April 27, 2026 • 27 mins
Claire chats with Shá Sparks, host of The Shá Sparks Show, to discuss building a community, exploring trauma and resilience, and navigating the podcasting landscape.
Shá discusses her transition from hairstylist to podcaster and 'connector' for military and business leaders, exploring how their past struggles – the 'muck and yuck' – become their greatest strengths. The conversation highlights the concept of a 'respect economy' versus traditional entertainment models, and how indie creators build deeper connections with their listeners.
Sam explores how TrueFans provides superior metrics like listen time and consumption data, moving beyond the "auto-download" era to show real listener engagement, and we look at how creators will soon be able to use TrueFans to offer exclusive bonus content without forcing fans to use external platforms like Patreon.
Claire is officially announced as the Head of Community at TrueFans and entries are open for the Independent Podcast Awards 2026.
You can support the show by streaming payments from your TrueFans wallet while you listen.
Leave a super comment via the speech bubble icon in the TrueFans app.
Learn more about TrueFans features by listening to our sister show, Fanzone.
Listen to The Shá Sparks Show here
Enter the Independent Podcast Awards here
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shá Sparks (00:06):
And I think that's the difference from us independent podcasters is that we're building more of a respect economy with our audience, rather than just the fun and entertaining in bigger names.
Sam Sethi (00:19):
So the idea is that you have now one RSS feed for both freemium premium and bonus content. TrueFans hosting allows you to measure because we stream the content, actual number of plays, and the better part of that is we actually give you the listen time and the consumption amount.
Claire Waite Brown (00:40):
Welcome to Creators from TrueFans. I'm independent podcaster Claire Waite Brown.
Sam Sethi (00:47):
And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (00:49):
Each episode, we'll chat with an independent creator, whether a podcaster or musician, about their creative experiences.
Sam Sethi (00:57):
And we'll answer questions from independent creators about the TrueFans features that can help them with discovery, interactivity, and monetization.
Claire Waite Brown (01:08):
Hi, Sam. Long time no see.
Sam Sethi (01:10):
Oh, where have you been? Hello and welcome back to Creators from TrueFans. Yes, we have been away, but we are back very excited. Claire, which independent podcast are we featuring this week?
Claire Waite Brown (01:23):
This week I am chatting with Shá Sparks. I am here with Shá Sparks. Hello, Shá. How are you?
Shá Sparks (01:32):
I'm good, Claire. Thanks for having me. This is exciting.
Claire Waite Brown (01:35):
You're very welcome. Start by telling me, please, the name of your show and what it is all about.
Shá Sparks (01:42):
Yes, my show is the Shá Sparks Show. I talk with military and business leaders on what it means to invest in people.
Claire Waite Brown (01:52):
Wow. Okay. What does that mean?
Shá Sparks (01:57):
So when I started my journey, if you don't mind me sharing this, when I started my podcasting journey in 2019 or 18, I had a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs, and I knew them personally. So I kind of knew their, like, trauma backstory of, you know, this hidden thing that was happening behind the scenes that they didn't really share a whole lot on social media or with the audience or anything like that. And I knew that going through that was kind of their secret sauce to why they propelled even further successful. And I started to dive into that conversation and I got such amazing feedback how they love talking about it. And I just got connected, you know, through various people connecting me through a gentleman who was a veteran and had started a nonprofit for first responders and veterans to help them with addiction, whether that be alcohol or drug or whatever. And so we started talking and I guess because of his episode came out, it just kind of doors opened to me into the military and veteran community. I had no idea that was going to happen. But over the course of several years, doors just kept opening and I kept walking through Them. And so I say that military and business leaders, because I have a lot of prior military guests that it's so remarkable when you think of a title or a rank that a lot of times people have when they are a leader, especially in business or in military, and then to go through something, never talk about it, or they talk about just a little bit, but then that is their. That gumption, that gut, that grit to overcome that thing is what really is their secret sauce to propel them forward.
Claire Waite Brown (03:50):
Yeah. And help other people in doing that by telling their stories to you. That's bound to be supportive for other people. So is that still how you come across guests now, word of mouth in your experience?
Shá Sparks (04:04):
Yes. I am naturally a connector and love people, and so I never have a problem finding guests. In fact, I turn a lot of people who pitch me away because they're just not what I'm looking for. They're trying to promote what their thing is, and it's like, okay, that's great, but I want to get down to the nitty gritty and really find out why or what you did to invest in yourself and how that investment then overflows onto your family life and community.
Claire Waite Brown (04:35):
Okay, so this storytelling and this background and this delving that you are doing, does that connect with the rest of your life? And how do you fit in the podcasting from a time point of view and maybe from a lifestyle and emotional point of view, how do they go together?
