186. Work in Progress: Content Creator, Full Time Job, & Adulting in Your 30s (Wendy Vaz)

How does a content creator balance stay consistent with weekly audio & video podcast episodes ON TOP of a full-time job, planning a wedding, going out, and everything that goes on when you’re in your 30s?

That’s exactly what we chatted with Wendy Vaz about on Episode 186 of The Thought Leader Club Podcast as part of the “Work in Progress” series.

In This Episode:

Topics we touch on include:

Why Wendy started her podcast, Small Girl, Big Talk
Defining success and setting goals as a podcaster
How much time Wendy spends on her podcast each week
Deciding how to show up on camera when doing video content
Should you sound more “professional” or “casual” on your podcast?
Specific time management tips and a behind-the-scenes look into Wendy’s podcasting workflow

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Any Player

How Wendy balances multiple priorities on top of her full-time job and stays consistent with her podcast

Prefer to listen to this episode on YouTube?

Why Wendy started her podcast, Small Girl, Big Talk

Cheryl:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Thought Leader Club Podcast.

Today we’re going to talk to Wendy Vaz who is known for her podcast Small Girl, Big Talk. In this interview, I’m super excited to learn about Wendy’s journey as a creator, because I’ve known Wendy for about five years now, since 2019.

I think both, her and I, have evolved a lot in both our careers as a creator and careers in other areas as well. So I’m really excited to know about what Wendy’s up to, how she’s doing all the things, all at the same time. A lot of really cool topics to talk about today.

This episode is part of a series on this show called ‘Work in Progress’, which is where we will deep dive into how our amazing guests have built a substantial and compelling body of work while being someone who is still continuously working on themselves, growing and learning and therefore a work in progress.

Now, to get the conversation going, let’s have Wendy introduce herself first.

So Wendy, who are you and what do you do?

Wendy:

Hi everybody. My name is Wendy, and before I go into my introduction, I just have to say that when you were doing that introduction, I felt like, wow, I’m listening to this podcast live in-person right now.

Because I’ve been listening to your podcast forever. And I always love how nice you sound on your podcast, Cheryl. I’m just so happy to see this going on live, and I’m actually a part of the podcast right now.

But anyways, hi everybody! I’m Wendy, and I am a podcaster and a content creator. I think that’s kind of what we’ll be diving deep into, in today’s episode. But on top of that, I still have a day job. In my day job, I’m currently the Chief of Staff for a self-education company.

In my job, I work with a lot of trainers, coaches, and speakers to kind of dive deep into their operations and their systems with them, to help them to scale. On top of that, I also manage like an entrepreneurial mastermind on my job. So I feel like what I’m doing, on my day job, is somewhat related to what Cheryl’s doing in the coaching space as well.

So that’s me, my podcast, my content, and I still have a day job.

Cheryl:

You know what? Let’s start exactly there. So I think a lot of people who are listening to this right now, they’re also in a day job, but they really want to do something that they can call their own, whether it’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, whatever it is, right?

I want to start with the question of, why did you start your podcast? Because you have a job, you have a life. I mean, you’re getting married at some point soon, you’ve got a lot of things going on.

Wendy:

Okay! So my podcast is called “Small Girl, Big Talk” and that’s because I’m a very tiny person, if you ever see me in person.

And “Big Talk”, because I do want to talk about the big stuff. So I’ve always been creating content since I was 14 years old. My journey in content creation started in blogging, and then I got into YouTube, and then I got into Instagram, Tiktok. Then it was during that period of time when the social media space is really focused on short-form content, right?

It’s always on getting people’s attention as much as you can within that 30-second spiel. But I always felt like it’s not enough. Because when I met Cheryl, like, I’m in the space of like coaching, and I was doing social media coaching, and so I needed to be like, in the front of the social media space.

But as I was creating so much content on Instagram and on Tiktok and creating all this short form content. I felt like there’s so much more to the stuff that I’m talking about that I couldn’t get into it. That’s when I decided, “Okay, I need to go back to long-form content”. So my options were between blogging or YouTube or podcast.

And I just felt like blogging is something that’s kind of dead right now, and it’s hard to gain the attention of people to read it. So then it was between YouTube and podcast. Honestly, I still love YouTube, and I hope that one day I can get back into it. But it’s just that with YouTube, there are a lot of aspects to think about.

So I decided that a podcast is the easiest way for me to commit to long form content.

Cheryl:

Question, in your definition, is there a difference between a YouTube video versus a video podcast?

