#100 - Breaking Barriers: Female Podcast Entrepreneurs In A Male-Dominated Sector

Show Notes

There’s a saying, “If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to move on. Terrified of what’s next? You’re on the right track.” While many would agree with the sentiment, perhaps even you, the real question is would you put the saying into practice? For example starting something new, like a business or podcast?
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In this episode, Nola Boea and Lori Vajda mark their 100th episode by sharing their experience of breaking glass ceilings, being podcast producers and co-host  in a male dominated field and a few other surprises.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• Why female entrepreneurs face not just glass ceilings, but glass walls as well.
• The challenges of entering traditionally male dominated sectors.
• Why there are gender biases and how they create an unfavorable business environment for women entrepreneurs. 

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:
(02:56:14) Why it’s important to rise against gender stereotypes. 
(05:17.33) Beyond breaking barriers as podcast producers, older women (those above the age of 44 yrs)  entering this marketplace are also paving the way for minorities.
(6:10:11) When an industry becomes more representative of its customer base, it means that the content produced speaks to the customer in these unique ways.
(10:40:69) What the average timeframe is from starting a business to starting to see it become a success.
Resources 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: How open are you to learning something new? If asked, you like many people would likely answer that question by saying, pretty open. You might even go so far as to share recent examples of something you've read about or studied, to prove it. But what if I asked you, how open are you to going back to school, changing career fields, or starting a business? What would you say? If you dream of one day or someday having the courage, time, bandwidth, or whatever obstacles in your way to pursuing something totally different, this episode is for you. Stay tuned friends, because today we're talking about why doing the things that scare you with every stage of your life is so important, especially as you get older and are more established in your career or life circumstances.
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[00:00:47] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:00:58] Lori: So listeners, this is a pretty momentous episode. It marks our hundredth recording. Woo, woo! Yep. And we couldn't be more excited. As milestones go. This is pretty significant, not only because of the number, but because of a few other reasons. For one thing, only 10% of lower income podcasters, which we are since we don't earn money.

[00:01:27] Nola: As of yet

[00:01:30] Lori: Yes. As of yet. Yep. Only 10% of lower income podcasters have published over 100 episodes. Woo. We did it. And while publishing 100 episodes is a significant achievement in any podcasting journey, it's more than just a number.

[00:01:53] Nola: Exactly. I mean, how many people would say that they would start something new going in knowing that they wouldn't make any money for at least two years, if ever?

[00:02:03] Lori: I would gather to say not many.

[00:02:06] Nola: Not many. That's right. Now, imagine if you also told a person that on top of making less money for a minimum of a couple of years, you'll also spend that time refining your audience, your product, your service, and your messaging, and basically be out of your comfort zone?

[00:02:22] Lori: That's exactly what we did. That's exactly what this journey has been like for the two of us.

[00:02:27] Nola: Yes, it has.

[00:02:29] Lori: And as significant as the hundred-episode mark is. It's not the only milestone. In fact, Nola, we're sharing a few other stats that we're proudly breaking the glass ceiling on.

[00:02:43] Nola: Yes.

[00:02:44] Lori: So, in the podcast industry, you could say that while the US population is roughly split 50/50 male to female, I think it's something like 51 to 49. When it comes to podcast listeners, the demographics are very different. According to some research numbers, men significantly listen to more podcasts than women. And given that our target audience is women, we are not even trying to appeal to the larger audience.

[00:03:17] Nola: That's right. It's an automatic niche.

[00:03:20] Lori: It is an automatic niche. And when it comes to podcast creators, that number is even more extreme. We're talking about a field that is nearly 70% male.

[00:03:35] Nola: Isn't that wild?

[00:03:36] Lori: It is. Because it's on every level. It's not just in hosting or co-hosting. That includes audio editing, which we do. Production, which we do.

[00:03:47] Nola: Guest booking,

[00:03:49] Lori: Booking guests. yep. Which we do all, nearly 70% is done by men.