Shá Sparks (04:55):
Yeah, great question. So when I started my podcast, I was also getting my certification in. In life and business coaching as well as I had a salon. I was a hairstylist. And as a hairstylist, like bartenders. But pretty much my whole life, I've been that person that people tell me everything. Right. And so podcasting I had been curious about for probably about four to five years before I actually launched it, because I thought, well, people tell me stories anyway. I might as well just find one that is inspiring for people to listen to rather than just sitting around a table and chatting about the movie they just watched, which is a friend of mine had done. And I was like, I don't really like that format. I mean, good for them, but that's not what I want or complaining. And I was like, nope, I don't want any of that. I want something that really kind of inspires the listener or the audience, empowers them to take action because they can see themselves in the muck and the yuck that the guest went through. So how I balanced it was I. I was Single, and I just did it. So I worked in the salon, I worked in my coaching business, and I recorded episodes and I did all the editing myself. And then finally I went to a podcast conference. And part of that podcast conference was Military Creator Con. And I met a gentleman there who is a veteran and owns a podcast producing company and he does editing. And we partnered together and it was the best thing I could have ever done, was take something off my plate. And so to have it now where it's grown, not just my show, but we've built a community around the Heroes Media Group, around the production company, around my podcast and his podcast, and. And we've partnered together and really grown what's important in life. So it goes back to that muck and yuck still and how to get through that. And we don't get through it alone. We get through it together in community.
Claire Waite Brown (07:01):
And when you say community, does that include listeners or are you talking about other podcasters or guests? What do you mean?
Shá Sparks (07:10):
Well, it's other podcasters and guests. Again, because of that component of having the military and business background. As far as guests, I'm sorry for my audience. I'm exploring the community of another platform to really connect with them and add extra gifts, extra bonus episodes. I also do meditations and hypnosis, so to put that out there. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that grows. I'm just looking at it from a curiosity lens to see how I can. How we can all collaborate together.
Claire Waite Brown (07:44):
Yeah, understand. Thank you. In general, or maybe specifically to your experiences, what is one thing that frustrates you about podcasting or the podcast world, and one thing that really excites you?
Shá Sparks (08:00):
Mm. Well, it's kind of the same coin, different sides. Actually, what frustrates me is that it hasn't, quote, unquote, taken off as a medium for sponsorships like TV commercials and things like that. On the other side, I'm excited because there's the opening, right? The possibility, the opportunity for it to take off, for it to be held ground. I listen to some big name podcasters and I'm like, how did they get that sponsor? Like, where did that come from? And I'm thinking, okay, well, that's great that they're reaching all these millions of people. But the thing I find frustrating is with the sponsors is that they look at numbers of downloads rather than engaged audience. And that, to me, is the frustrating part. So then again, the exciting part is it's just a matter of time before the companies really figure it out, whether they are educated enough by us independent podcasters that they are starting to see it, that they are getting it, that it doesn't matter about just a number of downloads, but it's really about that. It's engaged listeners that are going to say, hey, you know what? Claire said I should go buy this product. So heck yeah, I'm gonna go buy this product. Because I know, like, trust, but I also respect her. And I think that's the difference from us independent podcasters is that we're building more of a respect economy with our audience rather than just the. The fun and entertaining and bigger names.
Claire Waite Brown (09:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Completely agree. Throwing out loads and loads of numbers, but not necessarily having the backup for that, that those people are going to buy the product or go to the service or go to the event or whatever it might be talking about money and talking about sponsors. Then do you find that your show is helpful in marketing your coaching? Does it work in that way? Are there other ways that the podcast is helping you financially?
Shá Sparks (10:10):
It is helping me financially with the. Building the community for the other guests and other podcasters. It's also exposing, because I do have some solo episodes, but it's exposing my audience to what I do as a coach. The wisdom I won't even see advice. The wisdom and knowledge that I've learned and gained over the years and being able to share that. So I use it as a tool to market and as a lead generation to open the door rather than to quote, unquote, sell.
Claire Waite Brown (10:40):
Yeah, completely understand. I was speaking to another guest for this show actually, who said the same thing about the Voice. And in fact, you talk about the Voice a lot on your episodes. You say to people, how do you use your voice for good? And that you're an example of doing that yourself with your show. Do you know or what do you know or how much do you know about Podcasting 2.0 and Podcasting 2.0 features?
Shá Sparks (11:08):
Well, I didn't know anything about TrueFans or Podcasting 2.0 until I met you last week. And so I just kind of took a. Just a. A high level glimpse at what it has to offer. And so I really don't know that much about it, but I am going to spend time looking into it. So if there's anything that you care to share about it, I would love to hear it.
Claire Waite Brown (11:31):
It's the extra things you can do to surround your audio to make it more accessible, to be interactive possibly and make it more discoverable and maybe earn a little bit of money as well. So there's things like you can use your transcript to have a written of your audio that can help with your podcast SEO that can help people search for certain things and find your show. There's things like Chapters which can be useful for shows that have specific parts of them. You know, like I'm going to talk about hockey and then I'm going to talk about netball. That kind of thing can be useful. I wondered with you with the Podcasting 2.0 apps, listeners can comment on your episode so that other people can read those comments and you can read those comments. There's that extra bit of interaction. Have a this is where I advertise my show. Podcasting 2.0 in Practice is my show that explains it bit by bit, one by one, really easy terms and tells you exactly how to do the thing as well as why the thing is good. One thing that I do when I'm doing my research and listening to shows from my guests is I stream you a little bit of money per minute for the episode that I'm listening to. So I'm not sure if you've claimed your show on TrueFans yet.
