0:08

Rachael Botfield: Hi, and welcome to podcasting one on one with Rachel.

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This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own

0:15

businesses and want to start a podcast or who may already have a podcast.

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I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast

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started and managing it along the way.

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I'll also be interviewing other female podcast hosts to give you

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real insight into what it's like. Have Hi,

0:44

and welcome to this week's episode.

0:47

I hope everyone's well today. Today I am joined by Ashley Freighter, who is a anxiety coach.

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I'm very pleased to have Ashley on here. Welcome, Ashley.

0:57

Lovely to see you. Ashleigh Frater: Hi, thanks for having me.

1:00

I'm excited to be here. Rachael Botfield: Brilliant.

1:03

So we were going to have a conversation around, Ashley, you help people with

1:10

their anxiety, their mindset productivity, all aimed at women in business or, you

1:17

know, people who are business owners. And so I thought it would be a really great topic to dive into with with

1:23

my listeners, because we are all in a similar position, solo business

1:28

owners or small business owners. And, when it comes to, and obviously in this case, your podcast, you

1:33

can have all sorts of kind of. Mindset monkeys and things around those projects.

1:40

So and also Ashley did have a podcast as well.

1:44

So she has experience in being a podcast host.

1:47

So we thought if you could just introduce yourself a little bit, tell us about

1:50

you and, and the work that you do. Ashleigh Frater: Amazing.

1:54

Thank you. So yes, I'm Ashleigh Frater and I am an anxiety coach and I help

2:00

women in business, freelance, founders, self employed, women to

2:06

manage their anxiety and stress.

2:09

Better so that it doesn't affect or further affects their

2:13

performance in their business. So I have a little quote of, you know, I like to help the human behind

2:19

the business and really help to provide support and resources to help

2:25

women and entrepreneurs as a whole.

2:29

to support their mental health and to help them to help themselves.

2:35

So, that's currently who I'm kind of working with.

2:38

And like you said, I do have a podcast and I'm excited to dig into all of

2:44

the journey of being a podcast host.

2:48

Rachael Botfield: It can be a bit of a, bit of a journey, bit of

2:50

an up and down depending on your experience and the time that you have.

2:54

To do the podcast. So let's, let's talk a little bit about your podcast then.

2:59

So when, kind of, when did you decide or why did you decide you wanted to

3:03

do a podcast and how you thought it would , work for you, your business

3:07

and for the people that you're helping? Ashleigh Frater: So I have always kind of been in the entrepreneurial

3:15

space, helping those that are, you know, setting up their own business

3:19

and side hustles and things like that.

3:22

So what I realized. Is that people struggle to manage their emotional side of their business.

3:32

So managing the emotions, managing the emotional energy and everyone I

3:37

worked with, that's what we worked on.

3:40

Like, despite the fact that we might've started off thinking about.

3:45

Signing more clients and building the business and launching the business.

3:48

But ultimately, it boiled down to how are you managing your emotions

3:52

in order for you to take that action. And what I realized is that a lot of people are getting burnt out.

3:57

So, I thought, okay, I focused a little bit more last year on like

4:02

burnout around entrepreneurship.

4:05

And... My podcast was about burnout.

4:09

So it's called Free From Burnout. It's still currently there.

4:12

It's on a, I say a season break, but I'm really rebranding it at a later date.

4:18

And primarily it was about helping people again, manage them

4:22

emotional and mental wellbeing.

4:25

That was what it was all about. So I wanted to be able to.

4:29

Speak to people outside of the social media realm and have a bit more of an

4:35

intimate connection with my listeners, with clients, you know, and the audience.

4:41

And I'm a speaker. I'm not the best.

4:44

Well, this is a belief I have. I'm not the best writer.

4:48

I enjoy speaking and it comes more naturally to me.

4:51

I feel like I can express myself better.

4:54

So I'm like, a podcast was something that I've always wanted to do.

4:58

Granted over the years, the topic had changed based on where I was and I just

5:04

decided, you know what, I'm just going to go for it because you have to start and

5:10

I think you, you know, naturally have a lot of expectations when you start and you

5:15

think it's going to be a particular way. And then when you're in it, you realize, wow, it's not really

5:20

the way I thought it would be. And I enjoyed it.

5:23

The one thing I did say, and, and.

5:26

didn't expect from myself and maybe because of the time in my life and when

5:31

things happened when the podcast was around how it felt for me was it felt like

5:37

therapy it's so weird like it genuinely felt like I would speak because it's all

5:42

emotional you kind of have to tap into your own emotions in order for someone

5:48

else to be able to feel comfortable looking at their own too, so it almost

5:53

felt very therapeutic, which is something I was not expecting, I'll be honest,

5:58

and I actually thoroughly enjoyed it.

6:01

So it's definitely something I'm going to go back into, but I

6:04

have to get more clear, which I think this experience taught me.

6:07

of what it is, the main message, what it is I want people to take

6:11

away from every episode, and really getting clear on the mission and the

6:16

primary message around the podcast.

6:19

So yeah, I mean, we can dig into like all the things, but yeah,

6:22

this is a quick, you know, intro. That's kind of where I saw and how I felt about podcasting to start with.

