“How to Become the Center of Influence Through Passionate Podcasting” with Nancy and Amy Harrington of The Passionistas Project Podcast
As part of my series of interviews about “How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington.
Amy and Nancy have been inspired by the #MeToo movement and #TimesUp campaign and decided to use their skills as celebrity interviewers to work to tell a different kind of story. Where many podcasters reserve their airtime for the elite, Amy and Nancy are talking to amazing women you probably haven’t heard of, who are making a huge difference by following their passions. From the founder of a successful ice cream company to a volcano scientist running for office to an artist who makes sculptures using melted down nuclear weapons, Amy and Nancy shine a light on the positive stories of women on The Passionistas Project Podcast.
. . .
Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
NANCY: After years of interviewing people in the entertainment world, we had been thinking about starting a podcast but couldn’t home in on a theme that excited us. While we loved the world of pop culture, we wanted to do something with a little more meaning.
In late 2017, we found ourselves inspired by the courageous women who were coming forward and sharing their stories as part of the #MeToo movement and #TimesUp campaign. Hollywood and other sectors were speaking up about the lack of female-focused projects and the Women’s March protested inequity. We knew then that we needed to develop a project for the advancement of women, one that would focus on the women who were living their best lives and defining success on their own terms. And so, The Passionistas Project was born.
Our mission is to reach women who are embarking on new journeys in their lives or need some support in following their bliss. Our interviews document strong, independent women, who are following their passions and inspire other women to do the same. We have much to learn by listening to each other’s unique stories.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
AMY: The most interesting thing that has happened since we started the podcast is the unbelievable amount of support and camaraderie we have found with the women we interview. Conducting an interview can be a very intimate experience. The women we talk to reveal their most authentic selves and share their deepest passions. We are creating a movement with The Passionistas Project, we are finding that we are forging real and long-lasting relationships with the women we are interviewing. Many of them have become part of our bigger support network and we have drawn personal inspiration from each and every guest.
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
NANCY: When we record our interviews we each wear a lavalier microphone that we clip to the front of our shirt or jacket. This way we have clean audio of our individual voices to edit into the final podcast. We recently set up to record a Skype interview and, as always, set up our own lavs. It was a spring day with fluctuating temperatures. As clouds rolled in and out, we found ourselves running hot and cold while we counted down for the interview to begin. A hot spell set in right before we were due to dial up our guest and one of us (okay, it was Amy) took off her sweater to avoid being overheated for our chat. About 30 minutes into the interview, as things started to cool down again, Amy put her sweater back on and only then realized her mic had been on the back of her chair for the first half of the conversation. Luckily, it’s easy to just re-record our questions later and drop them in. Lesson learned — always triple check that your mic is in a place where it can pick up your sound and always record back-up audio.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
AMY: We launched The Passionistas Project Podcast in March of 2017. We’ve aired 32 episodes on a bi-weekly basis.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Amy and Nancy Harrington!
. . .
Podcaster Influencers, Nancy and Amy Harrington of The Passionistas Project Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. When we launched The Passionistas Project, we decided to ask each woman we interviewed to nominate someone else that they felt would make a great guest on our show. As a result, we’ve been able to discover incredible women who are following passions. When we walked in to interview Global Women’s Empowerment Network founder Tess Cacciatore, her nominee was sitting in her living room. As a result we got to talk with Tess about the very important works she’s doing regarding human trafficking with GWEN and with Lin Evola, an artist who sculpts Peace Angels out of melted down nuclear weapons and handguns.
2) Increase Listeners. We have built our following largely through social media outreach. We find that by telling compelling stories that offer inspirational value, that the women in our target audience are drawn to the content. Also, we have increased our exposure by promoting news and upcoming events of our guests. At the end of the day, our podcast is about all of us. We are interconnected. So we are spreading the word about their projects and drawing in new listeners. Whenever we see some exciting bit of news from one of our guests, we share their post on social media. These #PromoteAPassionistas spotlights have included highlighting the work that Erica Wright is spearheading — her homeless charity in Atlanta called UFirst.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. We have a background in video production for live red carpet events for the Television Academy, but when it came time to starting our own podcast, we had a major learning curve in the technical aspects of the process. Our best tip is to always record back-up audio of your guest and if you are doing the interview via Skype, have them record on their end as well.
4) Encourage Engagement. Since our podcast is inspirational and aspirational, we share the most uplifting sound bites from each interview through memes on social media. We use these quotes to prompt conversation among our followers and find that they respond well to the authentic and heartfelt wisdom from our interviewees. We recently posted a quote that inspired a lot of discussion from Madonna Cacciatore, the Executive Director of Christopher Street West and L.A. Pride, in which she said, “I am most passionate about every living thing having a chance to thrive.”
5) Monetize. We host our podcast with Podbean, a site that offers a “Patron” program. It is similar to other crowdsourcing sites, where we offer rewards to listeners who give us a monthly donation. The next phase of expansion is a subscription box that we will be launching for the 2019 holiday season. As an extension of the podcast, the quarterly offering will feature products from women-owned businesses and artisans. We will include descriptions of each woman and her passion, including quotes from her interview. The box will also feature exclusive audio content from interviews relevant to the theme of the quarter. A portion of sales each quarter will go to a charity chosen by one of the women featured in the box. People can sign up for our mailing list on our website so they don’t miss any updates or the chance to order the first box before it sells out.
What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Amy and Nancy Harrington!