Wendy:

I think there is. So for me when it comes to my video podcast, I feel like because of the name podcast, most people still consume it audio first. So it’s really the audio experience that’s most important.

And I don’t know about you, but even though I know a lot of creators now have video podcasts, I still mostly listen to it only. I don’t really watch the videos. Do you?

Cheryl:

Same! Same! I will leave it on the screen, but I’m not looking at them.

Wendy:

Same for me. I would be listening to a podcast when I’m cooking, when I’m cleaning the house, when I’m driving.

It’s always something that I put in the background, but sometimes I would like to take a glance over it, just to look at the facial expression and stuff like that.

On the other hand, with YouTube, I feel like there’s a lot of show and tell that you can do over there. When people consume long form YouTube videos, they are actually watching.

How I’m differentiating it in terms of the content I want to create right on YouTube versus podcast is, if I were to go back to YouTube, the content that I’ll be creating would be a lot of like sharing my computer screen on how I do certain things, or perhaps it’s a day to day vlog. It’s not so much the things that I can do on my video podcast where I dive deep into a specific topic that I’m thinking about.

Cheryl:

You know, speaking of topics that you speak about, a common question I get, and I wonder, if you get this question a lot too, is “Oh, wow, you’ve been doing this for a few years now, how do you not run out of things to talk about?”

Curious to know. Is that a question you get? And if so, what do you say?

Wendy:

I think I don’t really get questions about that yet because people don’t look at me for advice on creating podcasts right now.

And because my podcast, it’s pretty much really life-related topics, and to answer those questions. I feel that my podcast kind of grows with me, because of the content that I create.

I forgot to introduce this part of “Small Girl, Big Talk”, where I talk about things in the adulthood journey. I touch on things like relationships, self-identity, health and wellness, things that you go through in your life, like quarter-life crisis or imposter syndrome, stuff like that.

I chose these topics because these are the things that I always think about at the back of my head, and I want to talk more about it with my friends, and now on my podcast, it’s my listeners. So these are the topics whenever I come up with the content. It’s pretty much what I’m going through or the things that I’m thinking about. So you never run out of it.

Even so, for the topic of imposter syndrome, I probably have already done it on three separate episodes in the past year. But because you experience it at different times of your life, you would come back to this topic with the new things that you learned.

Defining success and setting goals as a podcaster

Cheryl:

I’m curious to know what your definition of success as a podcaster is like. What is success to you? What’s success to you as a podcaster?

Wendy:

That’s a very good question. And I think it comes back to why we are creating content or podcasts.

For me, I need to always remind myself of the intention of me doing it, and it’s really about building a space where we can talk about these things. And I always introduce my podcast with this sentence, “I hope that this brings you comfort in your adulthood journey.” and that’s really why I’m doing my podcast.

But we look at the numbers, and we come with that business background where, yeah, sometimes I feel like my downloads are really low, and I question, “Is this even worth all the effort that I’m putting in? Like I’m clocking in so many hours every single week creating this content.”

And it’s really about reminding myself again, why I’m creating it. If you were to look into your why, then you are able to decide, “How do you measure success?”. For me, it’s when people drop me a message saying, “Hey! This content really helped me a lot.”

If you put your podcast on YouTube as well, at least there’s that thumbs-up button that shows me, “Okay, people actually like this episode.” So that’s how I measure success, just knowing that people think that it’s a good episode.

Cheryl:

Are there ever times when you look back at your podcast history and you’re like, “Huh? I kind of want to delete that episode.” Because now that you’ve had the experience or perspectives that you had, you’re looking back at it, and you’re like, “It’s not really reflective of my best work.” Does that happen to you?

Like, you look back and you’re like, I kind of want to delete it, but you keep it there.

What do you do?

Wendy:

Not really, I’m super confident with my work.

If anything, I would randomly go back to my podcast and I would actually listen to it. I’ll be like “Huh, that’s a good one! How did I forget about this episode?” That’s how I feel about my work now.

But going back to, I think, my YouTube days, when I was just starting to build my content on YouTube, I was really trying to figure out what to post, and I was trying to look at what other people were posting. I try to kind of copy the way that they’re doing. There were a couple of videos that I’ve hidden already.

I think when it comes to work on social media, we will be going through different seasons. And there will be certain seasons where we are trying to figure out what our voice is like, what are the messages that we want to get through, and how do we want to express ourselves and present ourselves in front of the screen?

The videos that I really cringe at were the ones where I was really trying to position myself as an authority talking about a topic that I felt like I really wasn’t an expert in.