6:32

Rachael Botfield: Yeah, I think it is important to, like you say, you're

6:36

messaging what you want to get across and making sure that that is, is going to be

6:41

relevant to the people that are listening. I think that one of the top kind of stats that I heard early in the year at

6:48

the podcast show was about relevance.

6:51

That was kind of like the top thing that people looked for, especially in a

6:54

business podcast, to make them come back. again and again is listening is, is, is relevant.

7:00

Well, how is it relevant to them? And it's so easy and I've done it myself with this podcast and I've taken

7:05

a little break to try and refocus. You do kind of, sometimes you get caught up a little bit in about what

7:10

you want to do and compared to actually.

7:14

Is that the same thing? Is it a lined up? But I also think that, like say, podcasting is a bit of a journey

7:20

as well and you don't know what you don't know when you first start.

7:24

And I think it's a great way to you know, to evolve as we do in our

7:29

businesses, in life, in everything.

7:31

We don't, we do always sometimes have that feeling where we've it nailed on

7:35

the head immediately as soon as we start.

7:37

I mean, I've had those kind of things, you know, with this one I think,

7:40

well, you know, I'm a podcast manager. I should know everything, but I don't know everything about, you know, I

7:46

know a lot about podcasting, but I don't know everything about podcasting.

7:48

And, you know, you have those beliefs of what your knowledge

7:52

is worth and things like that. So it's kind of accepting, you know, you are on the right path, but

7:59

you're just, that you're not getting too hard on yourself about your

8:04

kind of knowledge and what you're. You know, what you're doing.

8:08

So, did you find, what kind of things did you find hard?

8:11

So, in terms of the production side of things.

8:14

Did you find it hard to kind of fit it all in your schedule with

8:18

recording and editing or did you have support or how did you kind

8:22

of work that within your business? Ashleigh Frater: Yes.

8:26

So initially I decided, so the thing with podcasting for me was all the

8:33

podcasts I listened to were all weekly.

8:36

So I thought, ah, it needs to be weekly.

8:40

So it did. In honest, in all honesty, it pushed me back and delayed me from launching

8:46

the podcast because I'm like, I feel like it needs to be weekly, but there

8:50

was something in me to be like, I don't know if I can fully commit to weekly.

8:54

I don't basically want to fail.

8:56

I don't want to set myself up for failure and really not be realistic with the time.

9:02

So I decided, and I felt good with the decision to do bi weekly.

9:06

Cause I'm like every two weeks I'll be able to figure it out.

9:09

Cause. You know, I'm working, I'm working with clients, I'm doing a lot of things, so

9:14

I must be able to find an hour or so, so that I'm able to fit it into my schedule.

9:24

So what I did was that I decided that I would find an hour or so, at some

9:34

point every two weeks, by the looks of things, and I would Put that time aside,

9:41

but what I realized is that because, I don't know whether it's because it was

9:45

me just podcasting and in general, or it was because of the topics I was talking

9:53

about, finding the Energy in, , almost in myself, like the mental capacity to

10:01

be like, okay, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do this, felt really hard.

10:07

Even though I had technically 10 days to be able each, each, each 10 days to be

10:13

able to record and then send it off to my podcast editor, I found that if I put it

10:19

in my schedule for a Wednesday to be like, okay, go record your podcast by Wednesday.

10:24

I realized that it just didn't happen all the time because there were some

10:29

weeks where I'm like, Oh, I'm inspired. Okay.

10:31

I'm ready. I've got the energy. I've got the time.

10:34

It just feels good. And then there's other times where life happens and it's

10:37

like, you just don't have the.

10:41

like emotional capacity to share and then it felt like a

10:46

force and I didn't like that.

10:48

I didn't like that okay now it feels like I have to force myself to get into

10:54

a space to get into a mindset to sit down to record this episode and I can

11:00

tell when I listen back there's certain episodes where it was very A matter of

11:06

fact, just because I had to get it done. And then there was other episodes where they were more emotional so I could

11:12

tell, I could feel the difference. So I think the thing that surprised me is finding the emotional and

11:20

mental capacity to actually sit down because it's in the calendar.

11:25

It's always there. But whether or not I felt like.

11:29

Recording was a completely different story and I think that's why I didn't

11:34

expect because technically you're like, you've got 10 days, you can find an

11:37

hour in 10 days to record a podcast.

11:41

But when you look at your routine, look at your schedule, how you're feeling, what's

11:45

going on, like if you've got a migraine, like I suffer with migraines as well.

11:49

So sometimes migraines could last three, four days and that could run into the

11:53

timeframe that I'm meant to record. So then it, many a times I started to get like, I.

12:00

Sent my podcast off like the day before it's meant to release.

12:04

And only because I'm like, I cannot miss a week.

12:08

And I think I'm grateful for that. And I felt like I had the discipline of it, but I didn't like the fact

12:14

that I was pushing it back and pushing it back and waiting to the

12:17

very last moment I had to do it.

12:20

And then I recorded it and sent it off.

12:23

And each time it was great. But the point is, it felt not great to be able to.

12:29

To have that pressure, although I work well under pressure like we all do,

12:34

but you don't want to, like, because that is a strain on your, you know what

12:39

I mean, your mental well being, your, you know, potentially your family and

12:44

other things that you have going on. It just doesn't feel, it just didn't feel the way I would like it to feel, I think.

