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(By Thom Singer) The two greatest opportunities available to podcasters are the flexibility and the connections. As far as flexibility, podcasting allows you to be incredibly mobile. It doesn’t require much other than a few pieces of equipment and you can record from anywhere.This is great for people who love travel or are seeking to one day relocate to a new city or country.
This is what Phoebe Mroczek has done with her podcast.She holds events and chooses venues based on input from listeners.Additionally, she is in the middle of a relocation and her show is key in helping her move. Phoebe is a successful podcaster (host of The Unbecoming Podcast) who recently packed up and moved across the country. The connections she had via her show have been extremely helpful, and she is using podcasting as the main tool to help her get settled in her new city of Austin, Texas.
Early in her podcasting journey she realized the broad reach of the podcast platform. “My listeners and clients are all over the world, giving me great feedback and options to choose from as I look for unique destinations for my events and masterminds,” said Mroczek. “Because I have both the data and close conversations inside my tight-knit community, I’m able to make a more calculated decision about where to host and what topics to discuss, so it reduces the risk on all fronts.”
Many podcasters agree that the best thing about podcasting is the connections. “Having just moved to Austin a few weeks ago, I leveraged the close relationships I had with fellow podcasters and my current listeners to immediately assimilate into the local culture and professional networks. Before I even moved here, they were incredibly supportive and helpful with advice, recommendations, and contacts."
But Phoebe did not stop there. Once she arrived in her new city, she saw a need and desire in the local community to bring people together. There was no simple resource for newcomers to the city, and there was no one doing it well through podcasting.
“It’s such a valuable, intimate medium and, with my years of podcasting experience I felt really confident that I could create this community exactly as I wanted,” said Mroczek. So she decided to put a few other career ideas on hold and start a new podcast for those moving to Austin.
Mroczek has been blown away by the response, and the show has not even launched yet. “The doors that are opening for me at the moment are beyond exciting, which is how building a business should feel," said Mrozek. “None of it would have been possible without understanding the power of podcasting, taking the steps towards solving a problem, and doing it through a familiar platform that can reach my target audience with ease."
Within three days of mentioning the idea for the show in Facebook groups and to her growing local network, she had over 100 people register to help and/or be interviewed on the show.And sponsors have been clamoring for space on the episodes.Her plan is to create an in-person component to the show to build that offline community, which is equally as important as the online groups.
Using her expertise in podcasting, Mroczek has made relocating to a new city, which is difficult for most people, into part of her career and business journey.The show will launch in early spring 2019, but already has helped position her as more of an expert in the field of podcasting and is allowing her to grow all parts of her business.
If you want to be notified when the show launches, you can sign up at newtoaustinpodcast.com. She is also documenting her journey on Instagram at @phoebemroczek.
Thom Singer is the host of the Cool Things Entrepreneurs Do Podcast.