Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, Hey, and welcome back to Soul Podcasting, the space
where we don't just talk about podcasting as content, but
we treat it like the soul of your brand. I'm
your host, Dimitria, a podcast coach, strategist and founder of
the Soul Podcasting Collective, where we help entrepreneurs and visionaries launch, grow,
and repurpose podcasts that sound like their purpose and not
just their profession. So today's episode is going to be
(00:36):
a quick but powerful encouragement for anyone who's been wrestling
with this question of how do I actually find my
podcasting voice? And before we dive in, I want to
pause for a moment and share something really special. This summer,
I had the honor of serving as a judge for
the Women Who Podcast Awards, led by the incredible Kathy Baron,
(00:56):
and at the end of it, I received a medal
for participating in Honestly, it meant so much to me,
not just the metal, but being part of a global
community of women raising their voices and making impact through podcasting.
So I'm really grateful I got to contribute, and it
reminded me again of how much I love this medium
and how important your voice is in this space. If
(01:18):
you haven't checked out Kathy already and what she's doing
over at Women Who Podcast, check her out women who
podcast mag dot com and see what she's up to
and how you can find out more about podcasting reader magazine,
get involved in community, and just really enjoy the art
of podcasting and get engaged. But before we get into
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anything more, I would love to invite you to go
ahead and grab your favorite drink or beverage. We're really
going to settle in today and talk about finding your
podcast voice. Is something that I've been working through over
the last twenty years of podcasting, and I'm still even
today finding my voice. There's so many different layers to
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finding your voice, and we're going to figure out what
that means and how you can find out what suits
you best in podcasting. So settle in and let's chat podcasting.
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First off, what does finding your podcasting voice really mean? Well,
finding your podcasting voice isn't just about your literal sound.
It's not about having a deep, smooth voice or the
perfect radio tone. Your podcasting voice is your presence. It's
the way your personality, your energy, and your perspective shine
through the microphone. So when I first started podcasting in
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two thousand and five. I thought I had to sell
like all the hosts that I heard on the radio,
So at some point I began editing out all the
ums and the uzz. Of course, in the beginning, I
didn't because I didn't know how to edit very well
and I didn't have the time. So initially everything that
I put out there was pretty authentic and raw and unedited.
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But with time I began to fill the need and
the pressure to perfect everything that I did, and so
basically I squeezed myself into a version of me that
just didn't feel natural, and you know what, that's also
really exhausting. Over time, I realized that my real voice
came out when I stopped trying to impress and just
started to connect, when I told stories, when I laughed
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at my own mistakes, when I let listeners hear the
real Demetria. And that's when I realized that your podcasting
voice is about authenticity and not perfection. So your voice
matters so much more than you think. The thing is
your niche might just be saturated. We all know that
podcasting is booming at this point, and so many people
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are starting a new show every single week. Other people
may very well be covering similar topics as you. But
the reason that listeners choose your show and keep coming
back is your voice. And I don't just mean the
resonance of your voice, the timbre of how you sound,
and the ebbs and flows of your natural cadence. I
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mean your emotions, your goal, your mission, your purpose for
why you're creating the show, and the character that your
show takes on as you're podcasting. So think about your
favorite podcast shows. Sure the content is valuable, right, that's
why you listen, but usually it's the host who makes
you hit follow or subscribe. It's their sense of humor,
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it's their perspective, their warmth, their style. It's the way
they communicate and how that comes off through their soul
to yours through the microphone. And your voice is the
brand of your podcast. It's the one thing that nobody
else can duplicate. So there some practical ways that I
want to help you find your podcasting voice. How do
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you actually discover that authentic voice? Here's a few things
you can do. The first is that you can record
more than your release. You can give yourself permission to
record just some practice episodes that no one's ever gonna hear.
Try different tones, different levels of energy, even different ways
of structuring your content. Some of your best discoveries are
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going to happen off air. So when I say off air,
meaning you're not planning to publish them, maybe or maybe
you will. But if you've got a whole bunch of
episodes recorded or things that you want to release and
you're not really sure, just practice and you don't have
to have that pressure that someone will hear it if
you never publish it. So maybe you do a few
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practice episodes until you're confident and see how much you need,
how much you don't need. But during this time you're
practicing your true, authentic voice. Another thing you can do
is just to warm up your voice, so before you
hit record, you can read out loud for a couple
of minutes, maybe five minutes or so, do a few
vocal warm ups. I am trying to do more of
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that now as I'm singing more often as well, so
it's part of my regime to warm up my voice.
This not only helps you sound better, but it gets
you relax gets your vocal chords relaxed, and you're more
comfortable in your own tone. Notice where you feel most alive.
So do you feel most natural when you're telling stories,
when you're coaching, teaching, when you're riffing freely, almost like
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journaling out loud. Some people really love that kind of
a podcast. So pay attention to where you feel at ease,
and that's usually where your true voice lives. So you
have to kind of know yourself and know not just
your mission and your purpose for your podcast, but how
you wish to communicate that purpose to your audience. There's
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lots of different styles and characteristics that you can bring
to that podcast, and so think about how you want
to communicate with your audience. Decide on your tone persona.
Just ask yourself, do I want to sound like a
trusted coach or a best friend, a storyteller, or a guide.
Defining that persona helps give your voice the structure and
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the consistency that you need throughout your show. So I've
chosen the persona of trusted coach. I've also chosen teacher
on some of my other shows. So it depends on
how you want to present yourself, and that is the
tone that the majority of your episodes will take on.
Speak to one person and not the entire crowd. So
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one of the easiest ways to make your voice feel
warmer and more authentic is to picture a single listener
while you record, talk like you're having coffee with them
or just chatting with them one on one like a friend,
and not necessarily delivering a speech to an entire stadium
full of people. This is going to help you really
to make that more meaningful connection with your audience. And
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then don't over edit. Leave in some of the laughs.