Cheryl:

Sounds like those are the differences, let’s say five years ago versus today, you’ve evolved in a way, are there any characteristics or expressions that remained, that were constant throughout the past five plus years of your creator journey?

Did anything still stay the same? Or was it like a common thread among the five plus years?

Wendy:

I think what a lot of my followers, or, like, you know, people that I meet in person, would tell me is that they love how authentic I am in front of the screen. And I think that’s something that you’ve always told me as well. Like I just am kind of natural in front of the camera. So I think that’s kind of like my strength,

And, in fact, that’s kind of why I turned a huge circle back into content creation and what I’m doing right now.

Because when you knew me, I was positioning myself as a coach. When you are selling your coaching programs and all that, a lot of the content that you’ll be putting out there, is content where you want to show people that you are good at what you do and you’re also selling at the same time. And I think you really need to do that because you need to be proud of your work to be able to gain clients.

But during that process is when I realized that I was doing so much content that shows my expertise, but it doesn’t show who I am as a person. And my strength is in my personality. It’s in my authenticity. That’s how I realized that, okay, in the past few years, I’ve really hidden all of this strength that I have, and I’m coming back into it.

That’s why I feel good about this podcast that I’m creating. And that’s also why it’s doing quite well. It’s picking up. People are giving me really positive feedback about it.

Cheryl:

I’m curious to know from you, Wendy, because right now, you juggle so many things. I wonder, when you meet someone in real life or online for the first time, how would you normally introduce yourself?

Because I know you introduced yourself like 20 minutes ago for this episode. But if it’s someone you’ve never met before and there’s no context whatsoever, do you talk about your day job first? Do you share your podcast first? What is usually the first sentence out of your mouth?

Wendy:

I feel like, over the years, I’ve gained more confidence in terms of my identity as a content creator. Now, I would always start with my day job first, but in just one sentence. I’d be like, “Oh, in my day job, I’m in the self-education space, but on top of it, I’m also a content creator.” Then I’ll go on to promote my podcast. That’s how I’ve been doing it now.

Because I think for the longest time, I just felt like, “Oh, my podcast or my content is like a side, fun passion project” kind of thing. But I feel like I really resonate better with my identity as a content creator, more so than my day job.

I think I did a proper introduction about my day job today. If you really get into it, it does sound really, like, wow, like, ‘Oh, Chief of Staff,’ it sounds fancy.

Back in the day, I thought job titles would kind of help me validate myself in terms of my self-worth, but I no longer think that way. I don’t think we need to be defined by our job title. It’s more about what feels more us. And I think what feels more “Wendy”, is me as a content creator, rather than my day job.

Cheryl:

Speaking of identity related to what you do and what you identify more strongly with, one thing I really would love to dive into is, did you ever face people, whether it’s family or just societal people, who were like, “What are you doing, Wendy?”. Does that happen?

Wendy:

Yeah, I think half the time my friends don’t know what I’m doing. I think half of them think I’m a full-time content creator now because I don’t post as much about my day job. And every now and then, I’ll post a story of me in my office, and they’re like, “Oh, you’re still working?” I do get kinda questions like, “Oh, what are you doing?”

I still kind of struggle to explain what I’m doing. I don’t think there’s specific judgment or comments like, “Oh, you’re a content creator? You’re an influencer?” There’s no specific judgment to it. But I myself had been, and still are, self-conscious about introducing myself as a content creator, mainly because I felt like I’m still not really making money from my content yet.

I don’t know, I think it’s a cultural thing or a societal thing where, if we’re not making money with this specific title that we have, I just somehow felt more insecure and l just don’t feel confident about it.

You get what I’m saying, right? Like where I’m coming from?

Cheryl:

But that’s such an interesting question, because as podcasters, I’m also not very familiar with how people can make money with their podcasts. Unless they’re selling a service, using their podcast as a marketing funnel, I’m just like, how do full-time podcasters make money? That’s a whole other question mark for me.

Wendy:

It’s sponsorship, right? I literally was reading up about sponsorship because I’m trying to figure out how I can make my way there. Because I live in Southeast Asia, the podcast culture in Malaysia is really, really small. So I’m trying to figure my way out.

I feel like if you’re in North America or in other places where podcasts are more established, then it’s easier for you to gain higher numbers. It’s easier to get closer to those numbers that can help you get sponsorships and monetize through your podcast.

