Behind the Scenes #19: End of Season 1... Now What?
Behind the Scenes #19: End of Season 1... Now What?
Monetization (a partnership!), season 1 retrospective, and enjoying the break — Welcome back to the Statement Mondays biweekly(ish) update!
What is Statement Mondays? It’s a podcast for college and early-career women about being bold and authentic in the workplace. I interview career-minded women with strong identities who give examples, advice, and tools that inspire listeners to bring more of who they are into what they do.
🍪 Asks:
How do you think I should change Statement Mondays brand, interviews, or episode content to make the podcast even better for season 2? Got any wild pivot ideas? I’d love to hear!
Do you know any podcast producers? Put me in touch! I’m looking for a partner to help build season 2.
🦒 Personal Update:
I’ve officially moved to New York City! I get the keys to my new apartment this week, so please send any fan mail to: 202 Mott St, Apt 19, New York, NY 10012. 👀 If you’re in the area, let me know and I’d love to meet up (even if we’ve never met before!). If you’re interested in what I’m doing instead of publishing on Statement Mondays, check out @natalie_and_her_paints on IG.
👩🏼🎨 Since last time:
Published three new episodes:
Monetization: started a partnership with the superfood supplement Athletic Greens (they also advertise with big names like The Tim Ferris Show!). Want to support Statement Mondays while also improving your vitamin & mineral intake in your diet? Try it out at athleticgreens.com/statementmondays (I actually do really enjoy the product). And our contract is a revenue share model, so when someone purchases through my link STMT will get a piece of the revenue! 🙀
Did a retrospective as a way to emotionally close out the launch + season 1 chapter of the STMT adventure. I shared it at the bottom of this post!
Realized I am totally burned out (burnt out?)
Found by another podcaster — Maddy from the Tech Gals podcast interviewed me and will release my episode in her season 2 (also shoutout to all the other podcasters who are supporting me and who I support in turn: @dishedpodcast, @artispodcast, @publichealthunprofessionals, …)
After interviewing Caroline Cuffe, I was euphoric and filled with energy and inspiration — so much so that I felt like I could quit my job and do STMT full time right then and there (despite the burnout). Dynamic & colorful conversations like hers give me such a high which I’m now constantly in search of!
🧠 #1 thing on my mind: When and how do I start again?
Now that Statement Mondays has been on pause for 3-ish weeks, I am absolutely loving my newfound free time. I’ve been reading, going to figure drawing studio sessions, working out, inviting randos for coffee or drinks, and just exploring the city. I feel like a new person in New York, and it would be a mistake to jump right back into a heavy-time commitment and sacrifice part of this exploratory mode I’m in here. I don’t want to put STMT on hold forever, but I can’t bring myself to think about the podcast right now because there’s so much else I want to do! What I need is to come up with a game plan comprised of three things:
A list of more awesome women to interview (in progress)
A reasonably-priced producer who will help me with the time-consuming parts (finally scaling myself!)
A social media revamp
I’ll also need to reflect on what changes to make to the existing Statement Mondays brand and content to build an even better next season. Should I cap each episode at 30 minutes? Should I focus on only interviewing sub-35 year old professionals to more easily relate to an early-career audience? So many questions to think about which I am putting off a bit longer until I settle in to NYC. Have any thoughts on? Reach out! I’m all ears. All in all, season 2 launch date TBD.
🤓 Learnings:
Routine: consistency with workload was the biggest thing I lacked while launching Statement Mondays and keeping it going through season 1. To anybody who is serious about starting a side project, a routine or schedule is the first thing you should nail down.
Unfinished work + burnout: I get so passionate about hobbies and side projects that I can go from all in to all out pretty abruptly and sometimes leave things unfinished. I was 100% invested in Statement Mondays through the final episode of season 1, however once it was published I stopped working on STMT altogether. Next time I take a break from something, I need to do a better job tying up loose ends (ex: this update coming out weeks late).
Marketing struggles: It is HARD to get any bites for an ad in a podcast. I’m sure lots of it is just a matter of reaching more people and increasing number of touches, but it’s tough to know how much better I myself could do while advertising in the mid-roll (mid-episode slot). With a revenue-share model, Statement Mondays doesn’t see any upside unless people purchase the product, so I definitely have an incentive to do well! 💸💸 Even though this partnership has (spoiler alert) proved totally unprofitable so far, it’s been very cool to even have the opportunity to try out promotional content.
🙌 Shoutouts:
Thank you Julie for leading me in a retrospective on the past year of building this podcast; you are so generous with your time and I appreciate you
Thank you Mark for continuing to send me thoughtful messages about episodes as you listen to them <3
Thank you Katharine and Tina for being patient since your interviews didn’t make it into season 1. Potential content for season 2, though!
Hello to new Statement Mondays listeners and readers who have found me since I ended the season! Thanks for reaching out to tell me how STMT resonates with you :)
Thanks for reading! And if you need a reason to be bold today, here it is -- today is Statement Monday.
Natalie Muenster
Founder | Statement Mondays