12:50

And I didn't expect the emotional capacity part that I had to...

12:57

Almost make room for alongside doing all the other things in my business.

13:03

So yeah, that was really unexpected.

13:06

Rachael Botfield: I think as well, because you're, because of the type

13:09

of work that you do, for example, this podcast is about podcasting.

13:13

It doesn't drain me emotionally to talk about these kinds of subjects and, and

13:17

you have to have that certain amount of preparation for your interviews.

13:21

So that's something to consider as well.

13:24

You know, when you're doing your podcast, depending on the type of the

13:27

subject that you're doing, if it is something that could be emotionally

13:30

draining it's, I suppose, trying to build in something that can help

13:35

with that, you know, from the offset.

13:37

And, but also, like you said, you don't know how you're going to feel until you start doing it.

13:40

So maybe just as, just as a point to be aware of for those people that are going

13:45

to be recording episodes that require you to give something emotionally.

13:50

Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, I think that that's the thing that now going in,

13:56

like, now having that experience and then when I do go back into podcasting

14:02

I now know because it's all going to be centred around like your emotional

14:06

wellbeing, your mental health, like therapy, like all of that subject

14:10

which can feel quite heavy to a degree.

14:14

And especially if you have to provide the energy first in order to help someone

14:20

else feel a certain type of way, right?

14:22

So I feel like I would have to build in more time, I'll be honest.

14:26

, I think I would have to create that schedule to...

14:31

It's a bit .. When you're an introvert, which I am, and doing too much FaceTime.

14:35

So, you know, if you don't like your social battery basically just drains and

14:40

you need that time to recover, but when you're not really sure of like how your

14:44

energy works, you can have back to back to back to back to back meetings and then

14:49

not realize , why do I feel like this is such a task by your third meeting?

14:55

When really you should not have three, you should have one with a gap or at

15:00

least a couple of hours and then another one and then not have another one the

15:04

next day, do you know what I mean? And have that time.

15:06

So I think it's going into it the same kind of mindset of what I know what my

15:11

energy is like now, and I realized how.

15:15

you know, at times, podcasting can feel like I'm giving a lot, I'm pouring a lot

15:20

out, and I need to be able to create that recovery time, or at least padding time

15:27

ahead of time, with other things that I've got going on, to know, okay, this

15:32

is going to work better for me, if that makes sense, and still make it consistent.

15:37

Because I think the things that I was worried about, Especially with

15:40

the weekly is that I don't know if I can be consistent with it.

15:44

And I had to be honest with that to be like, I don't want to

15:47

fail before I've even started. And I have to be consistent the one thing I'm trying to really

15:53

practice discipline and consistency.

15:57

And I think every two weeks works, but it's just a matter of how I do it going

16:05

forward to kind of manage my energy.

16:09

Because I now know, my podcast episodes are not necessarily going to be like

16:16

very, you know emotional, like they're gonna require emotion, so and I think

16:22

the other thing is my podcast wasn't with guests, it was just me and I

16:27

did that intentionally because , I've never done podcasting before, I don't

16:30

know what the setup is, I don't know how I'm going to be able to manage it.

16:33

Myself, as well as someone else's schedule, because then that's a whole

16:37

level of complexity that I didn't kind of know about and I didn't want to overwhelm

16:43

myself straight away, but going into the next podcast, I want to have guests.

16:48

So I'm thinking it's going to be a whole different experience because

16:51

I've never had a guest before, so maybe from the emotional side, it's not me.

16:56

giving as much because it's going to be more of a conversation,

16:59

whereas my last podcast was every single episode was a solo episode.

17:04

You know what I mean? So I think maybe that is to take into consideration as well going forward.

17:09

Rachael Botfield: Those are really great observations. I think that is important as well for like you to grow with anything.

17:15

It's reflecting back on how, how you felt and what you did.

17:19

And Like you said, if you're doing solo episodes, creating that buffer

17:24

and potentially now with guests, you'll have that slightly different feel to it.

17:29

But I mean, cause some, say some people do batching and find, you know, batching

17:34

the episodes together, but I find that hard to batch with guest episodes.

17:37

So when I did my solo ones, but again, mine are not emotional like yours,

17:41

they were like 10, 15 minutes long. I batched a few of those, but with guests.

17:46

It is still draining talking to people as well, so I would not do more

17:50

than, say, two interviews in a day. I try to do just one in a day but maybe have up to two or

17:56

three in a week if that's kind of like the time scale if I had to.

18:00

But... You can kind of get those done ahead of time as well.

18:04

So I think, so say for example, you were looking for your next season,

18:08

you decide on X amount of episodes.

18:11

You can kind of get them in ahead of time, so that you've got that time

18:16

to play with the edit and do all the rest of the things that need doing.

18:20

So you can get those in ahead of time. And then space them out as much as you want, , just think it says those

18:26

things to think about in your planning. So when, you know and with everyone who's planning.

18:30

So I'm taking a break over Christmas and in the new year with this one,

18:34

cause I want to spend some time planning, I need a break at Christmas.

18:37

I need a few good weeks to plan.