But, from my understanding, it’s also either you have big numbers and you get sponsorship, or you have your own products or services that you sell and funnel them back into monetization.

Cheryl:

You know, this leads nicely to something I love to ask podcasters whenever I meet them, which is, what is your goal with your podcast? Because that’s a question I get all the time. People are like, “Oh sure, what’s your goal with your podcast? What’s the end goal?” And I get really stuck with that question, which is also why I like to ask other podcasters that same question.

Wendy:

I have this idea about this podcast, and it goes back to the theme and the topic that I talk about, and it’s adulthood, right?

I really have this vision of my audience growing old with me. Right now I’m going through wedding season, wedding planning, and I actually have an entire series of wedding diaries coming up.

Actually, next week, the first episode is coming up. I’m going to do a short series about it because that’s such a big part of adulthood that a lot of us go through as adults.

I know that my audience is in my age range, so this is a topic I know they would care about. I can imagine that eventually, if one day I were to have children, then motherhood could be a topic that I’ll be exploring with my audience. Perhaps it’s the struggle of me being a content creator while being a mom and that kind of stuff. That would be something my audience would go through with me.

I really have a vision of myself being on Episode 1000 and being like, “Remember those early days when I was telling Cheryl about this?” That’s the vision I have for my podcast.

I think in terms of, business-wise or growth-wise, in a very professional way, I don’t have that clarity in terms of what’s the goal. But for me, this podcast has always been a very personal project.

Cheryl:

Yeah, I resonate with that a lot. Because whenever I get the question, “Oh, Cheryl, what’s your goal with this podcast?” I’m like, I just want to do something I’m proud of. And maybe potential clients will want to join my coaching program because they really resonate with something I say.

But more and more, I’m thinking actually, you know, the subject matter that I like to talk about, which is building a body of work, it means something to me. It really means a lot to me. And to be able to use this platform to document my own thoughts and processes and things I’m going through, just like what you said, actually is already a sufficient goal for me.

So I’m glad I got to hear your perspective too.

How much time Wendy spends on her podcast each week

Cheryl:

But speaking of wedding planning… Okay, so wedding planning, day job, podcasting, probably a lot of other things going on too. How much time do you spend on your podcast on a weekly or monthly basis? If you can give us a rough idea of your time schedule.

Wendy:

Okay, let’s do the math together, right? Okay, I’m planning…

Cheryl:

Wait, my calculator…

Wendy:

It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m just gonna use my fingers. I think it’s less than 10 hours per week, right?

So, planning a podcast outline would be an hour or two. I spend a lot of time, especially if it’s a solo episode, an hour or two, let’s take two hours. Two hours for the outline, and then perhaps one hour on editing, or one and a half hours. Okay, one hour. I think that’s good because when it’s a solo episode, and if I plan it well, editing is actually pretty fast.

But actually, say two hours of editing. I’m gonna take it back to two hours because after I do a rough cut of my first edit, I would actually export it as an audio and just listen to it myself to hear if I like the experience of it and if there’s anything that I want to cut out.

Then I will go back to add the subtitles and export it. So, two hours of editing and then another hour of actually just writing the show notes and all that stuff. Technically, for an episode, it could be just five hours. But there is that process of being stuck on…

Oh, wait, wait, wait. Sorry, I’m gonna take back what I’m saying because five hours is just for putting the podcast out.

But these days, to promote your podcast, you need to kind of repurpose them into short-form videos. I would say that’s another two hours on promotion. So that’s seven hours a week per episode.

But on top of that, if you are planning guest episodes, then there’s other work, like contacting them, going out there to meet them, meeting them for a meal first, and stuff like that. It does add up to more than seven hours a week on just podcast.

Cheryl:

About five to seven hours on average, sometimes more, for an episode.

Wendy:

What about you? How many hours do you spend now?

Cheryl:

For solo episodes, usually, I would say, because I script everything word for word for my monologue episodes, I spend a lot of time on the writing. That will usually take like three, maybe four hours, depending on how long the episode is. But the recording, usually, I do it in one take, and I don’t edit my episodes.

Wendy:

Wow!

Cheryl:

So recording and editing and uploading maybe an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. It’s really the writing part that takes the most time for me. Yeah, that’s very interesting.

Similar, similar. So about five plus hours for both of us.

Wendy:

Yeah, I try not to go too detailed, word for word, on my outline because I want to sound natural. I think that’s what works best for me.

But you sound so natural too, so I’m quite surprised that you actually scripted everything word for word.

