Emotions, Productivity, and Podcasting: Insights from Ashleigh Frater
In this week's episode, I'm chatting with Ashleigh Frater, Anxiety Coach for Founders and Freelancers.
Ashleigh shares her experience as a podcast host and her advice on 'feeling productive.'
We had such a great conversation about Asheligh's podcasting, and she made some brilliant observations about how she needs to build in more time to record as she knows there's an emotional toll due to the nature of the subject.
Promotion is one area Ashleigh said that she struggled with, and this is something I hear a lot of podcasters say.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
What's your version of success for your podcast? Not just the numbers
Finding unique ways to promote each episode on social media
Repurposing your content
Remembering it takes time to build an audience
Avoid "should" thinking
Be yourself
Ashleigh shared her advice on productivity and what it means to us individually. We only need to understand what our version of productive is and it boils down to how we feel.
Labelling your emotion and removing the word productive.
What does it contribute to? What are your overall goals?
Celebrate your wins!
About my guest
Ashleigh Frater is an anxiety coach and founder of ‘In Good Hands’ coaching and counselling practice, based in London, dedicated to guiding high-achieving female founders process anxiety (and stress) quicker, better and safely so they can perform at their best.
With a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by ambitious women, Ashleigh brings her expertise to the forefront, guiding women on a transformative journey towards mental resilience, self-assurance and professional success.
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Transcript
Rachael Botfield: [00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to podcasting 101 with Rachael. This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own businesses and want to start a podcast or who may already have a podcast. I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast started and managing it along the way.
I'll also be interviewing other female podcast hosts to give you real insight into what it's like. Have
Hi and welcome to this week's episode. I hope everyone's well today. Today I am joined by Ashley Freighter, who is a anxiety coach. I'm very pleased to have Ashley on here. Welcome, Ashley. Lovely to see you.
Ashleigh Frater: Hi, thanks [00:01:00] for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Rachael Botfield: Brilliant. So we were going to have a conversation around, Ashley, you help people with their anxiety, their mindset productivity, all aimed at women in business or, you know, people who are business owners.
And so I thought it would be a really great topic to dive into with my listeners, because we are all in a similar position, solo business owners or small business owners. And, when it comes to, and obviously in this case, your podcast, you can have all sorts of kind of. Mindset monkeys and things around those projects.
So and also Ashley did have a podcast as well. So she has experience in being a podcast host. So we thought if you could just introduce yourself a little bit, tell us about you and, and the work that you do.
Ashleigh Frater: Amazing. Thank you. So yes, I'm Ashleigh Frater and I am an anxiety coach and [00:02:00] I help women in business, freelance, founders, self employed, women to manage their anxiety and stress.
Better so that it doesn't affect or further affect their performance in their business. So I have a little quote of, you know, I like to help the human behind the business and really help to provide support and resources to help women and entrepreneurs as a whole. to support their mental health and to help them to help themselves.
So, that's currently who I'm kind of working with. And like you said, I do have a podcast and I'm excited to dig into all of the journey of being a podcast host.
Rachael Botfield: It can be a bit of a journey, up and down depending on your experience and the time that you have. To do the podcast. So let's, let's talk a little bit about your podcast then.
So [00:03:00] when, kind of, when did you decide or why did you decide you wanted to do a podcast and how you thought it would work for you, your business and for the people that you're helping?
Ashleigh Frater: So I have always kind of been in the entrepreneurial space, helping those that are, you know, setting up their own business and side hustles and things like that.
So what I realized. Is that people struggle to manage the emotional side of their business. So managing the emotions, managing the emotional energy and everyone I worked with, that's what we worked on. Like, despite the fact that we might've started off thinking about. Signing more clients and building the business and launching the business.
But ultimately, it boiled down to how are you managing your emotions in order for you to take that action. And what I realized is that a lot of people are getting burnt out. So, I thought, okay, I [00:04:00] focused a little bit more last year on burnout around entrepreneurship. And... My podcast was about burnout.
So it's called Free From Burnout. It's still currently there. It's on a, I say a season break, but I'm really rebranding it at a later date. And primarily it was about helping people again, manage them emotional and mental wellbeing. That was what it was all about. So I wanted to be able to. Speak to people outside of the social media realm and have a bit more of an intimate connection with my listeners, with clients, you know, and the audience.
