Now, it's easier now more than ever for anyone to start a podcast, and like you said, it could be about anything. You know, I really believe that every community is going to have a podcast, and every podcast can create a community around that I really think podcasting is the essence of community, because we're sharing stories, we're helping others, and we're connecting. If you have been thinking, we're saying, "I want to do a podcast," but then immediately you think, "I'm not checking, I hate my voice, who would listen, what would I say?" If you are a woman, over 40, you have to listen, and with my course, the podpreneur blueprint, you can get a podcast up and running within a week, if you'd like. If you're not techy, don't worry, I give you options of how to find someone that can help you. We are not islands, we don't do this alone. If not now, win, because on New Years, when you make that new resolution, this year I'm going to think about this. You could be saying, "This year I did, and I have 52 episodes." You can do this, learn all about podcasting. With the podpreneur blueprint system, go to www.coachlory.com and get your flash sale today, somebody's praying for an answer, and you have it. Will you say yes? Go to www.coachlory.com. That's L-A-U-R-I-E. As your life, your dream's been interrupted. Good news, it is possible to reinvent our lives. People are doing it every day, and some are brave enough to share the struggles, disappointments, and challenges. If you are looking for a new beginning, a do-over, or to rediscover your passion, maybe even find a new one to grab a cup of coffee and let's talk. Interrupted, Act 2, Reinventing Your Legacy with your host, Coach Lori. I can't wait for you to meet Jennifer Henson. She is brilliant about creating communities, keeping us connected to each other. And she has an amazing story about how she got there. Jennifer, welcome. But first of all, congratulations on your award. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, it was quite a thrill to get that. That's the top podcasting awards in the podcasting industry, and so it was quite a thrill. Yeah. That is so wonderful. Congratulations. Why don't you tell us the name of your two shows? Sure, yeah. So I have the Women in Podcasting Show, where I feature women podcasters and expert guests from around the world. My mission is to elevate women's voices globally and throughout the podcasting industry. And so I do that with that show, and you can find all kinds of amazing podcasts if you go and listen to some of those episodes of the different women we have in the network. And then I also have the Inspiring Innovators Show. I do that one with my husband, and that one was born out of his near-death accident, and we can chat about that. Yeah. Why don't we start with that? Because my podcast is called Interrupted, because it's people whose life has been interrupted and they've had to pivot or change their path. And it's not always easy, and it does. It's not always, let's wrap it up with a big red bow. But when I heard your story, I was so amazed at what you're doing, so why don't you give us that first? Sure, yeah. You know, for so many years, I was doing my business as a side gig. I'd work full-time during the day, and then I'd do my business part-time at night. And I did that for so long. I was working 12, 14, 16 hours a day, and then I finally, in 2012, was able to break through and turn my side gig into my full-time income. I haven't worked for anyone since. That was in 2012. I celebrated 12 years this month being my own self-employed entrepreneur. I'm really excited about the lifestyle I've created because I can set my own hours, and I did all that by learning how to build communities. And so what happened was I was working my full-time job, and I got a call from my husband's boss. It was, you know, a phone call. Nobody wants to receive. He said, "You got to come to the hospital right away because your husband's been in a bad accident at work." I didn't even recognize him at first. He had been crushed by 12,000 pounds of wood at work. He wasn't, you know, even recognizable, but thankfully, he survived. And it was a long recovery, and I loved on him so much. I was so, so impressed by his courage and determination, and we had a lot of hard times, but you know, it really woke me up to, you know, "I don't want to live burning myself out anymore and putting all my passions on the back burner." We always do that, don't we? I mean, a lot. I've met a lot of people who do that. We put our most pressing, most the thing that's just on our heart. We put it way on the back burner. And so I pulled all of those things forward, and I said, "I'm not going to live the way I don't want to anymore. I'm going to live how I want, and I'm going to live my passions." One of the things that really struck me during his recovery was the communities he was involved in before his accident, for example, he was a volunteer football coach. The communities would come around and say, "We're here for you, Coach Paul." Not really touched us. Like, that really sustained us through some really hard times. That impressed on me so much. I thought, "I'm really missing that in the business world because I really realized through this process it was really difficult at times, but it also kind of ignited a spark within me and I realized I was missing that kind of camaraderie in the business world with other entrepreneurs. I thought, "You