Shá Sparks (12:58):
I believe I have, yes.
Claire Waite Brown (12:59):
So that will have given you a wallet and right now that digital wallet will have, don't get too excited, but a very small amount of money in it. Yay. Just to show you how this thing can work. So it's something that you could encourage listeners to do. They can just flick a switch and stream you a tiny amount of money, whatever they want to do per minute that they listen to your show. And that's just something that I like to do to all of our guests. So it's just like some extra stuff that's around putting the actual audio out there.
Shá Sparks (13:34):
Thank you for sharing that. I'll definitely look into it.
Claire Waite Brown (13:37):
Good. So Shá, tell us again the name of your show, how people can connect with you and that kind of thing.
Shá Sparks (13:45):
Yeah. So my show is called the Shá S H A Sparks S P A R K S show. You can find me on all podcast platforms as well as my website, theShásparksshow.com and you can leave me a message there. You can leave me a voicemail or even a quick note if you want to connect with me. You can find me on all social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube @Shá sparks and I would love to hear from you. Let me know that you heard me on Claire's show and so I can give a shout out to her and I would love to connect.
Claire Waite Brown (14:22):
Perfect. Thank you so much, Shá. It's Been really lovely to talk.
Shá Sparks (14:25):
Thank you, Claire, for having me.
Claire Waite Brown (14:28):
There is of course a link to the Shá Sparks show in the show. Notes for this episode of Creators and new episodes will be clear to see on the home screen at Tru Fans.
Sam Sethi (14:39):
If you'd like to explore anything that Shá and Claire talked about in that interview, please leave a comment or a super comment in Trufound by clicking on the Speech bubble icon or the tab called Comments.
Claire Waite Brown (14:51):
And while you're there, if you are an independent podcast creator yourself, why not put yourself forward to be a future guest on Creators from TrueFans? If you'd like to chat with us about your independent podcast or your music, send a comment or super comment in TrueFans to any creator's episode by clicking on the speech bubble icon or on the Comments tab.
Sam Sethi (15:17):
Claire, it's question time. So what do you want to ask me this week, Claire?
Claire Waite Brown (15:21):
I've got two questions for you. Both of them based on what I spoke about with Shá in that interview. So Shá is currently exploring platforms to offer extra gifts and bonus episodes, specifically mentioning mentioning Meditations and Hypnosis. Can TrueFans fill that gap for her and serve as an alternative to another platform that demands that listeners go somewhere else to source exclusive content like Meditations?
Sam Sethi (15:55):
Yes is the answer. So those other platforms, let's name them, right? Patreon, Substack, Supercast. The idea in the past has always been that you have your main podcast host, you have your main podcast app, and then when you want premium content, exclusive content, pick your term. You then ask your fans to go somewhere else to log in. They then get what's called a private feed, and then they can either listen to it on that other platform or bring that private feed back into your favorite app. The problem with that is that you're sending your fans to all four corners of the Internet. So yes, TrueFans has got a feature that we will be launching very shortly called Premium rss. And that means you can go into your creator's dashboard, find the episode that you want to make exclusive or bonus, or pick your term, and you can then say, yes, this is the episode I want to be encrypted and I want to set a price for this. And then in the app you will then see that, click on it, make the payment from your TrueFans wallet, and we will then make the episode available. And the other thing that's nice about it is in truphands hosting that will be part of your standard RSS feed. So there are other apps that support this same premium RSS content fountain is the other one at the moment, and we hope podverse and the other apps will join. So the idea is that you have now one RSS feed for both freemium and premium and bonus content.
Claire Waite Brown (17:27):
So Shá could record her meditations, then she could put them on as premium content. Put a price. People could buy just one meditation, for example. They don't have to then sign up and be subscribing to you every single month. They could just buy that meditation or buy a load of them. It's like a little, little shop front for hearing things.
Sam Sethi (17:48):
Yeah, some podcasts will say everything I have is for free. Some podcasters will ask their fans to subscribe for a monthly payment and then others will put one episode as a bonus premium content that you can buy as a one off. We also have a feature which will allow you to put a chapter within an episode as a premium piece of content. So it may be that you've got a PDF or you've got some piece of content you want in the last chapter that you want to make paid. So again, the granularity is what I was trying to explain that you can do as well.
Claire Waite Brown (18:22):
Yeah, brilliant. Lots of choice. Okay, next question. So Shá expressed frustration that traditional sponsors often focus strictly on numbers of downloads rather than a truly engaged audience. How does TrueFans help podcasters like Shá prove the value of those deep, those trust based listeners connections? Are there engagement metrics within TrueFans that go beyond simple download counts?
