Vic Elizabeth Turnbull gives a tip about reaching a wide audience

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Vic Elizabeth Turnbull: Hi, I'm

Vic Elizabeth Turnbull and I'm the

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founder of MIC Media, a podcast

production and training agency that

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helps good eggs to grab the mic.

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And today I'm going to give you a

tip about reaching a wide audience.

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So I run my podcast production training

agency, MIC media, and I get up to loads

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here from the day to day running of the

business, like all the boring financey

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admin stuff, then the exciting stuff

like planning, producing, recording

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and editing podcasts and also steering

the awesome team here at MIC to create

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fabulous podcasts for our clients.

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So we specialise in working with

who I like to call the good eggs.

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So the people that are doing good in the

world, like charities, social enterprises,

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folk in education or value led businesses.

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And because I'm not busy enough

at MIC Media, I also help to

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run a podcasting community for

podcasters from across the world.

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It's called MIC's Podcast Club

and the premise is really simple.

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We help each other to

make brilliant podcasts.

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So we meet every month online, and

It's a support group, come open Q

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and A, come networking session for

podcasters from across the world.

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And we've got almost 2000 members.

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We started in 2018 and in fact, that's

where the name of my company came from.

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So how did I get into podcasting?

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Well, I've been obsessed with audio

since I was a little girl, from

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making my own radio shows on a Fisher

Price cassette player with a plastic

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microphone, to recording the charts

on a Sunday night as a teenager.

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I went to college and uni and did really

hands on media production courses.

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Then when I left, my career took

a bit of a squiggly path into

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working with national charities.

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During that time I did a whole host

of fabulous stuff including event

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organisation, lots of marketing,

fundraising, TV production.

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I also founded and hosted my own

live radio show for four and a

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half years too in Manchester.

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So I was made redundant in 2017 and I

had a year of 'what the bloody hell am

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I going to do with my life?' I launched

my first podcast in: 2018

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I had a daft little idea to marry my

love of working in the third sector

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with businesses and organisations.

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My huge passion of creating a level

playing field for people who want to get

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their voice heard or learn skills they

thought that were out of reach for them.

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My absolute love of amplifying

underheard voices and stories and my

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huge, huge, huge passion of making

nice things for people's ears.

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And so that's how MIC Media was born.

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It's set up as a social enterprise,

making it one of the only podcast

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agencies working this way and with

the types of clients that we do.

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Since 2019, we've made over 50

audio projects and trained over

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2,000 people with podcasting skills.

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We've worked with the likes of

Oxfam, the National Football

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Museum, Plan UK, and The Co op.

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We've also been recognised by

the British Podcast Awards and

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the Audio Production Awards too.

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What I bloody love about podcasting,

and especially with the people we

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work with at MIC, is its power to

positively change people's lives.

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You would not believe the impact

podcasting has on people that have picked

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up a microphone for the first time,

learned the ropes of audio editing, or

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for those that have shared their story.

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One person we worked with

said, "podcasting has given

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me a new lease of life.

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It feels like something I can do.

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It's been amazing.

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As soon as I started to learn

how to podcast with MIC, it was

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a light bulb moment for me, and

I'm very thankful for it all.

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It's not just around the

confidence of learning a skill,

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but people are telling me...

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even my own children, how much I

have grown in confidence as a person.

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I'm now showing other women in my group,

how to get involved in the different

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roles that make up our podcast."

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How amazing is that?

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Another story is we worked with an

amazing group of women, an organisation

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in Oldham, teaching their participants,

their community, how to start a podcast.

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Um, and there was one lady there who

said that it's the cleverest she's

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ever felt since she was at school.

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So it's a joyful, joyful experience and

one that not many people consider when

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it comes to podcasting is that positive

impact it can have on people's lives.

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And that's what we're

all about with MIC Media.

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A lot of the podcast industry is

centered around celebrities, sponsors,

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big names, big deals, listener numbers,

and for us it's all about that genuine

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difference we can make to people's lives.

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Now this particular lady in

question she used to join us for

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every training session every week.

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She bought some massive big headphones

and she sat there and she lapped it up

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and she shared her story with us and

we eventually made a podcast episode

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about her passion for gardening.

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So my big podcasting tip for you

is about reaching a wide audience.

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Don't even try.

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Look, you can't please everyone.

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Just imagine trying to do this.

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There's so many things to consider.

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Like, what pushes someone's

buttons over another person?

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How does each person prefer

to receive their information.

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What motivates each person?

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How do they like to be talked to?

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Bloody hell, it'd be

exhausting, wouldn't it?

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Then try thinking about trying to please

the people who will never be pleased.

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That's going to get tiresome pretty fast.

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Your podcast is exactly the same.

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The wider your audience, the more

that you're diluting your content

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to fit everyone's needs and wants.

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So focus on a specific audience,

the one that's going to love your

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content, take some value from your

content, eat it up and share it.

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To be frank, most people do

not care about your podcast.

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Focus on the ones that do.

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Where can you have most

impact with your content?

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Think narrow.

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Not wide.

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So thanks.

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I've been Vic Elizabeth Turnbull.

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I'm the founder of MIC Media, a

podcast production and training agency.

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To find out more about what we

do at MIC Media, head over to

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micmedia.co.uk or search MIC Media

on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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I'm also on LinkedIn too, Vic Elizabeth

Turnbull (there's a photo of me with a

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microphone in my face), and you can see

all of those links in the show notes.

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Thank you so much for

listening to Podcasting People.