[00:03:56] Nola: Who knew?

[00:03:57] Lori: Yeah. And here's another glass ceiling that we're busting when it comes to demographics. Among creators, just 14% are older than the age of 44.

[00:04:12] Nola: That's crazy. I mean, I would never have guessed that.

[00:04:15] Lori: I know. It was only in hindsight when I was thinking, well, I took courses, read books, read articles, did as much as I could. And you and I both did in prepping to start our podcast. And then I started thinking, where did most of that information come from? And the leaders in that field in teaching podcasting are primarily male.

[00:04:37] Nola: And probably under 44.

[00:04:40] Lori: Well, they are. So here's another, I don't know if this is sad or an opportunity, but

[00:04:46] Nola: Both

[00:04:48] Lori: When you're looking at creators over the age of, we'll say over the age of 54, only 2% of creators fall into that bracket.

[00:05:00] Nola: And full transparency here, we are in that 2%.

[00:05:06] Lori: That's right we are.

[00:05:09] Nola: Whoa,

[00:05:10] Lori: Here's another glass ceiling. When it comes to minorities. it's not just gender and income and age, we are also breaking the barrier on minorities. 51% of podcast creators are considered white.

[00:05:29] Nola: Yet I am a cohost of color, being biracial. I'm half black or African American. So we've just broke that mold too.

[00:05:38] Lori: Exactly. It gives me chills to think that when we started out, it was not our intention to be breaking glass ceilings all over the place. But looking back at the road that we've traveled and looking at the numbers, which now are available. It just blows my mind.

[00:05:57] Nola: I know it's wild.

[00:05:59] Lori: It is. And I have a sense of pride for what we've accomplished.

[00:06:05] Nola: Yes, I know.

[00:06:08] Lori: So, here's the thing. Representation matters. When the podcast industry becomes much more widely representative, whether that's on age, race, gender, whatever, et cetera. It means that the content that's produced is more representative the needs, the wants desires of those in that demographic.

[00:06:32] Nola: And you could really say that, not just about podcasting, but really about any career path or marketplace or lifestyle.

[00:06:39] Lori: Absolutely. And having the courage to be the first to step out of your comfort zone and start something new is not easy, especially as you get older.

[00:06:50] Nola: Well, that's what they say.

[00:06:53] Lori: Well, that's been our experience.

[00:06:56] Nola: This is true.

[00:06:59] Lori: But there's a reason for it. As we get older, we don't like being vulnerable. We don't like learning new. It's one of the reasons why you see a big separation between younger and older when it comes to technology. We don't wanna risk being embarrassed. For some reason, we find it harder to do that as you get older. And that mindset holds you back. So, anytime you're entering a career field or any kind of situation in which there's little representation and you're the first one, it's huge.

[00:07:35] Nola: Yes.

[00:07:36] Lori: Knowing that we are forerunners in podcasting, but not just podcasting in what it means to start a side business, because we have broken so many barriers, it's why this episode is so important to us.

[00:07:52] Nola: Yes. Having hung in there, learned the ropes and made it to a hundredth episode. It's a tangible symbol of our willingness to embrace curiosity and vulnerability, by being a lifelong learner.

[00:08:08] Lori: It's putting lifelong learning into action. We started our podcast for many reasons. And from our initial creative idea or inspiration for starting it, to where we are today, we've redefined almost every aspect of this business that we created. We redefined our why. And what we've come to recognize is that our motivation was to empower older women. Women over the age of 45.

[00:08:42] Nola: Women like us.

[00:08:44] Lori: Yeah, we see entrepreneurship as a way to attain personal and professional satisfaction, creative autonomy, and financial independence.

[00:08:55] Nola: Beyond the confines of a traditional 40-hour work week.
And we also see that whole lifelong learning thing as a practice that really means that retirement is not a destination or a goal. You we find that, no, it's living life in a way that brings satisfaction. That's the goal. That's mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, financial, relational satisfaction, whatever that means. That's the goal. Not retirement.

