Picking a Podcast Category – Post 2 of 3

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.

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.

Operating at the Intersection of STEM, Creativity and Fun with Nancy Scales Coddington, Multipotentialite – Connecting The Dots with The Renaissance People

In this first guest episode, I chat with my longtime friend and collaborator, Nancy Scales Coddington. Nancy is a multipassionate, operating at the intersection of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), creativity and fun. In a wide-ranging conversation, we cover topics including what it means to be a Renaissance Person, responsible science storytelling, refusing to niche down, the fun of blowing things up with liquid nitrogen, where creativity is found in STEM, and combining dance and movement with STEM. Promised Show Notes Materials (take a drink):Nancy's Galaxy Goddess Dress Instagram posts: Reinvent Magazine, Making the dress and fashion show, ONE-SPACE event and Costa Rica Yuri's Night  Nancy’s Anti-niche/on a tangent Instagram post SciComm Solutions website SciGirls and National Girls Collaborative ProjectWSKG's Science Pub YouTube Channel Nancy’s Trees with mist Instagram post Sara's LinkedIn rant on the left brain, right brain posterIntegrating Science and Dance from the Kennedy Center for the ArtsWSKG's YouTube Videos about movement BONUS – Not discussed, but check out the Dance Your PhD contest winners (warning, MAJOR rabbit hole of videos) and local organizations like the NYC-based STEM From Dance.WSKG's YouTube video Women in Entomology: Meet the Superheroes of Insect SciencePrincess Awesome – Maker of Sara’s pi dress and other clothes that smash stereotypes Sara and Nancy having fun (and Sara’s pi dress)Follow Nancy on Social Media: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | <a

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