Sam Sethi (18:53):
Yeah, I've been a long advocate and the download is not a play. And the problem we have is that historically the download was the only metric you could offer because hosts could only give you that metric. TrueFans hosting allows you to measure because we stream the content, actual number of plays, and the better part of that is we actually give you the listen time and the consumption amount. What do we mean? So Instead of a 10,000 downloads, you may find that of those 10,000 downloads, 70% may be auto downloads. You know, Apple has auto downloads as a feature. So if the advertiser or the sponsor said, well, how many of those actual downloads were plays? Well, now we can tell you, you know, it may be of that 10,000 or 1,000 real plays or 2,000 real plays. So you end up with what was the total listen time across all apps. And then you can see the listen time for individual apps. And then the last part is we can give you what's called consumption data. So within the episode we can show you maybe 60% of all your plays were listened to for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes. So you are now being able to give back to your sponsors or advertisers some real strong metrics. 2000 people listened to my show. 14 apps were consuming it. We had a total listen time of 8 hours 22 minutes and on average they listened to 70% of the episode. And that's real strong metric. Bumper, which is an agency that supports lots of podcasters have come out with something called the Bumper Score, which is based on listen time, percent completed and number of plays. So this is where the industry's going. The download is dead. It is about listen time and plays.
Claire Waite Brown (20:48):
Brilliant. Thank you. Claire.
Sam Sethi (20:51):
News and events, what's happening around the world? I think the biggest news story of the week, month, year has just dropped. You've joined us at TrueFans, Claire. Welcome on board.
Claire Waite Brown (21:02):
Thank you so much. I am officially head of community at TrueFans, which is very exciting. I've kind of been doing it in an ad hoc manner over the last year with this show with Fanzone also communicating with independent podcasts, like building up our relationship with independent podcasters, pushing forward how TrueFans can help them with discovery, interactivity and monetization. So I will be continuing to do that. One of the things I've done straight away is I have set up a calendar link for anyone to book a one to one coffee chat with me to talk about whatever you want to about TrueFans. So that might be the podcast app itself, it might be the extra things that creators can do if they claim their show or it might be how TrueFans hosting works. So I will put that link in the show notes, I'll put it in this chapter. But basically you can come in, you can bowl me over with all your questions if you are already familiar with TrueFans or I can start by giving you an overview. Then we can veer in the direction that most interests you. So making that actual connection. And I can really explain in real person terms what's so good about TrueFans. So that's the first thing I've done. The second thing I've done is to put us on Instagram. So we have an account now on Instagram Threads and Blue Sky. So I'll be sharing stuff there, stuff about shows that we're featuring on the app and building relationships that way. So please, if you are inclined, do come follow us on any of those platforms. We are TrueFans FM on Instagram and Threads and truefans Social on Bluesky and I would love to connect with you.
Sam Sethi (22:57):
There's some of the other things that you're going to be doing, Claire, is some short videos, help videos as well. So I'm looking forward to you getting those out. They will be available both on the platform and off platform as well. Because of the way that Trufounds works, we do some things that are at what we call the bleeding edge. So they're so new, they're so different that I think we need to explain them. For example, in chapters, you can click an eye icon. What does that do? Well, it means that when you listen to the audio, it will skip that chapter for you. Now, that's not on another platform. No one else does that. And so when you see that icon, it'll be like, oh, I don't know, what does that do? Now we'll be able to put a little help video that explains all these quirky little features that we've added as well. I'm really looking forward to you getting those done because I think they'll be really, really helpful to people when they're onboarding to TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (23:50):
Well, as you know, Sam, I have been a freelance editor of books for very many years, and that was a big part of my job was actually explaining how people do things. And sometimes if you're the creator of these things or you're the author of a book, you don't necessarily connect with what someone who is completely new to the platform or new to the activity that you're doing in the book needs to know. So that's. I go right back to the basics and make sure anyone can understand the cool things that can be done here at TrueFans.
Sam Sethi (24:24):
I wonder why I wanted to join the team then.
Claire Waite Brown (24:27):
You were quite clever.
Sam Sethi (24:28):
Yes. But also, I mean, for those who haven't heard it, Claire did a great podcast called Podcasting 2.0 in Practice. And again, that's how I first came across Claire, and it was the. The way that you did it. So you and I spent a bit of time going through the technical elements of it, but I loved the way that you explained the complexity of podcasting in a much simpler manner. And it was that ability to take complex subjects and make them simple and make them fun and entertaining was what I wanted. And I think you've done a great job with Fanzone as well. So here we are on creators, and there's a lot more to come from Clare. So welcome on board, friend.
Claire Waite Brown (25:08):
Thank you so much. Back in the rest of the world, the Independent Podcast Awards are now open. Sam, can you tell me about that?
Sam Sethi (25:18):
Yeah, you have until June 8th to enter, and the event itself will be held on November 4th in London. Clare and I will be there. Plus I noticed a few new categories have been added. We'll add a link in the show notes and this chapter so you can go and find out more.
Claire Waite Brown (25:34):
And this seems like a good time to remind or introduce listeners to the awards pages that we have at TrueFans. It's another form of discovery. If you click on your avatar in the app, if you're on the desktop up the top, there's a button called Discover and from there you can click on awards. And what we do there is we make a whole list of all the awards that we know of and we will list the previous winners. If we're at that stage, we'll list shortlisted. If we're at that stage, we will also add links to where you can enter for the next one. So there's all sorts of awards on there, including the Independent Podcast awards. And you can also use those lists to make your own playlist if you so wish.