18:39

And then I might have a few weeks of when I'm recording and stuff.

18:42

So it might be longer stuff going on behind the scenes.

18:45

Haven't you? So yeah, they sound like great reflections and it's a great way to move forward

18:50

with your podcast and making it work for you and your business because.

18:55

If it feels like a task, you just don't want to do it.

18:57

And I think that's a really important thing you, you point

19:01

off, you don't want to record it. You know, that's why a lot of people have this with, with their marketing, with

19:05

social media is the fact that it feels like such a task to do all those things.

19:10

I also think this is where podcasting can really help with your marketing.

19:13

So you've done your piece of content and you can use that for your social media.

19:18

So you don't have to You know, think of all this ideas again, but if you're

19:23

thinking of your podcast as like a, you know, a chain around your neck, it's

19:26

probably not, you're not going to be consistent with it because it's going

19:29

to worry you and just drain you so much.

19:34

Ashleigh Frater: I think now you're touching on the market insight.

19:37

I'm like, that's the part also I found really hard because again, I feel like

19:42

when you are, you know, a service based.

19:47

Business, a lot of the time you are the business, so you're very close.

19:53

You enjoy doing what you're doing. So coaching is my thing.

19:56

Marketing is just how I communicate. So people know what I'm doing, but it's not my thing.

20:02

Like marketing is not my zone of genius in, like you said, I thought,

20:07

okay, that'd be really good to have like one main piece of content.

20:09

And then I can kind of like spread it out, but it's really difficult.

20:14

To. Gather listeners, like it's actually really hard you, cause it's one thing

20:20

you thinking I've just got to record, but it's another thing and a whole job in

20:25

itself, trying to get people to listen, like it's actually really difficult.

20:31

And that's another thing I thought. Wow, this is really hard.

20:35

Like podcasting is not just like a hobby, especially if it's related to

20:39

your business and even if it's not sharing it and find the opportunity to

20:44

share it and not to make it look like you're stuffing it down people's throats

20:48

and, and it just works differently.

20:51

Like podcast listeners are different types of listeners.

20:54

They're not the same. As like your followers on social media, they may be the same people,

21:00

but they operate differently. The behavior is different and that's a whole different mind game.

21:06

So that's also really difficult.

21:09

So it feels like, I'll be honest, sometimes I just got it up there and

21:13

I didn't really share it that much because it took me so much to produce it.

21:18

The actual next step of like getting people to subscribe or to listen.

21:23

was really quite difficult. Like that self promotion, it brings up like all of that insecurity in many

21:30

ways for a lot of people, I can imagine, because it definitely did for me.

21:34

And I deal with emotions every single day, but do you know what I mean?

21:37

Like it's still very difficult, you know?

21:41

And I don't want to make this podcast about you, but

21:44

do you have any tips on how?

21:49

Rachael Botfield: I had to start from scratch, like when I started my business

21:51

a few years ago, so I didn't have a big following, a big audience where I've grown

21:55

that myself and I still have a relatively small audience for this podcast.

22:02

So for example, I have, I think I've got, I've been going since March

22:06

last year and I've just topped, I've just gone over a thousand downloads

22:10

for the whole of like the podcast. Yeah.

22:12

So I know that's relatively small.

22:15

In comparison to some podcasts but I have talked about this in other episodes about,

22:18

you know, measuring success and what you count as a success in your podcast,

22:24

not necessarily how many downloads or, you know, this, are you, are you getting

22:28

people that are reaching out to you saying your podcast really helped me?

22:31

Yeah. So I remember when I first started a lady called Nikki, who had the.

22:35

Stories that connect us podcast and Nikki St.

22:38

Paul. I don't know if you're connected with her. Yeah.

22:41

Yeah. Yeah. She's really lovely, but she also listened to my podcast every week.

22:45

She always commented. She always, and she was kind of like my number one, my number one

22:53

listener because she was always.

22:55

really engaged. , and that was really great.

22:58

And that was my aim really, when I started the podcast, you know, reaching,

23:02

like even reaching that one person that this is going to help move their

23:05

podcast forward and give them advice and, you know, that help around.

23:10

you know, getting the podcast started and keeping it going.

23:13

I loved that, especially when I was starting and you always have that worry

23:17

that you're, who are you talking to?

23:19

Is anyone listening to you? Cause when you're just recording, you know, you're recording you or your

23:24

guests, , you're not thinking about like, you know, your wider audience

23:27

when you're, when you're doing that. I mean, it's great when people do and people have lots of you know,

23:32

hit charts and things like that. And obviously if you're doing a podcast for your business.

23:37

That's what you want to do, but I do think it's unrealistic, the same as

23:41

when you're trying to sell a program, you're trying to, you're trying to,

23:44

like, I'm service based as you, I'm a podcast manager as well, and, you know,

23:49

that you're not going to get, depending on the size of your audience, you're not

23:56

going to get those kind of, Downloads.

23:59

It's just not realistic and I think it's focusing on your community and focusing

24:04

on the people that you are reaching. And you know, as they say, it's better to have like a small engaged audience

24:10

than to have a large audience, but nobody's, nobody's engaged with you.

24:14

No one's doing anything with, with it. Yeah.

