Picking a Podcast Category – Post 2 of 3

Sara stands outside smiling as she proudly holds up her copy of Jenni Gritter's "The Sustainable Solopreneur"

As I mentioned in previous post, setting up your hosting platform requires choosing which categories your podcast fits under. My primary category is Education and specifically self-improvement. For my secondary category, I chose Business – Entrepreneurship and here’s why.

Podcast settings page for "Connecting the Dots with The Renaissance People" showing the main, secondary and third category the show will appear under. Sara has chosen Education, subcategory Self-Improvement, Business subcategory Entrepreneurship and Society & Culture subcategory Philosophy.

Blazing a Trail

For many Renaissance People, the path to truly embrace their creativity and desire for variety in the work arose when they became entrepreneurs. Starting Renaissance Woman Consulting was how I finally found the freedom to:

  • Work the way I wanted
  • With the organizations and people I believed in
  • In a way that better aligned with my priorities and values 

I’m still very much in the thick of building a life as a “sustainable solopreneur”, guided by career coach Jenni Gritters who just published her book on the topic which I HIGHLY recommend). 

In this book, Jenni talks about the 5 Principles of Solopreneurship: intention, self awareness, flexibility, creativity and reciprocity. I’m not going to do a deep dive into this, but I want to highlight a few ideas.

Intention

The building of a Renaissance People Community grew out of my involvement in Jenni’s CREATE program. This community was just something I dreamed of before CREATE helped me think intentionally about how I would make it happen. 

I created this podcast intentionally as a free way for people to get to know me and start to recognize that they have many similarities with my Renaissance People I will be talking with. I initially wrote “I will be interviewing”, but these episodes are much more of a conversation than an interview. (I also “met” Jenni via the podcast she previously co-hosted, The Writers’ Co-Op. I also recommend that, particularly the first five seasons, for others interested in starting a freelance business and rejecting the hustle culture). 

Self Awareness and Flexibility

As I mentioned above, starting my own business allowed me to fully embrace being a Renaissance Woman and working in a way more aligned with my needs. In this podcasts, I’ll be talking to multiple guests about the freedoms and the challenges of this type of opportunity specifically for Renaissance People.

We’ll share strategies we’ve used to balance the freedom and overwhelm of being your own boss. Basically, how we moved beyond “I can do anything but I don’t know what to start!”

Creativity

After recording 3 interviews so far, I’m already in awe of and inspired by the creativity of my guests and I hope you will be too. I’m letting their comments and suggestions guide me as I adjust the questions I ask and the way I plan my episodes. This podcast is a flowing liquid changing constantly as it travels along. I hope this inspires other entrepreneurial Renaissance People to get creative with the business they want to build.

Reciprocity

I’m a first born daughter. I’m a Virgo. I’m a mom. I’m a business owner. I’m very good at taking care of others and stubbornly saying, “I got this. I can deal with whatever challenges arise.” But as the world keeps reminding me, we need to both breathe in and out. 

I love finding the way to support the work of others, especially Renaissance People. As I mentioned in my first episode, I get a thrill out of sharing resources in the show notes which includes promoting other people’s businesses. 

While some might consider having another career coach on my show for episode 3 as being a conflict of interest (after all, I offer career coaching to Renaissance People), I don’t see it that way. 

First, said coach, Melissa Vining, had ME on her podcast

Second, both of us benefit from being able to share our conversations with a wider audience. In fact, after we finished recording her episode, we even discussed a future collaboration so the reciprocal growth can continue.

In this podcast, I hope to model how uplifting others can lift you up as well, both as an entrepreneur and as a human being.

This gif, Lift Each Other Up, by libby vanderploeg is such a great visual representation of what I’m about (though I don’t limit myself to just other women).

Six Ways I Feed My Passions, Plural Connecting The Dots with The Renaissance People

I said I had 4 tips for how I feed my passions (plural) in my last episode…but I was wrong!So I’m updating that with 6 ways that I feed my passions and that I encourage my coaching clients to do.Along with the 4 strategies I previously shared (find boundary-spanning projects, keeping a “sparkly” side interest, sharing resources reciprocally, and finding community), I’ve added two more (finding balance through strategic integration and pad your projects).If you're looking for a community of multi-passionate Renaissance People, I'm bringing us together virtually once a month in "Fertile Grounds" where we can support one another, share ideas and resources, and collaborate.Promised Show Notes Materials (take a drink):Sign up for updates on my podcast and what’s happening in the Renaissance People Community.Get updates on Fertile Grounds, a monthly virtual gathering of multi-passionate Renaissance PeopleWork with me to Find Your Golden Thread or for Career CoachingJoin the Renaissance People group on FacebookEpisode 18: Cultivate Passions and Address BurnoutWhy Nonprofits Need Generalists (and Why Now Is Our Moment), LinkedIn Article by Pherabe KolbWater Whys Visual SciComm Seminar Series, free virtual series I host for the class I teach at the University of Arizona.The Growth of Growing playlist on YouTube (clips also available on my Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts).110: Giddy Up! It's the Year of the Fire Horse with Jillian Rothschild-Scholar, Jillian’s episode of French Kissing Life with Shawnna Stivers134: What If Your Curiosity Knows Something You Don’t? | Sara Kobilka, my episode of French Kissing Life with Shawnna StiversFollow Sara Kobilka on Social Media:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | BlueskyA few themes I discussed:2:32 Tip #1 Find boundary-spanning projects where I can be a strategic integrator3:48: Why most of my guests don’t identify with the term “generalist”4:53 Tip #2 Have “sparkly” projects to keep the passions alive5:25 Tip #3 Share resources with others (like these show notes)6:35 Tip #4 Find community with other multi-passionate Renaissance People (like my Renaissance People Community and our Fertile grounds Gatherings)8:42 Tip #5 Find balance through strategic integration of aspects of your personal Venn Diagram so what you do aligns with your current energy level14:50 Tip #6 Pad your projects to allow flexibility and reduce stressCheck out Renaissance Woman Consulting to learn more about some of the many types of work I do (which allows me to find that balance from Tip #5).And should you care to support the production of this podcast, I’d love it if you’d buy me an oat milk cappuccino, my caffeinated beverage of choice.This podcast is hosted and edited by Sara Kobilka.Theme music is by Brian SkellengerPodcast distribution support provided by K.O. Myers of Particulate Media

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