And I'm a speaker. I'm not the best. Well, this is a belief I have. I'm not the best writer. I enjoy speaking and it comes more naturally to me. I feel like I can express myself better. So I'm like, a podcast was something that I've always wanted to do. Granted over the [00:05:00] years, the topic had changed based on where I was and I just decided, you know what, I'm just going to go for it because you have to start and I think you, you know, naturally have a lot of expectations when you start and you think it's going to be a particular way.
And then when you're in it, you realize, wow, it's not really the way I thought it would be. And I enjoyed it. The one thing I did say, and, and. didn't expect from myself and maybe because of the time in my life and when things happened when the podcast was around how it felt for me was it felt like therapy it's so weird like it genuinely felt like I would speak because it's all emotional you kind of have to tap into your own emotions in order for someone else to be able to feel comfortable looking at their own too, so it almost felt very therapeutic, which is something I was not expecting, I'll be honest, and I actually [00:06:00] thoroughly enjoyed it.
So it's definitely something I'm going to go back into, but I have to get more clear, which I think this experience taught me. of what it is, the main message, what it is I want people to take away from every episode, and really getting clear on the mission and the primary message around the podcast. So yeah, I mean, we can dig into like all the things, but yeah, this is a quick, you know, intro.
That's kind of where I saw and how I felt about podcasting to start with.
Rachael Botfield: Yeah, I think it is important to, like you say, you're messaging what you want to get across and making sure that that is, is going to be relevant to the people that are listening. I think that one of the top kind of stats that I heard early in the year at the podcast show was about relevance.
That was kind of like the top thing that people looked for, especially in a business podcast, to make them come back. again and again, is listening is [00:07:00] relevance. Well, how is it relevant to them? And it's so easy and I've done it myself with this podcast and I've taken a little break to try and refocus.
You do kind of, sometimes you get caught up a little bit in about what you want to do and compared to actually. Is that the same thing? Is it lined up? But I also think that, like say, podcasting is a bit of a journey as well and you don't know what you don't know when you first start. And I think it's a great way to you know, to evolve as we do in our businesses, in life, in everything.
We don't, we do always sometimes have that feeling where we've it nailed on the head immediately as soon as we start. I mean, I've had those kind of things, you know, with this one I think, well, you know, I'm a podcast manager. I should know everything, but I don't know everything about, you know, I know a lot about podcasting, but I don't know everything about podcasting.
And, you know, you have those beliefs of what your knowledge is worth and things like that. So it's kind of accepting, you know, you are on the right path, but you're just, [00:08:00] that you're not getting too hard on yourself about your kind of knowledge and what you're. You know, what you're doing.
So, did you find, what kind of things did you find hard? So, in terms of the production side of things. Did you find it hard to kind of fit it all in your schedule with recording and editing or did you have support or how did you kind of work that within your business?
Ashleigh Frater: Yes. So initially I decided, so the thing with podcasting for me was all the podcasts I listened to were all weekly.
So I thought, ah, it needs to be weekly. So it did. In honest, in all honesty, it pushed me back and delayed me from launching the podcast because I'm like, I feel like it needs to be weekly, but there was something in me to be like, I don't know if I can fully commit to weekly. I don't basically want to fail.
I don't want to set myself up for failure and [00:09:00] really not be realistic with the time. So I decided, and I felt good with the decision to do biweekly. Cause I'm like every two weeks I'll be able to figure it out. Cause. You know, I'm working, I'm working with clients, I'm doing a lot of things, so I must be able to find an hour or so that I'm able to fit it into my schedule.
So what I did was that I decided that I would find an hour or so, at some point every two weeks, by the looks of things, and I would put that time aside, but what I realized is that because, I don't know whether it's because it was me just podcasting and in general, or it was because of the topics I was talking about, finding the Energy in almost in myself, like the mental [00:10:00] capacity to be like, okay, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do this, felt really hard.
Even though I had technically 10 days to be able each, each 10 days to be able to record and then send it off to my podcast editor, I found that if I put it in my schedule for a Wednesday to be like, okay, go record your podcast by Wednesday. I realized that it just didn't happen all the time because there were some weeks where I'm like, Oh, I'm inspired.
Okay. I'm ready. I've got the energy. I've got the time. It just feels good. And then there's other times where life happens and it's like, you just don't have the. like emotional capacity to share and then it felt like a force and I didn't like that. I didn't like that okay now it feels like I have to force myself to get into a space to get into a mindset to sit down to record this episode and I [00:11:00] can tell when I listen back there's certain episodes where it was very A matter of fact, just because I had to get it done.
And then there was other episodes where they were more emotional so I could tell, I could feel the difference. So I think the thing that surprised me is finding the emotional and mental capacity to actually sit down because it's in the calendar. It's always there. But whether or not I felt like.
