…a year in the ministry…

Time is a fun creature. A week ago, I was blogging about how short the years can be. This week, i’m reflecting on the past year, and how September 24, 2021 seems so very long ago. At the same time, it’s whizzed by, and suddenly I, and my partner in crafty crimes, have been podcasters for a full year.

Let’s start a podcast. It’s an easy statement to make. Making it actually happen is less easy, and exponentially scarier. Looking in back on it a year later is quite the exercise in reflection. From losing sleep with nerves as we launched our first episode, to re-recording entire tranches of audio, to confidently switching topics on limited notice as we tweak the schedule. It’s been a steep learning curve, but a fun one.

“A weekly podcast on creativity, connection, community and collaboration”. It’s not lost on me that our podcast, with this as our tagline/mission statement, was dreamt up, and also brought to life, in two moments I was desperately craving connection of my own. 

me, December 2021

It’s also continued to have an impact on our friendship – in a good way. Even in the off season, we are now videoing chatting on the regular, an occurrence that would have once been unthinkable. Having the podcast in the background has inspired our creativity in new ways, dreaming up projects and community engagement. For many years, we’ve carried different conversations on different platforms, and each has its own unwritten rules. What we talk about, how we talk, it changes, depending if we are on messenger or instagram or email. Our podcasting selves are both just another facet of our ongoing conversation, and a whole different conversational ecosystem.

It’s also different, creating content for a podcast, vs for instagram, vs for the blog. How I feel about, and approach, each is completely different. Podcasting, especially with a partner, requires more immediacy and flexibility than static content. When I have an idea for a blog post, I can pop it on my editorial calendar as just a title, or a title and a couple of notes. Then when I log in, it jogs my memory, I start thinking on it more. I take photos. I start writing full paragraphs in my mind…I sit down to type and forget every last bit of it! I have time to consider and edit and polish it up. Even an instagram post, I can tweak a caption, if I’m not quite happy with it. I can even let it sit if I’m finding the words too hard, and come back to post when I have a better idea of how to tell the story I’m trying to tell.

Podcasting doesn’t allow for that level of developmental introspection. There’s a schedule, and your partner and your audience expect you to turn up on time. You hit record, and you are heading straight for those talking points. Re-do’s are limited. We’ll re-record a line or two, or delete scenes where we share more than we feel comfortable. There’s a bit of forward prep, but when you are working with a partner, you can’t anticipate their half of the conversation. Generally, there’s about a two week time frame per episode. We review the upcoming topic at the end of a recording session, and both think it over (and make notes in a shared document) over the week. We then record the episode, and after my edits, taking 30 minutes of raw audio and making it a 15 minute podcast, it is published the following week. But once the recording is done, there’s not a lot to do beyond cutting out the “ummms” and the “hang on a sec, that’s my dog making noise”. Once it’s out in public, there’s no changing it. There’s not the room for the amount of contemplation, and room for adjustments, blogs and instagram allow for.

At the same time, podcasting demands a whole lot of personal introspection – I have more than one clip on the cutting room floor where I moan that I “didn’t sign up for all this personal growth”. It’s the sign of a good partner, and a good concept, that each episode sits with me, before, and after, and demands a personal response from me.

In a wild, topsy turvy time (seriously, the Roaring 20s was supposed to jazz music and fun dresses, not…whatever the heck this is), our weekly video calls have been a joyous point of connection. Our MOCS community has been a blessing, making us feel so very grateful for this wonderful adventure.

me, on the Ministry blog this week

The community that has sprung up around our podcast, mostly on instagram, continues to be amazing, and humbling. To know that people are listening, as they craft, on the morning commute, as they do chores, doing their monthly meal prep, it truly is an honour to be invited into people’s lives as their soundtrack in so many ways. Our aim has always been to make our podcast feel like our listeners are sitting at the craft table with us, working away, shooting the breeze. To be included in so many everyday moments tells me we’ve gone close to that. The messages and comments we receive are such an encouragement, that what we do matters.

With a year down, what comes next? Season three, definitely. We are well into production of that, due to launch next month. We have ideas for season four. We have even more ideas for fun projects to involve our community. We started with a goal of recording one episode, and seeing how we felt about it. Now we are twelve months in and on our third season, with chart appearances on episode days not being uncommon. It’s so very much more than we ever expected. To try and predict the next 12 months seems almost impossible.

Whatever it brings, I look forward to the inspiration, the challenges, the growth, the community, that comes with podcasting. It truly has been a joyous, wondrous journey.

{season three is slated to land from October 7, with new episodes every Friday morning at 9am AEDT. You can listen and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon and Google Podcasts. Each episode also streams direct on our website, where you can sign up to get new episodes direct to your email inbox. Want to join the conversation? We hang out on instagram! Come say hi and join in the conversation there at @ministryofcraftyshenanigans.}