221 - The State of the Podcast
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Show Notes:
I'm back. It's 2024. I'm so excited to be here for my beloved State of the Podcast episode. I hope you enjoy listening to Work and play with Nancy Ray, episode 221.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
I'm so excited. The start of a new year, the first podcast episode of the year. It just feels good that I'm getting a bit back into the swing of things with getting these podcasts going and school with four little kiddos (two in school, two in preschool). It's a full life over here and I'm grateful that you're part of that through this podcast and today is just an update. It's just an update on the podcast. This is… I'm just going to give a disclaimer. I feel like this podcast episode is for the tried and true listeners who really care about all the ins and outs of this podcast. It's just fun to kind of pull back the curtain and give you a peek at what's really going on because let me tell you, all of January has been me doing all kinds of work behind the scenes on this podcast. Podcasting is simple. I mean you show up, you talk into a microphone. Seems pretty simple, right? And it and it is, in a sense. But also there's a lot of stuff that goes into it.
Not just preparing for the episodes but the whole backend of the podcast itself and streamlining it and I've been doing it one way for 4 years and now I'm rethinking how I'm doing things and I'm asking, “What is it supposed to look like right now in my life?” So, that's what this episode is today. I'm going to talk about tech stuff. I'm going to talk about money stuff. I'm going to talk about my heart stuff. I'm going to talk about fun stuff. Book stuff. Timeline stuff. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. But it's going to be all about the Work and Play podcast, I'm glad you're here.
So let's jump into techie stuff. All the technical behind the scenes that stuff that goes into a podcast. I'd venture to say that 99% of you are listening whether you're driving around in the car, washing dishes, on a walk. But sometimes, you'll catch my video clips on Instagram or see that I actually do video this podcast sometimes too.
One of the techie things that I'm doing that's different this year is that I just switched my camera. I used to use my nice photography camera and I used a video feature on it and set it up and it took lots of chords and this year I switched to a webcam and I'm so excited about it. It's called the Opal C1 in case you're interested. It's very fancy. I have control over the brightness and the warmth. It's like I can edit it like a photo, but it's for video and it's so simple.
My old… not my old camera, but like the camera I previously used when I was videoing my podcast would overheat and would disconnect sometimes and this is so simple. I'm obsessed with it. The Opal C1 if you're looking for an excellent webcam. So that's a techie thing.
Also, I'm experimenting with editing the podcast myself, possibly in the near future. Not yet. Guys, if the podcast takes a really bad turn. If it starts to sound really sloppy, it's because I'm trying to edit it myself. No, Kyle, my amazing brother in law, has been editing this podcast faithfully, never missing a deadline for almost five years.
Guys, I'm coming up on 5 years in April in that wild. But, I don't want him to not edit it. I want him to keep editing it, but I also just want to see how… I want to like challenge myself and see how streamlined I can make this thing. And that might include maybe some more mistakes in the future. I also might hate this and just beg Kyle to come back. So that's just something that I'm going to be experimenting with this year. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. I might be switching my hosting platform from Libsyn to Zencastor again. That's kind of in the works. That will affect you 0%, but it's just behind the scenes stuff that I'm kind of considering to cut costs and streamline things.
Um money stuff. This podcast takes a lot of time for me to figure out the backend staff to prep for the episodes and think through what I want to share. And I need to be compensated for my time because of how I'm spending my time in this podcast. It just costs money to have a podcast. It's just the facts of it.
So, here's how it’s supported, if you are interested in knowing how this podcast is supported. It's supported by ads. I will say this. I'm so picky about people who will advertise on my podcast. I have to choose people who have products that I love and use regularly and have used for a while. Usually, just to let you know, I usually approach them. There are plenty of people who have said like “Hey I want to advertise on your podcast” and I'm just like “I don't use your stuff, so no.” But usually the people who are advertising on my podcast are products that I have used and loved personally and I have approached them. I think only one time, someone approached me and was like “Can I advertise?” and I said yes because I've already been using your product for over a year and I love it. So um, yeah, that's that.
Ads, affiliate links, which means I can talk about a product and put a special link in the show notes that you can use and I'll earn a commission off of that link but it does not change the price for you at all. I love affiliate links for that reason. It can support the podcast. It's a win-win for both of us.
Um, my courses, if you've ever purchased a course by me. So I sell three courses. The Contentment Challenge. Ah, Integrated Life and the Legacy Photo System. All three of those courses are over at nancyray.com and if you buy one of those courses, that is supporting this work in my business and keeping the podcast alive. And then patreon, of course is another way you can support the podcast.
Um, okay, I have also spent a lot of January switching my courses to a brand new platform and I want to take a minute to tell you about this because it has blown my mind and has been one of the best decisions I could have made. I really, again, I feel like streamline is the best way I want to cut costs. I want to streamline everything I'm doing in my work to be so efficient and so cost effective. And I really was like “Do I want to do this?” I have these courses set up on... Ah, had them set up on these more expensive platforms. Um, that were like $1500 a year. Another one that was like a $1000 dollars a year and all combined it was like yeah it was like 25 no no. It was more than that. One was $2000 a year. The other was like $3000 a year. Just to have these courses up and running.
Guys, I switched to ThriveCart and can I just tell you how excited I am about this? It is a one time payment (not recurring) one time payment and I think it was $680. I'm probably even getting that wrong. I should have written that down before I talked about it on my podcast. It's under $700, I know that. Maybe $690, I don't know. For access for life, a one time payment. It blew my mind. And then I think I paid another $195 just to be able to integrate all of my past students into it. But still, it's under $1000 and I don't have to pay those fees again. Like that's it, I'm in. I'm obsessed. I'm telling all of my course friends, like people who have courses, I’m like “Y'all switch to ThriveCart” so much.