Recording was a completely different story and I think that's why I didn't expect because technically you're like, you've got 10 days, you can find an hour in 10 days to record a podcast. But when you look at your routine, look at your schedule, how you're feeling, what's going on, like if you've got a migraine, like I suffer with migraines as well.
So sometimes migraines could last three, four days and that could run into the timeframe that I'm meant to record. So then it, many a times I started to get like, I. [00:12:00] Sent my podcast off like the day before it's meant to release. And only because I'm like, I cannot miss a week. And I think I'm grateful for that.
And I felt like I had the discipline of it, but I didn't like the fact that I was pushing it back and pushing it back and waiting to the very last moment I had to do it. And then I recorded it and sent it off. And each time it was great. But the point is, it felt not great to be able to. To have that pressure, although I work well under pressure like we all do, but you don't want to, like, because that is a strain on your, you know what I mean, your mental well being, your, you know, potentially your family and other things that you have going on.
It just doesn't feel, it just didn't feel the way I would like it to feel, I think. And I didn't expect the emotional capacity part that I had to... Almost make room for [00:13:00] alongside doing all the other things in my business. So yeah, that was really unexpected.
Rachael Botfield: I think as well, because you're, because of the type of work that you do, for example, this podcast is about podcasting.
It doesn't drain me emotionally to talk about these kinds of subjects and, and you have to have that certain amount of preparation for your interviews. So that's something to consider as well. You know, when you're doing your podcast, depending on the type of the subject that you're doing, if it is something that could be emotionally draining it's, I suppose, trying to build in something that can help with that, you know, from the offset.
And, but also, like you said, you don't know how you're going to feel until you start doing it. So maybe just as, just as a point to be aware of for those people that are going to be recording episodes that require you to give something emotionally.
Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, I think that that's the thing that now going in, like, now having that experience and then when I [00:14:00] do go back into podcasting I now know because it's all going to be centred around like your emotional wellbeing, your mental health, like therapy, like all of that subject which can feel quite heavy to a degree.
And especially if you have to provide the energy first in order to help someone else feel a certain type of way, right? So I feel like I would have to build in more time, I'll be honest. , I think I would have to create that schedule to... It's a bit .. When you're an introvert, which I am, and doing too much FaceTime.
So, you know, if you don't like your social battery basically just drains and you need that time to recover, but when you're not really sure of like how your energy works, you can have back to back to back to back to back meetings and then not realise why do I feel like this is such a task by your third meeting?
When really you should not have three, you should have one with a [00:15:00] gap or at least a couple of hours and then another one and then not have another one the next day, do you know what I mean? And have that time. So I think it's going into it the same kind of mindset of what I know what my energy is like now, and I realized how.
you know, at times, podcasting can feel like I'm giving a lot, I'm pouring a lot out, and I need to be able to create that recovery time, or at least padding time ahead of time, with other things that I've got going on, to know, okay, this is going to work better for me, if that makes sense, and still make it consistent.
Because I think the things that I was worried about, Especially with the weekly is that I don't know if I can be consistent with it. And I had to be honest with that to be like, I don't want to fail before I've even started. And I have to be consistent the one thing I'm trying to really practice discipline and consistency.
And I think every two [00:16:00] weeks works, but it's just a matter of how I do it going forward to kind of manage my energy. Because I now know, my podcast episodes are not necessarily going to be like very, you know emotional, like they're gonna require emotion, so and I think the other thing is my podcast wasn't with guests, it was just me and I did that intentionally because , I've never done podcasting before, I don't know what the setup is, I don't know how I'm going to be able to manage it.
Myself, as well as someone else's schedule, because then that's a whole level of complexity that I didn't kind of know about and I didn't want to overwhelm myself straight away, but going into the next podcast, I want to have guests. So I'm thinking it's going to be a whole different experience because I've never had a guest before, so maybe from the emotional side, it's not me.
giving as much because it's going to be more of a conversation, [00:17:00] whereas my last podcast was every single episode was a solo episode. You know what I mean? So I think maybe that is to take into consideration as well going forward.
Rachael Botfield: Those are really great observations. I think that is important as well for like you to grow with anything.
It's reflecting back on how, how you felt and what you did. And Like you said, if you're doing solo episodes, creating that buffer and potentially now with guests, you'll have that slightly different feel to it. But I mean, cause some, say some people do batching and find, you know, batching the episodes together, but I find that hard to batch with guest episodes.
