Gott Warner:

I also use an app called Ferrite. I used that on my iPad. Super like easy to use. And the only, it's just like a one-time license, like $20 - $30.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, okay. That's not bad.

Kara Gott Warner:

No. And then Auphonic, I think I paid like $9 for the app on my phone. And I that's when I wanna record on my phone like if I'm out in the woods somewhere I use Auphonic and then I export it to my iPad or just keep it in the cloud until I'm ready to edit.

Kara Gott Warner:

You could start with your earbuds. I said that before your earbuds, from your iPhone. Let me tell you something. These phones, whether it's an Android, Galaxy, iPhone, or whatever, are sophisticated. Some of these iPhones they're more expensive than computers, right? We have the most sophisticated thing in the Palm of our hand. And it is your, it can be your recording studio.

Kara Gott Warner:

I remember and it's probably somewhere in my archives. I don't even know where the heck it is, but I just challenged myself. I'm gonna say circa 2015/2016. And I said I'm gonna re I'm gonna produce an episode 100% from my phone, everything, including my graphics, my everything.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow. I love that challenge.

Kara Gott Warner:

And I did that from my phone. And by the way, at the time Android. I'm doing it all from this thing, this little thing in my hand. Because it, I don't know what it was. I just knew. I was like, I'm gonna show myself that it's possible. You don't need all this other stuff.

Kara Gott Warner:

So, you know, to get started with the equipment, I mean, you could keep it below a hundred bucks easily. Even if you get an ATR 2100 like I have, you've got everything you need.

Kara Gott Warner:

If you're a life coach right now, you've got your Samson mic, if you use that and Zoom and that's all you really need to actually get started.

Kara Gott Warner:

Oh, and then your host. That's where all your episodes live, right? They don't live on your website just saying. All your episodes, they're kind of housed there. And the range for that is anywhere from like $12 to $20 bucks a month, depending on the host that you use. Because there are lots of different hosts out there. I use Buzzsprout. Anchor is one that a lot of people have heard of because you can do that one for free. Does that answer your question?

Gretchen Hernandez:

I absolutely think it does. Yeah. Because I've found that it's, it's very affordable and it's amazing that we can be on the same platform as celebrities and it only costs us like a handful of dollars. It's amazing.

Kara Gott Warner:

And that's why I'm glad you asked this question because in the beginning, it's important to remove the obstacles.

Kara Gott Warner:

I've worked with so many people over the years, so many coaches that are afraid and it's like, okay, here's how we solve that. Start talking into something.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that. That's it!

Kara Gott Warner:

That's it! Like when you say, okay, I got a Yeti and I got this other mic and I got this thing, and you're caught up in the equipment. But then they're afraid to do it. You just do it. Just pick anything. You have a program. Right.

Kara Gott Warner:

You work with life coaches as your clients? So it's like, you know, you have a beautiful program or whatever it is that you're doing as an entrepreneur, right. Or business owner, and you wanna start a podcast. You have a system and a process and a program that you're already giving to people to teach that on your podcast, give it all the way on your podcast. Because what they don't have is you right? In that more intimate way then when they hire you, however that whatever that looks like.

Kara Gott Warner:

So I say, give it all up and start where you are. Start with something and practice and then see if you love it. Because you know, like clients, when they come to me, by the time they get to me to actually be their coach, because they're like, this is where I'm gonna up-level my business. Right? I see this as the next level to make an impact.

Kara Gott Warner:

Because the people that work with me already have clients. They already have a way to make, you know, a living. They see a pod podcast as that other dimension to teach. To help. To impact. Right? They're not afraid to talk. They're not afraid to open their mouth.

Kara Gott Warner:

So if anyone's afraid, these are the things I'm giving you right now, remove the obstacles. Just take your iPhone and start talking inside of it or whatever you got.

 

Work with Kara Gott Warner

Gretchen Hernandez:

That is so fantastic. But what are all the ways that people can work with you?

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. So I have a couple of different ways that I might as well just share this right now because it's brand new. I don't even have a webpage for it. What I'll do is I'll share my email cause that'll be the best way.