So again I like, such a fan, I went and signed up for an affiliate link because I want people to buy it. I really believe in their product. I canceled all these other platforms I used to use. Now I'm all in on ThriveCart and you can find that link in the show notes today if you're interested in looking into it or buying it yourself.
Um so speaking of my courses, I just want you to know because you're my people if you're listening this podcast. You're the first to know that I've significantly lowered the prices to all of my courses, except for Contentment Challenge. That one is staying at $15, but that's just because that’s $15 so it's pretty good. But yeah, go check it out - nancyray.com. You can buy them. I'm not going to be doing many launches or many things, I don't have plans to at least. I might, but you can buy anytime on the website now and that was another big decision that I made just to simplify things and streamline everything.
Okay, let's talk about heart stuff. Like where's my heart at with this podcast? A lot has changed in five years. Can I just take a second and say that we watched this little home video from me and the kids five years ago. I had two little girls who were like 1 in 3 and I was pregnant. My life now is so different y'all. I looked so different. I'm like just 5 years time. Now I have two girls and two boys. My youngest is 2 ½. Like it's wild how much has changed. So I say that to say, this podcast has been a constant in my life for like the last five years and that's wild to say through a lot of ups and downs, through adding 2 new little humans to our family, lots of maternity leaves and I'm just asking the question like “What lights my heart on fire with this podcast. What makes me so excited?” And I think the answer is really just having more friends, more interviews, more conversations with people I admire, just gleaning wisdom from people. I also want to keep it very practical. That's always been something I've been passionate about with my podcasts. I want to maintain that practical application. And I want to keep my episodes short. I just love short episodes. I think, I'm the kind of person that I get a little like uncomfortable when people start to ramble on podcasts. I don't want to ramble and here I am kind of rambling.
Okay, so keep it practical. Keep it short. I really want it to encourage you spiritually as well. I want this to be a place where you feel like your heart can be encouraged and your walk with the lord can be challenged and encouraged as well.
Alright. Let's talk about fun stuff. Guys, I have new artwork. New podcast artwork. Isn't it pretty? I love it. It feels more me. Short hair, mama of four kids, here I am. Let's go. Let's do this needed to be updated again. Lots has changed in the last five years so needed something fresh.
Um, I'm kind of experimenting, maybe with a new intro to the podcast. That may or may not happen. Thinking about that one so keep an ear out for that. You might notice a difference there.
Ah, book stuff. My book club is right over there at nancyray.com/bookclub. You can always see what I'm reading. You're welcome to join in anytime. I do try to, and I will continue to endeavor to cover every book that I read in the year. It doesn't always happen. I always kind of pick up a couple extra books that I hadn't planned on recording about and that happens every year too and that's okay, but yeah for the most part, you can follow along with the books I'm reading just by looking at that link.
I want to have more authors on the show. Whether or not they're in the book list of books I'm reading for that year. I just, I love authors. I love people who have ideas and can turn them into books and so I think you're just going to be hearing from more people this year. It's kind of what I'm feeling. It just makes me really excited because I think that people are wonderful and they have wonderful things to say.
I also think I'm really going to be transferring a lot of my book club energy to Patreon or (debated whether or not to share this) Substack. It's gonna be either/or. It's not gonna be both, okay? I'm just trying to decide if I want to switch from Patreon to Substack or not so that's another back end techie thing that's also kind of a heart thing. Like what do I really? What do I really want? But I do think more book club stuff is going to be… Right now I'm kind of leaning towards switching to Substack if I can get a few technical issues worked out there and then hosting most of my book club thoughts there with like one just big monthly update sending whoever's on my Subststack like everything book club related and just life update related. Okay, that's… I don't know guys, I don't know. Feel free to email me and tell me what you think about that?
Um, what else timeline stuff. Okay, this kind of ties in with my heart talk, like what does my heart really want this year? I am trying to be really open handed with my podcast schedule This feels a little bit unfair to include in this State of the Podcast episode because I feel like it should be polished and I should make a special announcement, but the truth is I don't have my plan yet. I am holding my excitement for this podcast at the same time that I'm holding this feeling that I might need longer breaks from it. Like I just, it's a lot. It's a lot to do consistent Tuesday episodes for five months in a row and then only take off a month and then get right back into it when I have four kids and just a very full life. So, I'm toying with the idea of doing three months on, three months off, three months on, three months off. Or maybe taking two months off or maybe like a full summer or maybe just doing the first six months of this year and getting to July and then just reassessing and seeing what I want to do then. I don't know guys. I don't know. I just don't know that I'm going to be able to sustain it with just two months off a year, so we'll see. We'll see. I'll keep you posted on that.
And that's it. That's my update. That's the State of the Podcast. I've got a lot of techie stuff behind the scenes. A lot of heart stuff in the works. That's good and exciting and yeah, just some new changes with the courses I'm offering in the book club and my timeline. Who knows what that's going to look like, but I'm just praying through that and trying to keep an open hand like I have been from day one with this podcast.
More than anything, I just want you to know I'm thankful. If you're hearing my voice right now, I'm thankful for you. So thankful you're listening. I'm thankful for your support and I can't wait to see what 2024 holds for Work and Play with Nancy Ray.
Guys that's it. Thanks for listening to Work and Play with Nancy Ray, episode 221.
I'm so grateful for you and anything I've mentioned today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/221, including ThriveCart, Zencastr, all those good things that I told you about in case you're interested in them. And yeah, you can always find me over at nancyray.com and over on Instagram @nancyray.
I am going to close this week's podcast episode with a bible verse: Isaiah 43:19 says: “Behold I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next time.