Cheryl:

Yeah. I think I have this limiting belief that I’m not good at speaking on the spot. That’s a thought I have about myself, and it’s still very strong.

Wendy:

That’s definitely a limiting belief. Because look at how natural you sound over here. And I thought that you… Yeah, I mean, you’re doing great so far, Cheryl!

Cheryl:

I appreciate it. Maybe I will just do bullet points from now on and cut down my hours. We’ll see.

Wendy:

Then end up spending more time on editing, so we don’t know.

Cheryl:

Oh, we’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see!

Deciding how to show up on camera when doing video content

Cheryl:

Okay, you know what? Let’s segue into a fun topic, a topic that I think maybe not all of our audience might be able to relate to, depending on whether you’re someone who likes to wear makeup or cares a lot about your appearance.

One thing I was really curious about, because I know, Wendy, you’ve been on video for a long time now. Like, you’ve always done video content since the day I met you five years ago.

So, what’s your personal preference? Do you enjoy going bare-faced on camera with a very natural look, or do you prefer a heavier, smokier, stronger makeup look? Or what is your thought process when it comes to picking the shirt that you wear on video? Like, tell us about the visual, the aesthetic, fun side.

Wendy:

I’m giggling because I took so long to decide what to wear today.

For me, I definitely am not a fan of my bare face in front of the camera. As much as I preach authenticity and being real, I still prefer to see my face with light makeup on, at least to just look more energized on screen. So I do prefer to put on makeup.

There were a couple of days where I really just wanted to be real, and I actually did show up on, I think, one specific episode without makeup, in my glasses, in my pajamas. As much as I wanted to feel good about it, I look at the video, and I’m like, I wish I just looked more effortlessly beautiful. But I do need the help of contact lenses and makeup. Light makeup is still needed for me to feel confident and good about myself in front of the screen. So, makeup is for sure.

I think that’s kind of a limiting factor for me when it comes to showing up as much on social media because, on days when I don’t have makeup on, I honestly just don’t want to record anything in front of the camera. So, makeup, yes.

In terms of wardrobe, I think I do look at the space I’m going to be in and the topic we’re going to talk about. With today’s episode, why did I choose this outfit, right? It’s because I feel like I want to have a casual conversation with another boss girl.

So I still want to look edgy and fashionable, even though you can barely see my top, to be honest. But I still plan my outfit depending on who I’m talking to, what space we’re recording in, and the topic that we’re talking about.

Cheryl:

That really resonates with me, because for me, the way I thought about what to wear today on this virtual recording is.. Normally, when I record at the podcast studio.. I started recording there like two months ago. But when I am recording at home, on a computer, I am more okay with wearing sleeveless tops.

Because in the studio, you can’t hide your arms. I cannot hide my arms, and I don’t like my arms. But with this setup here, for those of you watching the video setup, you’ll see that I have a giant microphone positioned strategically to hide my right arm, and on my left arm, my hair is hiding it.

Wendy:

It is so genius. I did not notice that it was strategically hiding those things, those parts that you feel insecure about. Wow!

Cheryl:

I wore a sleeveless top today because it’s freaking hot. Obviously where we are, you and I both and yeah. I wanted to wear something that was cool and sleeveless, loose and flowy, and then I just threw on a pair of earrings that were big enough to show on camera.

Wendy:

Yeah, I do find that, like every time I record an episode, I always end up sweating. I don’t know, I don’t know why, like we are just sitting and talking, but I just end up sweating because I feel like mentally, we are still putting in a lot of effort to show up and to think and to talk.

Cheryl:

I sweat too. Especially when I’m recording at home.

Okay, you know what? Let’s dive into this. Are there any other weird TMI things that you think people who don’t podcast just won’t know?

So sweating is definitely one thing.

Wendy:

Yeah, and like positioning yourself and how you sit in front of the camera, that’s another, and lighting. I was just telling Cheryl about my struggle with my lighting, because my window is on my right, and in the morning the sun just shoots so brightly inside.

So I need to turn on another light in front of me, or you won’t be able to see my face at all. It’s just too dark. So lighting is always a big struggle.

And I don’t know about you, but like, every time I turn on the fan, I’ll be so annoyed by that light, soft noise on the mic, even though it’s already capturing our voice really well, but there’s always that annoyance. So I used to record without my fan on, but I can’t stand it anymore.

Cheryl:

I know what you mean.

Actually, I had a slightly opposite struggle in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong has quite cold winters, and there’s no heaters there. So in the winter, it gets quite cold, so I would wear, like, a puffy, plasticky jacket.

