This month marks 3 years outside of Shanghai after living there for 3 years so the memories are flooding in. Sculpture at a bar in Shanghai, China where we attended a book festival presentation.
👋Hi Wavie,
I’m taking a rare almost day off today after the webinar last night. It went smashingly, thanks for asking. I’ll share more on that as time goes on, including the link to the edited replay. Right now I’m just insanely tired and need to get outside into the sunshine to recoup.
As mentioned in Monday’s newsletter, I’m experimenting with the same type of content each week but splitting it into 3 issues. Today is the feature. It’s pretty vulnerable but something I need to ponder. And so I write.
Steph
FEATURE: Do you charge your friends?
I shifted from being an indy podcast creator to being a podcast service provider (editor, consultant, writer, etc) about three years ago. Before that I was in language education, mostly as an instructor in Asia. So needless to say, did not have experience in media or audio before being a podcast editor. Sometimes it feels like I missed out on business best practices shifting industries wildly instead of just shimmying from like audio spaces.
One of those times is when people that got to know me from my indy podcasting beginnings ask for help with their podcasts.
Screening for disingenuous asks
There are moments when people ask for too much. A quick “pick your brain” turns into a lot. A lot, a lot. After the first few missteps, I build in a few screening techniques I now use to see if someone is pulling on my “for the community” chain for straight business benefit alone. My favorite screening question is, “What podcasts are you listening to right now?” Folks who have just entered the podcasting space from another business space and are trying to ask get a lot of free consultations rarely have an answer for this question. This is not mean, it’s a defense mechanism. Boundaries are important.
But those moments are few and far between. What's harder lately is when friends and acquaintances ask for help.
Analogies are fun so I like playing with “would you ask your doctor for a free check-up” but that feels weird. Not entirely wrong but podcasting is not life-saving work, not physically so anyway. Still, this doesn't feel like the right thing to say. So I don't say that but I do think about it sometimes. But then what do I say instead to add very healthy boundaries to my solopreneur business?
A pinch of free time, a cup of paid time
So I tend to lean on the side of …
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Friday’s issue will have podcast editing business espresso shots!
Until then,
DAWingly yours,
I am Stephanie Fuccio, podcast editor, podcast writer, and generally podcasting-obsessed human being. Although I write this newsletter solo, it has become the cornerstone of the larger GPE community and in fact, paid subscriptions fund many of our events.
The image was created by Ben Currier, on Discord apparently.
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