Kara Gott Warner:

So I have been working with, I work with people for six months, which has been really amazing. But I had just started a new program where I call it Podcast In A Day. So podcast in a day. And I sit down with someone and we do like an intake, like let's say it's like an hour to 90 minutes. We take a little break, we do a downward dog, you know, stretch

Kara Gott Warner:

But it's like, I take all this stuff in from them. What's your vision? Who are you? Who do you wanna reach? We really talk about a lot of, all the inspirational stuff that they want to like spread in the world. Right. We figure out where their people are or who their people are. And put together all those like pieces. And then when we're done, I say, okay, I'll be in touch a couple of weeks.

Kara Gott Warner:

I come on back with, you know, their show, art, their description, their intro, their outro. I set everything up on the back-end so that...

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow!

Kara Gott Warner:

Basically, they're podcast-ready. They're ready to go. There are more pieces to it where they have to do a little bit of homework, but it's really, it's like I deliver this complete package so that they have everything they need.

Kara Gott Warner:

Because I've identified that people are scared or not scared. Let me rephrase that. What's hard for them is to do those things. To figure out how to put those pieces together. And if they're busy trying to grow a business, they're like I don't have time. So what I do is I give them back their time by doing that. I give them back their freedom, right? Because that's what they want.

Kara Gott Warner:

Of course, they wanna be able to just get behind the microphone and share the love. And then I help them set them up so that they can grow because they have the confidence. Because I've given them this beautiful package that allows them to just press record and be podcast ready to go.

Gretchen Hernandez:

That is a fantastic gift right there. Oh my gosh. I had to learn like all of the graphic artists and like all the different things, like more skills than what I needed just to get my voice out there.

Kara Gott Warner:

Exactly.

Gretchen Hernandez:

So yeah, you do all of that stuff so that they can focus on just getting their voice and their message out there. That's amazing.

Kara Gott Warner:

That's it! Yeah. So I've really condensed things down in that way. And so, yeah. So I mean, people can go to my website and find out more and contact me that way.

Kara Gott Warner:

So it's KaraGottWarner.com.

Kara Gott Warner:

And if someone wants to email me [email protected]. If they're like, yes. I wanna learn more about this Podcast In A Day thing. It's fascinating.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And you have a Facebook group too.

Kara Gott Warner:

Yeah. I do have a Facebook group. It's called Podcasting With Purpose for Life Coaches. So if someone wants to learn about that or get the kind of the link and access, they can go to KaraGottWarner.com/PodcastNow, and that's gonna send you all the info you need to get in there.

Gretchen Hernandez:

That is fantastic. That is fantastic. I really appreciate you taking the time today to come and share all of this wonderful wisdom and tips with my audience.

 

Podcast with Purpose

Gretchen Hernandez:

What would be one final piece of advice that you have for someone that wants to podcast with purpose?

Kara Gott Warner:

Oh my gosh. I feel like these kids of questions are always like, I could say everything. Think about just having fun first. Find the fun in this process. Ask yourself why, why do I want to do this? Right?

Kara Gott Warner:

So yes, you wanna make an impact with people, but what's in it for you too? We said this in the beginning. This can be like impactful, not just for your people, but for you. You can give yourself so many gifts just by showing up behind the microphone and giving in this way.

Kara Gott Warner:

It's very therapeutic and can become very therapeutic. Find out why you wanna do this and you know, be willing to explore and not take yourself so seriously. And just have fun with the process. And not pay attention to what other people tell you you should or shouldn't do. It's a great marketing tool. Put that away, put that thought away, you know? It can be, but in the beginning, it's like, you know, it's really about this is like a beautiful art form. This is a beautiful way to add dimension to your life and in someone else's life in a very authentic way because it's very intimate. It's a very intimate experience to hear someone's voice.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Thank you. That was, that was beautiful and very, very helpful.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Kara, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.

Kara Gott Warner:

Thank you so much for having me!

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wasn't Kara, a lot of fun? Can you imagine how great it's gonna be working with her to help you get your podcast up and running? Imagine all of the possibilities of what you could do with the podcast. You have a message to share with the world. You can make such a huge impact by using your voice. I can't wait to see what you do with it.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Have a great week and Happy 4th of July! Bye-bye.

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