Sam Sethi (26:25):
Amazing. And that's it for this week, Claire. Oh, it went quick this week, this show. I'm looking forward to the next one. Our audio is recorded on Riverside, it's edited by you, Claire, and we're hosted on TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (26:37):
You can support this show by streaming sats from your TrueFans wallet or you can leave us a super comment
Sam Sethi (26:44):
if you'd like to promote your podcast in the feed for this show, go to your creator's dashboard and click on the pencil icon next to the podcast. Locate the podcast promotions, search and find Creators from TrueFans. And you can request to have your podcast featured as a promo on this show.
Claire Waite Brown (27:02):
And you can find out more about how to use the features of the TrueFans platform by listening to our sister podcast, Fanzone.
And I think that's the difference from us independent podcasters is that we're building more of a respect economy with our audience, rather than just the fun and entertaining in bigger names.
Sam Sethi (00:19):
So the idea is that you have now one RSS feed for both freemium premium and bonus content. TrueFans hosting allows you to measure because we stream the content, actual number of plays, and the better part of that is we actually give you the listen time and the consumption amount.
Claire Waite Brown (00:40):
Welcome to Creators from TrueFans. I'm independent podcaster Claire Waite Brown.
Sam Sethi (00:47):
And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (00:49):
Each episode, we'll chat with an independent creator, whether a podcaster or musician, about their creative experiences.
Sam Sethi (00:57):
And we'll answer questions from independent creators about the TrueFans features that can help them with discovery, interactivity, and monetization.
Claire Waite Brown (01:08):
Hi, Sam. Long time no see.
Sam Sethi (01:10):
Oh, where have you been? Hello and welcome back to Creators from TrueFans. Yes, we have been away, but we are back very excited. Claire, which independent podcast are we featuring this week?
Claire Waite Brown (01:23):
This week I am chatting with Shá Sparks. I am here with Shá Sparks. Hello, Shá. How are you?
Shá Sparks (01:32):
I'm good, Claire. Thanks for having me. This is exciting.
Claire Waite Brown (01:35):
You're very welcome. Start by telling me, please, the name of your show and what it is all about.
Shá Sparks (01:42):
Yes, my show is the Shá Sparks Show. I talk with military and business leaders on what it means to invest in people.
Claire Waite Brown (01:52):
Wow. Okay. What does that mean?
Shá Sparks (01:57):
So when I started my journey, if you don't mind me sharing this, when I started my podcasting journey in 2019 or 18, I had a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs, and I knew them personally. So I kind of knew their, like, trauma backstory of, you know, this hidden thing that was happening behind the scenes that they didn't really share a whole lot on social media or with the audience or anything like that. And I knew that going through that was kind of their secret sauce to why they propelled even further successful. And I started to dive into that conversation and I got such amazing feedback how they love talking about it. And I just got connected, you know, through various people connecting me through a gentleman who was a veteran and had started a nonprofit for first responders and veterans to help them with addiction, whether that be alcohol or drug or whatever. And so we started talking and I guess because of his episode came out, it just kind of doors opened to me into the military and veteran community. I had no idea that was going to happen. But over the course of several years, doors just kept opening and I kept walking through Them. And so I say that military and business leaders, because I have a lot of prior military guests that it's so remarkable when you think of a title or a rank that a lot of times people have when they are a leader, especially in business or in military, and then to go through something, never talk about it, or they talk about just a little bit, but then that is their. That gumption, that gut, that grit to overcome that thing is what really is their secret sauce to propel them forward.
Claire Waite Brown (03:50):
Yeah. And help other people in doing that by telling their stories to you. That's bound to be supportive for other people. So is that still how you come across guests now, word of mouth in your experience?
Shá Sparks (04:04):
Yes. I am naturally a connector and love people, and so I never have a problem finding guests. In fact, I turn a lot of people who pitch me away because they're just not what I'm looking for. They're trying to promote what their thing is, and it's like, okay, that's great, but I want to get down to the nitty gritty and really find out why or what you did to invest in yourself and how that investment then overflows onto your family life and community.
Claire Waite Brown (04:35):
Okay, so this storytelling and this background and this delving that you are doing, does that connect with the rest of your life? And how do you fit in the podcasting from a time point of view and maybe from a lifestyle and emotional point of view, how do they go together?
Shá Sparks (04:55):
Yeah, great question. So when I started my podcast, I was also getting my certification in. In life and business coaching as well as I had a salon. I was a hairstylist. And as a hairstylist, like bartenders. But pretty much my whole life, I've been that person that people tell me everything. Right. And so podcasting I had been curious about for probably about four to five years before I actually launched it, because I thought, well, people tell me stories anyway. I might as well just find one that is inspiring for people to listen to rather than just sitting around a table and chatting about the movie they just watched, which is a friend of mine had done. And I was like, I don't really like that format. I mean, good for them, but that's not what I want or complaining. And I was like, nope, I don't want any of that. I want something that really kind of inspires the listener or the audience, empowers them to take action because they can see themselves in the muck and the yuck that the guest went through. So how I balanced it was I. I was Single, and I just did it. So I worked in the salon, I worked in my coaching business, and I recorded episodes and I did all the editing myself. And then finally I went to a podcast conference. And part of that podcast conference was Military Creator Con. And I met a gentleman there who is a veteran and owns a podcast producing company and he does editing. And we partnered together and it was the best thing I could have ever done, was take something off my plate. And so to have it now where it's grown, not just my show, but we've built a community around the Heroes Media Group, around the production company, around my podcast and his podcast, and. And we've partnered together and really grown what's important in life. So it goes back to that muck and yuck still and how to get through that. And we don't get through it alone. We get through it together in community.
