Of all the alleviation that summer brings, the lack of school obligations is obviously the most significant. School and extracurricular activities take up so much of your time that it makes it nearly impossible to do anything other than school while in school. This summer, I took advantage of my time off from academics and started my own side hustle: my own podcast.
At the end of last semester I was in a real music rut. I was listening to the same things over and over again and seemed to have no luck finding anything new that interested me. I started to listen to podcasts religiously. Crime Junkie, Gals on the Go, Thick and Thin, to name a few, quickly filled the hole of new music for me. My friends and I had actually joked about making our own podcast and I danced around the idea before, but it seemed too far out of reach for someone like me.
Many of the podcasts that I listen to are actually hosted by other people my age. Gals on the Go is hosted by two University of Georgia students and Thick and Thin is hosted by a recent graduate of Elon University that now works for L’Oreal. With all my new downtime over the summer, I decided to take it upon myself to start my own podcast called Golden Gal Podcast.
Researching the best microphone, editing software, and distribution company to use was diligent work to say the least, but it was something very different for me and I was excited to see what had originally seemed so far out of reach becoming a reality. Designing the brand behind the podcast was also new and exciting for me. I continued to draw inspiration from other podcasts that I loved and spent hours creating pinterest boards with ideas, graphics to promote the newest episodes and other graphics for the Instagram page.
The name Golden Gal Podcast was an easy decision to make. My favorite quote for years now has been “stay gold Ponyboy” from “The Outsiders.” In “The Outsiders” Ponyboy is an innocent boy surrounded by reckless behavior and all kinds of trouble but is reminded to stay gold and stay true to himself amongst the chaos of his life. To me, the quote meant that even something as pure and perfect as nature can’t hold its hue forever, so why try to be anything less than authentically you. Starting a podcast is pretty uncommon for people my age, but I knew it was something I wanted to do and I wasn’t going to let the fear of others get in my way.
Recording has been oddly therapeutic in more ways than I would have ever guessed. I’ve always loved journaling and being able to just dump my brain contents out onto a page, but this was a new kind of journal that was a lot more impactful. Verbalizing goals and problems I was having to not only myself but to the public to say the least. I could hold myself accountable.
Hands down the coolest thing about the podcast has been the impact it has had on listeners. I don’t mean to sound so cliche, but I’ve received so many DMs and texts from friends and even new listeners saying that listening to my vulnerability on the podcasts has encouraged them to take necessary steps to help better themselves and I can’t imagine anything more rewarding.
