Dan and I started our small business podcast, Candid Conversations, in March 2017, and pretty much exactly a year later, we went on an undetermined hiatus.
What goes into the making of a podcast? Who did we interview, what kind of stories do they have to share? How did our podcast lead to the creation of our business, and how did we navigate the juggling between our podcast and our business?
Well, now you can get the answers to all of the in my new e-book on the subject, A Year in the Life of Candid Conversations: behind the scenes of creating a podcast from scratch!
And just because I like you… here’s an excerpt of my book! You’re getting the entire Introduction of the book. Enjoy!
>> Get the book <<
Introduction
I have a confession to make: I never had any intention of starting a podcast. 
In fact, I used to rarely even listen to podcasts. Sure, I understood that other people loved them, and podcasts were absolutely the hot trend in 2016 and 2017—but for me, the idea of hunting around to find a really great podcast that I loved just felt like a lot of work (because, um, sometimes I can be really lazy, apparently…). As a result, unless I *knew* the people who were starting the podcast (and therefore knew that I enjoyed hearing them talk), I didn’t really jump on the podcast bandwagon.
The idea of starting my own podcast was something I hadn’t seriously considered either. Mostly it just, again, felt like a lot of work: the tech side of things alone seemed like it could be a nightmare, plus what would my podcast even be about? And where would I find the time to create, record, and market a podcast, anyway?
After all, I had my own solopreneur business. I was doing freelance writing, editing, and social media management for clients, in addition to facilitating two e-courses for new freelancers. Plus, I was writing weekly blog posts on my website, sending weekly emails to my readers, running a free daily business challenge inside my private Begin Your Biz Facebook group… suffice it to say, as with everyone else in the 21st century, I had plenty of stuff going on in my life. I didn’t need to add another project to the ever-growing pile.
But when my friend Dan approached me with the idea to start a podcast together about small business, I couldn’t resist. He had already done a podcast before, so I wouldn’t have to deal with the tech side of things (phew!). Moreover, by doing a podcast together on a topic we were both passionate about, we’d be able to share the workload and make it that much more manageable. 
He mentioned the idea to me at 5:00 PM on a Monday, and the idea seemed so darn appealing that we began chatting about our ideas for it… and it felt like this concept simply couldn’t wait until another day to flesh out. A couple hours later when Dan came over, I got out giant pieces of poster paper and coloured pens for an epic brainstorming session. The result was Candid Conversations… and thus our podcasting journey began.
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All of this brings us to a good question: why write a book about the podcast?
There are a few reasons why I was so adamant that our Candid Conversations small business podcast needed to have a book to go along with each season:
1) Our guests have incredible stories beyond what they share with us during the 40-minute period.
Inevitably, we would finish each episode and say, “we need to have you on the podcast again to talk about X,” or a listener would tell us they wished we would have talked more about Y, or we would realize that we hadn’t delved into the background and history of the guest in very much detail.
As you might have guessed, I’m a writer, not a speaker. When it comes to meeting new people, I tend to be so fascinated by hearing what the other person has to say that I could listen to them for hours. I’ve never understood it when people say they don’t have any interesting stories—because everyone’s story is interesting and needs to be told!
2) Although we have show notes for each podcast episode, we don’t have transcripts.
Perhaps this will change in the future. Perhaps we will hire someone to write up transcripts of each podcast episode. But in the meantime, I wanted there to be some kind of written documentation for those of you who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who simply prefer to read instead of listen, or who want to access all of the material from the first season of our podcast in one document.
3) The amount that Dan and I discuss our own business is usually just a few minutes at the beginning of each podcast episode—which means you’re only getting a *taste* of the behind-the-scenes reality of our business.
As I mentioned above, I’m fascinated with other people’s stories. And I’d assume that if you listen to our Candid Conversations podcast and/or if you’re reading this book, then you are probably fascinated with other people’s stories too.I can’t help but feel that Dan and I have a responsibility to share our business partnership story with the world. Small business is anything but easy, and having a business partner takes small business to a whole new level. I want to be able to share every step of our journey along the way with you, so that you can learn from our obstacles and our successes, and so that you can get insights, inspiration, and ideas for your own business.
4) There’s so much more that goes into podcasting than I ever would have anticipated.
No one should have to go it alone! We don’t believe there’s any point in reinventing the wheel. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast of your own, consider this book a tool to get you started and prepare you for the wonderful world of podcasting.
Ultimately, this book is truly a “story about stories about entrepreneurship.” Storytelling can be an incredible vehicle for learning and sharing ideas and finding the inspiration to keep moving forward with the work we’re passionate about. That’s what I hope this book can be for you.
A quick note on how this book is structured…
This book is structured in such a way that you’ll learn about our podcasting/business journey in between guest’s stories, as alternating chapters. Unless otherwise noted, it’s me (Sagan) who has written each section. Dan jumps in here and there to introduce a few of our guests at the beginning of their chapters, as well as to provide handy tech guides for you to start your own podcast with confidence.
As with publishing any book, there was a delay of several months between our most recent conversations with guests, and the final edit and publication of this book. Refer to Appendix II for resources to learn more about where our guests are at in their business journey at the time of your reading!
Want to read the podcast book? Yeah you do!
What’s inside the book:
- Tech tutorials for starting, editing, and publishing a podcast
- Stories about our guest’s experiences as business owners & communications specialists (plus new updates on their business journeys—I followed up with them especially for the book!)
- How our podcast began & how we juggled it with starting our business
- Tips for marketing & promoting a podcast
- Ideas for navigating work-life balance
…and more!
Who it’s for:
- Brand-new podcasters
- Established podcasters who want other podcaster’s insights & ideas
- Anyone interested in behind-the-scenes stories about business in general