Claire Waite Brown (07:01):
And when you say community, does that include listeners or are you talking about other podcasters or guests? What do you mean?
Shá Sparks (07:10):
Well, it's other podcasters and guests. Again, because of that component of having the military and business background. As far as guests, I'm sorry for my audience. I'm exploring the community of another platform to really connect with them and add extra gifts, extra bonus episodes. I also do meditations and hypnosis, so to put that out there. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that grows. I'm just looking at it from a curiosity lens to see how I can. How we can all collaborate together.
Claire Waite Brown (07:44):
Yeah, understand. Thank you. In general, or maybe specifically to your experiences, what is one thing that frustrates you about podcasting or the podcast world, and one thing that really excites you?
Shá Sparks (08:00):
Mm. Well, it's kind of the same coin, different sides. Actually, what frustrates me is that it hasn't, quote, unquote, taken off as a medium for sponsorships like TV commercials and things like that. On the other side, I'm excited because there's the opening, right? The possibility, the opportunity for it to take off, for it to be held ground. I listen to some big name podcasters and I'm like, how did they get that sponsor? Like, where did that come from? And I'm thinking, okay, well, that's great that they're reaching all these millions of people. But the thing I find frustrating is with the sponsors is that they look at numbers of downloads rather than engaged audience. And that, to me, is the frustrating part. So then again, the exciting part is it's just a matter of time before the companies really figure it out, whether they are educated enough by us independent podcasters that they are starting to see it, that they are getting it, that it doesn't matter about just a number of downloads, but it's really about that. It's engaged listeners that are going to say, hey, you know what? Claire said I should go buy this product. So heck yeah, I'm gonna go buy this product. Because I know, like, trust, but I also respect her. And I think that's the difference from us independent podcasters is that we're building more of a respect economy with our audience rather than just the. The fun and entertaining and bigger names.
Claire Waite Brown (09:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Completely agree. Throwing out loads and loads of numbers, but not necessarily having the backup for that, that those people are going to buy the product or go to the service or go to the event or whatever it might be talking about money and talking about sponsors. Then do you find that your show is helpful in marketing your coaching? Does it work in that way? Are there other ways that the podcast is helping you financially?
Shá Sparks (10:10):
It is helping me financially with the. Building the community for the other guests and other podcasters. It's also exposing, because I do have some solo episodes, but it's exposing my audience to what I do as a coach. The wisdom I won't even see advice. The wisdom and knowledge that I've learned and gained over the years and being able to share that. So I use it as a tool to market and as a lead generation to open the door rather than to quote, unquote, sell.
Claire Waite Brown (10:40):
Yeah, completely understand. I was speaking to another guest for this show actually, who said the same thing about the Voice. And in fact, you talk about the Voice a lot on your episodes. You say to people, how do you use your voice for good? And that you're an example of doing that yourself with your show. Do you know or what do you know or how much do you know about Podcasting 2.0 and Podcasting 2.0 features?
Shá Sparks (11:08):
Well, I didn't know anything about TrueFans or Podcasting 2.0 until I met you last week. And so I just kind of took a. Just a. A high level glimpse at what it has to offer. And so I really don't know that much about it, but I am going to spend time looking into it. So if there's anything that you care to share about it, I would love to hear it.
Claire Waite Brown (11:31):
It's the extra things you can do to surround your audio to make it more accessible, to be interactive possibly and make it more discoverable and maybe earn a little bit of money as well. So there's things like you can use your transcript to have a written of your audio that can help with your podcast SEO that can help people search for certain things and find your show. There's things like Chapters which can be useful for shows that have specific parts of them. You know, like I'm going to talk about hockey and then I'm going to talk about netball. That kind of thing can be useful. I wondered with you with the Podcasting 2.0 apps, listeners can comment on your episode so that other people can read those comments and you can read those comments. There's that extra bit of interaction. Have a this is where I advertise my show. Podcasting 2.0 in Practice is my show that explains it bit by bit, one by one, really easy terms and tells you exactly how to do the thing as well as why the thing is good. One thing that I do when I'm doing my research and listening to shows from my guests is I stream you a little bit of money per minute for the episode that I'm listening to. So I'm not sure if you've claimed your show on TrueFans yet.
Shá Sparks (12:58):
I believe I have, yes.
Claire Waite Brown (12:59):
So that will have given you a wallet and right now that digital wallet will have, don't get too excited, but a very small amount of money in it. Yay. Just to show you how this thing can work. So it's something that you could encourage listeners to do. They can just flick a switch and stream you a tiny amount of money, whatever they want to do per minute that they listen to your show. And that's just something that I like to do to all of our guests. So it's just like some extra stuff that's around putting the actual audio out there.
Shá Sparks (13:34):
Thank you for sharing that. I'll definitely look into it.