24:16

So you've just got those, , vanity metrics, if you will, that are saying

24:20

that, but no one's ever commented or no one's ever left you a review

24:23

and all of those kinds of things. So I think it's, focusing on making relevant content.

24:30

Trying to get your content out there, you know, promoting it in the best way.

24:34

So, , maybe you think of somebody, you know, a lot of high touch emails.

24:38

You might know somebody on LinkedIn or a few people and go, actually,

24:41

this has really helped them. I met that, you know, those kinds of things, reaching out to those

24:45

people personally, and definitely telling friends and family, because I.

24:50

I think the best way to refer a podcast is word of mouth.

24:53

And so if I ever meet anybody that has a podcast or know someone with a podcast

24:57

tells me, I always put it in my app and then I will always share podcast episodes

25:02

with my friends and family on WhatsApp. Like I'll send them the link because I just, I mean, not only that I would like

25:08

people to do that for my podcast, but I'm obviously very passionate about listening

25:12

to different podcasts and I just think there are so many out there in terms of.

25:17

finding them and when I come across podcasts and someone tells me I

25:21

think it's You know, it's fabulous. I try and share it with as many people as I can.

25:24

So, I think, just keep, you know, talking about it and, you know, it's

25:29

not, it does sometimes feel like you say, you know, you don't want it to be

25:32

like shoving it down people's throats. But, like, when you talk about it on social media, like, there's like a really

25:38

depressing statistic in there about 4 percent of your feeds see your posts.

25:43

So, It's trying to find different ways in which you can get the message in

25:48

each episode across your audience.

25:50

So I like to, find different audiogram clips that you can use that are

25:55

going to resonate with your audience. Finding key takeaways from the episodes.

25:59

Maybe something funny happened during the interview, or you

26:01

really clicked over something. So that is quite a unique story to share on social media, rather than the new

26:08

episode, come and listen kind of thing. I try to, put an anecdote in there.

26:12

And when I'm doing my editing, I'll try and get a few of those together

26:16

so I can use that to repurpose. Because repurposing is also a really great...

26:20

So for my email list as well, I have a new episode every other week.

26:23

And then I also share a past episode that I still feel is relevant for...

26:27

So I'm just thinking ahead to next week.

26:30

I'm going to be sharing an episode I did about intros and outros for your podcasts.

26:34

And then, , looking at different ways that you can record your podcast

26:37

and kind of repurpose in there. Cause those are still kind of things that people think about, especially

26:42

as new people come into your audience, those kinds of things , they're starting

26:47

at number one, they can go back and binge all your episodes as well and

26:50

get all that lovely information. So it's letting them know that information is still out there as well.

26:55

Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So true.

26:58

Rachael Botfield: But I think it's just kind of being, being consistent

27:02

with it and whatever that looks like. like for you doesn't have to be every week, however you want to show up,

27:07

like the same with your, you know, your social media market or whatever,

27:10

however it is works for you and keeping that consistency and then

27:14

just communication with everybody. If you are going to take a break, you know, you just let people know that you're

27:19

taking a break and you can republish it.

27:21

Old episodes and things like that. But I do just think it takes time.

27:25

I think that I, what I feel that, and this is what it's been like for me, this is my

27:29

experience, like with my business as well.

27:31

, it's been going about two and a half years and you always think you're thinking it

27:36

should be in a certain place or I should be like that person or my podcast should

27:41

have this many listens, but actually.

27:44

You are on your own journey and, and, and we all get stuck in that comparison game.

27:48

And I think it's important not to compare your podcast or your business

27:52

to other people and try and think that you're doing the best that you

27:57

can for your podcast in the way that you know how to do it and how, what

28:02

feels comfortable and good for you. Cause there is, there are lots of other different type of tactics, but.

28:08

I don't like aggressive marketing style tactics.

28:10

That's not me at all. And I don't want to promote my podcast and my business or do

28:15

those kinds of things in that way. I don't want to do a lot of cold this.

28:19

I want to create, you know, personal connections with people that I'm

28:22

meeting on LinkedIn and networking groups and who come on my podcast.

28:26

I don't want to just like. Bombard a load of people with stuff and just hope someone sticks and then

28:31

be really like, that's just not me. Cause I can't sustain that.

28:34

So I think it's just being your, your authentic self.

28:38

And if you, you know, you enjoying your podcast and you're passionate

28:41

about it and you're, you know, you feel like you're helping that just that one

28:44

person and that's what you want to do.

28:47

I think that it's, you know, you can carry on doing that.

28:50

Do it at your own pace after talking to you.

28:52

I know how passionate you are about what you do and how you're helping people.

28:56

So those kinds of things are going to come across in your podcast and then people

29:00

are going to get to know you and know that you know what you're talking about.

29:04

You're building that trust and people get to know who you are

29:08

before they choose to work with you. I think that is such a powerful thing for having a podcast for your

29:12

business, especially with something like coaching the service based

29:16

business, because you're showcasing you.

29:19

Yeah. So, sorry, I've just talked for too long there.

29:22

So, Ashleigh Frater: no, it's great. I mean, I'm hoping other people can learn and soak it up.

29:31

Rachael Botfield: Oh yeah. So but yeah, so, and also what I would love you to do is you're going

29:37

to share some advice and tips around.