So when I did my solo ones, but again, mine are not emotional like yours, they were like 10, 15 minutes long. I batched a few of those, but with guests. It is still draining talking to people as well, so I would not do more than, say, two interviews in a day. I try to do just one in a day but maybe have up to two or three in a week if that's kind of like the time scale if I had to.[00:18:00]
But... You can kind of get those done ahead of time as well. So I think, so say for example, you were looking for your next season, you decide on X amount of episodes. You can kind of get them in ahead of time, so that you've got that time to play with the edit and do all the rest of the things that need doing.
So you can get those in ahead of time. And then space them out as much as you want, , just think it says those things to think about in your planning. So when, you know and with everyone who's planning. So I'm taking a break over Christmas and in the new year with this one, cause I want to spend some time planning, I need a break at Christmas. I need a few good weeks to plan. And then I might have a few weeks of when I'm recording and stuff. So it might be longer stuff going on behind the scenes. Haven't you? So yeah, they sound like great reflections and it's a great way to move forward with your podcast and making it work for you and your business because if it feels like a task, you just don't want to do it. And I think that's a really [00:19:00] important thing you, you point off, you don't want to record it. You know, that's why a lot of people have this with, with their marketing, with social media is the fact that it feels like such a task to do all those things.
I also think this is where podcasting can really help with your marketing. So you've done your piece of content and you can use that for your social media. So you don't have to You know, think of all this ideas again, but if you're thinking of your podcast as like a, you know, a chain around your neck, it's probably not, you're not going to be consistent with it because it's going to worry you and just drain you so much.
Ashleigh Frater: I think now you're touching on the market insight. I'm like, that's the part also I found really hard because again, I feel like when you are, you know, a service based. Business, a lot of the time you are the business, so you're very close. You enjoy doing what you're doing. So coaching is my thing.
Marketing is just how I communicate. So people know what I'm [00:20:00] doing, but it's not my thing. Like marketing is not my zone of genius in, like you said, I thought, okay, that'd be really good to have like one main piece of content. And then I can kind of like spread it out, but it's really difficult. To. Gather listeners, like it's actually really hard you, cause it's one thing you thinking I've just got to record, but it's another thing and a whole job in itself, trying to get people to listen, like it's actually really difficult.
And that's another thing I thought. Wow, this is really hard. Podcasting is not just like a hobby, especially if it's related to your business and even if it's not sharing it and find the opportunity to share it and not to make it look like you're stuffing it down people's throats and, and it just works differently.
Podcast listeners are different types of listeners. They're not the same as like your followers on social media, they may be the same [00:21:00] people, but they operate differently. The behavior is different and that's a whole different mind game. So that's also really difficult. So it feels like, I'll be honest, sometimes I just got it up there and I didn't really share it that much because it took me so much to produce it.
The actual next step of like getting people to subscribe or to listen. was really quite difficult. Like that self promotion, it brings up like all of that insecurity in many ways for a lot of people, I can imagine, because it definitely did for me. And I deal with emotions every single day, but do you know what I mean?
Like it's still very difficult, you know? And I don't want to make this podcast about you, but do you have any tips on how?
Rachael Botfield: I had to start from scratch, like when I started my business a few years ago, so I didn't have a big following, a big audience where I've grown that myself and I still have a relatively [00:22:00] small audience for this podcast.
So for example, I have, I think I've got, I've been going since March last year and I've just topped, I've just gone over a thousand downloads for the whole of like the podcast. Yeah. So I know that's relatively small. In comparison to some podcasts but I have talked about this in other episodes about, you know, measuring success and what you count as a success in your podcast, not necessarily how many downloads or, you know, this, are you, are you getting people that are reaching out to you saying your podcast really helped me?
Yeah. So I remember when I first started a lady called Nikki, who had the. Stories that connect us podcast and Nikki St. Paul. I don't know if you're connected with her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's really lovely, but she also listened to my podcast every week. She always commented. She always, and she was kind of like my number one, my number one listener because she was always.
really engaged. , and that was really great. And that was my [00:23:00] aim really, when I started the podcast, you know, reaching, like even reaching that one person that this is going to help move their podcast forward and give them advice and, you know, that help around. you know, getting the podcast started and keeping it going.
I loved that, especially when I was starting and you always have that worry that you're, who are you talking to? Is anyone listening to you? Cause when you're just recording, you know, you're recording you or your guests, , you're not thinking about like, you know, your wider audience when you're, when you're doing that.