But then, like, the problem is, sometimes because it’s so plasticky, you can hear the shuffling sounds when I move my arms. When I’m recording, you can hear the sounds.

So I have to strategically pick fabrics and layer them on so that I can stay warm, but it won’t affect the audio. Like, the ruffling sounds won’t affect it.

Wendy:

Oh yeah, talking about ruffling sounds, for me, because on my solo episodes, I sit on my couch. I don’t really have a table stand for my mic, so I’m actually holding it in my hand.

Sometimes when you move around, you actually capture the sound of that muffled sound or so. Sometimes I get annoyed by it, but I’ve learned to just let go of those imperfections in the recording.

Should you sound more “professional” or “casual” on your podcast?

Cheryl:

Oh, that’s a great segue to something I’m super nosy about.

I’ve actually had some very professional podcaster friends who are more picky about their audio quality. I had one friend ask, “Oh, hey, can I give you some feedback, Cheryl, on one of your episodes?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, I’d love to hear it.”

They gave me some constructive feedback that made sense, but it was more so coming from the point of view of like, I think one of the things they said was like, “Yeah, sometimes you sound a bit scripted. Your facial expressions aren’t very expressive. Sometimes you can maybe have more expressiveness.” And some other things that were trying to make it more perfect, in a way.

I thought about it, and I asked one of my podcast listeners, “Hey, I got some feedback recently, and here’s a gist of the feedback. What are your thoughts about this feedback?”

And they said, “Honestly, Cheryl, I like that your stuff is not perfect because it makes me feel relatable to you. It feels like if Cheryl can do it, I can do it too.”

So one thing I would love to hear from your point of view as a podcaster is, there’s always this struggle between doing better, sharpening the quality, and being more of a pro podcaster. Like just being a more perfect podcaster in that sense, versus being imperfectly perfect.

Do you grapple with these two worlds? Or where do you stand on the spectrum?

Wendy:

I love the term “perfectly imperfect” because I think that’s how I prefer my episodes to be.

I do have my personal preference in terms of audio quality, which is why, even on certain episodes where I record on a proper mic, sometimes it’s just too noisy in the background.

I would put in the effort to spend two or three hours perfecting the audio, making sure it’s leveled and stuff like that. I’m anal about that.

But other than that, in terms of speaking, I think especially if you have certain episodes where you’re just thinking a lot more, sometimes you just say the words wrong the first time and have to repeat your sentence, right?

I have learned to keep them in the episode, instead of cutting them out. Because sometimes it’s the “ums” and “uhs” and, you know, just not saying the words right. See, I just did that again. I try to keep it in because I think that’s how we actually sound when we are having conversations with our friends as well.

So I try not to trim too much in my podcast. But that said, because of this preference, I’ve also learned to sharpen my speaking skills. I try to reduce the filler words when I’m speaking.

And that’s what I love about this entire experience of being a podcaster and content creator. In the process of doing it, we keep on learning new things about ourselves and improving ourselves in the journey.

I feel like, similar to your audience, I would prefer for a podcaster to be real or to keep in those parts where they could have trimmed off, because it shows their true personality.

I love it sometimes when you repeat the sentence because you didn’t say it right the first time. It makes me feel like, “Yeah, that’s me too! I struggle with that too.”

And like you said, I think it helps your audience feel like, “If Cheryl can do it, I can do it too.”

Cheryl:

Such a great point. Because I think right now I’m in the season of recording guest interviews with awesome people from different parts of the world, et cetera, et cetera, including yourself. Because it’s not just my own solo monologues now, there’s another person involved, I want to make sure they get a good episode and that the audience’s experience with this guest is fantastic.

But at the same time, I’m like, “Darn, do I trim certain parts to make it snappy or more concise, or do I leave it in so it’s more relaxed and genuine?”

That’s something I’ve been struggling with recently as I’m listening back to the recordings of some recent guest interviews. I’m like, “What do I do? Do I cut or do I keep? Ahh, I don’t know!”

Wendy:

Yeah, I struggled with that too. And because you don’t know, you want to trim an episode in a way that makes your audience feel good about themselves, too. One of the recent episodes that I put up, my guest actually said a lot of “um”s and repeated sentences quite a lot. But as I was listening through it, I kind of preferred having them.

Sometimes I feel like the fillers or the pauses are time for your audience to sink in what they just mentioned as well. So try doing this, listening to it as a guest, listening to it in the background, and seeing how you feel about it.