29:41

Productivity and about getting over the mindset barriers that we, that we all,

29:45

as you can tell, me and Ashley, we all have these barriers and need reminding

29:51

and helping to reground ourselves.

29:53

To ground ourselves, you ground yourself. Ashleigh Frater: Definitely.

29:57

So I think when it comes to especially obviously building a podcast, launching

30:02

one or you kind of have one already and productivity, I think firstly, it's very

30:09

subjective, like what I consider to be productive, a productive day for me,

30:16

versus what you consider your day to be productive, or if you were to tell me,

30:19

oh my gosh, Ashley, I did this, this, this, I'm like, oh my gosh, you're so

30:22

productive, versus you will be like, no, I basically feel like I did nothing.

30:27

So I think that firstly, productivity is very subjective and I feel

30:31

like we only need to understand what our version of productive is.

30:36

And when we really boil down to the, you know, the bottom, the foundation of

30:40

productivity, it's truly how you feel.

30:44

So it's about what does productivity equal to you?

30:48

Does that equal feeling proud?

30:51

Does it equal, you know feeling super significant?

30:55

Does it equal a really, you know, powerful status to other

30:59

people, you know what I mean? So it's about what are you, what is the need?

31:05

Because averagely when we're like, Oh, I feel productive or I don't

31:08

feel like I had a productive day. Well then what do you feel like?

31:11

So I feel like it's important to really label the emotion of.

31:16

Is it really productivity or are you disappointed that you spent too much

31:20

time doing one thing and you are feeling sad about that or you're feeling like

31:26

a level of shame about something or you know what I mean you're being really

31:29

hard on yourself because you don't feel accomplished quote unquote again and

31:35

that's one of those words where it's very subjective as to what accomplishment

31:39

means and so it's like getting really Clip on if you can finish your day

31:46

feeling, oh, I feel really unproductive or I feel like I didn't do enough.

31:50

What is that?

31:53

What does that mean? You know what I mean? Really put language to it.

31:56

Don't just kind of, we, we kind of just dismiss it to be like, yeah, I don't

31:59

feel productive or it wasn't productive. But what does that mean?

32:02

It's like the word value. I find it so, it doesn't even have a meaning anymore.

32:07

Like an authentic, these words are overused and people now

32:11

don't even know what they mean. You know what I mean? So like value, I read an email yesterday or a blog, and he described

32:17

value as something as transformation.

32:21

I'm like, yes, I like that, that makes sense.

32:24

Like when you feel like something is valuable, you feel like you've

32:27

been able to transform from one, probably, Unclear, unconfident

32:33

emotion to confident and clear.

32:35

So you feel like there's a transformation that has taken place,

32:38

therefore means it's valuable. Do you know what I mean?

32:41

So it's the same with productivity. Like, what does productivity really mean?

32:45

Does it mean you're getting through your to do list?

32:47

Because then you feel like, You know, you're not the word accomplished,

32:53

but you feel proud of yourself. You know what I mean?

32:56

Like you feel like, yes, I've done this.

32:58

I feel proud and it's taken me X step forward towards whatever

33:03

that goal looks like, right?

33:06

But then again, we have to, again, get into it. What's your goal and why do you have a goal?

33:10

If your goal in podcasting, is it to get a episode recorded because you want

33:15

to be able to hit a particular listener count or podcast episode, you know,

33:23

count or whatever that looks like. And why?

33:25

Because you want to impact more people, you want to make more money.

33:29

you want to be able to get advertisers and sponsors on so that therefore you have to

33:36

get your numbers up which means the reason why you need to record the podcast is so

33:40

that you can hit that goal and therefore in that day if you've got a lot of things

33:45

to do that's inclusive of of Recording the podcast, you now know that one task is

33:52

equal to revenue, really, in all honesty.

33:55

Do you know what I mean? Therefore means that's productive, because you now know what your end result is.

34:00

But when we're just doing things for the sake of doing them.

34:05

And we don't want to sit there and twiddle our thumbs because we feel

34:08

then unfulfilled and unsatisfied, then that's not really the reason

34:14

to continue to do what you're doing. You need to know the reasons why.

34:17

And I think with productivity, you just have to know, one, what Don't

34:22

use the word productive, firstly, replace it with something that

34:26

actually is very equal to how you feel.

34:30

Do you know what I mean? So I think that's the first thing, labeling your emotion and removing the

34:36

word productive out of your language. I think that can be our very first tip to do, firstly.

34:43

And I think I kind of explained, the second thing

34:45

would be, like, the reasons why. Like, what are you doing what you're doing?

34:49

Why are you doing it? What is that contributing to?

34:52

You know what I mean? Getting more clear as to, like, the why and the reasons.

34:58

Yeah, the reasons why, and maybe it links to your mission, or your

35:01

purpose, or something higher than you.

35:03

What are you contributing to? So then, it's like, first labeling your emotions, and then knowing

35:08

what your contribution is. That's another thing, to like, know, okay, I'm contributing

35:13

to this by doing this one task. And then it's like, oh, I feel proud.

35:17

I feel like I'm... I feel it's significant.