know what? I'm just going to throw it out there. I just put it on my socials. I wasn't very organized with it at the time." And I said, "Who wants to join me for lunch?" Other business owners. To my surprise, 50 business owners showed up. I thought, "You know what? There's a need. I'm not the only one." And that meeting turned into a group, and the group turned into a network. And then I had a large business network and I had different chapters and different meetings and different cities, and we'd have conferences and things like that. So I ran a large network for about six years, and then I sold that network. With my platform, I was able to help my husband go from an injured mill worker to an international speaker. A lot of that was really changing our mindset, changing our mindset around community. What I found out was that for anything to work, you need to be part of a community. And the other thing is, you have to show up. There's people there who will help you, but you have to show up as yourself, and with your passions and purpose, if you want to have opportunities flow to you that are going to foster and support that passion and that purpose. Because through my platform, I was also able to help my husband go from an injured miller to an international speaker, and he also wrote a book about our story and did a TED talk about our story called "Silencing Stigma Through Storytelling." Wow. That's awesome. Did this happen before COVID? Yeah. That was 14 years ago, his injury was. It seems like what I've noticed, because of COVID and where I'm located, people have lost community. Now, we do have networking groups that have stayed on Zoom, and now they're meeting again. But that's the thing I noticed the most is, like, we lost connection, and then people were like, "Yeah, I'm just going to stay home." There's kind of this thing of biting people back into community, because that's where so much healing and help comes from. After I sold that network, I moved my business all online, and so all of my communities, primarily the ones that I have, are mostly online. For example, the women podcasters network. So that one is really thriving, and we have women podcasters, as I have over 10,000 in a Facebook group and about 1,000 in a LinkedIn group. And then we have lots of paid members in there as well. It's the largest women podcasters paid network. It's been really exciting to see that grow, and I have other communities. But because I know that community is so important, because connection is for the well-being of not only our businesses, but ourselves. Connection is really important. So I actually am going out into the community, and I connect in other people's networks. I'm not doing my own face-to-face network anymore, but I go to other people's, because I just know it's important, and I know it's healthy for my mental health, to connect with other entrepreneurs and stay connected. You need to put yourself in that position of being supported and experiencing community, and having a community-oriented mindset, and showing up ready to serve. Right? Not just what can you get out of the network, but how can you help others? And how can you serve others in the network? And that's what I have found really works, is showing up with a service kind of attitude. How can my passion and purpose help others in the world? And then opportunities will flow to you. The opportunities I found just flow towards me, that before I found so difficult to find. So I switched my mindset in so many ways through that negative experience, we actually turned into a positive and learned all these new mindset modalities that really help us through. So when women join your podcast group, I'm in your Facebook group, and I know you've given us lots of opportunities to join at different levels, do you teach them how to create their own, like maybe their podcast is about natural healing, or whatever their podcast is about, do you teach them how to create the groups or the communities? Yeah, I really find it's really important for me for any business to work at the core of any venture that I'm involved in is always community and connection. And it's just so important I find to create that connection opportunity for other people. If you have a message just burning in your heart, think about it as building a community around that and it changes everything. It's easier now more than ever to start a podcast, a podcast is really a critical part of building that community because you can stay in touch with people, connect with people like we're doing right now. It's such a joy for me to connect with people like you and to be able to talk face to face. It's really, really important to be part of a community, whether you build your own or you're part of someone else's community is what makes the big difference. It is. I love about podcasting, I have a friend, Susie Rosenstein, she calls it a party in your purse. So I've been using hashtag party in your purse. For me, what I love about it is A, it's a way to give free content. So for those people, I was a single mom and then I worked with a lot of ladies in recovery coming out of drugs and alcohol, they didn't have money. It gives them a place to get free content, to get kind of some confidence so that when they're ready, then they can take the next steps, which is investing in ourselves, paying for whatever we're going to learn how to do. So I love the free content, but I also love that a