I have trimmed out certain sections, like an entire chunk of things that my guest mentioned, though, because I just felt like the podcast was getting too long. The episode was getting too long, and I felt like they didn’t mind if I trimmed it to make the episode more efficient in a way.

Cheryl:

I like that point of just giving it one listen before you even edit anything. Just give it a listen and see what the experience is like. Yeah, that’s a good point.

You know, I think that leads to another question, which is like, I think on one hand, for solopreneurs and solo creators, we’re doing all this more or less by ourselves. So to add more things to your to-do list, like listening to the episode one time without editing it. My immediate brain was like, “Wendy, that’s a lot of work.”

Wendy:

I do that very efficiently when I’m driving to work. Yes, that’s when I listen to a podcast. I do that in between tasks. That’s why I only export the audio version and just play it on my phone.

Specific time management tips and a behind-the-scenes look into Wendy’s podcasting workflow

Cheryl:

Oh, oh, okay, Wendy, tell us more secrets to time like your time management secrets. What else can you tell us?

Wendy:

Okay, I do get quite geeky when it comes to self-organization and personal development tools. I actually have an entire dashboard on my Notion that I visit every day because I think of my life as managing multiple projects at a time.

I have a dashboard where I keep track of all the ongoing projects in my life. For example, I have wedding planning there, content creation there, and specific episodes of my podcast going on, they are all separate projects.

Every day, I have a place where I can see the tasks that I need to do today or this week. That’s my at-a-glance view of what’s going on in my life.

I find that the time blocking method didn’t work as well for me, because I’m kind of a person who likes to work depending on how I feel. So I like to just have a to-do list for the day and the week, and then I decide what I want to do first, and I prioritize it. That’s how I generally play around with my days.

I’ve also learned to not schedule everything. I’ve had to learn to say no to things because I’m an extrovert, and I used to spend a lot of time socializing. I still kind of do, but I’ve learned to say no to certain meetups because I know I need that time off to get stuff done. So there are compromises I have to have, to get stuff done.

But generally, I approach life with a to-do list method, but not to the dot in terms of a schedule.

Cheryl:

Could you tell the audience what your podcast posting frequencies are. Is it once a week? Is it every other week? Is it whenever you have the capacity, do you do seasons? Could you give the audience some background?

Wendy:

For me, right now, I’m always aiming for a weekly episode. I’ve already set a deadline for myself every Thursday morning at 7 a.m. Like, I know it’s too early, but that’s how I approach it.

I think, okay, every Thursday morning, if I’m driving to work, I have a new episode to listen to. So that’s the ideal. In an ideal world, that’s what I’m aiming for.

But there are certain weeks where I’m just too backlogged and have too many personal things going on. I no longer feel bad or guilty for not having an episode.

I used to make a big deal out of it and announce, “Oh, I’m so sorry, there’s no new episode today.” But just a week ago, I had to make the call not to create a new episode because I had some personal stuff going on, and it was just too stressful. I feel like, yes, I could definitely push myself through and produce a new episode, but I don’t think I’d feel good about it.

In a way, I need to practice what I preach to my audience, and that is it’s okay to take a break. Because, like I said, the vision I have for this podcast is to reach episode 1000, where we talk about the good old days, right?

If that’s what I’m striving to do, I’m not going to be too harsh on myself when I take breaks in between. Because there is no way, I mean, I can, but I don’t think I’ll be happy about the process, and I’ll probably get burnt out even more in the journey.

Something that I’m doing, and I see that you’re doing as well, is starting with a series. I started creating a series on my podcast, and I really like how I’m approaching it this way.

My first series will be my wedding series, starting next week. I quite like this style of working, where I have a project, a theme, and then I talk to different guests about it or do solo episodes. After that, I might take a break.

I’m still deciding if I want to come back with weekly random episodes or continue with a series-based approach. That’s something I’m still thinking about.

But I did take a longer break at the start of this year.

Yeah, so just for the audience’s understanding, I started podcasting in May 2023, and I aimed to produce weekly episodes. I think I did 25 episodes in my first season, then I took a break from December till March, and came back again this April 2024. It’s been ongoing since then.

And I’m still thinking when am I going to have an end to Season Two? I’m still deciding. I’m kind of just planning as I go.

What about you? What’s your podcast schedule looking like right now?

Cheryl:

Honestly, I asked that question to you, for myself also, because as of recording today, it’s August 28, 2024, so it’s almost September. When I look at my month of September, I’m overwhelmed. I’m very overwhelmed. I have three trips in September, other things, and projects, and I’m already overwhelmed before it’s even September.