35:19

I'm actually feeling fulfilled, like whatever those things

35:23

are, you know what I mean? And then I think the final thing, if we're going to make it really

35:28

condensed, is also just celebrating.

35:31

And I think it's something that we hear a lot, like celebrate your wins.

35:35

And you know, I mean, but it's so important because when you're doing

35:39

something for the sake of doing it, like me, , I know I need to upload my podcast.

35:44

I was pushing it back and pushing it back because in my head, there was more

35:48

discomfort in it than there was comfort because I wasn't celebrating along the

35:52

journey of like, Oh, I've done this.

35:55

I got this. I got it out. I wasn't sitting in it long enough and celebration sounds very fluffy,

36:01

but , from your brain perspective. It's all about dopamine, it's about you creating that dopamine

36:11

in order to help you keep doing the thing that actually matters to you.

36:15

Even in the trenches when it feels like, I don't want to do this, I hate this.

36:20

If you can know why, that gives you a hit.

36:23

And then when you take the top, when you take...

36:26

The action and you know why you're taking the action and knowing

36:31

how you want to feel by the end of that, that's another hit.

36:34

So it's about celebrating those small things and it's not a big

36:39

celebration, like you have to buy yourself a cake and blow out candles.

36:43

Like it literally can just be acknowledging like, yeah, I did this.

36:48

I'm proud of you. Like the amount of dopamine I get from just saying to myself.

36:53

I'm really proud of you. I feel the actual change in my body.

36:57

Like I feel it drop.

36:59

I can't really explain it, but it's one of those things where I know

37:03

I've landed on something that means something to me because I can feel

37:06

it in my body, a slight shift, the smallest physiological, I can feel it.

37:12

And then I know that means a lot to me, like being proud of myself

37:16

and telling myself I'm proud.

37:19

That's a hit. Do you know what I mean? That I need, that dopamine hit, that celebration, and that just

37:25

keeps me going for the next step. So I feel like if we're going to go down to three main tips when it comes to

37:31

productivity is, first thing is labeling it, not productivity or productive, is

37:37

giving it a proper label of what the emotion really is that you want to feel.

37:42

Secondly, is knowing your mission, knowing what you're contributing to.

37:46

Because we all as human beings want to contribute to something.

37:49

Even if you're not doing a podcast for your business, you

37:52

still want to contribute to, I don't know, entertaining someone.

37:55

Because that could just change their entire day.

37:58

They could be going through illness, maybe that's your niche or something like that.

38:01

Or it could be like Lego. And like you're talking about Lego and it makes you feel like, you know.

38:08

like your inner child is just, you know, healed in many ways

38:12

and that's your contribution. So it really doesn't matter what your podcast is about, but you have

38:17

to know what you're contributing to and then it's about the celebration.

38:22

To be like, celebrate all the small things and find that small micro one little,

38:28

even like an affirmation or something that helps you Draw attention to when you do

38:34

do that thing and you've labelled your emotion correctly before you do that task.

38:39

That's just, that's be like, I'm proud of you or whatever that is for you to just

38:44

acknowledge that achievement for yourself.

38:49

Rachael Botfield: I love those. You're right. Sometimes, and I've, I'm guilty of this myself, you know,

38:53

you're, you're doing stuff. I've got things to tick off today.

38:57

Like, but like, while actually. Like what actually is it sometimes, you know, okay, I want to get

39:03

some social media posts out and just, just doing them out.

39:06

I haven't really thought about them, some of them in terms of

39:10

what I want to achieve overall.

39:12

So I'm running a prize draw at the moment to get your podcast launched in 2024.

39:18

So one person's going to win or that person actually will have one

39:21

by the time this episode comes out. I was running a prize draw, so that really helped me.

39:27

I had a goal was to get as many people as I could to sign up.

39:30

So all the content I was creating was around that goal.

39:33

So I think. So when I create that, I felt great because I thought, great,

39:37

this is going to move me forward to getting people who want to have a

39:41

podcast in 2024 onto my email list.

39:44

So then if they don't win, I can nurture them and see maybe they want to work

39:47

with me you know, privately afterwards. But that was the goal there.

39:52

When sometimes you just willy nilly putting a post on because you feel

39:56

like I've got to put a post on that because I'm not being consistent.

39:59

But it's no, you're just putting on and it's like, Oh, it's

40:03

not really part of a plan. I'm just doing it for the sake of it.

40:05

It almost seems like you're making yourself busy work and it's not actually

40:09

contributing and then it's draining you because then you're falling out of

40:12

love with doing your marketing and your social media.

40:15

Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, definitely. And I think we have to consider our conditioning as well, cause you

40:19

can't talk about being busy and like productivity and stuff like that

40:23

without understanding, like we live in a society that applauds like you doing

40:28

the most, do you know what I mean? Like doing all of the things.

40:32

Gets you more money and, you know what I mean?

40:36

More success and more status and more significance and more love

40:40

and acceptance and all of those needs that we're looking for.

40:44

And we see through us doing a lot for us to fulfill that.

40:48

But really it doesn't. It just drains us because we're doing it for the external validation and

40:55

not actually for the contribution internally of what that is.

40:58

You know what I mean? So we have to consider like we are.

41:02

Sitting in constant environments and constant messages pumping out that

41:07

is going to the contrary of what we're actually trying to achieve.