I mean, it's great when people do and people have lots of you know, hit charts and things like that. And obviously if you're doing a podcast for your business. That's what you want to do, but I do think it's unrealistic, the same as when you're trying to sell a program, you're trying to, you're trying to, like, I'm service based as you, I'm a podcast manager as well, and, you know, that you're not going to get, depending on the size of your audience, you're not going to get those kind of, Downloads.
It's just not [00:24:00] realistic and I think it's focusing on your community and focusing on the people that you are reaching. And you know, as they say, it's better to have like a small engaged audience than to have a large audience, but nobody's, nobody's engaged with you. No one's doing anything with, with it.
Yeah. So you've just got those, , vanity metrics, if you will, that are saying that, but no one's ever commented or no one's ever left you a review and all of those kinds of things. So I think it's, focusing on making relevant content. Trying to get your content out there, you know, promoting it in the best way.
So, , maybe you think of somebody, you know, a lot of high touch emails. You might know somebody on LinkedIn or a few people and go, actually, this has really helped them. I met that, you know, those kinds of things, reaching out to those people personally, and definitely telling friends and family, because I.
I think the best way to refer a podcast is word of mouth. And so if I ever meet anybody that has a podcast or know someone with a podcast tells me, I always put it in my app [00:25:00] and then I will always share podcast episodes with my friends and family on WhatsApp. Like I'll send them the link because I just, I mean, not only that I would like people to do that for my podcast, but I'm obviously very passionate about listening to different podcasts and I just think there are so many out there in terms of.
finding them and when I come across podcasts and someone tells me I think it's You know, it's fabulous. I try and share it with as many people as I can. So, I think, just keep, you know, talking about it and, you know, it's not, it does sometimes feel like you say, you know, you don't want it to be like shoving it down people's throats.
But, like, when you talk about it on social media, like, there's like a really depressing statistic in there about 4% of your feeds see your posts. So, It's trying to find different ways in which you can get the message in each episode across your audience. So I like to, find different audiogram clips that you can use that are going to resonate with your audience.
Finding key takeaways from the episodes. Maybe [00:26:00] something funny happened during the interview, or you really clicked over something. So that is quite a unique story to share on social media, rather than the new episode, come and listen kind of thing. I try to, put an anecdote in there. And when I'm doing my editing, I'll try and get a few of those together so I can use that to repurpose.
Because repurposing is also a really great... So for my email list as well, I have a new episode every other week. And then I also share a past episode that I still feel is relevant for... So I'm just thinking ahead to next week. I'm going to be sharing an episode I did about intros and outros for your podcasts.
And then looking at different ways that you can record your podcast and kind of repurpose in there. Cause those are still kind of things that people think about, especially as new people come into your audience, those kinds of things , they're starting at number one, they can go back and binge all your episodes as well and get all that lovely information.
So it's letting them know that information is still out there as well.
Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So true.
Rachael Botfield: But I think it's just kind of [00:27:00] being, being consistent with it and whatever that looks like. like for you doesn't have to be every week, however you want to show up, like the same with your, you know, your social media market or whatever, how ever it works for you and keeping that consistency and then just communication with everybody.
If you are going to take a break, you know, you just let people know that you're taking a break and you can republish it. Old episodes and things like that. But I do just think it takes time. I think that I, what I feel that, and this is what it's been like for me, this is my experience, like with my business as well.
, it's been going about two and a half years and you always think you're thinking it should be in a certain place or I should be like that person or my podcast should have this many listens, but actually. You are on your own journey and, and, and we all get stuck in that comparison game. And I think it's important not to compare your podcast or your business to other people and try and think that you're doing the best that you can for your podcast in the way that you [00:28:00] know how to do it and how, what feels comfortable and good for you.
Cause there is, there are lots of other different types of tactics, but. I don't like aggressive marketing style tactics. That's not me at all. And I don't want to promote my podcast and my business or do those kinds of things in that way. I don't want to do a lot of cold this. I want to create, you know, personal connections with people that I'm meeting on LinkedIn and networking groups and who come on my podcast.
I don't want to just like. Bombard a load of people with stuff and just hope someone sticks and then be really like, that's just not me. Cause I can't sustain that. So I think it's just being your authentic self. And if you, you know, you enjoying your podcast and you're passionate about it and you're, you know, you feel like you're helping that just that one person and that's what you want to do.
I think that it's, you know, you can carry on doing that. Do it at your own pace after talking to you. I know how passionate you are about what you do and how you're helping people. So those kinds of things are going to come across in your podcast [00:29:00] and then people are going to get to know you and know that you know what you're talking about.