I know I need to put a temporary pause on releasing new episodes and working on the podcast as a whole, for at least two weeks. Two weeks is even too short.

As you were speaking, I thought, “You know what, Cheryl, you might want to do four weeks, at least commit to four weeks of just prioritizing other things.”

I think for me, the longest break I’ve taken from the podcast is four weeks. I’ve missed four weeks and come back on the fifth one. That’s the longest. I think I’ve done that twice. I’ve taken shorter breaks, like two weeks before.

But generally speaking, I’ve been quite consistent with one episode a week. Usually solo episodes, but I’m starting to see that actually, there will be seasons when I’m tired. I’m already overwhelmed about September. It’s not even September yet, and I’m already overwhelmed!

I just need to make the decision ahead of time to slow down because otherwise, if I go head-on into the month of September, I might actually crash.

And I’m like, I don’t think I want that, not right now. Let me. Let me just slow down a little bit.

Wendy:

Yeah, but I feel like with these longer breaks, you still need to budget time to prepare for the next season when you come back. Okay, it doesn’t have to be a season, but for the newer episodes.

Because, say, if you really need a month-long break and you want to come back in the fifth week, that means you kind of need to start working again in the third or fourth week. So you need to think about that part.

But one thing I want to add about this, why I feel it’s okay to take breaks, is because even I, as a podcast consumer. I don’t really catch up with the new episodes every single week. I listen based on how I feel.

And I feel like these breaks I’m taking actually help my audience catch up with the previous episodes that they weren’t able to.

Having this thought helps me feel better about taking breaks. I also realized that during the break between my first and second seasons, when I took a three-month break, the listens for the previous episodes before the break actually went up.

I think people finally realized, “Oh, there’s no new episodes” so they started catching up with the older ones. That’s something I observed. So maybe, I feel like that might make sense. People were just catching up with the older episodes.

Cheryl:

Yeah, yeah. And to riff on that a little bit more, one thing I was initially worried about in my head was, “Oh, if I don’t post an episode, my listeners will have nothing to listen to.” But I’m like, bro, be real. They follow all their podcasts too. They’ll be fine!

Wendy:

Yeah, they will be fine. And they will miss you more. When you come back, they’ll be like, “Oh, yay! She’s finally back again.”

Cheryl:

Yeah, that’s true. I follow creators who might be gone for a month or two, and when they have something new, I’m like “Woah”, right away.

Wendy:

Yeah, yeah. So we’ll have a good break in September, Cheryl.

Cheryl:

Thank you. But the funny thing is, when people listen to this episode, I will already be done with my break. After I record this, I’m like, I’m gonna take a break.

Wendy:

Okay. But they’ll be like, Oh, so that’s why she was away.

Cheryl:

I should release this one as the first one back from my break.

Wendy:

So, all right, welcome to the ‘Work in Progress’ series, everybody. I’m so proud to be the first episode. I’m claiming it already. You cannot cut this off!

Cheryl:

Okay, fine, fine, fine. This will be the first episode of the series, alrighty. Wendy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for gracing us on this episode, for being part one of this new series.

Wendy:

Thank you so much for having me!

Cheryl:

So this will, for sure be part one of our new series.

Where can people find you, and how can people check out or support your work?

Wendy:

Well, if you’re listening, if you’re like a podcast listener, you can check out my podcast at “Small Girl, Big Talk”, I’m on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube. The best place to stay updated with my life would be Instagram, which is @Wendyvazzy, and it’s probably going to be in the show notes.

Cheryl:

Correct! Yes, it will be in the show notes. Alrighty, Wendy, thank you once again for being here and to everyone else listening in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you as always for listening to the show and I’ll see you all in the next one. Bye everyone!

Wendy:

Bye-bye!

Listen to the Episode

About Wendy

Wendy is a passionate content creator and advocate for self-improvement, self-care, and self-love. Through her podcast, Small Girl, Big Talk, she creates a space to openly discuss the challenges of adulthood, covering topics like money, health, identity, and mental well-being. Inspired by her personal journey, Wendy offers candid conversations to provide comfort and remind others they are not alone. She also designs digital templates and tools to simplify life, helping individuals embrace their best selves and thrive.

Connect with Wendy:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyvazzy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyVaz

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4hpsOiYHmJBUvWlZQja3TF?si=6e0a2293ca184dd6

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/small-girl-big-talk/id1685443638