“How to Create a Bingeable Podcast Through Radical Transparency” with Sophie Jaffe of The IGNTD Podcast
As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a bingeable podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sophie Jaffe. She is a renowned Los Angeles-based health and wellness expert who guides individuals towards attaining balance and radiant wellness through fitness and clean eating. As a certified raw food chef and yoga teacher, Sophie inspires her engaged social following to improve their relationship with food, eat intuitively, and live a life full of unbounded energy and bliss.
Sophie co-hosts the popular IGNTD podcast with her husband, Dr. Adi Jaffe. The podcast addresses the power of relationships; with yourself, partner, family, friends, money, body, beauty + health. They provide honest information, powerful conversations, and useful tools to overcome challenges and transform your life. Past guests have included Marianne Williamson, Whole 30’s Melissa Hartwig, Gabby Bernstein, and Koya Webb to name a few. IGNTD also hosts in-person immersive experiences to help audiences address compulsive habits and implement real change to enhance, repair, and evolve in all of their relationships.
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Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
I’m an entrepreneur, yoga teacher, certified raw food chef, wellness guru, but above all I’m a mama to 3 beautiful children, sister, friend, and wife. I’m a huge supporter of therapy, healing and doing the work. I founded and operate Philosophie, a health and wellness brand with a mission to help people achieve complete nutrition in every meal. We offer superfood products and cleanses that nourish the body with whole, live, nutrient-rich foods. I have a podcast with my husband called IGNTD where we bare our souls and share amazing topics like spirituality, female sexuality, intentional drug use, astrology, co-parenting, open marriages and more with our favorite humans. We love to help couples feel inspired to take their love to the next level. I’m a yogi and have been for 18 years. I lead international yoga retreats called Nourish Your Soul.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
I’ve been in the wellness space for years and have mostly hosted a platform through Instagram where I get to spend more time connecting over video, through stories and DMs, and have been able to join plenty of in-person events. The world of podcasts is so different in the way I connect with the audience. What has been the most interesting is getting approached by our listeners when we’re out at a date night or with the kids and have these face-to-face conversations and hear how our stories have changed their relationships intimately. It’s so impactful and some listeners will tell us they’ve been listening since the very first episode and it truly means so much.
Through starting the IGNTD podcast, we created the IGNTD Glow Event — our first 3-day conference with some of our favorite guests, talented friends and healers from around the world, yoga and meditation instructors, and leading brands in the wellness space. The event was incredible and we can’t wait to bring in back in the future!
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?
We started the IGNTD podcast when I was very much pregnant and feeling sick and nauseated all the time. It probably wasn’t the “right time” to begin this podcast journey but we did it anyway, which is a beautiful representation of my partnership with my husband and what we’ve been able to bring to this platform. It’s been such a special space for me to share our journey and by starting in an emotionally vulnerable state I was able to open up more with our listeners which is what we’re all about!
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
Adi and I have been podcasting together for 2 ½ years now and the IGNTD platform has over 200 episodes.
What are the main takeaways, lessons or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?
We want our listeners to walk away feeling ignited, inspired and lit up by their lives and the relationships within it. We want them to feel empowered to embrace radical transparency in all aspects of their life.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Sophie Jaffe!
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Podcaster Influencer, Sophie Jaffe of The IGNTD Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Embrace the courage to reach out to anyone that inspires you. Working with a PR team also helps or you can approach it organically by building a relationship on Instagram and reaching out that way. When you have strong guests you’ll continue to attract more guests!
2) Increase Listeners. Sharing across social platforms with links to listen in. Engage in different ways with social and encourage listeners to share it through questions and tags.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. Use a setup that works for your unique lifestyle! We use a Zoom remote recorder with mics that plug in (4 total) that keeps recording simple and flexible if we’re traveling or recording outside of our home studio. Pro tip: if you record remotely, turn on your video on the Zoom video call (even if you’re only using the audio for the podcast recording. That way you can most effectively connect with your guest and feel like it’s a real, flowing conversation.
4) Encourage Engagement. Use strong social media call to actions with specific questions. We also read guest reviews on air and ask them to connect with us after for an IGNTD care package.
5) Monetize Your Show. At this stage, our focus is to keep our content as organic as possible for our core listeners. This is not a focus right now but ads are a great way to monetize and you can eventually use a podcast as a platform for growth and work with a variety of brands.
In your opinion 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 your content?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Sophie Jaffe!