How to Grow Your Confidence Through Storytelling & Podcasting with Julie Marty-Pearson

Kathi: Hi, I'm excited, and I was frozen there for a minute. This has been such a weird Zoom day, but I am glad to have you on the show, Julie. Welcome.

Julie: Thank you so much for having me.

Kathi: I was just talking about this tech. We never know what's going to happen.

Julie: Exactly. It's like, does the internet work? Does Zoom work? Does Trello work? I don't know. Nothing seems to be working today.

Kathi: So I'm just glad that we're here and we appear to be live. We appear to be recording, so all is well. Hey, let's talk about your backstory. I know you're a podcaster and a podcast mentor. What road took you there?

Julie: I always say before COVID, I spent almost 20 years in higher education. I taught psychology and statistics, and I worked as staff and administrator in a variety of roles doing assessment and accreditation work. I had left my last job for health reasons to have surgery, and I was coming out of that when COVID hit, so I couldn't get another job if I wanted to because the schools were all closed. That was my moment to decide what I wanted to do now. I had already been thinking about leaving that world, so that's when I started my own online coaching business around career coaching. I took all the classes on business and running a business, including podcasting, and that's where it started for me. I started a podcast about pets, which is something I love and am passionate about, just for fun, and I realized I love this. With a psychology background, interviews and all of that are second nature for me, so I really enjoy that part of it. Cut to a couple of years ago, and I shifted my whole business into podcasting and helping other women start their own.

Kathi: That's fantastic. I love the story. Sometimes life forces us to do what we were going to do anyhow, which just happened to me myself. So it's great. The universe responds to us and says, "Okay, Julie, it's time for you to exit. You're ready to exit anyhow, so let's get going."

Julie: Absolutely. It's not really easy at the time, but looking back, it all happens for a reason.

Kathi: At the time you're like, "This is chaos. This is crazy. What do you mean I can't get a job? What do you mean I can't teach? I'm a teacher."

Julie: Yep.

Kathi: And here you are, still teaching. I love the fact that you did accreditation and that kind of thing. I work for the board certification for organizers right now helping do the exams, and it's really fulfilling work, but I definitely would not want to do that full-time.

Julie: I get it.

Kathi: And I'm sure you're much more immersed in it than I was. So talk to me about this. You started coaching, but did you start coaching for podcasters, or did you start coaching for women who are trying to find their way?

Julie: I was already doing that with career coaching. I was helping women with finding new jobs, career pivots, figuring out what's next. Then as I got more immersed in podcasting and became part of the community, I realized there was such a need for help with podcasting. A lot of women hold themselves back and think, "Oh, no one wants to hear my story or what I have to say." So a lot of my coaching has become helping women entrepreneurs figure out what part of podcasting is right for them. I always say I am not a podcast pusher. Not everyone has to have one, but it is a tool of marketing and visibility that you have to be tapping into in some way, whether it's as a guest or a sponsor or having your own show. So now I really help women figure out what is right for them and then help them make that happen.

I am not a podcast pusher. Not everyone has to have one, but it is a tool of marketing and visibility that you have to be tapping into in some way.

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Kathi: What a perfect thing. You were talking about pivoting anyhow, and then you pivoted, and everybody was pivoting. I think your timing and entry into this world was absolutely perfect for yourself. So what do you find is the thing that holds women back from possibly starting a podcast?

Julie: I think it's a couple of things. One, they think no one cares what I have to say. No one's going to want to listen to me. But it's also the overwhelm of how to choose what it's about and what to call it and what your niche is. There are a lot of decisions we have to make before we launch, and I've seen a lot of women get stuck in the decision making and not go forward. I often say let's figure out what works best and just do it. I'd rather people start messy and learn as they go than stay in the process of creating it for years and never get launched.

Kathi: Messy is great. I think perfection is overrated and just not worth it. And people like real. That's why I love having conversations with you and with my other guests, because it's real time. We have stutters, we have stops. It doesn't really matter. It's all about what we're talking about and if it's of interest. And I agree. I think every woman has an interesting voice. Every woman has an interesting story to hear, and that's what it's all about.

Julie: I also think it's really easy for us to talk ourselves out of things. We get in our own head and convince ourselves. But with something like podcasting, you also have to try it to see if you like it, because I don't want people to invest time and money in something they don't even enjoy doing. I love interviewing. I love being interviewed. I love the process. Do I love the emails and the editing and all of that? Not as much. But I get filled by this part of it. So a lot of times with women, I always start with, have you been guesting? Have you tried it? Because I don't want you to jump fully into a podcast if you've never even guested before. You need to feel what it feels like to do that whole process.

Kathi: Step one, be a guest. I love that. It's so very true, because you have to get used to being on camera, or at least having good audio, and get used to having a discourse that's live. Don't you think a lot of people get a little concerned about live and what if I go on and screw up?

Julie: Definitely. I think the live streaming is scarier for people, but in this world of AI, I tell everyone you want the ums and ahs and pauses, because that tells people right away you're a real person.

Kathi: I'm not a talking head.

Julie: No.