[00:09:27] Lori: No. We really put that into motion. So during this podcast, getting to the a hundred episode, both of us have moved, both of us have done some traveling, both of us have watched how our vision for our career has changed. Our skillsets podcasting. One of the things that you've talked about is the skills that you've learned have impacted a wide range of opportunities in your life on all levels.

[00:09:55] Nola: Actually, that's so true. I mean, learning to be able to project my voice, my presence, build that confidence and speak with ease. That skill has permeated other aspects of my full-time job of speaking to larger groups and projecting what I need to say and all of that.

[00:10:16] Lori: Starting a podcast is very much like starting a business. On average, it takes two to three years for a podcast to be profitable because you have to reach a certain number of audiences, downloads, you have to establish credibility, there's so many things that happen just that are parallel to a small business.

[00:10:38] Nola: And that has consistently been the response that we've heard from our entrepreneurial guests about the length of time it takes to get their business launched. It's really not that much different. It really is very parallel.

[00:10:49] Lori: You know, when we started our podcast, we saw it as a side business. We treated it like a side business. We set ROIs, we look back at measuring, we have to adjust. We've done all the things that small business owners do. And here we are approaching our anniversary date, which is gonna be in November. Do you remember that? And since we're about to approach our anniversary date, we've compiled our new skills and it helped us to think about truly launching a vertical.

[00:11:26] Nola: Sticky Brand Mini Pods. So in the almost two years since we've launched, we've seen how communications, content and marketing have really drastically changed. We find that messaging has to super engage, entertain, and educate faster and faster in a shorter, shorter period of time. So we see mini podcasts, which is what Sticky Brand Mini Pods are. We see them as almost like the TikTok version of longer form podcasts. Only, they're a little bit longer than a sound bite, but way shorter than your typical episode. It's a B-to-B product, and it's a much more powerful way for those businesses to guide their prospective customers through the buying process.

[00:12:10] Lori: Yeah. And we've been talking about the buyer's journey, and the different stages and how to create content that matches where your prospect is to where they are in the buyer's journey. So that whole idea of the mini podcasts being a good way to produce content.

[00:12:29] Nola: Yep. It's one other way to get that message out in a way that's digestible and short and meaningful and flexible. And there are a lot of uses for it.

[00:12:39] Lori: Yeah. We came up with a, variety of use cases when we were really thinking about this B2B business. We saw case studies, thought leadership.

[00:12:51] Nola: Different marketing and promotion campaigns, internal marketing campaigns.

[00:12:57] Lori: Yeah. We recognized that you could use mini podcasts on annual reports, which are definitely for profit, but they're really important in nonprofit.

[00:13:10] Nola: It's really a mode of storytelling. Think of sticky brand mini pods, as one way to insert the story of the impact of your organization.

[00:13:19] Lori: You could say that this business venture it's another form of us breaking the glass ceiling.

[00:13:27] Nola: Yes, go, girl!

[00:13:30] Lori: Go girl. High five to you.

[00:13:33] Nola: High five!

[00:13:37] Lori: So if you can't hear it in our voices, listeners, we are clearly excited about the future.

[00:13:42] Nola: Yes we are. So Lori here's to you.

[00:13:45] Lori: Here's to us Nola, and our next hundred episodes. Yay.

[00:13:51] Nola: Yay. Well friends, thank you so much for joining us on this journey, and for listening to this special episode. We hope it makes all the difference in you getting started on your business so you can create your best and most exciting life. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting here, where you're listening, or on our Facebook page.

[00:14:15] Lori: Not sure how to diversify your career or income stream so you can create a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you.

[00:14:28] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember. Action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[OUT-TAKE]

[00:14:46] Lori: Let me do that again. And a significant as the. And as sign. Let me just get it out. Okay.