A pause here, they're a stumble. You know, it's okay.
It makes you more human, and humans are what we
connect with as people, So it's okay to have a
few stumbles here and there. Just make it believable, right,
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doesn't need to feel stuffy, stiff, or too edited. And
then also you want to borrow and then evolve. It's
okay to borrow a little bit from other people. We're
not copying. We're not advocating for doing your show exactly
the way someone else is or just kind of copying
cut and paste exactly what they're doing. But it's okay
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to draw inspiration from podcasters that you admire. Early on,
you might find yourself mimicking their styles in the beginning,
but over time you want to blend those influences into
something that's uniquely your own. And the best news is
that you don't need to have your podcasting voice fully
figure out before you launch. So if you're still thinking
of launching, haven't done that yet, just remember you don't
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have to have it all figured out before you press go.
Your voice is going to evolve as you keep going.
And for those of you who have been in the
game for a long time and understand what it means
to be a podcaster, just remember that even your voice
will continue to evolve as you do. When I go
back and listen to my first episodes from two thousand
and five, yes I still have some of those in
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my Google Cloud and they are not published, and for
good reason, I do cringe a little. That's okay. It
just means that I've grown. My cadence, my tone, my
confidence have all shifted with time. Even my accent, you guys,
that has completely changed over the years. Coming from the
Deep South to the West Coast. It has been a
minute and that has changed a lot. Has changed about
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my mindset. I've grown as a person, evolved. I'm I'm
twenty years older now, so the thought processes that I
even had back then and are not the same today.
So yes, they do feel cringing when I listen to them,
but I'm so glad that I took those steps and
that I put myself out there and figured it out
until now today. I'm really happy to be a podcaster
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that does this around life and around my schedule and
around my family and around whatever's happening in my world.
This is a go to thing that I can come
to the microphone and help you guys out, help you,
help the homeschool community, help the women entrepreneur creative community.
I love having these different podcasts which are just different
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ways that I can encourage, motivate, and support. And it's
exactly what I feel like my calling is right. And
so that's why I'm so energized to do this every
single week. It's not because I'm receiving a large paycheck
from some entity or that I have all of these
affiliate programs that I'm making a ton of money, you know,
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working with sponsors and getting magnificent deals. That's not happening
right now. I have had deals in the past, I
currently at this moment, don't have any deals going and
so that's of course not what motivates me to podcast.
For me, podcasting is so much more than the income
that you could receive from doing it. But there are
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going to be some things that we'll talk about on
this show about how to monetize your show in a
sustainable way, Not to get your hopes up to the
point where you're demanding a certain amount of money every
month or else you quit podcasting. We need less of that,
right because we don't want people jumping into the podcast
movement thinking that they're going to get rich overnight. What
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we want is people who desire to share their voice,
their take on life, and to do so in a
way that is contributing to their community, that brings a
level of support and encouragement for their particular niche or community,
making a difference, making a positive difference, spreading good news,
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spreading love, spreading encouragement, joy, peace, all the things that
our world needs today because we are in such need
of anything that is opposite of a negative, anything that
can help us to feel encouraged and motivated to keep going,
to have some hope. Right, no matter what your topic
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is in your podcast, if you're bringing hope, if you're
bringing solutions. That is what I think podcasting is all about, right,
And there's going to be people that will hear you
that would never have been able to hear your message
of hope have they not subscribed to your podcast. So
you might not think that anybody cares. But when you
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post your episodes and you see that one person listened,
and then the next week five people listen, and then fifty,
and then one hundred, and before you know what, thousands
are listening to your episodes on a monthly basis. That's
going to help encourage you to keep going going down
the road, with or without that solid income. So, yes,
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we want to budget for podcasting because it's not free,
and you do have to have your hosting and you
do have to have you know, all the things that
you need your equipment to get started. But once you do,
once you do and you found your voice through more
and more practice. Again, podcasting is like using a muscle.
The more you use that podcasting voice, the stronger it becomes,
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and you give yourself permission to grow into it. So
the more you do that, the more hope you give
to your community. What more can you ask for? That
is you spreading positivity in the world, and that is
the reward in and of itself. In my opinion, that
at least is my reward when I podcast. And so
bringing podcasting into your business takes on a whole different flavor,
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and we'll talk more about that later, but I just
like to encourage you from the angle of being a
life giver. We can talk about the money, we can
talk about the business side of it, we can talk
about marketing. I have a few episodes here where I
have I've discussed keywords and marketing your show and that
kind of thing. But it's not just about the marketing aspect.
It really is about spreading good news to people who
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really need that information from you. If you're struggling with
all of this right now, just this whole idea of
how do I make this podcast work, how do I
really make a difference in my community. Here's what I
want you to know. You already have a podcasting voice,
and it may not feel polished just yet. It may
not feel like it matches the podcasters that you admire,
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But that's actually the point. Your voice isn't supposed to
sound like their voice. It's supposed to sound like you.
So I want you to lean into practice, pay attention
to when you feel most alive, and let your personality
shine through. That is the voice that your listeners are
waiting for. And if you're not sure whether your podcasting
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voice is really shining through, that's exactly what my podcast
audit is for. So I'll listen to your show, give
you an honest, supportive assessment of your delivery and your presence,
and then I can share ways you can step more
fully into your authentic voice. You can grab your audit
at soul podcasting dot com, slash podcast dash audit links
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in the show notes because your podcasting voice truly matters,
and you know what the world needs to hear what
you have to say. Until next time, my friends, happy podcasting,