Kathi: So step one is guest. What would be step two for someone who's interested in exploring whether they want to have a podcast?

Julie: The first thing I would ask them at that point is why. Why do you want a podcast? What do you want it to do for you? I see a lot of people start just to get started, but they're not clearly saying, "I want to have a podcast to grow my community, grow my email list, do XYZ," with a strategy behind how to actually do that. I don't want people to start something without a strategy. I've done it myself, where I just started to see what it was about. But you want to be clear, because podcasting is an investment in your time and some money. It doesn't have to be super expensive, but it's still an investment. I want people to do it so that they can keep doing it and be consistent, because as you know, it's a long game. It's not a quick fix. So I definitely want people clear on what their motivation is, what the purpose is, and how they would be able to say if they're being successful or not.

I'd rather people start messy and learn as they go than stay in the process of creating it for years and never get launched.

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Kathi: How are you going to say if you're successful? What is the litmus? That's super important, because it is a long game. I'm into episode 140 or something. It's a long game, but it has to be fun too. Otherwise, why do it?

Julie: When I first got into podcasting and I took a course, everybody said, "Well, your business is career coaching, so you should have a career coaching podcast." It never got off the ground because I wasn't excited. I wasn't passionate about talking about resumes and cover letters. So instead, I put that to the side and said, "Let's talk about pets," which has always been a passion of mine, and see how it goes. And as I'm talking about something I love and enjoy, I'm learning the mechanics that helped me when I started my podcast for my business.

Kathi: Absolutely. What was your very first episode like? Were you talking about your pet? Do you have a dog or a cat?

Julie: My first episode was me talking to a friend of mine who I grew up with, and we talked about our childhood pets and our current pets, and about experiences I had and how my pets helped me through them. But I very quickly got reached out to. Let me tell you, anybody with a pet could talk about their pet for hours, and I found that out very quickly.

Kathi: Too many hours.

Julie: Yes. But I've really loved that podcast. It has existed for over four years, and even though it's not my top priority anymore, I learned so much from the people I got to interview. I got to interview a lot of people who work or volunteer in rescue and shelters. So for me, it turned into a platform to help advocate for animals, which is something I can't do every day in my life, but it allowed me to help other people share their story and get more support.

Kathi: Oh, that's fantastic. It's funny how things evolve like that. So your podcast now, what's it called and what does it cover?

Julie: My current podcast is Podcast Your Story, and it is all about amplifying women's voices in podcasting. We as women are still the minority as both hosts and guests, because male-hosted shows tend to have more male guests on them. So my purpose is really sharing my journey, my tips, my strategies so that women can be guests, can be strategic guests, can start their own show. And then I also interview other women podcasters about their journey, why they started, how it's changed their life and their business, because I also want women to see that you can do it however you want to. We all do it differently. That's what's great about podcasting. So I really try to provide value but also inspiration from other women in the world of podcasting.

Kathi: I love that. I think we are underserved. I do have an occasional male on my podcast, but generally it's designed for women entrepreneurs, to let them know that we're not an island. There's more of us out here doing stuff and struggling. Speaking of which, if you had a downside or some type of dark night of the soul with your new venture after COVID, once you were launched, what happened? What was your hardship and how did you overcome it?

Julie: I think like anyone starting a business, you aren't really sure what to expect, but when you see people on social and they're doing so well, you're like, why is that not happening for me? Because we don't see the years and long hours of work that got them to where they are. For me it was creating something but not always getting a response back or having people sign up. It's been a process of learning that it's not failure, it's just trying and learning and modifying. Even though I could do and somewhat enjoyed the career coaching, it wasn't something that lit me up. It wasn't until I dived fully into podcasting, where there's so much to learn that I can learn for my clients and help them get to these points in their journey faster. I've always loved being a student and I love being a teacher. So I get to still use a lot of the same skills I used to, but I've really had to focus on where I can really help people versus where I think I can.

It's not failure, it's just trying and learning and modifying.

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Kathi: Isn't it fun that we get to learn so that we can teach more? What better job than being someone who facilitates clients' growth and grows ourselves all along the way? That's what I love. I learn so much from my clients, and I learn so much learning for my clients so that I can teach them. It's very rewarding.

Julie: I'm with you on that. And I do think it's also rewarding when you see someone start off at a certain point and then get to that transformation. I've had a couple of clients launch their podcasts in the last couple of months, and I love seeing them have fun with it and being energized by it. It's such a payoff for us as coaches to be a part of that process.

Kathi: For sure. If you could look back at your life and look at yourself at 18, getting ready to go into college, what advice would you give yourself at that point, now that you know what you know?

Julie: I would definitely tell myself to have more fun. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up. I think we all felt that. Really just enjoy it and try new things, and don't see it as failure if it doesn't work out, because it's all about learning. For me, I spent a lot of time in the education world and I loved it, but I've also found other things I love just as much now outside of that world. I thought I'd probably be in that world my whole life and that would be my entire career, but things change, and I love getting to work from home and make my own schedule and interact with people all over the world. So I would definitely tell myself to take life a little less seriously, have more fun, enjoy your time in college. But also, what we're seeing a lot of now with younger generations is we're not having the same career forever. So find what you love now, and it could change later, and that's okay.