You're building that trust and people get to know who you are before they choose to work with you. I think that is such a powerful thing for having a podcast for your business, especially with something like coaching the service based business, because you're showcasing you. Yeah. So, sorry, I've just talked for too long there.
So,
Ashleigh Frater: no, it's great. I mean, I'm hoping other people can learn and soak it up.
Rachael Botfield: Oh yeah. So but yeah, so, and also what I would love you to do is you're going to share some advice and tips around. Productivity and about getting over the mindset barriers that we, that we all, as you can tell, me and Ashley, we all have these barriers and need reminding and helping to reground ourselves.
To ground ourselves, you ground yourself.
Ashleigh Frater: Definitely. So I think when it comes to [00:30:00] especially obviously building a podcast, launching one or you kind of have one already and productivity, I think firstly, it's very subjective, like what I consider to be productive, a productive day for me, versus what you consider your day to be productive, or if you were to tell me, oh my gosh, Ashley, I did this, this, this, I'm like, oh my gosh, you're so productive, versus you will be like, no, I basically feel like I did nothing.
So I think that firstly, productivity is very subjective and I feel like we only need to understand what our version of productive is. And when we really boil down to the, you know, the bottom, the foundation of productivity, it's truly how you feel. So it's about what does productivity equal to you? Does that equal feeling proud?
Does it equal, you know feeling super significant? Does it equal a really, you know, powerful status to other [00:31:00] people, you know what I mean? So it's about what are you, what is the need? Because averagely when we're like, Oh, I feel productive or I don't feel like I had a productive day. Well then what do you feel like?
So I feel like it's important to really label the emotion of. Is it really productivity or are you disappointed that you spent too much time doing one thing and you are feeling sad about that or you're feeling like a level of shame about something or you know what I mean you're being really hard on yourself because you don't feel accomplished quote unquote again and that's one of those words where it's very subjective as to what accomplishment means and so it's like getting really Clip on if you can finish your day feeling, oh, I feel really unproductive or I feel like I didn't do enough.
What is that? What does that mean? You know what I mean? Really put language to it. Don't just kind of, we, we kind of just dismiss it to be like, yeah, I don't feel [00:32:00] productive or it wasn't productive. But what does that mean? It's like the word value. I find it so, it doesn't even have a meaning anymore.
Like an authentic, these words are overused and people now don't even know what they mean. You know what I mean? So like value, I read an email yesterday or a blog, and he described value as something as transformation. I'm like, yes, I like that, that makes sense. Like when you feel like something is valuable, you feel like you've been able to transform from one, probably, Unclear, unconfident emotion to confident and clear.
So you feel like there's a transformation that has taken place, therefore means it's valuable. Do you know what I mean? So it's the same with productivity. Like, what does productivity really mean? Does it mean you're getting through your to do list? Because then you feel like, You know, you're not the word accomplished, but you feel proud of yourself.
You know what I mean? Like you feel like, yes, I've done this. I feel proud [00:33:00] and it's taken me X step forward towards whatever that goal looks like, right? But then again, we have to, again, get into it. What's your goal and why do you have a goal? If your goal in podcasting, is it to get a episode recorded because you want to be able to hit a particular listener count or podcast episode, you know, count or whatever that looks like.
And why? Because you want to impact more people, you want to make more money. you want to be able to get advertisers and sponsors on so that therefore you have to get your numbers up which means the reason why you need to record the podcast is so that you can hit that goal and therefore in that day if you've got a lot of things to do that's inclusive of of Recording the podcast, you now know that one task is equal to revenue, really, in all honesty.
Do you know what I mean? Therefore means that's productive, because you now know what your end [00:34:00] result is. But when we're just doing things for the sake of doing them. And we don't want to sit there and twiddle our thumbs because we feel then unfulfilled and unsatisfied, then that's not really the reason to continue to do what you're doing.
You need to know the reasons why. And I think with productivity, you just have to know, one, what Don't use the word productive, firstly, replace it with something that actually is very equal to how you feel. Do you know what I mean? So I think that's the first thing, labelling your emotion and removing the word productive out of your language.
I think that can be our very first tip to do, firstly. And I think I kind of explained, the second thing would be, like, the reasons why. Like, what are you doing what you're doing? Why are you doing it? What is that contributing to? You know what I mean? Getting more clear as to, like, the why and the reasons.
Yeah, the reasons why, and [00:35:00] maybe it links to your mission, or your purpose, or something higher than you. What are you contributing to? So then, it's like, first labelling your emotions, and then knowing what your contribution is. That's another thing, to like, know, okay, I'm contributing to this by doing this one task.
