Podcasts Have Come a Long Way, Baby
When I started podcasting in 2007, there weren’t a lot of other podcasts. Maybe there were a few hundred shows, at most. The big guys, like NPR, weren’t publishing their shows yet, so the only choices were from independent or “indie” producers.
Podcasts have come a long way since then, especially over the past 2 or 3 years. One tipping point was the NPR show Serial. Everyone who loved the first season shared it like crazy and it became the most quickly downloaded podcast, ever. Saturday Night Live even spoofed it at the end of 2014.
Now, famous people like Alec Baldwin, Marc Maron, and Anna Faris have podcasts that interview other famous people. There are even podcasts about podcasts!
The First Podcast I Ever Heard
When I tell people that I’ve been podcasting every week for over 10 years, they’re always surprised. “Wow, I didn’t know podcasts have been around that long!” Yup, the first ones started around 2004. I stumbled on them after my husband gave me an iPod Shuffle as a gift when I graduated from the University of Florida with my MBA in 2005.
When I tell people that I’ve been podcasting every week for over 10 years, they’re always surprised.
The first podcast I ever heard was Manager Tools, a business show that helps professionals become more effective managers and leaders. I binge-listened for hours while my husband and I were on a long road trip that summer.
I’ve always loved audio, but podcasts sounded so different than radio or an audiobook. There was an intimacy that really hooked me. I couldn’t get enough and was subscribed to over 50 shows at one point. I listened to podcasts on science, philosophy, marketing, management, and health. They all spoke directly to me with specific advice or information that was fascinating.
Another great show I found was Grammar Girl, hosted by Mignon Fogarty. I had no idea how our paths would cross in the future.
My love affair with podcasts continues. It’s a very rare day that I don’t listen to at least a couple of shows. I love reading too—but podcasts serve a different purpose for me because they fill the quiet spaces of my life while I’m doing other things, like getting ready in the morning, driving, eating, or winding down for bed.
Going From Podcast Listener to Podcast Producer
So how did I make the transition from listener to podcaster over a decade ago? First, I started blogging. After I got my MBA, I wanted to review the most salient points and concepts from graduate school. My idea was to share curriculum highlights as blog posts. That would keep the content fresh in my mind, and allow readers to benefit without having to spend time or money to go back to school.
My love affair with podcasts continues. It’s a very rare day that I don’t listen to at least a couple of shows.
But I had another idea that kept nagging at me. A huge takeaway from graduate school was that personal finances were an area that many of my cohorts were struggling with. Even though some had multiple master’s degrees or had already attained powerful leadership positions, they weren’t so successful or self-assured with their money. Many didn’t understand the basics and struggled with overspending, debt, and investing.
I had studied personal finances on my own since I was a kid and had also consulted with professional advisors, CPAs, and attorneys. My work up to that point had been unusually diverse and included accounting; real estate sales, appraising, and investing; retail consulting. And I had started, run, and successfully sold a retail floor covering business with my husband, all before I was in my early thirties.
So, my breadth of work experience, combined with self-education and a lot of curiosity about personal finances allowed me to understand it from different angles. One of the biggest lessons learned from my MBA is that even very smart, educated people can fail miserably with their personal finances.
Initially, I decided to podcast about business topics and called the show MBA Working Girl. The tag line was “Where business theory and the real world collide.” I hired a graphic designer to create the show’s cover art and she presented me a design I loved: an avatar of a smiling, smart-looking girl with glasses. I worked late into the evenings to figure out the technology, like recording and editing audio, creating an RSS feed, and submitting the show to iTunes. Believe me, it wasn’t as easy as it is today!
I launched the show in March 2007 and it did pretty well. I got lots of email feedback from listeners who were enjoying the show and requesting topics (especially personal finance topics), and eventually I even had a couple of small sponsors paying $50 here and there.
Joining the QDT Network
After producing the show every week for over a year, I got a phone call out of the blue from Rob Walch from Libsyn, which was and still is our podcast hosting platform. Rob’s a long-time influencer in the podcasting world who co-authored the book “Tricks of the Podcasting Masters.” He told me that Mignon Fogarty was looking for a new host for a show called Money Girl and thought I might be a good fit.
During this time, Grammar Girl had become wildly successful. In March 2007, just a few months after launching, Mignon was invited on the Oprah show as a grammar expert—a huge deal! She did a great job explaining what a podcast is, answering viewer questions, and discussing common grammar errors.
Then Mignon had the brilliant idea to start a podcasting network of shows on a variety of topics that would help people, and she partnered with Macmillan Publishers to found the Quick and Dirty Tips (QDT) Network. It’s now one of the oldest podcasting networks on the planet.
Money Girl launched around the same time my show did—but by the summer of 2008 the original host was leaving. After a few phone conversations with Mignon, she kindly invited me to join the network and step in as the new host of Money Girl.
After doing both podcasts for a while, I decided to end MBA Working Girl to focus more time and attention on Money Girl. The audience was quickly growing and I loved covering personal finance topics. Listeners and readers have always been great about sending me positive feedback and questions, which makes it easy to choose show topics and create content week after week.
My first Money Girl show was episode number 82, and as I look back at the 400 plus weekly shows that I’ve written since then, the topics bring back a lot of memories about personal finance issues of the day.
My first Money Girl show was episode number 82, and as I look back at the 400 plus weekly shows that I’ve written since then, the topics bring back a lot of memories about personal finance issues of the day.