Kathi: Give yourself permission to change. Change happens anyhow, so you might as well go with the flow and change how you want to change. Speaking of that, as entrepreneurs we have a lot of balls in the air. What's your favorite organizing hack? What do you do to keep your focus and keep moving down the road to successful podcasting and coaching?

Julie: One thing is I love spreadsheets. I have spreadsheets for everything. I keep track of people I meet in networking, the workshops I host and who comes and how I follow up, as well as my guesting, like where am I guesting and when are the episodes out. I love that, but I also love blocking time off on my schedule. I found that if we don't, our schedules fill up with all the other things, with networking and events and recordings, but you have to make time for the reach-outs, applying to be a speaker, applying to be a guest, and all of those things. I'm a visual person, so I love color coding, where I block times off on my calendar with different colors so that I know what each chunk of time is for, because there's always something that needs to be done. But there are certain things we have to do for ourselves and for our business every week, every month. So that's one of the ways I keep myself organized.

Kathi: I love that. Spreadsheets and color-coded calendars. Color coding is great. Spreadsheets, I've never been a spreadsheet girl, though. I have to admit it just does not float my boat.

Julie: And that's okay. There are other tools, like you said, Trello, and there are a lot of different ways you can do it. I've just stuck with what I know, but I always love learning things where I can plan things out farther and schedule posts and emails. It makes it so much easier.

Kathi: So much easier. And keeping track of what you did when and when you're going to do stuff. Which leads me to friction. I've been talking a lot about the friction tax that we pay that we don't know about. It silently causes us friction and we lose money over it. If you had to describe any type of friction in your business that you'd like to eliminate, what would it be?

Julie: I definitely feel the friction right now is in the balance of how much I work and how much I give myself a break. I think that is the downside of working from home and running your own business. I could easily work seven days a week, and I have at certain points, but I've also seen myself burn out and not enjoy things as much because I'm working too much. So for me, the friction has been finding the balance, knowing it's okay at a certain point in the day to shut the laptop and shut the door of the office and go do other things. There's always going to be something else to do, but I have to have the balance. I have to have the time away, the time to read for fun or whatever it may be. And then that makes me more energized when I come back to it.

It's okay at a certain point in the day to shut the laptop and shut the door of the office and go do other things.

Kathi: Absolutely. That's very well said, and it's true. Working from home, we have to be able to shut that laptop and walk away. If we shut the laptop and take it with us, it doesn't really count.

Julie: Yeah, that doesn't count, because that laptop's going to come back open again.

Kathi: I think we all fall into that trap. I agree the balance thing is a huge friction for every entrepreneur, especially those of us who work from home.

Julie: Yes, definitely. That has definitely been the hardest part for me, that balance. I always had jobs where I sometimes had to work outside of the hours of the office. But especially when we're an entrepreneur and podcaster, we're always thinking of new ideas and notes, and that's fine. I can stop and write notes on my phone, but that doesn't mean I go back into full work mode.

Kathi: Exactly. You don't get trapped in the phone. As we wind down, is there anything you wanted to talk about that we haven't touched upon?

Julie: I would just say to people out there who've been thinking about a podcast or even guesting, I just want to push you, because if you've been thinking about it, there's a reason. There's a reason you're thinking maybe I should do that. And the only way to know is to try it. Going back to what I said earlier, if you haven't guested, just do it. But do it for fun. That first podcast I ever guested on was a movie podcast. I got to talk to this guy in the UK for an hour about our favorite movies, and we love some of the same things. It was super fun, and I was like, "Oh, that's what podcasting is. I could do this." So try not to be so serious about it. Even if you're doing it for your business, that doesn't mean you can't do some for fun, just to see if you enjoy the process. And if you're feeling a call to do it, there's a reason. You have something to share that other people need to hear.

If you've been thinking about it, there's a reason. And the only way to know is to try it.

Kathi: I think we all do. We all have something to share that other people need to hear. And that's the thing, find your voice. Even if it's not through podcasting, you can find it so many other ways. But I love the fact that you're a podcast mentor, and I know you have something that you're going to offer the audience and the listeners. What are you going to offer?

Julie: You can check out my website, juliemartypearson.com. Every month I offer free workshops on a variety of topics, from launching a podcast to being an awesome guest. I also have a community you can join where I offer extra support, group coaching, strategy sessions, and deep-dive workshops on all aspects of podcasting. So you don't have to learn it all. I will give you the highlights.

Kathi: Love it. I will have the links down below in the show notes for sure. So for any of you who are aspiring to launch a podcast or just want to get your message out, go ahead and guest on podcasts and have fun with it. I'm in total agreement with you on that, Julie. I really appreciate your time. It's a pleasure to know you. I wish you huge success. And all of you who are thinking about it, check it out. Try to be a guest at some point and see what you think.

Julie: Thank you so much for having me.

Kathi: Absolutely. You guys have a nice day, and until next week, I'll see you then.