podcast drives people to the program or whatever service it is that you have. It's like, I can make money, but I also have things that are free so that people can learn if they know, like, and trust me. And sometimes it takes a while for people to get that trust like, I don't know, I want to think about it. And I want people to have that opportunity. And if I'm not the one for them, I want them to feel free to go where it is that meets the need they have. Yeah, exactly. Because I was inspired by a football community, that was one of the communities that came and rallied around us after my husband's near death accident. I like to say, drop the hustle and join the huddle. Drop the hustle and join the huddle because it's about connecting with others, building a community around your message and because hustling alone on your own island isn't going to get you very far. I'm walking the path and climbing the mountain with other people is going to make the journey so much more enjoyable. I love that. This is one thing I discussed with one of the business owners is they said, sometimes they get in these business groups and they're afraid to be a little vulnerable. So they talk about their business and they want to come across as very professional, but maybe they've got something in their life that's struggling. They've got a partner that's getting Alzheimer's or they've got a child maybe that's kind of a strange themselves and finding that place where we can be in a community of professionals but also be vulnerable where other people I know for me when other people go, "Oh my gosh, I've gone through that too." I'm like, "Oh, I'm not a complete failure." Yeah, exactly, exactly and you know, I had to flip the scripts, you know, the ones that say you have to do everything alone and to just stay isolated and keep hustling with your head down and you know, you need a little bit of hustle to run your business. Of course, we all know that, but not the hustle that burns you out, that 12, 14, 16 hours a day that I was working wasn't getting me anywhere. For years I did that and now I work way less hours and make more money and it's not about how hard you hustle or the most beautiful website or how many courses you create. It's about creating a community around your message and then all those things are going to come so much easier. It shouldn't be so hard and such a struggle. If we're in the flow, then opportunities will flow towards us that match that energy. Yeah. Becoming an entrepreneur can be so lonely and I don't know, I feel like it's a message I got somehow in my younger life to not partner but to do it on your own. And I don't know if it's like a women independent thing, but it wasn't until just a few years ago that I was like, "I don't want to do this alone." So I work in radio and it always sounds so fun, but often I get to work and I'm in a little booth all by myself trying to sound like I'm having a party. So if I can make a community out of what I do with the coaching and the podcasting, that's going to be the bigger connection because we can all do it together and we can swap ideas and guests. I mean, that's what you do, right? Yeah. You know, I was so thrilled to find out that people do want to connect with you. Like I found out people wanted to connect with me. I promise you, there are people out there who want to connect with you. No matter what your niche is, you can build a community around your message and a community of peers who will support you and what you're doing and who you can support because there's people who need your offer, who need your gifts, who need your passion and purpose that you're putting into the world. And it's such a beautiful experience to see the collaborations that happen in my communities amongst other people. It just warms my heart. I mean, it just is the best to see the connection happening all around me and I'm sure you experience that same thing. If you put a message out on the radio, you get a response. When you tell a story, it inspires other people to want to tell their story and stories create opportunities and opportunities create more stories. So it's amazing. Connection is amazing. Exactly. And I do a lot of work with older women and we come from a generation where we were told not to be seen and not heard. And often people have had stories of abuse or terrible things happening and they've always bucked up and carried on. Now we have this newer generation that's in touch with their feelings. They're sharing things that they went through and we're like, wait a minute, how come I never did that? Well, we didn't have permission. And so my whole goal is to help people with their story, with their voice and to be heard. Podcasting is a great way to do it, but also now we have the opportunity to leave a legacy, to leave messages for our family with a podcaster, even just on our phone. What you said is so important because if I share my story, maybe someone will hear it and say, I didn't know it was okay. Now I'm going to tell my story. Yeah, that's so true. The work you're doing is so beautiful. It's so inspiring. It's so uplifting. You're changing lives with what you're doing. And if you hadn't been brave enough to step out and do that, imagine the impact you're having is just incredible. And and I just really, I'm really inspired by everything you're doing. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. But also I work in radio and yet I was reluctant to start a podcast. When we are brave enough to lift our voice, that's when things change in our own lives and other people's lives. And when we put that positive energy into the world, it can make a difference. You know, when I turned 50, I went skydiving. And I had never been skydiving before. And have you ever been? No, I'm terrified. Yeah. So, but I did something I wanted to do. So I wasn't really afraid, you know, we were going up in the plane up higher and higher and higher. And we were about 5,000 feet. And I thought, Oh, we must be there by now. Nope. Another 5,000 feet. You up to 10,000 feet. I was doing fine until the door opened and people started falling out of the plane, right, which we're not accustomed to seeing. And most of us have been on a plane. We don't usually see that on a plane. Then it was my turn and we nudged towards the door. I was tethered with someone. That's what you have to do when you first go. But I was kind of in control of when we moved and what we did. And so we stood on this stair on the outside of the plane. I'm standing on a stair on the outside of a moving plane in the air, 10,000 feet in the air. I could see the curve of the earth and everything. And right at that moment, I felt fear. I was afraid. And then we took the leap. And I don't know if you know this, but for about three to five seconds, you feel the falling feeling. But after that, you don't feel it just feels like floating. You take a certain position and then it just feels like floating and the fear was gone. And the view turned into a spectacular, beautiful view. And it was one of the most beautiful, amazing, incredible experiences of my life. It was freeing. It was it was literally just like I was floating and flying. It didn't feel like falling. I remind myself the reason I'm and I landed safely and it was just incredible. And I love that experience. And I remember it every day because the only time I felt fear was right before the leap. That's what I always remind myself of when I want to do something momentous with some kind of that's grand in my life. And I remember, hey, you know, be brave, take that leap because the spectacular view is on the other side. The good stuff is just beyond the fear. Wow. I've never heard it explain like that. You bring up a good point about fear. What was it that helped you and your husband get over the fear of podcasting? We listened to podcasts during his recovery that really, really helped us. You know, it really inspired us. And that's why we wanted to start our own podcast. And do you know, Laurie, that I studied podcasting for 10 years before I actually started our podcast? I'll have a lot of students or, you know, members say to me, Oh, I feel bad. I've been, I've been wanting to do it for two years and I didn't haven't done it yet. And I go, Hey, I studied it and wanted to do it for 10 years. But, you know what, back then, the technology was more difficult. It was over my head, actually. Now it's easier now more than ever for anyone to start a podcast. And like you said, it could be about anything. You know, I really believe that every community is going to have a podcast and every podcast can create a community around that I really think podcasting is the essence of community because we're sharing stories, we're helping others and we're connecting. Yeah. And the fact that you were influenced by a podcast. So what, what was it that pushed you into actually pushing record? Yeah, you know, well, we were starting to record and plan right before the pandemic, but definitely that helped. Having that extra time definitely helped. And I know before the, the big C, there was only one million podcasts. Now there's four million now, not all of those are active, but it quadrupled in four years. And that is still a huge opportunity because imagine compared to billions of websites, really four million still isn't that many. There's still huge room to grow that there could be a podcast for everything. I've even heard it compared to YouTube. Even YouTube is pretty saturated, but podcasting isn't the same with you. I was looking through because I look for podcasters that don't say you guys or hey, everybody, a lot of times I'll go find a podcast and they only have 10 episodes and they're not still podcasting. My commitment is either to do 10 a series and then do another series or to just keep going, wonder what the, how many there are that are actually still going. That would be interesting. Also, the rules have changed a little bit too that have made it a little easier. When I started, it was kind of standard. The standard training was you need to do a 45 minute episode. You have to have this, this, this, you know, now it's very flexible. You know, people, I know people that have really successful podcasts that are five minutes, five minutes a day or I don't do one every week for sure. Like at a specific time, I do series like you mentioned and so I'll do, we did a D script series, for example, recently or I'll have networking parties where I introduce people to a whole bunch of podcasts of women podcasters. You don't have to be in a rigid, we started doing it weekly and then we had to change it to fit our lifestyle. So you really can make it fit your lifestyle and how it fits your business, but it works for me and it works for my business. And so that's what counts. Does it work for you and is it helping you and others? If you have the community, if you do it