41:10

So it's one of those things like it's, it is so, you have to be so conscious and

41:16

it's tiring being conscious because you can't focus on that all day, every day.

41:19

So we have to then have compassion for when we like have those days where

41:23

like, well, I feel like I should be doing something because I meant to.

41:27

And let me go do something to fill that gap.

41:30

Do you know what I mean? And to satisfy that need.

41:33

But then on the other side to be like, okay, what is my bigger goal here?

41:36

And let me try and plan like you do ahead of time.

41:40

So when you have those moments, it's like, okay, be impulsive, but I still

41:44

have my plan and it's still going to plan. Do you know what I mean?

41:48

Rachael Botfield: Yeah, that is a really great way to look at it.

41:51

That's just made me think about, like, I've been trying

41:53

to do a bit of that recently. And I felt myself kind of pushing my work outside of my normal boundaries

42:00

with the kids and stuff being around. I thought, actually, no, this is not what I wanted to do.

42:05

And so I tried to plan my week, but instead of just then getting

42:09

completely sidetracked, not doing what I said I was going to do in that

42:12

kind of time or allowing that time for client work, I've actually kind of.

42:16

being a bit more focused and trying to, to actually be more realistic

42:22

about what I can get done in what time. And then also if I finished that task and I still got some spare

42:28

time, instead of going, right, let's just rush around and do that.

42:31

I thought, you know what? No, I'm going to have, that's what I said.

42:33

I've achieved what I said I wanted to achieve for today.

42:36

That's. you can finish now, you can turn the computer off and, you know, you can take

42:40

that time and not feel guilty about it because, you know, you've allowed the

42:46

time in the other days to do the work, the other work that you wanted to achieve.

42:51

So yeah, I think that's Yeah, that I wanted to try and do something

42:55

like that going forward, kind of like having that bigger picture.

42:59

And I've hearing a lot about people talking about thinking about the

43:03

outcome and working backwards and having that as your plan.

43:07

So you, and that's kind of what you're saying, you know, you're,

43:09

you're thinking about that goal or the outcome and then working back from

43:13

how you can do that rather than just. Starting doing stuff and not really

43:21

Ashleigh Frater: know what you're like survival mode. Do you know what I mean?

43:24

Where you kind of shut off from your body and your mind is

43:27

just like, go, go, go, go, go.

43:29

But you're not really checking in as to be like, why am I even doing this?

43:32

Until you're like super exhausted and tired.

43:36

And then you're like, well, how do I feel like this? And then you question it because you don't have energy.

43:40

You've drained your cup. So yeah, stay flexible for sure.

43:46

Rachael Botfield: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's important as well.

43:49

And, and that compassion and kindness to yourself that we all too often

43:55

forget to do which I'm really trying to not aggressively work on, you know,

44:00

that's kind of counterproductive, but you know, trying to give yourself

44:03

a break and, and thinking actually. You're not going to do any, do yourself any favours by kind of

44:10

beating yourself up about certain things or what you have done.

44:14

So yeah, that reminded us of kindness.

44:18

It's been absolutely brilliant talking to you, Ashley.

44:21

You've got, you've offered so much insight into what it's been like as a podcaster

44:26

and your amazing tips at the end there.

44:29

Do you want to just let people know where you hang out the most

44:31

and where they can find you? Ashleigh Frater: Yes. So I am on LinkedIn regularly.

44:37

I'm thinking about my consistency, which is not necessarily daily,

44:43

however, I am on LinkedIn. So if you're over on LinkedIn, please do come up and say,

44:48

come up, come over and say hi.

44:50

Send me a dmm comment on something.

44:53

And then I'm on my email quite a lot. I'm really trying to not be so on social media as much.

45:00

I'm really trying to. Develop more, you know, relationships offline.

45:06

So over on my email list, if you want to join, I've got a freebie, which is

45:11

all about reducing anxiety, if that's interesting, or my just general email,

45:16

which is all about sending you every other week, a new creative coping skill to help

45:23

you manage your stress and anxiety better. Rachael Botfield: Oh yes.

45:27

'cause I downloaded your tip sheet and I found that really helpful.

45:30

So we'll include all the links in the show notes so you can easily access that.

45:33

Yes. And then the tip at the time of recording was dood, was doodling, wasn't it?

45:38

The other week? Yeah, it was about doodling. Was it this week or the other week?

45:41

I was last doodling. I really, my notepad is all I doodled.

45:44

All . I do like doodling. So yes.

45:47

I would recommend, I've been enjoying those emails since we first.

45:51

Although we've been connected for a while on LinkedIn, but yeah, we spoke for the

45:54

first time a few weeks ago, didn't we? Like zoom, say face to face, but yeah, so yeah, I've been enjoying those.

45:59

So I'll leave all the links to everything in the show notes.

46:01

You can easily find Ashley and connect. And thanks again for coming on.

46:07

Ashleigh Frater: Thank you Thank you. Bye. Rachael Botfield: Thanks for listening to the show.

46:12

If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch, then head on over to my website.

46:16

If you liked the episode, then I'd love it if you could leave me a

46:18

review in your chosen podcast app. Your feedback is much appreciated.

46:23

See you next time.