And then it's like, oh, I feel proud. I feel like I'm... I feel it's significant. I'm actually feeling fulfilled, like whatever those things are, you know what I mean? And then I think the final thing, if we're going to make it really condensed, is also just celebrating. And I think it's something that we hear a lot, like celebrate your wins.
And you know, I mean, but it's so important because when you're doing something for the sake of doing it, like me I know I need to upload my podcast. I was pushing it back and pushing it back because in my head, there was more discomfort in it than there was comfort because I wasn't celebrating along the journey of like, Oh, I've done this.
I got this. I got it out. I wasn't sitting in it long enough and celebration [00:36:00] sounds very fluffy, but , from your brain perspective. It's all about dopamine, it's about you creating that dopamine in order to help you keep doing the thing that actually matters to you. Even in the trenches when it feels like, I don't want to do this, I hate this.
If you can know why, that gives you a hit. And then when you take the top, when you take... The action and you know why you're taking the action and knowing how you want to feel by the end of that, that's another hit. So it's about celebrating those small things and it's not a big celebration, like you have to buy yourself a cake and blow out candles.
It literally can just be acknowledging like, yeah, I did this. I'm proud of you. Like the amount of dopamine I get from just saying to myself. I'm really proud of you. I feel the actual change in my body. Like I feel it drop. I [00:37:00] can't really explain it, but it's one of those things where I know I've landed on something that means something to me because I can feel it in my body, a slight shift, the smallest physiological, I can feel it.
And then I know that means a lot to me, like being proud of myself and telling myself I'm proud. That's a hit. Do you know what I mean? That I need, that dopamine hit, that celebration, and that just keeps me going for the next step. So I feel like if we're going to go down to three main tips when it comes to productivity is, first thing is labelling it not productivity or productive, is giving it a proper label of what the emotion really is that you want to feel.
Secondly, is knowing your mission, knowing what you're contributing to. Because we all as human beings want to contribute to something. Even if you're not doing a podcast for your business, you still want to contribute to, I don't know, entertaining someone. Because that could just change their entire day.
They could be going through illness, [00:38:00] maybe that's your niche or something like that. Or it could be like Lego. And like you're talking about Lego and it makes you feel like, you know. like your inner child is just, you know, healed in many ways and that's your contribution. So it really doesn't matter what your podcast is about, but you have to know what you're contributing to and then it's about the celebration.
To be like, celebrate all the small things and find that small micro one little, even like an affirmation or something that helps you Draw attention to when you do do that thing and you've labelled your emotion correctly before you do that task. That's just, that's be like, I'm proud of you or whatever that is for you to just acknowledge that achievement for yourself.
Rachael Botfield: I love those. You're right. Sometimes, and I've, I'm guilty of this myself, you know, you're, you're doing stuff. I've got things to tick off today. Like, but like, while actually. Like what [00:39:00] actually is it sometimes, you know, okay, I want to get some social media posts out and just, just doing them out. I haven't really thought about them, some of them in terms of what I want to achieve overall.
So I'm running a prize draw at the moment to get your podcast launched in 2024. So one person's going to win or that person actually will have one by the time this episode comes out. I was running a prize draw, so that really helped me. I had a goal was to get as many people as I could to sign up. So all the content I was creating was around that goal.
So I think. So when I create that, I felt great because I thought, great, this is going to move me forward to getting people who want to have a podcast in 2024 onto my email list. So then if they don't win, I can nurture them and see maybe they want to work with me you know, privately afterwards.
But that was the goal there. When sometimes you just willy nilly putting a post on because you feel like I've got to put a post on that because I'm not being consistent. [00:40:00] But it's no, you're just putting on and it's like, Oh, it's not really part of a plan. I'm just doing it for the sake of it. It almost seems like you're making yourself busy work and it's not actually contributing and then it's draining you because then you're falling out of love with doing your marketing and your
social media.
Ashleigh Frater: Yeah, definitely. And I think we have to consider our conditioning as well, cause you can't talk about being busy and like productivity and stuff like that without understanding, like we live in a society that applauds like you doing the most, do you know what I mean? Like doing all of the things.
Gets you more money and, you know what I mean? More success and more status and more significance and more love and acceptance and all of those needs that we're looking for. And we see through us doing a lot for us to fulfill that. But really it doesn't. It just drains us because we're doing it for the external validation and not actually for the contribution internally of what that is.