without a community, you're going to have to build. But if you already have a community, they know you, they like you and they're going to be okay with how often you speak to them or they may say, hey, we want to know about this and you go, okay, I'll do a podcast. So the podcasting community itself is so beautiful. Oh my goodness, the people I've met through podcasting, that in itself is like is life changing. Like that is really has changed my life, the community and the people I've met through podcasting. So besides that, which is amazing, what would you say has been your maybe your biggest surprise since you started podcasting? It wasn't just me putting my voice out into nowhere. You know what I mean? It was it's not just it wasn't just me yelling at a wall. I actually found that getting responses when I would do an episode. And when I put out a certain story or a certain teaching, the responses I get and the connections that are made from that and the stories that come back are so amazing. It's just incredible. It's it's it's really it's enriching. It it it enriches my life. I love that in stories are. I mean, information is really great. And I've listened to plenty of information podcasts when I need to figure something out. But hearing stories is what inspires. And often when life seems tough, like my husband had a head injury. When my kids were little and I was pregnant with one man, if there would have been a podcast that walk me through that, I had no idea. All they said to me when I left the hospital with them was don't ever leave him alone with your kids. He might be violent. And this was over 30 years ago. We didn't have the information about TBI. We didn't have the support. We didn't have internet then. I didn't know where to go to find information to see not only how to support him, but how to help my kids support him as they got a little older. So the fact that we can hear a story and know that we could that maybe we're going through something and it's going to be okay is phenomenal. Mm hmm. Yeah, that really it means so much. When we share our heart, it reaches into other people's heart. Like you said, we're speaking to one individual. We're speaking to each of those people personally and directly into their heart and mind. That's really at the core of humanity. That's what else are we here for if it's not to connect with one another. Podcasting is just so beautiful that way. It allows for that and it creates more opportunities for that. That's so great. Okay. Tell us about your webpage, your programs, all that you have available. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Well, we have the women podcasters network. And I make that very affordable. And so my background is in curriculum development, and that's so I can create courses and things like that quite easily. And so I show people, I provide time saving templates for podcasters in that one and I make it really affordable. So some of the courses may be more expensive in some of my other programs in other communities, but I make it as low cost as possible for women podcasters at only $5 a month. I purposely did that so that finances weren't a barrier. And so it can give them all the tools to start grow and monetize their podcast. And then I have other programs that help people with further with the monetizing. I have the inspiring innovators club. And that's where people can actually take my courses and my templates and use them in their own coaching or business to really help them accelerate the process. So what's worked for me? I give them that they can customize and brand on their own anything I've created. I love that. And then do you have in your groups, do you have like group zoom calls? I'll have those podcasting parties sometimes through women podcasters and network. And then we'll put those on the women and podcasting show. But I also have a mastermind called grow and leverage. And then that's another membership level where I do meet with people once a month. And I help them through actually getting their monetization, working for them and helping them build a community around their message. That's really, really important to just to know the different tools and strategies that are working today because things are moving very quickly. And I have an aptitude for that kind of stuff. I just love it. I keep up and have all the training myself. And so I help others with what to do and how to get started and how to turn their because any content can be monetized. Anybody can build a community around their message. And so I just help them and show them how step by step in those monthly mastermind meetings. And I mean, you have a ton of free stuff too. So if people want to find you, how do they, how do they get ahold of you? Women podcasters.com. And you can find everything from there. This has been so good. Before we go, what is it that you really, really want us to know? Well, every year on my birthday, I put a wish on social media and it is build bridges, not walls. And that's a communication phrase just about basically about building community and building connections between each other. I love that. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. If you love this podcast, here's a big ask. Will you share with your friends and family, subscribe, give us a review, and a five-star rating so that others looking to reinvent their lives will be able to get the help they're looking for. Thank you in advance.