When I started hosting Money Girl in the summer of 2008, the recession was in full swing and many people were panicked. “What will happen to my savings if my bank goes out of business?”, “Should I cash out my 401k?”, “Should I walk away from my home if my mortgage is underwater?”, “Is it better to have a foreclosure or to declare bankruptcy?” Those were the types questions keeping people awake at night back then.
Thank goodness the economy has mostly rebounded over the past decade. But I wonder if those financial challenges helped the show take off since many were frantically searching for answers to serious financial problems.
Becoming an Author
The QDT shows kept getting attention and Mignon partnered with Macmillan Publishers to take over audio production and produce books and audiobooks themed around the podcasts. In 2008, her first paperback, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing hit number 9 on the New York Times Best Seller List. I was so impressed and excited for her!
At the end of 2008, I signed deals with Macmillan for multiple audiobooks and my first paperback, Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich. Writing while working full time certainly has its challenges, but I learned to become a morning person for the first time in my life. I’d get up at 4:00 am so I could write for a couple of hours before leaving the house by 7:00 for work in Orlando, Florida, where I was the Operations Officer at a small floor covering contractor.
After a year of writing and then another year of final editing, design, and marketing, it was thrilling to finally see my book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble at the beginning of 2011! I couldn’t pass by a book store without going in to find mine and turning a copy so the cover would stand out! Becoming a published author was a huge career milestone that I’m very proud of.
Once you have a book and a message, the hard work begins: promotion. Before I knew it, I was getting national media and speaking requests. I knew stepping on a bigger stage was the key to helping more people and would be the next phase of my career.
So, I left my management job to become a full-time personal finance expert, consumer advocate, and spokesperson. Over the past six years, the journey has taken me and my husband, Adam, from Florida to Silicon Valley, and now to Austin, Texas. The one constant has been this weekly podcast.
How Money Girl Gets Created Each Week
I’m often asked how I come up with show topics. There’s inspiration everywhere I look, like my own financial dilemmas and decisions, current events, questions from readers and listeners, pitches from authors, and my desire to connect with interesting people and record conversations with subject matter experts.
I keep an editorial calendar with topic ideas and confirmed episodes, trying to give you as much variety in the personal finance space as possible. Every show has a companion blog post that lives in the Money Girl section of quickanddirtytips.com—so that’s where I start
Once the article is written I submit a draft to our wonderful editor, Alyssa. In the meantime, I create a script or some talking points to cover in the show, which includes my intro, outro, and sponsor information. Then I go in my closet and record. Yup, you heard me correctly.
Even though I’ve always had an office and even extra guestrooms when we lived in a big house in Florida, I’d never record podcasts anywhere other than my walk-in closet. The audio quality is just the best there and it’s like my private little space to focus on what I want to say.
Even though I’ve always had an office and even extra guestrooms when we lived in a big house in Florida, I’d never record podcasts anywhere other than my walk-in closet. The audio quality is just the best there and it’s like my private little space to focus on what I want to say.
There have been occasions where I’ve recorded from a hotel room, but I’m usually not satisfied with it. So, I work ahead and get shows recorded before I head out on vacation.
I’ve tried different recording programs, but always come back to Audacity, which is a free, open-source software that has everything I need. I use it to clean up my audio file a little bit, by canceling out background noise and deleting mistakes. Then I upload the audio file to Macmillan servers where my fantastic audio producer, Steve Riekeberg, adds intro music, final touches, and includes it in our podcast feed.
The QDT Network Team
QDT is an amazing, lean team that manages a huge amount of work each week. Except for freelance audio producers, the staff are Macmillan employees who reside in the iconic Flatiron building in Manhattan. The leader of the team is Mary Beth Roche, the President and Publisher of Macmillan Audio. If she hadn’t been so progressive and willing to experiment with digital media over a decade ago, I wouldn’t be writing this.
Kathy Doyle is the Senior Director who oversees ad sales, site design, distribution, marketing, and overall business development strategy with loads of experience, wisdom, and seemingly boundless energy!
I mentioned my super sharp editor Alyssa Martino, who is an absolute dream to work with. As the Senior Editor and Business Development Manager she touches every blog post, newsletter, book, and social media post that comes from QDT. She also works to find and strengthen content partnerships.
Kelly Dickinson is our young, enthusiastic Associate Manager of Marketing and Web Production who juggles many tasks. She focuses on all the network’s day-to-day operations like web production, advertising, audience development, and most importantly our wonderful sponsors.
As podcasts have gotten more popular, sponsors have gotten wise and now provide a steady revenue stream for QDT. I share a portion of that income each month based on the total Money Girl podcast downloads and website visitors.
Along the way, helping people suceed and live a rich life became my passion and life's mission.
But that’s not the real reason why I do this podcast. Along the way, helping people succeed and live a rich life became my passion and life’s mission. It’s email from readers and listeners who say a show, a book chapter, or an audiobook spurred them to start a retirement account, get out of debt, or make a life-changing financial decision for the better. Serving others as an educator, speaker, and advocate is what makes me feel fulfilled and I hope will be my legacy.
Five hundred Money Girl podcasts wouldn’t be possible without you. Your visits to the QDT website and audio downloads are fuel in our network’s engine. I value every one of you and think of us as a community that’s helping each other succeed.
I can’t thank Mignon Fogarty enough for having the creativity and ingenuity to start and grow Quick and Dirty Tips into the digital destination it is today. Here’s to the future of podcasting and the next 500 shows!
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