You know what I mean? So we have to [00:41:00] consider like we are. Sitting in constant environments and constant messages pumping out that is going to the contrary of what we're actually trying to achieve. So it's one of those things like it's, it is so, you have to be so conscious and it's tiring being conscious because you can't focus on that all day, every day.
So we have to then have compassion for when we like have those days where like, well, I feel like I should be doing something because I meant to. And let me go do something to fill that gap. Do you know what I mean? And to satisfy that need. But then on the other side to be like, okay, what is my bigger goal here?
And let me try and plan like you do ahead of time. So when you have those moments, it's like, okay, be impulsive, but I still have my plan and it's still going to plan. Do you know what I mean?
Rachael Botfield: Yeah, that is a really great way to look at it. That's just made me think about, like, I've been trying to do a bit of that recently.
And I felt myself kind of pushing my work outside of my normal [00:42:00] boundaries with the kids and stuff being around. I thought, actually, no, this is not what I wanted to do. And so I tried to plan my week, but instead of just then getting completely sidetracked, not doing what I said I was going to do in that kind of time or allowing that time for client work, I've actually kind of.
being a bit more focused and trying to, to actually be more realistic about what I can get done in what time. And then also if I finished that task and I still got some spare time, instead of going, right, let's just rush around and do that. I thought, you know what? No, I'm going to have, that's what I said.
I've achieved what I said I wanted to achieve for today. That's. you can finish now, you can turn the computer off and, you know, you can take that time and not feel guilty about it because, you know, you've allowed the time in the other days to do the work, the other work that you wanted to achieve. So yeah, I think that's Yeah, that’s I wanted to try and do something like that going forward, kind of like having that bigger picture.
And [00:43:00] I've hearing a lot about people talking about thinking about the outcome and working backwards and having that as your plan. So you, and that's kind of what you're saying, you know, you're, you're thinking about that goal or the outcome and then working back from how you can do that rather than just starting doing stuff and not really
Ashleigh Frater: know what you're like survival mode. Do you know what I mean? Where you kind of shut off from your body and your mind is just like, go, go, go, go, go. But you're not really checking in as to be like, why am I even doing this? Until you're like super exhausted and tired. And then you're like, well, how do I feel like this?
And then you question it because you don't have energy. You've drained your cup. So yeah, stay flexible for sure.
Rachael Botfield: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's important as well. And, and that compassion and kindness to yourself that we all too often forget to do which I'm really trying to not aggressively work on, you know, [00:44:00] that's kind of counterproductive, but you know, trying to give yourself a break and, and thinking actually.
You're not going to do any, do yourself any favours by kind of beating yourself up about certain things or what you have done. So yeah, that reminded us of kindness. It's been absolutely brilliant talking to you, Ashley. You've got, you've offered so much insight into what it's been like as a podcaster and your amazing tips at the end there.
Do you want to just let people know where you hang out the most and where they can find you?
Ashleigh Frater: Yes. So I am on LinkedIn regularly. I'm thinking about my consistency, which is not necessarily daily, however, I am on LinkedIn. So if you're over on LinkedIn, please do come up and say, come up, come over and say hi.
Send me a dmm comment on something. And then I'm on my email quite a lot. I'm really trying to not be so on social media as much. [00:45:00] I'm really trying to. Develop more, you know, relationships offline. So over on my email list, if you want to join, I've got a freebie, which is all about reducing anxiety, if that's interesting, or my just general email, which is all about sending you every other week, a new creative coping skill to help you manage your stress and anxiety better.
Rachael Botfield: Oh yes. 'cause I downloaded your tip sheet and I found that really helpful. So we'll include all the links in the show notes so you can easily access that. Yes. And then the topic at the time of recording was doodling, wasn't it? The other week? Yeah, it was about doodling. Was it this week or the other week?
I was last doodling. I really, my notepad is all I doodled. I do like doodling. So yes. I would recommend, I've been enjoying those emails since we first. Although we've been connected for a while on LinkedIn, but yeah, we spoke for the first time a few weeks ago, didn't we? Like zoom, say face to face, but yeah, so yeah, I've been enjoying those.
So I'll leave all [00:46:00] the links to everything in the show notes. You can easily find Ashley and connect. And thanks again for coming on.
Ashleigh Frater: Thank you Thank you. Bye.
Rachael Botfield: Thanks for listening to the show. If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch, then head on over to my website. If you liked the episode, then I'd love it if you could leave me a review in your chosen podcast app. Your feedback is much appreciated. See you next time.