Claire Waite Brown (13:37):
Good. So Shá, tell us again the name of your show, how people can connect with you and that kind of thing.
Shá Sparks (13:45):
Yeah. So my show is called the Shá S H A Sparks S P A R K S show. You can find me on all podcast platforms as well as my website, theShásparksshow.com and you can leave me a message there. You can leave me a voicemail or even a quick note if you want to connect with me. You can find me on all social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube @Shá sparks and I would love to hear from you. Let me know that you heard me on Claire's show and so I can give a shout out to her and I would love to connect.
Claire Waite Brown (14:22):
Perfect. Thank you so much, Shá. It's Been really lovely to talk.
Shá Sparks (14:25):
Thank you, Claire, for having me.
Claire Waite Brown (14:28):
There is of course a link to the Shá Sparks show in the show. Notes for this episode of Creators and new episodes will be clear to see on the home screen at Tru Fans.
Sam Sethi (14:39):
If you'd like to explore anything that Shá and Claire talked about in that interview, please leave a comment or a super comment in Trufound by clicking on the Speech bubble icon or the tab called Comments.
Claire Waite Brown (14:51):
And while you're there, if you are an independent podcast creator yourself, why not put yourself forward to be a future guest on Creators from TrueFans? If you'd like to chat with us about your independent podcast or your music, send a comment or super comment in TrueFans to any creator's episode by clicking on the speech bubble icon or on the Comments tab.
Sam Sethi (15:17):
Claire, it's question time. So what do you want to ask me this week, Claire?
Claire Waite Brown (15:21):
I've got two questions for you. Both of them based on what I spoke about with Shá in that interview. So Shá is currently exploring platforms to offer extra gifts and bonus episodes, specifically mentioning mentioning Meditations and Hypnosis. Can TrueFans fill that gap for her and serve as an alternative to another platform that demands that listeners go somewhere else to source exclusive content like Meditations?
Sam Sethi (15:55):
Yes is the answer. So those other platforms, let's name them, right? Patreon, Substack, Supercast. The idea in the past has always been that you have your main podcast host, you have your main podcast app, and then when you want premium content, exclusive content, pick your term. You then ask your fans to go somewhere else to log in. They then get what's called a private feed, and then they can either listen to it on that other platform or bring that private feed back into your favorite app. The problem with that is that you're sending your fans to all four corners of the Internet. So yes, TrueFans has got a feature that we will be launching very shortly called Premium rss. And that means you can go into your creator's dashboard, find the episode that you want to make exclusive or bonus, or pick your term, and you can then say, yes, this is the episode I want to be encrypted and I want to set a price for this. And then in the app you will then see that, click on it, make the payment from your TrueFans wallet, and we will then make the episode available. And the other thing that's nice about it is in truphands hosting that will be part of your standard RSS feed. So there are other apps that support this same premium RSS content fountain is the other one at the moment, and we hope podverse and the other apps will join. So the idea is that you have now one RSS feed for both freemium and premium and bonus content.
Claire Waite Brown (17:27):
So Shá could record her meditations, then she could put them on as premium content. Put a price. People could buy just one meditation, for example. They don't have to then sign up and be subscribing to you every single month. They could just buy that meditation or buy a load of them. It's like a little, little shop front for hearing things.
Sam Sethi (17:48):
Yeah, some podcasts will say everything I have is for free. Some podcasters will ask their fans to subscribe for a monthly payment and then others will put one episode as a bonus premium content that you can buy as a one off. We also have a feature which will allow you to put a chapter within an episode as a premium piece of content. So it may be that you've got a PDF or you've got some piece of content you want in the last chapter that you want to make paid. So again, the granularity is what I was trying to explain that you can do as well.
Claire Waite Brown (18:22):
Yeah, brilliant. Lots of choice. Okay, next question. So Shá expressed frustration that traditional sponsors often focus strictly on numbers of downloads rather than a truly engaged audience. How does TrueFans help podcasters like Shá prove the value of those deep, those trust based listeners connections? Are there engagement metrics within TrueFans that go beyond simple download counts?
Sam Sethi (18:53):
Yeah, I've been a long advocate and the download is not a play. And the problem we have is that historically the download was the only metric you could offer because hosts could only give you that metric. TrueFans hosting allows you to measure because we stream the content, actual number of plays, and the better part of that is we actually give you the listen time and the consumption amount. What do we mean? So Instead of a 10,000 downloads, you may find that of those 10,000 downloads, 70% may be auto downloads. You know, Apple has auto downloads as a feature. So if the advertiser or the sponsor said, well, how many of those actual downloads were plays? Well, now we can tell you, you know, it may be of that 10,000 or 1,000 real plays or 2,000 real plays. So you end up with what was the total listen time across all apps. And then you can see the listen time for individual apps. And then the last part is we can give you what's called consumption data. So within the episode we can show you maybe 60% of all your plays were listened to for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes. So you are now being able to give back to your sponsors or advertisers some real strong metrics. 2000 people listened to my show. 14 apps were consuming it. We had a total listen time of 8 hours 22 minutes and on average they listened to 70% of the episode. And that's real strong metric. Bumper, which is an agency that supports lots of podcasters have come out with something called the Bumper Score, which is based on listen time, percent completed and number of plays. So this is where the industry's going. The download is dead. It is about listen time and plays.
Claire Waite Brown (20:48):
Brilliant. Thank you. Claire.
Sam Sethi (20:51):
News and events, what's happening around the world? I think the biggest news story of the week, month, year has just dropped. You've joined us at TrueFans, Claire. Welcome on board.
Claire Waite Brown (21:02):
Thank you so much. I am officially head of community at TrueFans, which is very exciting. I've kind of been doing it in an ad hoc manner over the last year with this show with Fanzone also communicating with independent podcasts, like building up our relationship with independent podcasters, pushing forward how TrueFans can help them with discovery, interactivity and monetization. So I will be continuing to do that. One of the things I've done straight away is I have set up a calendar link for anyone to book a one to one coffee chat with me to talk about whatever you want to about TrueFans. So that might be the podcast app itself, it might be the extra things that creators can do if they claim their show or it might be how TrueFans hosting works. So I will put that link in the show notes, I'll put it in this chapter. But basically you can come in, you can bowl me over with all your questions if you are already familiar with TrueFans or I can start by giving you an overview. Then we can veer in the direction that most interests you. So making that actual connection. And I can really explain in real person terms what's so good about TrueFans. So that's the first thing I've done. The second thing I've done is to put us on Instagram. So we have an account now on Instagram Threads and Blue Sky. So I'll be sharing stuff there, stuff about shows that we're featuring on the app and building relationships that way. So please, if you are inclined, do come follow us on any of those platforms. We are TrueFans FM on Instagram and Threads and truefans Social on Bluesky and I would love to connect with you.
Sam Sethi (22:57):
There's some of the other things that you're going to be doing, Claire, is some short videos, help videos as well. So I'm looking forward to you getting those out. They will be available both on the platform and off platform as well. Because of the way that Trufounds works, we do some things that are at what we call the bleeding edge. So they're so new, they're so different that I think we need to explain them. For example, in chapters, you can click an eye icon. What does that do? Well, it means that when you listen to the audio, it will skip that chapter for you. Now, that's not on another platform. No one else does that. And so when you see that icon, it'll be like, oh, I don't know, what does that do? Now we'll be able to put a little help video that explains all these quirky little features that we've added as well. I'm really looking forward to you getting those done because I think they'll be really, really helpful to people when they're onboarding to TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (23:50):
Well, as you know, Sam, I have been a freelance editor of books for very many years, and that was a big part of my job was actually explaining how people do things. And sometimes if you're the creator of these things or you're the author of a book, you don't necessarily connect with what someone who is completely new to the platform or new to the activity that you're doing in the book needs to know. So that's. I go right back to the basics and make sure anyone can understand the cool things that can be done here at TrueFans.
Sam Sethi (24:24):
I wonder why I wanted to join the team then.
Claire Waite Brown (24:27):
You were quite clever.
Sam Sethi (24:28):
Yes. But also, I mean, for those who haven't heard it, Claire did a great podcast called Podcasting 2.0 in Practice. And again, that's how I first came across Claire, and it was the. The way that you did it. So you and I spent a bit of time going through the technical elements of it, but I loved the way that you explained the complexity of podcasting in a much simpler manner. And it was that ability to take complex subjects and make them simple and make them fun and entertaining was what I wanted. And I think you've done a great job with Fanzone as well. So here we are on creators, and there's a lot more to come from Clare. So welcome on board, friend.
Claire Waite Brown (25:08):
Thank you so much. Back in the rest of the world, the Independent Podcast Awards are now open. Sam, can you tell me about that?
Sam Sethi (25:18):
Yeah, you have until June 8th to enter, and the event itself will be held on November 4th in London. Clare and I will be there. Plus I noticed a few new categories have been added. We'll add a link in the show notes and this chapter so you can go and find out more.
Claire Waite Brown (25:34):
And this seems like a good time to remind or introduce listeners to the awards pages that we have at TrueFans. It's another form of discovery. If you click on your avatar in the app, if you're on the desktop up the top, there's a button called Discover and from there you can click on awards. And what we do there is we make a whole list of all the awards that we know of and we will list the previous winners. If we're at that stage, we'll list shortlisted. If we're at that stage, we will also add links to where you can enter for the next one. So there's all sorts of awards on there, including the Independent Podcast awards. And you can also use those lists to make your own playlist if you so wish.
Sam Sethi (26:25):
Amazing. And that's it for this week, Claire. Oh, it went quick this week, this show. I'm looking forward to the next one. Our audio is recorded on Riverside, it's edited by you, Claire, and we're hosted on TrueFans.
Claire Waite Brown (26:37):
You can support this show by streaming sats from your TrueFans wallet or you can leave us a super comment
Sam Sethi (26:44):
if you'd like to promote your podcast in the feed for this show, go to your creator's dashboard and click on the pencil icon next to the podcast. Locate the podcast promotions, search and find Creators from TrueFans. And you can request to have your podcast featured as a promo on this show.
Claire Waite Brown (27:02):
And you can find out more about how to use the features of the TrueFans platform by listening to our sister podcast, Fanzone.
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